Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, President of the Rouen Normandy Metropolis, confirmed this on Friday 11 February. The metropolis is exercising its right to pre-empt the Chapelle Darblay paper mill belonging to the Finnish group UPM. It wishes to sell the Grand-Couronne factory in Seine-Maritime to " an industrial buyer capable of preserving and developing know-how in the field of the circular economy" .
The city is thus bypassing UPM France's plan to sell the site, which employed 228 people at samfi Paprec Group . The two industrialists want to eliminate the paper and cardboard recycling and processing activity and transform the site into a "platform for the supply of green energy and the production of raw materials from recycling".
The Chapelle Darblay paper mill, a unique site in France
The Chapelle Darblay plant, with a recycling capacity of 480,000 tons/year, is " the only French site capable of producing 100% recycled newsprint with fiber that comes entirely from recovery channels", said Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, in a statement.
The dismantling of this strategic site would lead many communities to landfill or burn their paper waste or send it to Belgium and Germany rather than recycling it.
From the announcement of the sale of the site, in 2019 the metropolis mobilized to save the plant, accompanied by employee representatives and a coalition of more than 80 mayors, parliamentarians and local elected officials from all over France and from various political persuasions.
"This is not a local fight, but a national issue."
Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol emphasizes: "This is not a local fight, but a national issue: do we want, yes or no, to make the circular economy happen in our country? We are committed, in action. (euros) We want to make the Rouen metropolis a national reference in terms of circular economy. (euros) Our strategic objectives are clear: development of the circular economy, investments to promote paper/cardboard recycling activities, preservation of employment and skills in these areas."
A resale of the recycling plant to a strong industrialist in early May
On Friday, the pre-emption was notified to the owner of the site, who has a two-month period to appeal. An extraordinary board meeting will vote to approve the purchase of the mill's equipment (machines, spare parts, computer applications, stockseuros). UPM then has a further two-month appeal period. If the procedure is finalized, the deed of sale to an industrial buyer should be signed very quickly, at the beginning of May.
The sale price mentioned in the Declarations of Intent to Alienate (the legal acts of the owner notifying the beneficiary of the right of pre-emption of his intention to sell), excluding equipment, amounts to 6 million euros.
Veolia and Fibre Excellence had positioned themselves together for the takeover of the site, but had not been retained by UPM. Their project was to produce 400,000 tons of cardboard packaging from paper and cardboard collected in France and to install a biomass cogeneration plant fed by organic waste to generate the energy needed for production.
