Lecta today announced the shutdown of line 4 at its Condat paper mill in Le Lardin-Saint-Lazare, Dordogne. This line produces two-sided woodfree coated (CWF) paper. The Spain-based group cites "the sharp decline in the graphic paper market".
A reorganization project was announced to representatives of the plant's 400 employees. The group declined to specify the number of people affected by the shutdown.
The Condat site operates a second production line (line 8) dedicated to the production of special papers, glassine and single-coated paper. Lecta intends to concentrate "its know-how and resources on this line, which recently benefited from a major investment plan to convert it.
Last November, Lecta also launched a 56-million euro investment plan (financed in large part by the investment company Kyotherm) to install a biomass boiler (CSR) and thus reduce its energy consumption "considerably" energy costs by covering around 50% of Condat's steam requirements. This boiler should be operational by mid-2024.
In its annual report for 2022, Lecta states that the CWF segment will "clearly outperformed" being particularly impacted by the strong recovery in early 2022. "We attribute this phenomenon to a post-Covid effect coupled with rapid supply chain replenishment. Nevertheless, we also experienced, in the last quarter of the year, a rapid return to more normalized market conditions, where structural maturity implies lower volumes for the next few years to come."
The Group's CWF sales jumped 52% in 2022, to 822 million euros (on total sales of 1.731 billion euros, up 45%), but the fourth quarter saw a 23% drop on the previous quarter.
The Lecta Group was created in 1997 when Sub Lecta acquired the Italian paper manufacturer Cartiere del Garda, adding the French Condat plant in 1998 and the Spanish paper manufacturer Torraspapel in December 1999. Today, Lecta has seven production sites in France, Italy and Spain, and employs around 2,800 people.
