The Saint-Michel paper mill, based in Charente, was a regional benchmark in the recycling and manufacture of corrugated board packaging. For several years now, the company, part of the Thiollet family group, has been facing a series of economic difficulties. Recent events have precipitated the closure of this site, which recycled up to 80,000 tonnes of paper a year.
Since 2020, the Saint-Michel paper mill has had to contend with skyrocketing energy prices. The energy crisis, exacerbated by global factors, has had a devastating effect on the company, whose business is based on an energy-intensive industrial process.
"We went from spending 400,000 to 1.3 million euros on energy in just six months," explains Maxime Thiollet, manager of the paper mill. This uncontrollable inflation forced management to cut production by 30%, shutting down one of the two paper machines, but without stemming the financial losses.
At the same time as costs soared, the paper industry suffered a drastic fall in corrugated board prices, with a 30% drop in 2023 compared to the previous year. For an already fragile company, this situation dealt a fatal blow to revenues. Producing 100% recycled paper, a virtuous but energy-intensive approach, was unable to offset the drop in profitability. Despite efforts to find new outlets, the markets of Western France and the Iberian Peninsula, the company's main customers, were not enough to keep business afloat.
Placed in receivership in April 2024, the Saint-Michel paper mill was still hoping to recover. This status gave the company time to present a continuation plan, but attempts at restructuring were unsuccessful. "We were running out of cash", sums up Maxime Thiollet, who could no longer meet the company's fixed costs. The closure, confirmed on October 3, 2024, marks the end of a major industrial site for the region, which still employed 65 people.
The situation at the Saint-Michel paper mill is not an isolated one. The Charente paper industry is undergoing an unprecedented crisis. A few days before the commercial court's decision, the Hamelin group's Lecas Industrie subsidiary in Nersac also announced its closure, with the loss of 70 jobs. The current economic context, combining soaring energy costs and volatile raw material prices, is hitting the entire paper industry hard, especially those specializing in recycling.
