The curtain has fallen on Wizpaper. The paper mill, based in Wizernes in the Pas-de-Calais region, was placed in compulsory liquidation on Tuesday November 18, 2025, by the Lille Commercial Court. The decision came down in the afternoon, with no further activity. A total of 147 employees are directly affected.
Founded in 2018 on former Arjowiggins land, the plant had been relaunched by Henri Bréban with the support of local authorities. With an annual capacity of 120âeuros000 tonnes, it produced corrugated base paper (PPO) from recycled paper, for the cardboard packaging sector.
Industrial recovery halted by the economic situation and a "historic" breakdown
In early October, the company was placed in receivership, with an initial observation period of six months. However, the court quickly shortened this to one month, because "Wizpaper's cash flow was not sufficient to guarantee six months of operation" explained CSE secretary Valentin Foulon to BFMTV.
The law firm Cornet Vincent Ségurel, in charge of the proceedings, had explained the causes of these proceedings: Wizpaper had suffered the combined effects of inflation, rising energy costs and a sharp slowdown in the paper market. Added to this was a major incident: a breakdown described as a "historic" of France's public electricity transmission system operator (RTE) last August, which totally interrupted production for several days.
Wizpaper was part of the Be Paper group, which also owns OndulExpress and Express Packaging. Be Paper is itself in the process of being placed under court protection. But according to France 3 Régions, Ondulexpress, which employs 140 people and specializes in paper cutting and converting at the same Wizernes site, would not be affected by the plant closure, nor would Express Packaging with 200 employees, based in the same département at Arques.
