Metsä Tissue has announced plans to build a multi-million pound landmark tissue plant in Goole, Yorkshire, a plant it said will be “the largest of its kind in the UK.”
Located in East Riding, Yorkshire, once up and running the Finnish tissue manufacturer said it will increase the UK’s self-sufficiency in tissue product production by more than 30% and will “deliver the largest tissue mill in the UK, significantly reducing the quantity of tissue products that are currently imported into the UK and Ireland each year.”
The planned 240,000tpy facility will be built in phases during the upcoming decade.
Esa Kaikkonen, Chief Executive of Metsä Tissue, said: “Goole is the perfect location for this proposed investment.
“The Humber region provides a crucial gateway to the whole of the United Kingdom and the region’s ambitions to bring cutting-edge green technology and jobs to the UK matches our ambitions in clean, sustainable manufacturing.”
The company said currently up to 45% of tissue products are currently imported into the UK and Ireland.
“Metsä Tissue aims to replace almost half of the imported products with local British production, using fresh fibre pulp as the main raw material from sustainably-managed forests in the Nordics,” it added.
“Reducing the reliance on imports will have a positive impact on the UK’s productivity, carbon footprint and self-sufficiency for essential tissue products.”
Metsä Tissue has announced its target for all products to be manufactured from fully fossil-fuel-free raw materials by 2030, as the company strives to achieve net zero.
“Additionally, we aim for all our mills, including the new Goole facility, to operate without the use of fossil fuels by 2030,” it added.
Subject to planning and environmental permits and a final investment decision, the site will occupy an area of around 200 acres and will produce products for the professional and consumer markets.
Kaikkonen added: “This exciting investment will bring the UK and Finland together through combining the sustainable raw material of fresh wood fibres grown in the Nordics with world-class local production of quality tissues in the UK.
“We are thrilled about how these plans can contribute to more sustainable local tissue production in the UK, offering alternatives to the currently imported tissue products.
“The project will significantly enhance Metsä Tissue’s presence in this country and underscores the importance of the UK market to our business in the years ahead.”
Metsä Tissue currently operates nine mills across Europe, three in Germany, three in Sweden, one in Finland, one in Poland and one in Slovakia.
The planned Goole mill will be the company’s biggest in terms of scale of investment and production and, according to the business, the largest of its kind in the UK.
Metsä Tissue said its mill will be focusing on tissue paper production using fresh fibre pulp, that it said will enable “an environmentally efficient and clean production process.”
It added that the carbon footprint of fresh fibre tissue rolls at its mills was investigated by AFRY in 2021, and which concluded it was approximately 20% lower than that of recycled fibre rolls.
