Restructuring

Scheufelen restarts the factory in Lenningen, in Germany

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Thanks to a strong partnership between the investors, Green Growth Fund 2/Wermuth Asset Management, Nordia Invest and Scheufelen Equity Partners, on last 2 July, the new Scheufelen managed to resume work with 100 employees at the factory in Lenningen, after have declared insolvency at the end of January 2018.

«Even if production had to be interrupted in April 2018, we never stopped hoping and we didn’t stop trying to find a solution which would allow Scheufelen to survive», declares the insolvency administrator, Tibor Braun.

In particular, our new Scheufelen products based on grass and the respective exclusive production are the basis of resumption of Scheufelen’s operations.

In 2017 Scheufelen began grass paper production, based on grass fibre and pulp, triggering a small revolution in the German paper markets, and also looking to obtain a certain independence from global markets of pulp for paper. Scheufelen’s grass paper is a carbon fibre paper which is particularly sustainable and convenient, which allows for an enormous saving on water, chemical substances and energy in the fibre production. Compared with recycled papers, Scheufelen sandpaper avoids problems with protection standards for consumers arising from the migration of mineral oil from recycled paper fibre. Also grass fibre regrows rapidly, unlike wood fibre, and therefore one can almost immediately compensate for CO2emissions produced by the collection and manufacturing processes.

«Large international brands, smaller customers, but also many end consumers», explains Stefan Radlmayr, CEO of Scheufelen, «have continued to show their great interest in our product, despite the difficult position in which Scheufelen has found itself in the last few months. This fact has encouraged investors to believe in the advantage of being a first mover and in the vast know-how of the Scheufelen staff as a solid basis for the new company and its green production to grow rapidly».

The insolvency administrator then declared himself satisfied that the resumption of production will give work, to begin with, to at least a hundred people in the Lenningen valley and can serve as a collection point for new work opportunities in the future. Scheufelen is a manufacturer of coated wood free paper for premium and commodity graphic applications, a market which is facing dramatic overcapacity and pressures on its margins.