SCA invests in new corrugated board plant in France

Nantes, France, 9 July 2007 - The SCA Group has recently announced that it will build a new factory in the Parc d'Activités de Tournebride, situated in the municipality of Bignon, some 20 km from the current production site (also known as Papeteries Léon Clergeau).

The SCA Group has decided to reinvest in the vicinity of Nantes in order to better serve high client demand in the region. Operational in 2009, this new production site will replace the existing structure at Nantes-Cheviré. The total investment is over EUR 46 million in a three-year period.


The new unit, dedicated to the production and processing of corrugated board, will benefit from the latest available technologies both in terms of material and environmental aspects. SCA Emballage Nantes, which is ISO-certified since 1996 and disposes of an advanced laboratory and an engineering department, will thus be able to ensure the food packaging industry’s very highest hygiene and traceability standards.

SCA Emballage Nantes’ 180 employees will benefit from modern, safe, and high-performance infrastructure. Pierre Ducrocq, who is responsible for the site, explains: “We are pleased to be able to provide our employees improved working conditions and future possibilities within the SCA Group."

A key actor in both fresh and processed food packaging in the Pays de Loire regions, SCA Emballage Nantes supplies the major enterprises of the French agro-food industry. Conceived in a “lean manufacturing” philosophy, the factory will have the capacity to flexibly adapt to its clients’ demands for services.

The move will result in a number of specific improvements at the environmental level. Among the most significant, the boilers will be converted to burn natural gas as fuel, thereby reducing CO2 emissions, and, thanks to the new set-up, all effluents will be treated on-site.

Regular investments in the current site over a 45-year period are now showing limitations. The current factory infrastructure could no longer adapt to new market constraints. Similarly, its architecture, surface area and geographical position could only accommodate customers’ changing demands until 2010.

A focus on the supply chain, associated with a strategy of sustainable development, will allow for greater reactivity in processing customer requests. This is what has motivated the SCA Group’s decision to invest in such a significant project.

For further questions, please contact:

 

Thomas Labalette
Sales Director
SCA Packaging France
Tel: +33 (0)2 40 84 55 55 
E-mail: thomas.labalette@sca.com

Marta Claravalls
Communications Director
SCA Packaging Europe
Tel: +32 (0)2 718 37 61
E-mail: marta.claravalls@sca.com