A family-owned Turkish conglomerate has invested £1 billion for Shotton Mill paper campus.
Sept 27, 2024
Eren Holding, one of Turkey’s largest manufacturers of paper and corrugated cardboard, has acquired the Shotton Mill in North Wales. The Turkish conglomerate has invested £1 billion in the paper campus, as per media report.
Currently, Britain exports waste cardboard which is recycled overseas and is imported back for sale in the UK.
However, when fully operational, the containerboard plant will transform the UK from a net importer to a net exporter and further improve recycling by handling a quarter of the waste cardboard that is currently sent abroad.
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The plant will be energy self-sufficient and a key aspect of the project is the development of a hydrogen enabled combined heat and power (CHP) plant. This will generate efficient, low-carbon energy to power the mill’s operations, achieving one of the company’s key sustainability targets.
Talking about the acquisition, Hamdullah Eren, Board Member, Eren Holding, said, “This is the first step towards building a world-class facility that will completely transform recycling levels in the UK. We cannot wait to start production and to turn our vision into reality. We are extremely pleased to have the support of both the UK and Welsh Governments. This has allowed us to move forward with a major overseas investment as we realize our exciting plans for Shotton Mill.”
The 85.6-hectare Shotton Paper Mill site is set for a major redevelopment to accommodate two advanced manufacturing operations: a cardboard paper machine (PM3) and a tissue paper machine (TM1).
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PM3 will be the UK’s largest single paper machine, with the capacity to produce 750,000 tonnes of container board annually. This new machine will incorporate modern production technologies, including approach flow systems, a wire section, and a roll handling system. In addition to the production line, the site will feature facilities for fiber storage, anaerobic digestion-based effluent treatment, hydrogen-enabled combined heat and power (CHP), warehouses, and administrative offices. Existing structures, such as the materials recycling facility and biomass plant, will be retained.
The Shotton Mill project has also received significant financial backing from the UK Government through UK Export Finance, which has agreed to underwrite a £136 million Export Development Guarantee. Additionally, the Welsh Government has provided almost £13 million in funding to help safeguard jobs and support the production of containerboard using recycled materials sourced within the UK.
