Huge tissue factory to create over 400 new jobs

INVESTMENT: A CGI of the Metsä Tissue facility planned to be developed in Goole. Image by Metsä Tissue

By Rick Lyon

Plans by a Finnish tissue paper manufacturer to develop a huge new factory in East Yorkshire are set to create more than 400 jobs.

Metsä Tissue wants to build what would be the UK’s largest tissue paper mill on a 211-acre site in Goole.

Property developer Wykeland Group has exchanged on a deal to pave the way for an investment of several hundreds of millions of pounds by Metsä Tissue to enable the landmark development. Sale of the site by Wykeland to Metsä Tissue is subject to planning approval for the facility.

As well as over 400 direct jobs, thousands of indirect jobs are expected to be generated across the supply chain and local economy, should it get the go-ahead.

Subject to approval, the state-of-the-art facility will significantly reduce the quantity of tissue products imported into the UK and Ireland. The mill will increase the UK’s self-sufficiency by more than 30 per cent in the manufacture of essential tissue products, using the latest in sustainable production technology.

Esa Kaikkonen, CEO 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 announcement of the planned investment follows an agreement between Hull-based Wykeland, which has long-term development rights to the site, and Metsä Tissue.

Wykeland managing director Dominic Gibbons said: “We identified the potential of this site a few years ago and secured a development agreement on the land 18 months ago. We’re now delighted to have secured a major international investor so soon to realise that potential.

“We have worked closely with Metsä Tissue since the end of last year to support their ambitions to establish a world-class facility on the site and bring hundreds of new jobs to the region.

“We will continue to support Metsä Tissue through the planning process, bringing to the project our substantial experience within the region of large-scale developments delivering significant economic impact.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Metsä Tissue’s investment is good for Yorkshire, good for our economy and good for sustainability.

“This announcement is another example of the UK being the first choice for European investment and delivers on my commitment to grow the economy, creating better-paid jobs and opportunity right across the country.”

Occupying a site bordered by Rawcliffe Road in Goole and the M62 motorway, the mill will ultimately reach a production capacity of 240,000 ton of tissue paper, serving both the professional and consumer markets.

Up to 45 per cent of tissue products are currently imported into the UK and Ireland. Metsä Tissue aims to replace almost half of the imported products with British production, using fresh fibre pulp as the main raw material from sustainably-managed Nordic forests.

The Goole facility will use cutting-edge sustainable production technologies. Metsä Tissue’s activity is rooted in sustainability, with a target for all products to be manufactured from fully fossil fuel-free raw materials by 2030.

Metsä Tissue is part of Metsä Group, a Finnish forest industry group that produces recyclable and sustainable products from renewable wood in forests in the Nordics.

The planned Goole facility would be the biggest of the company’s nine mills across Europe, in terms of scale of investment and production.