Employee takeover of French mill fails

Docelles papper mill. Photo: UPM
Docelles papper mill. Photo: UPM

The employee takeover of UPM's French Docelles fine paper mill, located in Eastern France, will not materialise. According to UPM, the two parties could not agree on the transaction price.  The sales price proposed by UPM has not been disclosed.

Following a meeting between UPM and the employees on 5 March, the parties did not come to an agreement on the transaction price, according to Euwid Pulp and Paper. There are currently no options for the mill. As quoted by Euwid Pulp and Paper, a company spokesman said: "UPM is still open to sell the mill but there is no competitive offer so far”.

Some of Docelles mill's employees had plans to take over the mill since several months, establishing a worker cooperative, called SCOP (société coopérative et participative).

The Docelles mill,  which used to produce woodfree uncoated paper with a capacity of 160,000 tpy, closed in January this year. 161 employees are affected by the closure.