There will be no buyer for the Wizpaper paper mill, located in Wizernes (in Northern France). Seven years after the acquisition of this former Arjowiggins factory by the Be Paper group, chaired by Henri Bréban, and its conversion to produce Corrugated Case Material (CCM), the Lille Métropole Commercial Court ordered its liquidation on November 18, with immediate effect. The factory had a CCM capacity of 180,000 tons per year and employed 147 people. On October 1, Wizpaper was placed under court-ordered administration, with an initial observation period of six months, which will ultimately be reduced to one month.
In fact, the site's relaunch in 2018 took place in an increasingly complex environment, with the arrival of numerous headwinds. First, there was Covid and inflation, then the energy crisis which significantly increased production costs (gas and electricity), and finally, the overcapacity in the European CCM market which led to a price drop (the mill exported approximately two-thirds of its production). At the end of 2023, it was also affected by the floods that inundated the region. Finally, last August, it suffered a major power outage lasting about twelve days.
Some of the employees could join the two other companies in the Be Paper group, OndulExpress and Express Packaging, located nearby and specializing in converting. Since 2019, Be Paper has invested approximately €50 million across all its mills, with about 20% of that in papermaking, as Damien Bridoux, CEO of the group, explained in the Profile we dedicated to him in issue 396 of our Magazine "La Papeterie" (April-May 2025).
Valérie Lechiffre