Cheshire Recycling supplies recovered material to the Abitibi-Consolidated’s Bridgewater Mill at Ellesmere Port and the new name confirms the role of Cheshire within the Abitibi-Consolidated operation. And, the development is also being seen as heralding massive new investment at the mill.
The rebranding, unveiled today – April 30 – aims “to ensure brand consistency with other parts of the Canadian-headquartered forest products company.”
“Changing our name to Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe is indicative of our continued growth and strategic value,” said managing director Ron Humphreys.
Paper banks
Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe – as Cheshire Recycling – was the first company to introduce paper banks in the UK in 1986 – and it now operates multi-material schemes, including refuse and waste collection, for some major local authorities.
The decision to rebrand Cheshire Recycling, which is the official supplier to the mill as well as being a major exporter of newspapers for recycling, appears to confirm that Montreal-based Abitibi-Consolidated sees Bridgewater as a core part of its European operations and is likely to be prepared to invest at the mill.
The mill has good access to power supplies, has a mature market for the newsprint it manufactures and an experienced workforce. It also has a growing supply of raw material from UK local authorities – Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe is the biggest collector of used newspapers and magazines from domestic properties in the UK.
Investment
The situation today is brighter than a few years ago when some opinions were expressed that the plant might even have a limited life-span. Now following a steady level of investment over recent years, new developments at the plant could include construction of a new paper machine. However, investment is not thought yet to have been allocated to the plant by the parent company.
Brian Stevenson, general manager of the Bridgewater Mill, told letsrecycle.com that the name change for Cheshire Recycling “certainly does reflect our determination to be a success in this marketplace for the long-term.”
- Abitibi-Consolidated is the world's largest recycler of newspapers and magazines, serving 17 metropolitan areas in North America with more than 11,200 Paper Retriever collection points and 14 recycling centres in Canada, the United States
and the United Kingdom. It had sales of CAN$5.4 billion in 2003. The company operates or is a partner in 27 paper mills, 21 sawmills, 4 remanufacturing facilities and one engineered wood facility in Canada, the US, the UK, South Korea, China and Thailand.
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