Accompanied by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, Her Majesty was introduced to local dignitaries before being introduced to staff and Palm Group chief executive, Dr Wolfgang Palm.
The Queen was then given a tour of the King’s Lynn mill, during which she saw Lynn PM7 – the widest newsprint machine in the world – and met with personnel in the control room.
Meanwhile, The Duke of Edinburgh was accompanied by Stephan Gruber, managing director of production at Palm Paper, to the finishing end of the process to see Jumbo rolls being converted on the winders into press-room sized rolls and subsequently wrapped and labelled with the Palm Paper name and company logo.
Plaque
The Queen then unveiled a plaque commemorating the visit and both Her Majesty and His Royal Highness signed the Palm Paper visitor’s book. Before departing the mill, The Queen was presented with a posy of flowers by Suzanne Palm, Dr Palm’s wife.
In a statement, Palm Paper said its employees were “delighted” to meet the Royal guests and to inform them how the paper, which is used by all national and many regional newspapers, is made and that it was a “great day” in the 139-year history of the Palm Group.
The mill cost £400 million to develop and officially opened in June 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story). It employs 150 staff from the local area.
Dignitaries present on the day included: The Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk; the High Sheriff of Norfolk; the Mayor of King’s Lynn; and, the assistant chief constable of Norfolk Constabulary.
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