Palm strengthens quality at Kings Lynn mill

Speaking at the Confederation of Paper Industries Senior Management Symposium at Stationers Hall in Central London yesterday (October 18), Dr Palm explained that the increasing quality of output from the mill meant it was ready for a further fall in demand for newsprint.

He said: Consumption in the UK has decreased, but during the last few months we have made some advances in quality and we are well prepared for further falls in consumption.

Dr Palm thanked the UKs newspaper producers who had supported the establishment of the mill, and claimed that it is now producing the best quality newsprint in the country.

He commented: In 2005 and 2006, several paper companies were approached by newspaper publishers to build a new mill in the UK because the import rate was greater than 50%. In return they pledged to give good enough orders to offer good market prices.

Support

We are grateful for the fantastic support from the publishers who fulfilled their promises. Everything at the mill has gone well and surpassed our expectations.
The mill started up in August 2009, three weeks ahead of schedule, after four weeks we were able to produce A quality newsprint. After some months we were able to produce the best quality newsprint in the UK.

The mill, which produces around 450,000 tonnes of newsprint per year using recycled paper, supplies many of the UKs regional and national newspaper publishers.

But, Dr Palm explained that the company had originally experienced difficulties finding a suitable location for the project, having looked at a number of locations within London, and were forced to look outside of the capital where costs were significantly lower.

He said: It was very difficult to find a site for the mill, we had identified a number of locations in East London, but these were eliminated due to a lack of fresh water. We also looked at a site in Dagenham, near the Ford car factory which suited our needs, but the cost of the land was over 140 million.

We were then fortunate enough to find an area in Kings Lynn, which was available on a freehold basis, and once we submitted our plans, we had fantastic support from the borough council.