October 04, 2021
Workforce merges as Whakatāne Mill full steam ahead
Three months after it was saved from closure, Whakatāne Mill is looking at expanding.
The mill is now owned by Power Paperboard Limited after previous owners SIG Combibloc decided to move production of packaging board overseas.
The mill’s executive chair, Tasmania-based Ian Halliday, says the order book is full well into 2022 and output is now around 150,000 tonnes per annum.
That’s good news for the mill’s largely Māori workforce, which now includes some workers from the now closed Norske Skog Mill in Kawerau.
“We were able to retain a very high portion of the workers because they had actually been given notice of closure, so some of the older personnel we had took the option to take redundancy and retire which is fair enough, and we were able to recruit some of the people who lost their job in Kawerau,” Mr Halliday says.
He says the owners are delighted at progress, and with their extensive knowledge of the industry are looking at options to expand the mill.