The employees of the Bègles paper mill are carrying out a takeover project for the site which will soon celebrate its 100 years of existence.

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Claude Duthil

  • The 90 employees of the Bègles paper mill have a takeover project for the site.

  • Another buyer, Global Hygiène, has entered into an agreement with the owner Etex to manufacture kitchen towels.

  • The employees gathered in association count on the support of the municipality, which has the power to grant or not a building permit, essential to the Global Hygiène project.

The Etex group decided to withdraw from the Bègles site, south of Bordeaux, last October.

The stationery which until then produced paper for plasterboards from recycled paper was about to celebrate its 100 years.

The 90 site employees got together to create an association and think about a project to keep the place alive.

The Global Hygiène group has come forward to Etex for a kitchen towel manufacturing plant project that would involve dismantling a large majority of the existing site to rebuild new premises.

“The factory would leave with 40 people then 50 others two years later, the time for the construction to emerge from the ground, points out Claude Duthil, president of the association future papeterie de Bègles.

But who can wait two years?

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Cellulose wadding with waste paper

The employees, for their part, took up the idea of ​​a buyer who withdrew and gave them back the rights.

The idea would be to run the plant with the same number of employees and with existing machines, but to produce a material with much greater added value than before.

"We are proposing to make cellulose wadding from the 100,000 tonnes of waste paper processed each year by the factory to do everything that is insulation and which represents a very promising market", underlines Claude Duthil.

Another idea of ​​an outlet, agriculture.

“Instead of mulching with plastic, we are proposing to do it with recycled paper.

We are able to return this paper to the earth, ”adds the president of the association, pointing to the precious role of these materials in the energy transition.

The export of a “clean recycled pulp” after decontamination at the Béglais site could also be considered to China, in demand for this type of raw material.

This takeover project, proposed a little before the job protection plan (PSE) was presented to Etex management at the beginning of March.

“She saved time to the point of signing an exclusive contract with Global Hygiène and kindly sidelined us,” says Claude Duthil.

Result: until July 31, negotiations with the leaders seem blocked.

In the meantime, the association has defended its project with the communities to obtain support.

"Global Hygiène will only be able to carry out its project after obtaining a building permit, issued by the city of Bègles", slips the president of the association.

The municipality of Begles and the Bordeaux metropolitan area have already shown their support for the employee takeover project, whose representatives are meeting the Region for the second time at the end of the month.

To write a new page in the history of stationery, employees are convinced that everything should not be changed from top to bottom, but rather redirect its activity towards more ecological products, relying on the know-how of technicians. and the quality of the machines, which have proven themselves.

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  • Aquitaine

  • Factory

  • Recycling

  • Employment

  • Paper