SAICA paper mill for Manchester

London – Spanish paper and packaging group SAICA is to invest £290 million to build a recycled paper mill in Trafford, near Manchester, creating up to 200 jobs. The project, which will bring SAICA’s investment in the UK to over £470 million since 2007, when it acquired International Paper’s Packaging business in the UK and Ireland.

Construction work is scheduled to start in the next few months at the 40-acre Partington Wharfside site, which is bounded by the Manchester Ship Canal to the northwest and the A6144 Manchester Road to the east.

SAICA is a family-owned Spanish company and a global producer of lightweight corrugated containerboard from recovered paper. The company currently employs over 8,000 people in Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and the UK. SAICA has an annual turnover of Euro2.2 billion.

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), the government’s international business development agency, said they had worked closely with the Northwest Regional Development Agency and Trafford Council to help SAICA with all stages of the investment process.

UK business secretary Lord Mandelson welcomed the announcement, saying: “Both the scale and the nature of this investment make it a great win for both the North West and the UK, the number one destination for inward investment in Europe. This shows great confidence in our economic future and has all the right ingredients. It is a long-term commitment in environmental technology which will be central to the UK’s growth strategy.”