Toilet and kitchen roll maker Northwood Consuma Tissue is to open a 235,000 sq ft factory close to Wirral in a multi-million pound investment that will create a 70 new jobs. Tony McDonough reports

Northwood Consuma Tissue (NCT) will set up a new factory in Ellesmere Port making toilet and kitchen roll later this year.

In a multi-million pound investment that will initially see the creation of 30 jobs eventually rising to 70, NCT has acquired a 14-acre site at Ellesmere Port. It will house a 235,000 sq ft facility that will supply retailers with the firm’s paper products.

NCT was created last December following the collapse of a previous business, Lincolnshire-based Consuma Paper Products.

Administrators sold the business to Northwood, a group of companies in the tissue trade. Existing brands include Rhino Kitchen Towel, Hush, Freedom, Raphael, North Shore and Whisper.

Head office of NCT is in Grantham in Lincolnshire where it runs the largest private label facial tissues supplier in the UK.

At Ellesmere Port the business will invest in a fully-automated production line which is planned to be operational in the third quarter of 2023. Phased installation of a further three lines will offer production capacity of more than 55,000 tonnes per year.

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Northwood Group has also secured planning approval at its Disley Tissue Mill in Stockport with plans to expand its paper-making facilities with the installation of a new 100% virgin paper machine with an output capacity of 70,000 tonnes.

The company said: “This is additional to the existing four paper mills which manufacture some 100,000mt of paper made from 100% recycled fibre across the UK and Spain.

“All these exciting investments will cement Northwood Group as a fully vertically integrated supplier to both the retail and away-from-home, sectors. We shall continue to issue updates on the progress of projects during the coming months.”