Kruger Products starts up $575M tissue plant, invests additional $240M

Kruger Products has successfully commissioned its new $575-million tissue manufacturing plant in the Brompton, Que. region.

Construction is complete on the new Sherbrooke manufacturing facility, which contains Canada’s largest and most modern through-air-dry (TAD) tissue machine. The new facility also comprises three converting lines, all of which have been successfully started up.

Kruger Products also announced today an additional investment of $240 million to expand the Sherbrooke operation with new production lines and to construct another tissue manufacturing facility over the next three years. This investment is supported by $165 million in loans by the Quebec government through Investissement Québec.

“I congratulate everyone involved in building our new Sherbrooke Plant,” says Dino Bianco, CEO of Kruger Products, in a statement.

“Considering the circumstances of the pandemic, it was an incredible feat to complete this massive project on time and on budget. It makes me very proud to be part of this organization and to be surrounded by dedicated and resourceful people who thrive on innovation and are committed to excellence. On behalf of the entire Kruger Products team, I would like to extend a warm welcome and congratulations to the 180 new employees who have joined our team.”

Construction of the facility began in May 2019. At maturity, the TAD tissue machine will increase the company’s annual output by approximately 70,000 metric tonnes of bathroom tissue and paper towels for the Canadian and U.S. markets.

Second facility to begin construction next year

The additional capacity from the $240-million investment will add a bathroom tissue converting line to the existing Sherbrooke plant (called the “BT Line”), and build a new facility to house a light-dry-crepe (LDC) tissue machine (the “LDC Machine”) and a facial tissue converting line (the “FT Line”).

Construction of the additional facility is anticipated to start in the summer of 2022 on a site adjacent to the Sherbrooke plant.

The BT Line and the FT Line will be commissioned in 2022 and 2023 respectively, while the LDC Machine is expected to start up a year later, in 2024.

LDC is one of the most widely used tissue making technologies in the world. At maturity, the LDC Machine is expected to increase the company’s annual output by at least 30,000 MT. This project is also expected to result in the creation of 141 jobs, which will add to the 180 jobs already created by the previous TAD project.

The construction is expected to bring direct spending of about $110 million to the region and close to 410,000 person-hours for the construction of the new building and installation of the LDC Machine and two additional converting lines.

“We couldn’t be more pleased to be making this additional investment as part of our strategic growth plan,” says Bianco. “Sherbrooke will become a major production hub that will work together with our existing facilities to reach our North American markets.”

Get a look at all of the automation involved in the new Sherbrooke Plant here: