Arjowiggins’ Stoneywood paper mill has increased production of SBS board to 40% of its output, following a multimillion-pound machine upgrade and work migrating from French mill Charavines.

Stoneywood, the company’s biggest production facility in the UK, has spent $2.31m upgrading one of its machines to handle heavier papers used by packaging clients. It started producing extra products in May in anticipation of Charavines’ closure in June, part of a restructure of operations announced by parent company Sequana in April 2014.

Stoneywood’s PM8 machine used to make paper up to 160gsm and can now handle up to 400gsm at 165m per minute after a $2.31m upgrade. The site has four paper machines, one tandem coater and 20 finishing machines.

It currently produces 68,000 tons of paper a year, running a five-shift system 24/7 with one shut down over Christmas.

The upgrade follows the company’s decision to refocus its production in the recycled and creative papers segments and reduce Arjowiggins’ exposure to the standard coated paper segment, at the same time as refinancing its debt, an approach which four months later was having a positive effect.

Papermaker Sappi is going through a similar transformation, announcing in July that it planned to develop at least one new speciality packaging substrate a year. The company is creating a division for speciality papers at its Alfeld Mill in Germany, which has had a $92.4m rebuild of its PM2 paper machine to turn it into a 100% specialty paper mill.

The mill also makes security papers and has a  thriving watermark business, with clients including        The British Army, Rolex, Audi, McDonalds and the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London.  Its flagship Conqueror brand is still its best-selling paper.

Arjowiggins paper and board is sold through Antalis, also owned by Sequana.

     There has been a paper mill at the Stoneywood site on the banks of the River Don since 1770.