Due to the prolonged weak profitability, Metsä Board, part of Metsä Group, plans to close its Tako mill as well as to improve the efficiency of its Kyro mill, and launches change negotiations at both mills and related operations. The negotiations will involve a total of approximately 360 employees and may lead to a reduction of up to 215 employees. The negotiations are expected to last at least six weeks. If the plan is implemented, production at Tako mill would end in 2025. The aim of the change negotiations at the Kyro mill is to improve the profitability of the mill and safeguard its operational conditions. Any decisions on personnel reductions and mill closure will only be taken after the change negotiations have been concluded.
In recent years, the production of folding boxboard at Tako and Kyro mills has remained well below capacity due to the market situation, and the mills have had to implement several temporary layoffs. Due to weak market situation and rapidly rising costs, both mills have been loss-making in 2023 and 2024. The cost competitiveness of Tako board mill is particularly weakened by its high energy costs and the small size of its production lines. The development of the mill is limited by its exceptional location in the centre of the city of Tampere. The possible closure of Tako board mill would have no impact on customer deliveries, as Metsä Board’s overall capacity for folding boxboard production is sufficient to meet current demand.
Metsä Board estimates that the planned measures would improve the company's comparable EBITDA by approximately EUR 30 million per year. If implemented, the measures would lead to a write-down of assets of approximately EUR 30 million. The one-off costs related to possible redundancies and restructuring would be specified later. Items related to write-down and other costs would be recognised in the first quarter 2025 operating result as an item affecting comparability.
Tako board mill has two folding boxboard machines with annual production capacities of 70,000 and 140,000 tonnes. This represents approximately 13% of the company's current annual production capacity of approximately 1.6 million tonnes of folding boxboard.
CEO Mika Joukio: "The planned measures published today, if implemented, would be extremely tough for us. Our employees at our Pirkanmaa mills are highly skilled and have shown a lot of flexibility in the difficult market situation of recent years. However, we need to consider alternatives to improve our competitiveness and profitability. We currently have a number of ongoing and planned investments to improve the competitiveness of our mills and products, which will require capital and a strong financial position in the coming years."