Wolf Harig, board member of Kronoplus – a Kronospan holding company, said the group’s Swiss-based Contiplus AG holding company had bought the equipment. The purchase price is believed to be around €19m.
“Eastern Europe will be the final destination, where we have a number of projects,” said Mr Harig. “But we have not made a final decision on which site.
“We have done a number of jobs like this. We also bought machinery when Pfleiderer closed one of its German plants.”
Mr Harig said there was still a need for chipboard plants in eastern Europe, as opposed to the overcapacity in western Europe.
“There is consolidation going on in the industry; we have even closed a plant in Germany. I think there will be more plant closures in the sector.”
Representatives from Kronospan, the world’s largest manufacturer of wood-based panels, will meet Sonae staff at the Knowsley site early this week to discuss the sale process.
Nigel Graham, managing director of Sonae UK, said there had been extensive interest in the Knowsley plant assets from Europe, North America and Asia, but Sonae’s key aim had been to sell all of the machinery as one package.
In Sonae Industria’s newly-released third-quarter results, the company said it had signed an agreement to sell the Knowsley machinery this month for a sum in the region of €19m.
Sonae said the decision to close Knowsley was the result of long delays to reconstruct parts of the factory due to a serious fire the previous summer. It blamed political and licensing difficulties, as well as the reduced and unsustainable capacity levels for the decision.
However, Sonae is still hoping to supply the UK market from its other European plants. Although the closure has resulted in the loss of some of its UK business, Sonae says that it is still supplying its core customer base.
