Glatfelter, the world leader in absorbent materials for sanitary napkins, just invested $10 million in a new production line at its Gatineau plant.

Reproduced by kind permission of Simon Séguin-Bertrand, Le Droit, December 23, 2011

This is the first major investment in the 270,000-square-foot plant built by Concert in 2001 on Atmec Street in the Gatineau airpark. Concert was acquired by the multinational Glatfelter about 18 months ago.

The new festooning line will convert into strips the huge rolls of absorbent paper produced at the plant at a rate of 32,000 tons a year. With this new machinery, the plant can eventually almost double Glatfelter’s North American production capacity. Glatfelter estimates that sales of its Gatineau products will grow 18% as of next year.

Operation of the new machinery will lead to about 20 new jobs. In all, 275 people will work at the plant, making Glatfelter the largest private-sector employer in Gatineau. Several plant employees used to work for AbitibiBowater in Gatineau or Domtar or Fraser Papers in Thurso before those paper mills shut down. Glatfelter’s direct economic impact on Gatineau is estimated at $25 million a year.

Source: Mathieu Bélanger, Le Droit, December 23, 2011.