BR Barometer Report
Above: Kruger Products' $25m artificial intelligence project will be installed at its Sherbrooke, QC plant
KRUGER PRODUCTS: “CRITICAL” WEEKS SAW CAPACITY BOOST, AS CONSTRUCTION SCHEDULE CONTINUES A PACE In February 2021, Kruger Products Chief Executive Dino Bianco was discussing over a Teams call from the company’s Canadian headquarters how the company’s ‘dynamic 2020’ was continuing into 2021 with an imminent major start-up and planned future expansion. “The next few weeks will be critical just making sure we can keep everything on plan well,” he said. “But we are targeting the first quarter for start-up.” As of June 2022, Bianco has given an in-person talk at the Tissue World Miami Conference in March 2022, and the company’s new 70,000tpy TAD line is now well up and running at its Sherbrooke, Quebec-based facility. The site is also set to double capacity, and Kruger Products is constructing a double width Light Dry Crepe (LDC) tissue machine with a capacity of at least
THE TOTAL ESTIMATED COST OF THE SHERBROOKE EXPANSION PROJECT – WHICH ALSO INCLUDES THE PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED ADDITION OF A BATHROOM TISSUE CONVERTING LINE TO THE EXISTING TAD SHERBROOKE PLANT, AND A NEW PLANT THAT WILL HOUSE A FACIAL TISSUE CONVERTING LINE WITH THE DOUBLE WIDTH LDC TISSUE MACHINE – HAS INCREASED FROM $240M TO $351.5M. 60,000tpy, instead of the previously announced 30,000tpy LDC tissue machine. The Canadian tissue market is “seeing even greater opportunity for growth”, Bianco says, especially in the paper towel category where Kruger Products has its SpongeTowels brand. “These
factors lead us to go for TAD technology so we can continue to grow our branded SpongeTowels line in Canada, and our private label TAD supply in the United States.” The total estimated cost of the Sherbrooke expansion project – which also includes the previously announced addition of a bathroom tissue converting line to the existing TAD Sherbrooke plant, and a
Above: The company's Bonterra range of tissue products
Tissue World Magazine | May/June 2022
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