Boxboard manufacturer Metsä Board on Thursday announced plans to shut down its Tako board mill in downtown Tampere, citing long-term poor profitability.
The company, part of forest industry firm Metsä Group, said it also plans to streamline operations at the Kyro mill in Hämeenkyrö and intends to start redundancy negotiations with employee representatives from both mills.
The negotiations will involve a total of around 360 employees, and could result in up to 215 job cuts, the company said in a press release on Thursday. The talks are expected to last six weeks.
The company said that if the arrangements go ahead as planned, production at the Tako mill would end as soon as this year.
"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," the company's release read.
Production down at both mills
Metsä Board said that production at both mills was "well below capacity", due to the market situation, adding that it has had to carry out a number of temporary employee furloughs.
Both mills operated at a loss in 2023 and 2024.
The company said the move would improve the company's income by around 30 million euros annually, as well as enable a write-down of assets of roughly the same sum.
The downtown Tako mill was behind around 13 percent of the firm's current annual production of folding boxboard.
The mill has had a number of owners throughout its history and has become a city landmark.
The company's CEO, Mika Joukio, said that if the plans go forward, it "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," Joukio said in the release.
Metsä Board sales reached 1.9 billion euros in 2023, and employs around 2,300 people, according to the company.