The Navigator Company has invested €115m in a 70,000tpy tissue machine that will be installed at its plant in Aveiro, Portugal.
Expected to be in operation in March 2028, the line will supply the company’s Blackburn, UK-based converting operation, which currently does not produce its own reels and has the capacity to process around 130,000tpy.
The project is expected to create a more vertically integrated operation, balancing reel production with converting needs.
Navigator said it plans to continue to “grow profitably and sustainably through organic expansion” with increased capacity and new product development, as well as through merger and acquisitions.
The Aveiro industrial complex will the house two tissue machines, along with the integrated pulp production on site.
In 2025, Navigator said 78% of the electricity generated by the company came from renewable sources, and that it is responsible for producing 3% of the electricity in Portugal, including 34% of the electricity produced in the country from biomass.
Renewables also accounted for 80% of the primary energy consumed by the company.
In 2023, the company completed the acquisition Spain’s Gomà-Camps’ consumer tissue business, and expanded into the UK with the acquisition of Blackburn, Lancashire-based Accrol Group Holdings in 2024.
