Telford tissue manufacturer acquires Kimberly-Clark's Flint sites

Northwood, a Telford-based tissue manufacturer, has acquired the property and fixed assets of Kimberly-Clark's Coleshill Mill and Flint factory in North Wales. No acquisition price was disclosed.

The acquired assets comprise a 98-acre site off Aber Road, Flint, which includes a 30,000-tonne-per-year tissue mill, a tissue converting plant for both rolled and folded products, a National Distribution Centre, and the Flint personal care factory equipped with converting lines for environmentally compliant wet wipes.

The business will operate as Northwood Tissue (Flint) Ltd and be integrated into Northwood's Away-from-Home and Consumer divisions. Northwood currently employs 1,100 people across ten UK sites and reported gross sales turnover of £493 million in 2024.

Kimberly-Clark announced in August 2024 that both plants in Flint would close in 2025, directly as a consequence of the UK Government's ban on the sale of plastic-containing baby wipes, effective from mid-2026. The company stated it could not adapt its manufacturing processes at Flint in time to comply with the regulation.

The site closed in August 2025, with approximately 200 direct jobs lost and a further 150 supply chain roles affected. Unite union described the closure as a "catastrophic blow" to the Flint economy.

The Flint site had been the recipient of significant capital investment over its lifetime. The Coleshill Mill was constructed in 1991 for Kimberly-Clark Professional. In 2003, Kimberly-Clark invested £40 million to convert Flint Mill exclusively to Huggies baby wipe production. A further £23 million investment in 2016, backed by £160,000 in Welsh Government finance, added a new production line and created 35 jobs.

The 2016 investment increased the site's capacity to produce approximately 170 million packs of wet wipes per year. Cumulative disclosed investment in the Flint site exceeded £63 million before the closure decision.

Paul Fecher, founder and chairman of Northwood, said: "This is another important acquisition and brings renewed opportunity for our businesses to expand in many traditional and new sectors. We look forward to populating the site and bringing it into full production under our UK management and ownership."

Northwood is a privately held, family-owned, vertically integrated UK tissue manufacturer founded in 1974. The group encompasses recycling, paper manufacturing, converting, and logistics. Key subsidiary Northwood Hygiene Products Ltd reported turnover of £164.2 million. The company's brands include Rhino Kitchen Towel, Hush, Freedom, Raphael, North Shore, and Whisper.

The Flint acquisition represents a significant expansion of Northwood's manufacturing footprint, adding a major tissue mill and a wet wipes converting facility to what was already one of the UK's top three Away-from-Home tissue manufacturers. The tissue mill provides additional parent reel manufacturing capacity, whilst the wet wipes facility opens an entirely new product category for the group.

Northwood has announced a recruitment drive to create a significant number of local jobs as part of the phased restart. The Flint site will become Northwood's 11th UK location. Mark Tami, the Labour MP for Alyn and Deeside, had previously expressed hope that another company would take over the facilities.

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