The textile recycling company Renewcell is being filed for bankruptcy. As a result, around 90 employees in Sundsvall risk their jobs.
– It’s tough, you feel a little empty, says Lars Dahlqvist, vice chairman of Pappers department 16 Ortviken.
Renewcell was founded in 2012 and was at its most valued at several billion kroner. The factory, where textiles are recycled into fiber pulp, is located in Ortviken’s old industrial area and raised great hopes when it was inaugurated in November 2022. Not least because the new establishment took place on the same site where SCA’s paper mill had previously steamed for several decades.
In short, the outlook looked bright. Good for Norrland, good for Sweden, good for the environment. Yes, an important piece in the so-called green industrial transition. And profitable as it seemed, the stock just rose and rose for a while.
As recently as the autumn of 2023, the Swedish-owned company – with, among others, H&M as a partner – also received the Nordic Council’s prize for its “groundbreaking solution to recycle and recreate textile waste into new clothes and new products”.
2022: The facility in Ortviken grows. Just two years later, Renewcell is filed for bankruptcy. Photo: David Lundmark
But since then, the share price has plummeted, and at the beginning of January this year, about a quarter of the company’s staff – the majority collective employees at Ortviken – were notified.
And yesterday, Sunday, the news came. That the company has decided to file for bankruptcy. The reason for the decision is a lack of money, that they “have not managed to secure sufficient funding” as the company writes in a press release.
Lars Dahlqvist, deputy department chairman. Photo: Joel Danell
Dejected mood
The department’s vice-chairman Lars Dahlqvist has extensive experience at Ortviken. Partly, he worked at the paper mill for over 30 years, until it closed down. Partly, he has worked at Renewcell since its inception.
– It’s tough, he says. You are a little empty. I hoped, no I thought it would work out somehow with the funding. With such a large shareholder as H&M, for example. But unfortunately.
– Everyone is a bit half-give-up right now, they think it’s hard. And it’s not just for us employees that it’s boring, it’s boring for the environment too.
According to Lars Dahlqvist, the company’s bankruptcy petition must now be submitted to the Stockholm District Court, which will then appoint a bankruptcy trustee.
– So we go to work as usual until the bankruptcy trustee says otherwise. Right now we don’t know much.
Pontus Georgsson, association chairman Papers. Photo: Sara Kroon.
“We will do what we can”
Paper union chairman Pontus Georgsson regrets Renewcell’s decision.
– It is extremely sad that it is like this. Many of the members of Pappers who are employed there come from Ortviken’s paper mill. There they were involved in the closure of the paper production and now – bankruptcy.
– It creates concern, of course, and we must do what we can for them.
Pontus Georgsson adds that he does, however, have hope for the future.
– I believe that there is a future for this type of business and hope that it can be continued under new management.
Lars Wåhlstedt.
Lars Wåhlstedt, ombudsman at Pappers, has been in close contact with the local department. He is critical and says:
– Terrible that Renewcell is put into bankruptcy. If large clothing giants, such as H&M, are serious about environmentally friendly clothing recycling, they must take responsibility for its disposal and not continue sending clothing for destruction in countries on the other side of the globe.
“Lack of leadership”
Renewcell’s chairman Michael Berg is also disappointed. The discussions held with the company’s main owners and investors, as well as banks and other stakeholders, have been more or less fruitless.
“This is a sad day for the environment, for our employees, our shareholders and our other stakeholders, and it is a testament to the lack of leadership and the necessary pace of change in the fashion industry,” he writes in a press release.
At Renewcell’s facility in Ortviken, 51 collective employees and 42 civil servants work.
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