Business North October 2021

| 47 Kawerau: Asaleo Care REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Kawerau - a paper making paradise Richard Loader Supporting the Asaleo Care site and the Bay for over 50 years. ChooseWindsor for Úåå òèîë âçÝîìíëâÚå ßÚçì ÛåèðÞëì Úâë ĚåíÞëì cooling towers, and pollution control equipment. www.windsor.co.nz windsor.sales@windsor.co.nz Solutions you can count on. We design, build &maintain mission critical equipment. windsor advert.indd 1 9/08/2021 2:07:22 PM S pare a thought for the humble toilet roll, for not every roll is created equal — and only one is wholly made in New Zealand using clean green sustainable and renewable resources. In heartland New Zealand, just 100 kilo- metres southeast of Tauranga sits the town- ship of Kawerau, largely forged in the 1950s around the emerging forestry industry and the establishment of the Kawerau Pulp Mill. At around the same time, a company called Caxton established a plant in Kawerau to man- ufacture toilet paper and paper towels, taking advantage of ready access to pulp and nearby water — key components in their product. Over the decades Caxton enjoyed signifi- cant growth and increased capacity until the decision was made to divest the tissue making business following the infamous stock market crash of the ‘80s. Since then the tissue business enjoyed a variety of owners including Carter Halt Harvey until 2004 when it was bought by Swedish timber, pulp and paper manufacturer Svenska Cellulosa AB (SCA). The next milestone occurred in 2014 when the business changed its name to Asaleo Care, which was 100% owned by SCA and now known as Essity. At its state-of-the-art tissue-making plant in Kawerau, Asaleo makes hygiene paper products and is New Zealand’s only manufac- turer of toilet paper, perhaps a key point to remember when searching the supermarket shelves for your favourite paper. to page 48 “We have the fibre and the water but the key to our business is that we are on a geothermal steam field and have a source of incredibly sustainable, renewable energy, which is critical to the paper making industry.” Asaleo’s Technical Manager Ian Shepherd succinctly refers to Kawerau as a ”toilet paper making paradise” because it has all the perfect resources that are needed to make a really good toilet paper. “We have the fibre and the water but the key to our business is that we are on a geo- thermal steam field and have a source of in- credibly sustainable, renewable energy, which is critical to the paper making industry.” Like tissue makers the world round, Asaleo Care uses large amounts of energy in the pro- duction of its tissue products and because of its Kawerau location is able to buy its geother- mal steam from the local iwi that owns and operates the steam field.