The tissue paper sector in Europe is dominated by a handful of large multinational companies, including Kimberly Clark, SCA, Sofidel, WEPA, Tronchetti and Lucart, with six companies that control 70 – 80% of the European market alone.
The European tissue paper sector came through the economic and financial crisis virtually unscathed. Today, the sector is doing rather well and is expected to continue expanding its market in the coming ten years.
Since the early 2010s, the sector has been through a wave of consolidation and restructuring in Europe. Given that this wave of consolidation and restructuring in the sector can be expected to continue in the coming years, it was considered urgent and important for UNI Europa Graphical & Packaging to consult with key union representatives from the sector to help better understand sector developments, to analyse the consequences – especially with regard to their social impact – and to define European union responses aimed at developing a sustainable and socially responsible European tissue paper sector.
On 19 – 20 October a European conference ‘Strengthening the efficacy of the CEE and social dialogue in the European tissue paper industry’ brought together key union representatives and employers from the sector to discuss working conditions, health and safety in the workplace, social dialogue and companies’ social responsibility. A European trade union network for the Tissue sector has been established in order to continue the exchange of information and to develop cooperation and solidarity among the trade unions representing the workers of the sector.
Read the conclusions of the European conference by UNI Europa Graphical & Packaging and adopted in Lucca on 20 October 2017 here.
