Ukraine: Mondi puts Russian mills on the block

The paper producer has announced the sale of its facilities in Russia, a change of heart as war has continued beyond the limited action promised by Putin.

Mondi, the largest of the European or US paper companies with facilities in Russia, has announced plans to sell these off. The company has been under pressure from governments and those it deals with to break with the renegade country. It has remained reluctant to do so, explaining that what its mills produce is for local consumption only. That 13% of its revenue is accounted for by Russian operations also explained its desire to retain these facilities.

Now it says that it has decided to sell after taking into account “the interests of the group”. It will not be easy. Mondi valued these assets at €687 million at the end of 2021 with few potential buyers. It has not set an end date for the process.

Mondi adds that the situation inside Russia remains unstable and that disruptions to production of pulp and paper in future are impossible to rule out. And Mondi stresses that it remains “deeply concerned about what is happening in Ukraine and calls for an “urgent halt and a peaceful settlement”.

That is an outcome that seems to be beyond reach currently. Not least because the war might be touching Russia more directly than hitherto, and involving the printing industry. The Prosveshchenie book company lost 34,000m² of warehouse space, housing thousands of text books, last week after a fire of unspecified origin swept through the company last week destroying thousands of books. 

These were school text books and subject to a ruling from the Russian to remove all inappropriate mentions of Ukraine from school text books. The ferocity of the fire meant it took firefighters four hours to bring the blaze under control.

Books for Ukraine are one part of the School in a Bag initiative that has long been supported by Blake Envelopes, more usually for schools in parts of the developing world. The Yeovil company has raised enough to send 352 bags to Te Aud Romania, a charity which had previously provided the School in a Bag rucksacks to orphans in the country. That orphanage is now inundated with refugee families fleeing the war in Ukraine. Each includes enough learning resources for a child for a year along with items for personal hygiene. 

Along with the bags, Blake has raised funds to load seven pallets with food parcel for 5,292 meals.