NETHERLANDS – Crown Van Gelder B.V. has been declared bankrupt by the District Court of Noord-Holland with its financial difficulties partially attributed to the high costs of energy and raw materials.
The company is a producer of paper for such applications as ice cream packaging, luxury shoppers, and High Speed Inkjet printers.
It possesses two paper machines at its mill in Velsen and reports that it sells 90% of its paper to customers outside of the Netherlands.
Despite its apparently positive operating result for the 2022 financial year, Crown Van Gelder has been unable to resolve a liquidity shortfall caused by increased costs – especially those stemming from energy and raw materials – and a sharp decrease in orders causing long-term standstills in production.
The company also expresses its uncertainty about future market developments and has filed for bankruptcy in the belief that it cannot meet its payment obligations.
Miklas Dronkers, CEO of Crown Van Gelder said: “Innovation has always been at the heart of our paper mill. I am very proud of our employees who are always looking for innovation and opportunities.
“Crown Van Gelder has changed the world of paper with our globally acclaimed inkjet paper Crown Letsgo and our sugar beet paper Crown Native. It hurts that our beautiful independent paper mill has been confronted with this situation.”
The managing board and bankruptcy trustees from Pot Jonker Advocaten and Schenkeveld Advocaten, respectively, are said to be in deliberation with several interested parties regarding the continuation of the mill’s activities in the future.
The news follows Crown Van Gelder’s partnership with HP ColorPRO to improve the former’s print quality, lower running costs, and provide ‘exceptional’ runability.
The firm was also supposed to exhibit at the upcoming Hunkeler Innovation Days event, where its paper would typically also be running on some of the high-speed inkjet devices being exhibited.
Crown Van Gelder is not the only company that has been hit by the gas price crisis in the packaging industry.
In September last year, UK subsidiaries of Arjowiggins were put under administration after encountering serious cost problems in the present energy crisis.
As a result, the administrators made 368 of the group’s 463 UK-based employees redundant immediately following their appointment.
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