Stora Enso, a sustainable packaging company based in Finland, built a new high-tech corrugated packaging production factory at its existing site in De Lier, the Netherlands, focusing on sustainable operations.
The expansion with a new, second factory doubled the capacity and made the site the largest and the most advanced corrugated packaging facility in Europe.
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The site is part of De Jong Packaging Group, which was acquired by Stora Enso in September 2022. Based in the Netherlands, De Jong Packaging Group is now part of Business Unit Western Europe in the Packaging Solutions division of Stora Enso.
Location
The facility is located in the Westerlee industrial estate, adjoining the De Jong Verpakking building in De Lier.
Construction timeline
The demolition work of the existing old hall at the site began in September 2020, followed by the preparation of the ground for construction.
Construction work began in June 2021 with the first pile moved to the new factory in De Lier. The new production facility was developed with an estimated investment of €120m ($142.3m) and officially opened in June 2023.
Stora Enso’s new facility details
The site was developed into a large, state-of-the-art multilayer production and distribution centre.
The building was built on a surface area of approximately 55,000m². The first level is approximately 45,000m² and the second level is roughly 40,000m², which together with the other floors of the site total 100,000m² of area.
The 20m-high building includes a production area on the ground floor and an automated warehouse for storage on the next level. The level has 32 loading bays for loading lorries for transportation. The site handles between 500 and 550 lorries or trailers a day.
The new production and distribution centre is connected to the existing production site. The facility also includes a multistorey office and a large parking deck.
The factory is equipped with two new corrugators, adding to the existing two at the site. It also features a fully automated paper reel warehouse and conversion machines using a multilevel conveyor, together with an advanced waste management system.
Automated roll storage system details
The facility features a fully automated roll storage system measuring approximately 19m in height with a surface area of 7,000m².
A crane automatically takes out the rolls from specific racks and places them on a conveyor belt to be delivered for production. Long pile foundations of 30m are placed in the ground to support the weight.
Additionally, several automatic roller tracks and robots move for different operations in the facility.
Safety and sustainability features of Stora Enso’s facility
The facility is installed with 3.8MWp of solar panels on the rooftop, capable of providing electricity equivalent to the average consumption of 1,000 homes.
To further reduce the company’s carbon footprint, the site’s office buildings are heated using residual heat produced by the corrugators.
Added walkways prevent employees from crossing paths on the production floor, enhancing order and safety through a structured, safer process.
Contractors involved
Warehouses De Pauw (WDP), a logistics provider for warehouse rentals based in Belgium, was contracted for the construction of the facility. Stora Enso commissioned Willy Naessens Nederland, a Willy Naessens Group company specialising in building prefabricated commercial buildings out of concrete, as its construction partner for the project.
Thomas Architects made the construction plans for the development. WDP included Pepers Architects to join the project to build on the designs made by Thomas Architects.
