A takeover of UPM's Docelles mill in France by its employees will not materialise. UPM told EUWID that a meeting with employees was held on 5 March and that the parties did not come to an agreement on the transaction price. There are currently no options for the mill. "UPM is still open to sell the mill but there is no competitive offer so far," a company spokesman said.

A spokesman for the CGT trade union said that the price and the conditions for the takeover were set too high and presumed that UPM was actually not willing to sell the mill. The union was continuing with its efforts to find a solution but there was little hope, he added. The sales price proposed by UPM was not disclosed.

A part of the Docelles mill's employees had planned to jointly take over the site in order to guarantee its future. The negotiations on a realisation of the worker cooperative, called SCOP (société coopérative et participative), had been ongoing for several months, UPM said. The company closed down the site in the penultimate week of January this year and worked out a social plan which was approved by the authorities in mid-January. 161 employees are affected by the measure.

The Docelles mill, located in Eastern France, used to produce woodfree uncoated paper with a capacity of 160,000 tpy.