WEPA takes majority stake in MPH 1865

Wepa, the German family-owned hygiene paper manufacturer, acquired more than 70% of MPH 1865, the French maker of hygiene paper and soap based in Davézieux, in the Ardèche, from the Miribel family. The company was renamed Wepa Professional France, while Marc Miribel stayed on as president and, with the management team, led the integration. All of MPH 1865's industrial sites were kept and its 260 employees joined the group, bringing Wepa to four production sites and around 1,000 people in France. At the time of the deal, MPH 1865 generated revenue of and an EBITDA of , an EBITDA margin of . The purchase was intended to open the consumer market to a company that had sold almost all of its output to professional distributors. Wepa, the second largest supplier in the French consumer segment, gave it access to supermarket chains. MPH 1865 produced around 45,000 tonnes of hygiene paper a year and aimed to double that within two to three years, with investment in its production lines to adapt them to consumer formats, in particular smaller toilet rolls, and to process in-house the surplus reels it had previously sold on to third parties. It planned to recruit around forty people to reach 300 staff within three years. In the other direction, the deal broadened Wepa's professional range with soaps and disinfectants, non-woven wipes and personal protective equipment.