Lecta announced that its Condat paper mill will file for court protection with the Commercial Court in Bordeaux on October 22.
The measure aims to facilitate the search for potential buyers while preserving employment at the historic Dordogne site.
Since 2019, Lecta has made significant investments to modernize the mill, including installing a state-of-the-art glassine paper line and a biomass boiler. Despite these upgrades, successive market crises have severely affected the site’s financial stability.
The court process will allow Condat to temporarily freeze its debts—most of which are owed to the Lecta Group—and work under judicial supervision to identify solutions ensuring business continuity and job protection.
The site currently employs about 202 people and operates roughly 20 days per month, reflecting its reduced production capacity. Lecta has set an **end-of-year deadline—December 31, 2025—**to find a buyer, with the risk of liquidation in early 2026 if none is secured. Meanwhile, union representatives are exploring the creation of a SCIC (Société coopérative d’intérêt collectif) to preserve the industrial asset under cooperative ownership.
Production at the Condat site will continue as normal during the court procedure to maintain customer service quality and protect employment.
This step underscores the challenges facing Europe’s coated and specialty paper producers. Despite a €30 million investment in the biomass boiler—€14 million of which was funded by ADEME, France’s energy transition agency—the Condat site continues to struggle with structural market pressures and global competition.
Located in the Dordogne region of southwestern France, the Condat mill is the country’s last remaining site historically dedicated to coated paper for publishing. Over recent years, Lecta has reoriented production toward glassine paper, used primarily for self-adhesive labels. Despite modernization efforts, profitability remains under strain amid a challenging market environment.
