Two Midlands paper firms have joined forces to create a new business.
Birmingham-based Northwood Consumer and Grantham company Consuma Paper Products have teamed up to create a retail-focussed entity.
Northwood Consumer, which is the retail arm of Shropshire parent firm Northwood Group, and Consuma will manufacture a range of rolled and folded tissue products.
As part of this transaction, the shareholders of Northwood have acquired a significant share in Consuma and the businesses will continue to operate out of their current respective premises.
Northwood has been a supplier to Consuma with tissue for more than 20 years, providing both new and recycled products from its own UK mills and global supply partners.
More recently, the partnership has evolved further with Northwood's UK mills manufacturing recycled paper for some of Consuma's retail customers, enabling them to reduce their carbon footprint.
Northwood group chairman Paul Fecher said "We are excited to join forces and to expand our retail range across the whole tissue sector of toilet, towel, facial and pocket tissues in all formats.
"We look forward to working closely with the teams in Birmingham and Grantham."
Oday Abbosh, founder of Consuma's parent company Better All Round, added: "Joining forces now is a natural extension of our relationship with Northwood, bringing together the best of two groups in serving our customers.
"Together, we will have increased capacity and be able to leverage new technology to deliver on our sustainability agenda for the benefit of all our customers.
"In a market that remains under significant pressure from a broad set of macro and geopolitical events, this will allow our customers to benefit from scale, multiple synergies, and shared expertise."
