Change at the top for manufacturing giant

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The Essity tissue mill in Prudhoe has announced a change of leadership following the retirement of one of the best-known figures in the UK paper industry.

Tony Richards joined the company in 2001, having started his 43-year career in papermaking as an apprentice at a mill in his native Cumbria.

He was made site manager at Prudhoe Mill in 2007 and later appointed to the Swedish tissue giant’s UK country management team, with additional responsibility for its sites in the north west – producing consumer products such as Cushelle, Plenty and Velvet.

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During the Coronavirus pandemic he was a familiar face on TV, and in the press, as spokesman for an industry faced with the panic-buying of toilet rolls leaving supermarket shelves bare.

All change - Tony Richards with Martin HallisseyAll change - Tony Richards with Martin Hallissey
All change - Tony Richards with Martin Hallissey

As well as reassuring shoppers that there was no chance of the UK running out of toilet rolls, he made sizeable donations of product to Northumberland County Council’s shielding hub that was supporting elderly and vulnerable residents.

Together with colleagues at Prudhoe Mill and local councillors, he also distributed face masks, hand sanitiser and hygiene products to businesses, schools and community groups as part of a good neighbour campaign.

His successor at Prudhoe Mill, Northumberland’s second-largest manufacturing employer, is former head of projects Martin Hallissey.

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After graduating with a biochemistry degree, he went to Procter & Gamble as an intern and spent 17 years with the company in London and Frankfurt – then worked for bakery business Greggs as site engineering manager before joining Essity in 2023.

“Tony will be a hard act to follow,” said Martin. “As well as being a popular boss, and well-known in the community in which he lived and worked, he was also a major figure in the tissue industry right across Europe.

“But, looking to the future, these are exciting times for Prudhoe. Our multi-million pound, three-year project to create the UK’s most modern wastepaper recycling plant is due for completion later this year.

“This will improve energy efficiency and increase our ability to make household products from recycled fibre. Sustainability is also at the heart of a number of proposed new engineering projects that will help us to future-proof the site and safeguard the jobs of our 400-strong workforce.”

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