Swanbank Paper edges towards start of construction

The industry heavy-hitter has a CV that includes running companies such as West Australian Newspapers, Bell Group Printing, Australian Provincial Newspapers (APN) and David Syme & Co, publisher of The Age.

He is joined on the board by former Queensland Transport and Main Roads Minister Steve Bredhauer.

Swanbank Paper director and co-founder Graham Chappel welcomed the high profile appointments which he said represented a significant vote of confidence in the project and its prospects for success.

“We are delighted that John and Steve have accepted our invitations to join the board,’’ he said. “The considerable skills and networks they bring to the company, and to this exciting project, will prove invaluable as we move to financial close and put in place appropriate corporate governance structures to prepare Swanbank Paper for an initial public offering after the mill has been commissioned.’’

Despite a certain amount of industry scepticism over the viability of the mill, Reynolds is convinced of the project’s ultimate success.

“I am particularly excited by the opportunity to be involved with this major Queensland project, given the scale of its economic benefits and potential to reshape and revitalise Australia’s paper manufacturing and printing sectors,’’ he said.


The plant will be located within Swanbank Enterprise Park, adjacent to CS Energy’s Swanbank Power Station near Ipswich. Swanbank Paper will create the equivalent of 650 full-time jobs during construction and over 260 direct jobs once the paper plant begins production, planned for late 2008.

Reynolds said the Swanbank Paper project would provide a major economic boost to Queensland and the Ipswich region as a significant generator of wealth and jobs within the State’s rapidly growing western corridor.

“This is an excellent example of Queensland leading the nation by building a state-of-the-art plant which will manufacture products with a net import replacement value of some A$450 million a year,’’ he said.

Swanbank Paper’s management team is headed by respected Australian paper industry executive Joe Foster, a former managing director of paper merchant Edwards Dunlop Paper and leading office products supplier Corporate Express.

The proposed mill, which will produce 390,000 tonnes of coated paper a year, has been declared a 'significant project’ by the Queensland Government and been granted 'major project facilitation' status by the Commonwealth Government.

Swanbank Paper has spent the best part of the last year procuring an improved water solution for the project which will boast world’s best environmental practice in industrial water re-cycling.