Cotton wool paper
| Wattens paper mill
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|---|---|
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| legal form | GmbH & Co. KG |
| founding | 1559 |
| Seat | Wattens , Austria |
| Branch | paper |
| Website | www.delfortgroup.com |
The Wattens paper mill is a subsidiary of the delfortgroup AG in Wattens ( Tyrol ). The Austrian headquarters of delfortgroup AG is in Traun in Upper Austria . As a manufacturer of cigarette papers and filter paper, the Wattenspapier brand is the global market leader and supplies to over 100 countries.
The Wattens paper factory emerged from a paper mill founded in 1559 and today produces special papers for cigarettes and filters that are sold worldwide. In 2009 450 people were employed, who generated an annual turnover of 150 million euros.
The company operates its own hydropower plants as well as joint hydropower plants in cooperation with the crystal producer Swarovski to cover the high energy demand on the Wattentaler Wattenbach . Cotton wool supports the Hohe Tauern National Park and a national park in India by providing water supplies there.
history
The Wattens paper factory was founded in 1559 by Ludwig Lassl, the former clerk of the mountain court and probably the author of the " Schwazer Bergbuch" in an abandoned smelter. He had made a good choice of location, because the Wattenbach provided the water power to drive the wheels and clear water for paper production. At that time this was still done by hand, by swelling cut rag material in pounding mills with water, filling the prepared "stuff" in hand-made paper and scooping it out with frame sieves on which the watermark of the respective "papyrus" was attached. Ludwig Lassl used the imperial orb as the first watermark, which is why it appears as a symbol for paper production in the Wattner municipal coat of arms.
A paper mill employed only a few workers, but in the early days of paper production they had to work up to 17 hours a day. Annual production roughly corresponded to the amount of paper that is produced today in a few seconds. From 1559 to 1861, the Wattens paper mill was owned by several papermaking families, of which Schwarz alone managed the small company for more than 200 years. The papermakers were respected people and usually also great patrons of the community and church. The memory of this papermaking family is preserved in the "Heilig'sche Grabstätte" in the old cemetery near the Laurentiuskirche, where members of the papermaking families Schwarz, Heilig and Mark rest.
After Tyrol's first paper machine had been installed in the imperial and royal privileged paper factory in Imst in 1837, the Wattner papermaker Josef Mark also decided to install one with a roller length of 120 cm. However, the changeover overwhelmed his financial resources, so that he had to lease his company to the Imst paper mill in 1865. After his death, she finally acquired it in 1867 and began producing tissue paper. Triggered by the Vienna stock market crash of 1873, owners changed frequently as a result. The most important among them was the Innsbruck businessman Martin Kapferer, who acquired the paper factory in 1885, converted it entirely to the production of cigarette paper and built one of the first power stations at the exit of the Wattental valley .
Another able owner was Anton Jeglitsch, who set up a second paper machine with a roller length of 180 cm in 1900 and also made other improvements to the factory facilities. In 1907 the paper mill came into the hands of the kuk privileged paper mill in Olleschau , which ceased operations in 1912 except for electricity generation. During the First World War 1914–1918, reserve teams of the imperial army were housed in the company buildings.
A happier era for the paper mill began when Bunzl & Biach AG in Vienna acquired the abandoned and neglected company in 1918. After the two paper machines started up again and the business relationships were re-established, from 1922 under the direction of Dr. Felix Bunzl a single-minded expansion of the factory facilities, so that the paper mill already employed 290 people in 1938 and was able to produce approx. 1450 t of fine paper.
The annexation of Austria to the German Reich in the same year abruptly interrupted this positive development. Dr. Felix Bunzl had to emigrate and the paper factory was "Aryanized" under the name "Kontropa - Continental Raw Material and Paper Industry " . After the Second World War broke out in 1939, part of the company was used as a tank repair workshop and at the end of the war in 1945 both paper machines were idle.
A year later the company Bunzl & Biach got its property back, the production of cigarette paper could be resumed and business contact with old customers could be re-established.
In 1979 the international Bunzl group withdrew from Austria and sold the Wattens paper mill to the Trierenberg family, which was based in Traun / Upper Austria. already owner of the paper mill Dr. Franz Feuerstein Ges.mbH was.
swell
- Festschrift for the 1985 market survey of the municipality of Wattens. Editor. Market town of Wattens Author Franz Aufschneiter
- Konrad Fichtl (Red.): WATTNER BOOK Schlern-Schriften R. Klebelsberg. Wagner-Innsbruck University Press 1958
- ↑ tirol Today from July 23, 2009 Archive link ( Memento of the original from October 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
