The future of a giant paper mill employing nearly 400 people was today in doubt after bosses said it was not financially viable.
International Paper said it was launching a consultation with employees at its Inverurie mill in Aberdeenshire which will study "all possible scenarios".
The move was greeted with dismay by the local MP, Liberal Democrat Malcolm Bruce, who said it was a "devastating" blow to the local and regional economy.
"We face the prospect of losing almost 400 good jobs with the consequential loss of spending in the local economy," said Mr Bruce, MP for Gordon.
"If the mill closes it will end more than 200 years of history in the town."
He went on: "The timing of this announcement could not have been worse as we approach a recession.
"The consultation period does afford some time to look at the options available and to come up with a possible solution that will best serve the workforce and the local community.
"I will be seeking meetings with management and workforce to discuss the prospects."
Announcing the move today, US-based International Paper said the mill was high-cost, and faced further financial pressures and an oversupplied market for its product in Europe.
Mill director Chris Melia said: "Despite significant investments and our extremely skilled and committed workforce, the mill is unprofitable and is not financially viable.
"Our task now is to review all the possible scenarios for the future of the mill, while staying focused on customer needs.
"We are committed to conducting a meaningful consultation process with the appropriate employee representatives, and will do all we can to ensure the best possible outcome for all concerned."
The mill was bought over by International Paper in 1996 and produces 250,000 tonnes of uncoated paper a year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article