Lenzing has broken groun on its Tencel specialty fiber expansion in Heiligenkreuz, Burgenland, Austria, at a special ceremony attended by Lenzing CEO Stefan Doboczky, along with Bernd Zauner and Dieter Eichinger, the two managing directors of Lenzing Fibers, Burgenland’s Provincial Governor Hans Niessl and Alexander Petschnig, the Regional Minister for Economic Affairs.

“We will invest about €70 million over the coming 12-month period to expand production capacities for our high-quality botanic specialty fibers” Doboczky says. “With this investment we are responding to strong global demand for new types of Tencel premium fibers such as the Refibra fiber, using cotton scraps from the manufacturing of cotton garments and wood as raw materials. This fiber makes a widely-recognized contribution to the circular economy in the textile industry. The fiber was very successfully launched on the market in February by our strategic partner Inditex in its Zara stores.”

Annual production capacities for fibers will be increased by about 25,000 tons as a result of the investment. The fibers will be available to customers starting at the end of the first quarter of 2018. “We launched the production of lyocell fibers in Heiligenkreuz 20 years ago, and have expanded the site to make it to one of the largest industrial employer in Southern Burgenland. The new investments comprise a further important milestone in our success story, and will provide added impetus to growth in a structurally weak region.”

Lenzing put its first industrial-scale lyocell fiber production facility into operation 20 years ago and today the fibers are sold under the Tencel brand name.