History

The rich tradition of paper and paper product manufacture around Hostinné can be traced back to the 16th century, when manual papermaking in the region was first mentioned. But papermaking did not come to the town of Hostinné until 1835, when the first papermill known as Labský Mlýn was established by the Kiesling brothers, Gustav and Wilhelm. At the time, it was a very modern papermill and only second in Bohemia to boast a paper machine. It later passed to Franz Lorenz, Gustav Roeder and Julius Eichmann and was further expanded. The second papermill in Hostinné, Eichmann & Co was grounded in 1850 and was later complemented with a pulp mill. Their specialty papers quickly achieved a prestigious reputation both domestically and internationally.

In 1945, the company was nationalized and the state-owned enterprise Krkonošské papírny was established. The former Eichman & Co paper-mill in Hostinné became the core of this new enterprise and about 45 smaller paper mills and converters in the region were added. Some of the pre-war paper machines were reconstructed while other ones were gradually phased out due to low profitability.

The most important decision for the future of papermaking in Hostinné – to build a new, state of the art paper machine for the production of thin specialty papers – was made in the 1970s. Between 1979 and 1984, the new plant was build and the paper production on PS6 started. To address the serious water pollution in the upper part of the Elbe river, a new wastewater treatment station was built, the pulp production in Hostinné came to a halt, and other ineffective plants were closed down by 1984. Life could return to the river. In 1986, a new facility devoted to the production of carbonless copy papers was put into operation.

In 1992, the former state enterprise was privatised and a joint-stock company Krkonošské papírny, a.s. was founded. The enterprise managed to take up the broad portfolio of paper products and acquired new export markets. In 1996, a new combined heat and power station was built, with a dramatic positive effect on air quality around Hostinné.

In early 2000s, Papírny Brno, a.s. and Plzeňské papírny, a.s. were taken over. In 2008, Krkonoššské papírny was split into several companies, with KRPA PAPER being one of them, and KRPA Holding was formed.

Recently, KRPA PAPER has been devoted to the production of high quality greaseproof and barrier packaging and silicone coated papers. We put great emphasis on paper quality and safety for food packaging purposes and manage to meet the requirements on grammage reduction while retaining the desired properties of paper. In doing this, we capitalize the long tradition and experience gained by several generations of papermakers and give shape to our vision, whose building blocks are: QUALITY OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES, CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, PRODUCTIVITY, EMPLOYMENT, and ENVIRONMENT.

Thanks to the investments in recent years we constantly increase the capacity and quality of paper production and continue a tradition of papermaking in Hostinné that began 180 years ago.