The year-long investment is projected to boost production by 25,000 tonnes of recycled de-inked pulp by the end of 2012, bringing total capacity of the French mill to 150,000 tonnes per year.

The company said that the three-phase investment programme was a 'de-bottlenecking' procedure involving around 20 individual projects, each costing between €1,000 and €400,000, over the year.

The second phase is expected to be completed at the end of July and the third during the Christmas period.

Arjowiggins Graphic president Agnes Roger said the firm had reviewed its processes to identify areas where productivity could be increased. Automatic control and inline quality controls would be added to the line, in addition to a number of upgraded machines, she added.

Roger said the company's "green" papers business had been growing over the past year, as it was the only supplier of recycled deinked pulp across Europe.

Roger said: "We want to grow our company and converting the market to recycled paper is an effort. We need other paper producers to support our activity in convincing customers to head in this direction and we can’t do it alone.

"We are supplying pulp to companies which specialise in different markets to ours, such as the A4 market and we want to move this market towards recycled papers."

The mill, based in Chateau Thierry, supplies to the printing and writing papers market, but Roger said volumes were falling in this sector.

Roger added: "We have increased capacity more than we expected and experienced an increase in custom and turnover as a result. The project is running fully in line with our expectations."

The Greenfield mill opened in 1997 and specialises in production of recycled bright white deinked pulp. It is renowned for the production of Cocoon paper, distributed by Antalis McNaughton throughout Europe, and Satimat Green and Maine Gloss Green coated papers, distributed by Elliot Baxter in the UK.