Canadian tissue and absorbent-products manufacturer Kruger has placed an order with ANDRITZ for its first nonwovens line dedicated to sustainable wipes production. ANDRITZ, the Austrian machinery supplier, confirmed the order through a listing carried by Textile World.

The deal marks Kruger's entry into nonwovens for the wipes segment, extending a manufacturing base built on paper, tissue and consumer absorbent products. For ANDRITZ, the order adds a North American reference in a wipes market where buyers are moving away from plastic-based substrates under pressure from labelling rules and fibre-content disclosure requirements.

What the order covers

The line will produce substrates for sustainable wipes — a category increasingly defined by flushability and plastic-content standards rather than by marketing claims. In the European Union, the Single-Use Plastics Directive requires wet wipes containing synthetic fibres to carry explicit labelling, and comparable disclosure pressure is building in North American procurement contracts. Buyers sourcing private-label wipes for grocery and drugstore chains now specify fibre composition at the tender stage, which pushes converters such as Kruger toward natural-fibre capacity.

ANDRITZ supplies nonwovens lines spanning spunlace, wetlaid and airlaid technologies, with spunlace systems used for substrate production across hygiene and wipes applications. The company has positioned its technology for processing wood-based and other natural fibres as wipes producers requalify suppliers around plastic-free claims.

Why it matters for the supply chain

Kruger operates mills across Canada and the United States and supplies consumer tissue and away-from-home products under private-label and branded programmes. Adding in-house nonwovens capacity moves the company upstream from converting purchased substrate, a shift that mirrors vertical integration moves by other North American hygiene producers seeking margin control and faster requalification of fibre inputs.

For wipes brands and private-label buyers, a new domestic substrate source reduces reliance on imported nonwovens, most of which enter North America from production bases in Asia and the Middle East. Shorter supply lines also simplify the traceability documentation that retailers increasingly demand alongside sustainability claims — buyers can audit a Canadian mill rather than a multi-country fibre-to-substrate chain.

Compliance framing

Sustainability claims attached to the new line will face scrutiny under existing standards rather than goodwill. Flushable wipes sold in North America are typically tested against industry association protocols, and plastic-free positioning must trace to verified fibre content under labelling law. EDANA and INDA, the European and North American nonwovens industry bodies, both operate flushability assessment codes that brands use in procurement specifications.

Commercial terms

Textile World's listing did not disclose the value of the order, the line's capacity, the technology configuration, or the commissioning timeline. ANDRITZ has not released a start-up date.

The sourcing decision

For wipes buyers, the question the Kruger order raises is straightforward: qualify a North American natural-fibre substrate source now, or keep extended import chains that complicate plastic-content labelling under tightening disclosure rules. Procurement teams with EU-facing or Canada-bound volumes will feel that pressure first.