Cellulose Attisholz
Founded in 1881, Cellulose Attisholz AG was the only cellulose factory in Switzerland. It later also included the Tela paper factory with its locations in Balsthal and Niederbipp, and in 1983, Attisholz also acquired the German company Hakle. In 1999, the Attisholz holding company sold Tela and Hakle to Kimberly-Clark. In 2000, Christoph Blocher acquired Cellulose Attisholz and sold it to Borregaard, a subsidiary of the Norwegian conglomerate Orkla, in 2002. Borregaard closed the factory in 2008. It had been known for several years under the names Axantis and Atisholz (with a t).
Future Use of the Factory Site
The cellulose factory site stretched along both banks of the Aare River. A production facility for the biotechnology company Biogen has been under construction on the southern site (Attisholz South), located in the municipality of Luterbach, since 2016. In 2017, the Riedholz municipal assembly approved a "spatial partial master plan" for the northern site, according to which the area, owned by the Zurich-based real estate company Halter, should "gradually develop over the next 20 to 30 years into a vibrant and diverse district of the municipality of Riedholz with a variety of housing options, jobs, services, sports and leisure activities, art and cultural offerings, and restaurants."