City officials in Gdansk, the largest port city in Poland, announced that Weyerhaeuser has won a competitive tender process to purchase 100,000 square meters of land for the project. The land-sale agreement is expected to be completed by the end of the year, and the company plans to break ground for the 17,000-square-meter facility in the spring of 2010.

The facility will process cellulose fibers for use in Weyerhaeuser’s hygiene products. It will employ at least 45 people upon its expected completion in 2012, the company said.

The facility will be Weyerhaeuser’s first cellulose fibers manufacturing plant outside of North America, according to the company.

“We expect worldwide demand for cellulose-based products to increase over the long term,” said Dan Fulton, Weyerhaeuser president and CEO. “This new plant will enable our cellulose fibers business to grow with a key customer.”

Procter & Gamble will be the facility’s primary customer, and the plant will supply P&G operations in Poland and Western and Eastern Europe, according to Weyerhaeuser.

“The plant Weyerhaeuser is building in Gdansk supports a variety of P&G strategies,” said Stassi Anastassov, vice president of Baby Care Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa for Procter & Gamble. “These include encouraging local sourcing of raw materials, fostering local employment, reducing overall costs and minimizing the company’s environmental footprint by reducing logistics requirements.”

Sławomir Majman, president of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ), called Weyerhaeuser’s project “one of the most important foreign investment commitments in the country in 2009.”