diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 8811c5de..8c78468f 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -5,9 +5,11 @@ ENV LANG=C.UTF-8 \
     LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 \
     DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 
+# binutils is needed for the ar command, used by pypandoc.ensure_pandoc_installed()
 RUN set -x \
   && apt-get update \
   && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+    binutils \
     ca-certificates \
     curl \
     git \
diff --git a/newsfragments/259.bugfix b/newsfragments/259.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..44e365a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/newsfragments/259.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Add binutils to Dockerfile to fix pandoc installer.