Metsä Board

Metsä Board is a manufacturer of cardboard and paper.

Headquartered in Espoo, Finland. In 2006 the company generated a turnover of 5.6 billion euros and employed 14,125 employees, of whom about 10,000 are active outside of Finland. After massive restructuring in 2007-2009 about 6,100 people are employed at Metsä Board in the summer of 2009.

History

The company originally on a 1868 by GA Serlachius in Finnish Mänttä founded Holzschleiferei back. A first paper mill in 1881 took on the operation. Finally, in 1986 from the merger of the GA Serlachius Oy and Oy Metsä- Metsäliiton Teollisuus Serla Oy forth. As the paper industry was generally strongly influenced by consolidation and mergers in the 1990s, also Metsä -Serla grew through various acquisitions. In 2000, Metsä -Serla took over the Swedish paper manufacturer Modo Paper and 2001, the German Zanders fine papers AG. As part of the realignment and integration of the newly acquired business units of the company name (company) Metsä -Serla Oy M- real Corporation was changed in 2001. Upon completion of the expansion employed M -real in early 2003 about 21,000 employees worldwide.

Over the following year, however, also came M -real in the wake of general difficulties in the European paper industry, caused not least by substantial overcapacity and competitors gaining strength from the Asian region. In August 2004, the last time being purchased, as M -real took a 74 percent stake in Kemiart liner from UPM -Kymmene, and became the sole after acquisition of a further 6% of the own parent company Metsäliitto Cooperative owner of the company. That same year, M-real sold its factory in Finland Savon Sellu. In June 2006, followed by a sale of the French production site Point Saint Maxence.

2007 was a reduction of production capacity and a sale of non-core scoring areas. In this context, the production was stopped in the works in the British Sittingbourne and the Swedish Wifsta and the factories closed. In addition, two paper machines in the German Gohrsmühle shut down, and a machine in the Finnish Tako board mill. In the same year also all three Faltkartonfabriken of the Group have been sold, and eventually sold the own wholesale organization MAP Merchant at Antalis in October.

Ongoing negative earnings figures and the emerging financial and economic crisis in 2008 necessitated a further step. In the fall of 2008 were M -real announced to divest itself of its Graphic Papers business area and this December 31, 2008, including the works Kirkniemi Kangas, Stock city and Biberist to the South African Sappi Ltd.. to sell. This runs M-real back completely out of the market for coated fine papers. The production of those papers at its Husum and Äänekoski running time being, the distribution of these products is, however, only by Sappi. The factory in Hallein Austria, however, presented on 30 April 2009, the paper production completely one. At this location has only M-real continues the pulp production and operation of a biomass-fired electricity and district heating. The Province of Salzburg, however, has a complaint with the EU Commission and the EU Competition Authority filed as talks with investors had been blocked to preserve the paper production of Hallein mill Sappi and M -real, and the province of Salzburg corporations accused of collusion in which it largely focused on cleanup of the market. In June 2011, the factory in Hallein was eventually sold to the Austrian Schweighofer Group. In addition, in 2011, buyers were sought for the unprofitable plants in Gohrsmühle and in Alizay. After a failure of the sale talks with potential investors have been running since mid-September, the consultation procedures to prepare for the closure of the French production site Alizay and a far-reaching shutdown of production capacities at the German Gohrsmühle.

M -real has been listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

Slogans of the company are " Make it real. " And " It's not real until it's on paper ."

In April 2012, the Company announced the renaming of "M -real " in " Metsä Board".

Production sites

Metsä Board operates production sites in Finland, Germany and Sweden.

Finland

• Äänekoski: Paper and cardboard
• Joutseno: Pulp
• Kaskinen: Pulp
• Kemiart Liners: Carton
• Kyro: Paper and cardboard
• Simpele: Paper and cardboard
• Metsä Board Tako, Tampere: Carton

Germany

• Zanders Gohrsmühle: Paper

Sweden

• Husum: Pulp and Paper

Former production sites

The M- real Hallein GmbH, a pulp mill in Hallein, Austria, was sold on 29 June 2011 at the Schweighofer timber industry, an Austrian family with the core wood industry. Since September 2011, the former M- real Hallein GmbH operates under the name Schweighofer Fiber GmbH.

Environment

Metsä Board as well as the Finnish company Stora Enso and UPM- Kymmene come again and again in the headlines, as it is considered a major customer of the Finnish national forest timber from forests relate, classified by environmental NGOs as virgin forests, and their use conflicts with resident indigenous peoples and reindeer herding moves to itself. As far as this wood is processed into pulp mills, it can find its way into products for the German market.