UPM Raflatac to make investments in Poland

This initiative will support UPM Raflatac’s target to secure cost competitive growth in films in the long term. The start-up of the new assets is estimated to take place in the first quarter of next year.

Following the planned investment, an older film coating line in Tampere, Finland and the UPM Raflatac siliconizing line in Tervasaari, Finland will be closed.

In addition, UPM Raflatac plans to improve productivity in its sheet labelstock business by closing sheet labelstock coating operations and reducing capacity in sheets finishing in Polinya, Spain. The sheet coating will be centralized to Nowa Wies.

 The planned actions are estimated to result in annual cost savings of about four million EUR (5.5 million USD) starting from 2015 and exceeding six million EUR (eight million USD) in 2016.

If all plans are implemented, the estimated total personnel impact would be a maximum of 122 positions in the affected countries: a maximum of 86 positions in Spain and a maximum of 36 positions in Finland. The majority of restructuring is estimated to be completed by the end of 2014.

Tapio Kolunsarka, executive vice-President at UPM Raflatac, said: ‘In our film business we have enjoyed robust growth in Europe in recent years and therefore we are planning to increase filmic coating capacity in Nowa Wies, Poland.

‘The majority of the film market is in Central and Southern Europe and with this capacity we will be able to serve our customers in those market areas better in future. According to the plan, we aim to streamline our capacity in Tampere, Finland to meet the needs of the reduced service area.

‘In past years, the sheets market has been affected by changes in customer buying behaviour and the market segment has been stagnating. As a consequence we have seen a sharp increase in competition in the market and thus we are planning to centralize sheet production to Nowa Wies, Poland to be able to remain competitive in this segment in the future.

‘After these planned changes in our manufacturing and supply chain platform in Europe, we will have a highly productive capacity serving each of our key product segments with sufficient capacity to meet the needs of the future,’ Kolunsarka concluded.