M-real to be renamed Metsä Board

European fresh forest fiber paperboard producer M-real will become Metsä Board following the decision by parent Metsäliitto Group to rebrand as Metsä Group.

The names of Metsä Group’s business areas will change as a result and represent the final stage in a restructuring based on the group’s strategy, Metsä Group said, adding that the purpose of the process has been to create a unified and competitive forest industry group. The group focuses on five core businesses: wood products, pulp, board, tissue and cooking papers, and wood supply and forest services.

The new corporate identity does not affect the structure of the group or the legal status of the companies. The name of Metsä Group’s parent company, Metsäliitto Cooperative, does not change and it continues to be a cooperative.

Metsä Group president and chief executive officer Kari Jordan said: ‘Our restructuring initiated in 2005 is now finalized and we are well positioned for the future. This is the right time to strengthen our operations as a unified group. Competitiveness requires closer collaboration and lower boundaries between businesses. It also requires sharing best practices and making use of them.’

The new logo – a moose head carrying a forest in its antlers and the word Metsä, a Finnish word for forest – and the new corporate identity are intended to communicate that Metsä Group is a responsible and renewing forest industry company that respects its roots and is stronger than before, it is claimed. Its products and services contribute to the everyday well-being of people.

Jordan added: ‘Metsä Group is a genuine forest industry company. Our company is owned by forest owners, which brings a long-term approach to our operations. Our main raw material is renewable wood grown in sustainable Nordic forests. We have the lightest and most ecological boards, top-quality pulps, successful product brands in tissue and cooking papers and top know-how in the wood products industry. We have a great story to tell.’

The change of name from M-real to Metsä Board will be decided at the company’s annual general meeting on March 28.

The Metsä Group’s paperboard division has also announced a new research and development (R&D) center in Äänekoski, Finland. Its aim is to support customers in the packaging industry with R&D in product innovation, introduce applications of new raw materials from forest fibers and study how its products can match rapidly-evolving printing and converting technologies.

The center draws on experience from within Metsä Board and the whole Metsä Group. It will also collaborate closely with research institutes, universities and Forestcluster Ltd.

The new R&D center is commencing operations from this month (February), with the first research projects coming to fruition within two–three years. It is based at Äänekoski, a well-known forest industry locality in Finland, where Metsä Board has an existing cartonboard mill. It will use an established laboratory and employs a highly-experienced team of experts headed by Lauri Verkasalo, director for strategic research.

The role of the R&D center falls into these main areas: doing research that leads to improvements in the paperboard products; developing new technologies that will drive advances in cartonboard and liner products; looking for applications based on new raw materials such as microfibrillated cellulose; match developments in printing technology, such as digital printing, in order that paperboards continue to produce optimum results.

The center may also respond to topical issues as they arise, such as mineral oil hydrocarbon migration from printing inks.

Metsä Board chief executive officer Mikko Helander said: ‘We have relentlessly developed our paperboards, production processes and service to support customers in their business. At the same time, our work has achieved benefits in sustainability, for example, in the design of light but stiff boards and in production energy efficiency. Now we want to strengthen our R&D further and drive business forward based on new ideas, customer demand and feedback.’

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