Completely new cooking culture

30/09/2009

SAGA brand opens path to completely new cooking culture 

With the launch of its new SAGA brand this September, Metsä Tissue is unveiling
a global branding strategy targeted at the baking, cooking, food processing and
food service segments, designed to win the hearts, minds and loyalty of both
consumers and professional customers. 

Our baking and cooking business has lacked a channel for uniform marketing
communication. The offering has had a fragmented naming structure and, thus,
relatively weak recognition in markets other than Finland, where the Serla
brand is virtually a household name among consumers interested in baking and
cooking. 

SAGA - with its slogan, ‘Lovely Little Things' - makes a tempting promise to
customers worldwide: that big things can be achieved in cooking by changing
small details. The SAGA brand story promotes an entirely new cooking culture
leveraging the unique benefits of cooking paper: easy, efficient and
hassle-free preparation of tasty, healthy, aromatic food - with the added bonus
of less washing up and a clean conscience for having chosen an environmentally
sound product. 

“We will introduce the benefits of cooking paper directly to end users in homes
and workplaces where food is prepared. We want our message to reach every chef
in every bakery, food factory, restaurant, hotel and other institution, as well
as everyday chefs at home,” explains Mari Lappi-Kaipio, Vice President,
Marketing. 

The new brand strategy will embrace all core processes from R&D and production
to sales and marketing. Product innovations will accompany the new branding
strategy. 

In future, the Metsä Tissue baking and cooking offering will be sold and
marketed under the SAGA brand, except in Finland, where consumer cooking
products will retain the familiar Serla brand name. Co-branding opportunities
with Serla are being considered, too. 

The official launch of SAGA started this month in Germany, the largest baking
and cooking market for Metsä Tissue. After Germany, SAGA will travel to Poland,
France and Russia. “We are already strongly involved in the rapidly growing
Eastern European markets and are continuing to seek out entirely new markets
and segments,” says Raija Mörö, SVP, Baking and Cooking. 

For a starter kit packed with tips and valuable information, check out the
www.sagacook.com website, a key element of the new branding campaign, and what
will hopefully soon become a lively international forum for the growing SAGA
community. 

For further information, please contact:
Mari Lappi-Kaipio, mari.lappi-kaipio[at]metsatissue.com Tel. +358 1046 47449
Raija Mörö, raija.moro[at]metsatissue.com Tel. +358 1046 47610

SAGA is a new, high-quality brand for consumers and professionals in baking and
cooking markets globally. With its smart, user-friendly features, SAGA makes it
easy and inspiring to prepare, cook and serve tasty and healthy food. The SAGA
offering consists of multipurpose food-grade and greaseproof cooking and baking
papers. SAGA is a registered trademark of Metsä Tissue, the world's leading
supplier of cooking papers.