Metsä Group’s pulp business area wins innovation competition with the new Botnia Nordic Plus pulps
Metsä Group Press Release 21 January 2014
Metsä Fibre, a part of Metsä Group, has won the Quality Innovation of the Year 2013 competition, organised by Laatukeskus Excellence Finland, in the Large Companies category with its new Botnia Nordic Plus softwood pulps.
For Metsä Fibre, participation in the quality innovation competition is primarily a means to speed up and develop its own innovation process with the help of external evaluation, but the award is also an indication of company’s innovative operating culture.
“Winning the Quality Innovation of the Year competition for the second year in a row is a great recognition of our persistent development work. It encourages the organisation to process ideas and turn them into commercially viable innovations,” says Kaija Pehu-Lehtonen, Senior Vice President, Business Development at Metsä Fibre.
The assessment criteria of the Quality Innovation of the Year competition are innovation and quality. The jury of the competition evaluates the novelty value of the innovation, its potential for practical application, and the level of systematic development work that led to its creation. A high-quality innovation does not only meet customers' expectations but strives to exceed them.
Production of the award-winning pulps started at the world's largest single-line softwood pulp mill in Joutseno, Finland in May 2013. With the cooking process using polysulphide, Metsä Fibre brought the Botnia Nordic Plus softwood pulps to the market. They include new papermaking properties that customers can utilise in the development of their own processes. Polysulphide technology has never before been applied on such a large scale. According to the jury, such innovations are very rare within the pulp industry. Metsä Fibre’s innovation shows that forerunners in the field are constantly renewing their business, ensuring their success also in the future.
Laatukeskus Excellence Finland organises the annual Quality Innovation of the Year competition where the operations and results of companies are evaluated according to the European EFQM quality model. The Quality Innovation of the Year Competition has been organised since 2007. In 2012, Metsä Fibre won the quality innovation competition with its Botnia FOX index, which indicates the quality of pulp. The same year, the company also won the Excellence Finland Final.
METSÄ GROUP
Group Communications
Further information:
Kaija Pehu-Lehtonen, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Metsä Fibre, tel. +358 50 598 8384, kaija.pehu-lehtonen@metsagroup.com
www.metsagroup.com
Metsä Group is a responsible forest industry group whose products’ main raw material is renewable and sustainably grown Nordic wood. Metsä Group focuses on tissue and cooking papers, consumer packaging paperboards, pulp, wood products, and wood supply and forest services. Its high-quality products combine renewable raw materials, customer-orientation, sustainable development and innovation. Metsä Group’s sales totalled EUR 5.0 billion in 2012, and it employs approximately 11,500 people. The Group operates in some 30 countries. Metsäliitto Cooperative is the parent company of Metsä Group and is owned by approximately 125,000 Finnish forest owners.
www.metsafibre.com
Metsä Fibre is a world-leading producer of softwood pulp. Our main products – sustainably and cost-efficiently produced softwood and birch pulp – are specially developed for the production of high-quality fine papers, magazine and tissue papers, and board. Our main brand is Botnia. With four pulp mills in Finland, we employ a total of about 900 people. Our sales in 2012 were approximately EUR 1.3 billion. Metsä Fibre is part of Metsä Group.