Frontrunner of Russian plywood industry UPM's Chudovo plywood mill turns 25

(UPM Plywood, Lahti, 2 November 2015 at 13 EET) - UPM's Chudovo Plywood Mill celebrated its 25th anniversary on Sunday, 1 November 2015. The mill has been the pioneer of the modern plywood industry in Russia and continues to set benchmark for the local plywood industry.

"UPM Chudovo is one of our best top performing mills in UPM Plywood. Continuous development, quality improvement and motivated employees are the keys of its success ", says Mika Sillanpää, Executive Vice President, UPM Plywood.

UPM Chudovo mill is producing high quality WISA® plywood, that is used mainly in construction, furniture industry, interior finishing, vehicle production and LNG shipbuilding. Approximately 70% of the mill's production is exported, primarily to Europe. The mill employs over 600 people.

For further information please contact:
Mr. Anatoli Zhukovets, General Director, UPM Chudovo, tel. + 7 921 1946080

UPM Chudovo is one of UPM's 8 plywood mills, the other mills are located in Finland and Estonia. The constituent documents of CJSC "Chudovo-RWS" - the first ever Soviet-Finnish joint venture - were signed on 5 July 1988 by the Soviet Novgorodlesprom and the Finnish Schauman Wood Oy and Raute Oy.  Plywood production at the mill started on 1 November 1990. UPM became the sole owner of the mill in 2005.
Employees: over 600
Production capacity: 110,000 cubic meters of birch plywood
Raw material: 300,000 cubic meters of birch logs per year
WISA® plywood for various end-uses

UPM Plywood manufactures high-quality WISA® plywood and veneer products mainly for construction and transport industries and the new thermo-formable UPM Grada wood material for the form pressing industry. The sales of UPM Plywood in 2014 were EUR 440 million and it has about 2,400 employees. UPM Plywood has six plywood mills and a veneer mill in Finland, and plywood mills in Russia and Estonia. www.wisaplywood.com, www.upmgrada.com

UPM Through the renewing of the bio and forest industries, UPM is building a sustainable future across six business areas: UPM Biorefining, UPM Energy, UPM Raflatac, UPM Paper Asia, UPM Paper Europe and North America and UPM Plywood. Our products are made of renewable raw materials and are recyclable. We serve our customers worldwide. The group employs around 20,000 people and its annual sales are approximately EUR 10 billion. UPM shares are listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. UPM - The Biofore Company - www.upm.com