For the 14th time the business daily WirtschaftsBlatt set out to identify the most successful companies in Austria together with the credit reference agency KSV1870 and PwC. The Austrian Leading Companies Award focuses on the solid performance of a firm over a period of years, and not just short-term performance indicators. The current analysis took account of business results over the years 2009 to 2011, but also attached great importance to how the companies dealt with the issue of sustainability. Lenzing AG once again convinced the jury in Upper Austria and won in the category Big Player for the second straight year.

For years the Lenzing Group has achieved good results and has operated extremely successfully. Demand for cellulose fibers from the renewable raw material wood continues to be intact. The global megatrends of population growth (especially in the emerging markets) and the growing awareness of the advantages of ecological products are the driving forces for the ongoing increase in the Lenzing Group’s fibers sales. Lenzing has taken this development into account by implementing an ambitious expansion program at all its global production sites, involving investments of EUR 1.6 bn between 2011 to 2015.

A total of more than EUR 350 mn alone will be invested in the coming years at the Lenzing site in Upper Austria, headquarter of the Lenzing Group. A visible sign clearly in view is one of the biggest industrial construction sites in Austria located at the Lenzing facility, where a highly modern plant for producing the  high-tech fiber  TENCEL®  is  being  built  and  which  will  provide jobs  to  110  new employees starting in 2014.