Displaying items by tag: Mreal Corporation

M-real Corporation's annual report for the year 2010, including financial statements, report of the Board of Directors, corporate governance statement and salary and remuneration report, has been published on the company's website at www.m-real.com.

The report is available in English and Finnish. Printed copies are available as of 22 March 2011. Printed copies can be ordered by filling in an order form on the company's website (www.m-real.com/orderpublications) or by e-mailing to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

A summary of M-real Corporation's stock exchange releases published in 2010 is available on the company's website at www.m-real.com/investors. The content of the releases published in 2010 can partially be out of date.

International brand owner, Red Bull, and its corrugated display supplier, TFP-Grafika, have been awarded the M-real Kemiart Forerunner Award for innovation in corrugated brand packaging.  The prize, awarded for the ninth time, went to two different point-of-purchase displays for Red Bull Energy Drinks that provide incremental space in the shop, and help advertise and promote both the brand and Red Bull sponsored events.

Red Bull is known for arranging and sponsoring different sports events, most notably the Red Bull Air Race.  It requires specific display solutions for fast rotating sales points in order to build event awareness by creating unique visual communication.

Its' products need to be supported by packaging and display units in both traditional and modern trade environments.  It is vital that the displays show the premium quality brand image of Red Bull to enhance the consumer’s brand awareness.  Displays are also used for additional product placement, particularly in premium supermarkets such as the Alma retail chain that require high quality standards in display materials.  “High quality displays give wings to sales,” says Tomek Dzwonkowski, Trade Marketing Specialist of Red Bull.

Ewa Niewiadomska-Klajnszmit, Production Director of TFP-Grafika adds: “It was a challenge to achieve the high quality required by Red Bull for product exposure on what were large displays.  Both displays have a four-layer structure, with coated Kemiart Graph supplying the surface for offset printing and litho lamination.  With Kemiart Graph, we were able to achieve excellent print results and the correct brand colour shades.”

TFP-Grafika chose Kemiart Graph because its primary fibres help produce perfect print without white spots caused by dusting; trouble-free die cutting; and prevent cracking at the fold.  The overall consistency of Kemiart grades increases productivity during every step of converting.  The strength of Kemiart Graph also ensures that the displays perform at their best after transportation and warehousing.

M-real is raising the prices of all Kemiart white-top kraftliner grades by € 50/t (GBP 45/t) in Europe, effective for deliveries as of 15 April 2011.  The increase is a result of the continuous rise in production input costs and logistic costs.

M-real Corporation’s, part of Metsäliitto Group, business is based on sustainability. The company has in recent years actively developed e.g. lightweight board and paper products which are produced with less fibre, water and energy.

As a natural step in its work to decrease water as well as energy usage M-real has now signed UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate that encourages companies to pay systematically attention to sustainable water usage.

“Our production plants are geographically located in areas with a good availability of water. Therefore water used in our production does not compete with other water needs such as local agricultural or household water usage. Despite that, we want to be among the forerunners using water resources responsibly. We recycle our production process waters and finally clean them carefully in order to minimize the environmental impact,” says Mikko Helander, CEO of M-real.

M-real has systematically made water usage more effective in its production processes. Work to close water systems in the mills even further is being continued. In future, M-real also commits itself to reporting regularly on its water usage according to the reporting requirements of the CEO Water Mandate.

The CEO Water Mandate was launched in 2007. It supports companies in the development, implementation and disclosure of water sustainability policies and practices. The CEO Water Mandate initiative was originally started by both public communities and private companies.

M-real Corporation, part of Metsäliitto Group, plans to increase the annual folding boxboard capacity of Äänekoski and Kyröskoski mills in total by about 70 000 tonnes. The combined value of the planned investments in Äänekoski and Kyröskoski is approximately EUR 30 million. The Kyroskoski investment is planned to be completed in late 2011 and the Äänekoski investment in spring 2012.

Related to the planned investment M-real will start statutory negotiations at the Äänekoski board mill on 18 February 2011 covering the mill workers in total of about 130 people. The maximum personnel reduction need is estimated to be 10 people. Kyröskoski investment is expected to have no personnel impact.

Following the planned investments the annual folding boxboard production capacity at Äänekoski mill would be approximately 240 000 tonnes and approximately 190 000 at Kyröskoski mill. The new production volumes are planned to be sold to food packaging purposes. In addition to these planned investments M-real has good potential to further increase the capacity of Kyroskoski and Äänekoski mills if the market situation so requires.

“Demand growth for M-real’s ecological and safe virgin fibre board has in food packaging been faster than expected and the expansion of Simpele mill’s capacity that will be implemented in spring 2011 is not enough to satisfy the demand. The best way to increase our production is to debottleneck the current board machines in moderate steps. Our target is to continue the profitable growth of our cartonboard business,” says CEO Mikko Helander.

M-real has announced plans to increase the annual folding boxboard capacity in total by about 150 000 tonnes during 2011-2012 including the investments at Simpele, Äänekoski and Kyröskoski mills. Thus, M-real’s total folding boxboard capacity would increase to about 935 000 tonnes per annum.

M-real’s customer magazine M-real Magazine has won gold in the ‘Best Overall Design, B-to-B’ category in Folio Magazine’s Eddies and Ozzies Awards. The international Folio Awards are the magazine industry’s largest competition, celebrating the best in both editorial quality and design and visual standards. The 2010 category winners were announced in New York on 25 January 2011.

“The team in M-real and publishing house Otavamedia Kynämies has done excellent job. M-real Magazine is a publication that stands out and is highly appreciated by our customers,” says Juha Laine, Editor-in-chief, VP Investor Relations and Communications of M-real Corporation. “The winning issue’s theme was design. A lot of thought went into making it, but even so, winning gold was a very positive surprise.”

“This issue is a great example of what can be achieved with our products, here in particular with speciality papers from M-real Zanders. The cover’s CHROMOLUX, the luxurious cast-coated paper, and the text pages’ coated paper Medley plus and transparent paper Spectral demonstrate how our papers can add impact and provide inspiration for many creative design areas,” explains Laine.

The 2010 awards drew more than 2,000 entries, which were judged by an international panel of 100 experts. Both printed magazines and web publications are represented in the competition, organised by Folio Magazine.

The gold-winning issue of M-real Magazine can be found here.

M-real will increase the paper price across its uncoated fine paper portfolio by 6-8% as of March 2011.

The industry is experiencing further cost increases due to which the paper prices must be increased.

M-real’s customer magazine M-real Magazine has won gold in the ‘Best Overall Design, B-to-B’ category in Folio Magazine’s Eddies and Ozzies Awards. The international Folio Awards are the magazine industry’s largest competition, celebrating the best in both editorial quality and design and visual standards. The 2010 category winners were announced in New York on 25 January 2011.

“The team in M-real and publishing house Otavamedia Kynämies has done excellent job. M-real Magazine is a publication that stands out and is highly appreciated by our customers,” says Juha Laine, Editor-in-chief, VP Investor Relations and Communications of M-real Corporation. “The winning issue’s theme was design. A lot of thought went into making it, but even so, winning gold was a very positive surprise.”

“This issue is a great example of what can be achieved with our products, here in particular with speciality papers from M-real Zanders. The cover’s CHROMOLUX, the luxurious cast-coated paper, and the text pages’ coated paper Medley plus and transparent paper Spectral demonstrate how our papers can add impact and provide inspiration for many creative design areas,” explains Laine.

The 2010 awards drew more than 2,000 entries, which were judged by an international panel of 100 experts. Both printed magazines and web publications are represented in the competition, organised by Folio Magazine.

The gold-winning issue of M-real Magazine can be found here.

Sari Pajari (42) has been appointed SVP, Business Development and a member of the Corporate Management Team of M-real Corporation, part of Metsäliitto Group. Her main responsibilities are business development and Total Quality Management. Pajari starts in the new position on 1 April 2011 and reports to CEO Mikko Helander.

Pajari is moving to M-real from the position of SVP, CIO of Metsäliitto Group which she held since 2009. Prior to joining Metsäliitto Group in 2007 Pajari has worked as a managing strategy consultant in Pöyry, PwC Consulting and IBM. Her education is Master of Science, Engineering.

M-real Corporation, part of Metsäliitto Group, is expected to book in its 4Q 2010 operating result a total of EUR -41 million net non-recurring items. The main items are:

* EUR 28 million impairment of fixed assets in Speciality Papers business area
* EUR 15 million impairment of fixed assets in Market Pulp and Energy
* EUR 15 million impairment of fixed assets and cost provisions in Consumer Packaging related to closure of Simpele paper machine
* EUR 9 million reversal of impairment of fixed assets in Office Papers
* EUR 7 million profit on sale in Speciality Papers related to partial divestment of Reflex mill

The impairment charges will reduce M-real's annual depreciations by approximately EUR 4 million from 2011 onwards. The non-recurring items have in total a positive net cash effect of approximately EUR 5 million.

M-real will announce the full year 2010 results on 10 February 2011.

For further information, please contact:
Matti Mörsky, CFO, tel. +358 10 465 4913
Juha Laine, Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications, tel. +358 10 465 4335