UPM (company)

Board of Directors

Members as of March 9, 2015

Group Executive Team

Members as of March 21, 2014

History

The company's oldest mill was Papeteries de Docelles located in northeastern France, which produced traditional handpaper at the end of 15th century. The mill got its first paper making machine in 1830's. UPM Docelles was disbanded in 2014.

The company has a long tradition of forest industries in Finland. There the company's first paper mills and sawmills were put into operation in the beginning of the 1870s. Pulp manufacturing began in the 1880s and paper converting in 1920's. The company started manufacturing plywood in the 1930s. Several Finnish forest industry companies have merged with the forerunner companies of UPM, such as: Walkiakoski, Jämsänkoski, Kaukas, Halla, Kajaani, Toppila, Kymmene, Kuusankoski, Kymi, Voikkaa, Lohjan Paperi Oy, Wilh. Schauman, W. Rosenlew, Raf. Haarla and Myllykoski.

The company logo, the griffin, was designed by Hugo Simberg in 1899. It is probable that the griffin was chosen as the company logo because it represents a guardian of the northern forests. The griffin logo is the oldest continuous company logo in Finland.

2000 - 2010

Due to worldwide overproduction of paper UPM announced a cost reduction program in 2006. Voikkaa paper mill in Kuusankoski was closed. Nearly 3,000 employees in Finland were laid off. After the closure the area has been transformed into Voikkaa business area.

The Repap mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick, which was purchased by UPM in 2000, was closed in 2007 because of economic pressures in the North American forest industry.

In September 2008 UPM closed Kajaani paper mill and Tervasaari pulp mill. 1,100 employees were laid off. The former premises of the Kajaani mill were turned into a business park called Renforsin Ranta.

In 2009 UPM Shotton Paper won the Queen's Award for Enterprise.

2010 -

In 2010 UPM announced it will acquire Myllykoski Corporation and Rhein Papier GmbH, which consists of seven publication paper mills in Germany, Finland and the United States. The transaction has been approved by regulatory authorities in 2011.

In 2011, UPM’s environmental investments totalled EUR 14 million (18 million), the largest being low-NOx burners for gas boilers at the Schongau paper mill in Germany.

Businesses

UPM products include pulp, paper, plywood, sawn timber, labels and composites, bioenergy, biofuels for transport, biochemicals and nano products. The company is the world's leading producer of graphic papers and second-largest producer of self-adhesive label materials.

The Energy Business Group produces electricity with nuclear power, water power, condensing power and wind power. UPM is the second largest owner of nuclear power in Finland with 541 megawatts through owning over 40% of nuclear operator Pohjolan Voima.

UPM began the production of coated fine paper sheets at its Kymi Mill in Kouvola in autumn 2012. In 2014 a UPM biorefinery was built in Lappeenranta, Finland. The refinery produces renewable diesel for traffic use.

Business areas

UPM has been restructured into six business groups in the fall of 2013. These groups are connected with a common idea: to create value from renewable and recyclable raw-materials by synthesizing them with know-how and technology.

UPM Biorefining

UPM Biorefining consists of pulp, paper and biofuel functions. UPM has four modern pulp factories: three in Finland and one in Uruguay, and also four mills in Finland. In 2014 a biorefinery producing renewable biodiesel will commence operating in Lappeenranta. The pulp factories produce 3,5 million tons of high quality pulp annually. 55,6% of the companys profits came from Biorefining in 2014.

UPM Energy

UPM Energy produces electricity from water, nuclear, condensate and wind. UPM is the second largest nuclear owner in Finland. UPM owns 44,3% of Pohjolan Voima Oy, which produces around 15 TWh annually. UPM also owns 9 hydro power plants in Finland. UPM Energy made 33,9% of the companys profits in 2013.

UPM Raflatac

UPM Raflatac is a leading global supplier of pressure sensitive labeling solutions. UPM Raflatac paper and film laminates are used for product and information labeling across a wide range of end-uses – from pharmaceuticals and security to food and beverage applications.

UPM Paper Asia and UPM Paper ENA

UPM has 20 paper mills in Finland, Germany, Great Britain, France, Austria, China and the United States. Several of the factories work simultaneously as recycling centres and as producers of bioenergy. Compared by revenue, paper production is still the largest business group of the company.

UPM Plywood

UPM is the biggest plywood manufacturer in Europe. The plywood operations consists of seven factories in Finland, Estonia and Russia.

Other businesses

UPM offers a wide selection of different services for forest owners. UPM possesses 825,000 hectares of forest in Finland. All of the companys forests are certified.

Most of the wood needed for the UPM factories is acquired from private forests of Finland. UPM is acquiring all kinds of wood and uses it to produce pulp, paper, plywood and energy. UPM is the biggest private landowner in Finland. UPM refines UPM Bonvesta properties from its real estates.

Environment and responsibility

The production of UPM is based on renewable raw-materials which are biodegradable and recyclable. Every UPM pulp and paper mill in Europe and the UPM Frey Bentos in Uruguay are EMAS-certified. In 2013 the paper mill in Changshu was the first paper mill in China to receive such a certificate. 78% of electricity produced by the company is carbon dioxide neutral. UPM is the only paper company which is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and the only forest industry company invited to the United Nations Global Compact LEAD sustainability leadership platform.

The company's key areas in environmental responsibility are sustainable products, climate, water, forest and waste.

Biofore

UPM has created the biofore term to describe new forest industry. Bio stands for sustainable solutions and environmental performance. Fore stands for forest and the company's position at the forefront of the development.The Biofore term is also used in the companys slogan: UPM - The Biofore Company.

Global operations

UPM's products are manufactured in 14 countries and the company has a worldwide sales network. UPM's production plants are located in Austria, Brazil, China, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, Spain, UK, Uruguay and USA.

China

UPM owns two production units in China: UPM Changshu paper mill and UPM Raflatac, Changshu Labelstock factory. Changshu is located in the Province of Jiangsu by the Yangtze River, some 100 km from Shanghai. In 2012 UPM announced that it will build a new woodfree speciality paper machine at its Changshu mill in China. The machine will start up by the end of 2014.

France

UPM owns two production units in France. The UPM Chapelle Darblay paper mill, located near Rouen, France's major port for wood and paper products, and the labelstock factory UPM Raflatac Pompey, Nancy, located in Pompey, 10 km north of Nancy and 40 km south of Metz.

Germany

UPM owns 8 production units in Germany.

Paper mills:

There is also a wood plastic composite factory in Germany: UPM ProFi, Bruchsal wood plastic composite factory, located in Bruchsal approximately 20 km northeast of Karlsruhe in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Distance to Frankfurt is some 120 km and to Stuttgart some 80 km.

UK

UPM owns 3 production units in the United Kingdom.

Paper mills:

There is also a labelstock factory in the UK: UPM Raflatac, Scarborough.

Uruguay

UPM has a pulp plant in Fray Bentos, Uruguay. The productions located in Uruguay consist of bleached hardwood kraft pulp (BHKP) from eucalyptus. UPM’s pulp mills produce renewable energy in their recovery boilers and provide CO2-neutral biomass-based electricity for the Uruguayan markets. In 2011 UPM expanded plantation grounds in Uruguay. In February 2011, UPM announced a plan to build a second nursery in Uruguay to secure the availability of high-quality seedlings and seed material. Argentine and Uruguay had conflict of UPM emissions in 2013.

Metsä Botnia, a part of Metsä Group, opened Fray Bentos factory in Uruguay in 2007. It produce annually a million tonnes cellulose. Until end of 2009 owners of Metsä-Botnia were M-real 30%, Metsä Group (ex Metsäliitto = Finn Forest) 23% and UPM-Kymmene (UPM) 47%, and since end of 2009 UPM 91% and Metsä Group 9%.

Indonesia

UPM was criticized by Greenpeace from the pulp commerce with APRIL in November 2009. At the time Greenpeace stopped APRIL from cutting down rain forest in Indonesia Sumatra. UPM informed that the pulp trade with April ends in near months as its new factory in Uruguay will start. UPM does not practice pulp trade with APRIL anymore.

Biofuels

UPM aims to become a major player in advanced biofuels. The company is developing new business on wood based biofuels for transport. The brand name for the future biofuels of UPM is UPM BioVerno. The production concepts are based on non-food raw materials and they result in a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The UPM Biofuels surpass both the EU and Finnish requirements for sustainable biofuels. One of the goals in the long run is to expand the production of biofuels with new processes and raw-materials like pyrolysis oil and solid biomass.

Biorefinery

UPM has invested in a biorefinery producing biofuels from crude tall oil in Lappeenranta, Finland. The biorefinery produces annually approximately 100,000 tonnes of advanced second generation biodiesel for transport. Construction of the biorefinery began in the summer of 2012 at UPM’s Kaukas mill site and was completed in 2014. UPM’s total investment amounted to approximately EUR 150 million. The construction of the biorefinery offered work for nearly 200 people for approximately two years. The biorefinery directly employs nearly 50 people and indirectly about 150 people.

Biodiesel

UPM is planning to produce high-quality advanced biodiesel from forest energy wood. The raw material to be used in the production of UPM's biodiesel would mainly consist of sustainably sourced energy wood: logging residues, woodchips, stumps and bark. UPM has been developing gasification technology for biodiesel production with Andritz/Carbona. The initial testing programme was completed in the United States as planned. UPM's biodiesel is well suited for the current diesel motor technology and fuel distribution infrastructure.

Bio oil

Bio oil will substitute heavy and light fuel oils in heating applications. The future applications of bio oil could be electricity production and transportation fuels. Pilot testing started in 2009 in Metso's Research and Development Centre in Finland. The end product has already been tested in one of the Fortum's district heating boiler plants.

UPM Grada

UPM Plywood has developed a new way to manufacture layered composites and the new form of plywood is called UPM Grada. At the core of the new technology is a special adhesive film, which allows the plywood to be formed after manufacturing. UPM Grada Plywood can be safely recycled or burned at the end of its lifecycle. UPM Grada Plywood can be used e.g. in furniture. The Finnish furniture manufacturer Isku has introduced the new Kaava chair which demonstrates the capabilities of UPM Grada Plywood.

UPM ProFi

UPM ProFi composite is a Biofore material that combines the best characteristics of cellulose fibres and plastic. Manufactured mainly from recycled raw material, the composite has proven to be tough and humidity resistant. The material is suitable for use in patios, terraces, piers and playgrounds. The material does not require polishing, lacquer finishing or other surface finishing. The material was a result of UPM's own research and product development. UPM ProFi has been used in the manufacture of a pedestrian walkway in the historic city of Ghent, Belgium.

UPM ForMi

UPM ForMi is a recyclable and odorless composite which can be used to replace plastic in many instances. UPM ForMi composite granulates are manufactured from clean polymers and pulp. UPM offers the granulates in three grades for injection molding – ForMi GP for general use, ForMi SP for special surface, and ForMi TP for technical applications. The UPM ForMi -material has already been used in the manufacture of a mobile phone microscope, launched by KeepLoop Oy.

UPM Biofibrils

UPM Biofibrils can be used as an additive in e.g. paints and coatings, concrete oil drilling fluids and various other industrial applications for stabilization of particles. The raw material of UPM Biofibrils is wood. The product often offers a more environmental friendly solution to traditionally used alternatives. UPM Biofibrils can help make a product stronger, lighter or thinner, depending on the end use.

World Design Capital Helsinki 2012

UPM took part in the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 -year. Helsinki offered a meeting place in the centre of the city: a wooden pavilion, showcasing UPM wood products as the main building material. The pavilion resulted from an extensive collaboration between Aalto University, the Design Museum, the Museum of Finnish Architecture and UPM. The pavilion provided an opportunity to demonstrate how UPM´s wood products and composites are implemented to meet with world class design.