Finnish-Swedish group Stora Enso takes stock its restructuring announced on June 15 . With a view to strengthening its long-term competitiveness, the forestry and paper group is reorganizing its business in a straightforward manner, reducing the number of employees by 1,150 out of a total workforce of around 21,000. Negotiations have so far resulted in 710 job cuts.
Pulp and board production lines defiantly shut down
Stora Enso has finalized negotiations concerning its Sunila site in Finland, where pulp production and lignin extraction will be definitively halted. The Sunila site has an annual capacity of 375,000 tonnes of long fiber and 50,000 tonnes of lignin. Production, which has been shut down since May, will not be restarted. The closure affects 240 employees.
On the same site, the pilot plant for bio-sourced battery materials will continue to operate.
During the third quarter, Stora Enso definitively closed one of the four production lines for recycled packaging board at its OstroÅÄtmka site in Poland, which had an annual capacity of 120,000 tons. 50 positions were eliminated.
Job cuts in offices too
In June, Stora Enso finalized negotiations for the Packaging Materials division, resulting in the elimination of around 250 positions in management and support functions.
Consultation with employee representatives concerning the closure of the De Hoop cardboard packaging site in the Netherlands, employing 185 people, is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2023. The shutdown will reduce the Group's capacity by 380,000 tonnes of packaging board.
The Näpi sawmill in Estonia is also affected by the restructuring plan. With an annual capacity of 50,000 m 3 of sawn timber, 180,000 m 3 of processed products and 25,000 tonnes of pellets, the site will close in the fourth quarter of 2023, and negotiations have resulted in 90 redundancies.
Discussions concerning the downsizing of the Group's offices in Finland have come to an end: 80 employees will be made redundant.
Consultations are still underway for offices in other countries, and should be completed by the end of the year.
110 million euros in savings at stake
These measures are expected to reduce annual sales by around 380 million euros to 11.7 billion euros by 2022. Operating income should improve by around 110 million euros.
