Stora Enso Oyj - Company Announcement

Stora Enso's new CEO Jouko Karvinen starts in office at today's AGM

Stora Enso Oyj Stock Exchange Release 29 March 2007 at 13.00 GMT

Jukka Härmälä at the AGM:"In 2006 profits rose as newsprint, uncoated fine paper and wood
product prices increased, and we benefited from our internal profit
improvement programmes. Profit 2007 and the Asset Performance Review
(APR) are concluded ahead of schedule, but the returns are
unsatisfactory as increases in energy costs last year and wood costs
this year have eaten away a good lot of the benefits," says CEO Jukka
Härmälä."I would like to take this opportunity to thank all personnel,
shareholders and the Board of Directors for very stimulating and
rewarding years in the industry, and to wish all of you the very best
in the future," he concludes.

Stora Enso changes its strategic focus from growth to profitability
ROCE target remains 13%.

Jouko Karvinen at the AGM:
Stora Enso has accelerated its portfolio and strategy review. The key
element in the new strategy is that the company will change its focus
from growth to profitability. The ROCE target remains 13%."We have to make choices and focus on businesses that can earn
double-digit returns on capital employed by allocating our resources
to them," says new CEO Jouko Karvinen at today's Stora Enso Annual
General Meeting.

The management of the company is not planning to initiate a new,
specific profit improvement programme. Instead, the new CEO and his
team will lead the company on an intensified improvement path.
Decisions will be communicated when they have been made instead of
announcing single multi-year plans."The good news is that the overall global economic situation is
relatively healthy. However, that makes the distance to the 13%
return on capital target over the cycle that much greater, so we have
no time to lose," Karvinen continues."A reality for Stora Enso and the European forest products industry
is the worsening shortage of wood supply resulting from announced
higher Russian export duties, the increasing use of wood fibre as
biofuel, and the rising environmental pressures to limit the
procurement of wood raw material. As we have announced today, we have
agreed not to buy wood from Metsähallitus from disputed areas in
northern Finland for now, but there is no way we can produce pulp or
sawn goods without sufficient wood supply. Some production
curtailments are expected at Enocell Pulp Mill (part of Packaging
Boards) in the second quarter of 2007 due to shortage of raw
material. We are fast-tracking efforts to find alternative sources of
wood - in parallel with initiatives to solve the issues of Russian
duties and critical stakeholder dialogue will continue," Karvinen
concludes.

For further information, please contact:
Jukka Härmälä, CEO, tel. +358 2046 21404
Jouko Karvinen, CEO, tel. +358 2046 21404
Kari Vainio, EVP, Corporate Communications, tel. +44 7799 348 197
Keith Russell, SVP, Investor Relations, tel. +44 7775 788 659

www.storaenso.com
www.storaenso.com/investorsPhotos of Jouko Karvinen are available at
http://bmt.storaenso.com/storaensolink.jsp?imageid=070329
Please copy the link into your web browser.


STORA ENSO OYJ



p.p.                  Jussi Siitonen    Jukka Marttila