Suominen Oyj - Company Announcement

Review by the President & CEO of Suominen Corporation in the Annual General Meeting to be held today

Helsinki, Finland, 2016-03-16 09:00 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 
Suominen Corporation    Stock Exchange Release   16 March 2016 at 10:00 am (EET)

Review by the President & CEO of Suominen Corporation in the Annual General
Meeting to be held today 

The Annual General Meeting of Suominen Corporation will be held today in
Helsinki, starting at 10:00 am. In her review in the Annual General Meeting,
Ms. Nina Kopola, President & CEO of Suominen, will discuss the financial
development and the strategy implementation of Suominen in 2015 as well as the
demand during the first months of 2016. 

”As we stated in the Financial Statement Release published on 29 January 2016,
some customers postponed their orders in the last quarter of 2015 until after
the turn of the year. Even though we have received these postponed orders, the
demand has not been at last year’s level during the first months of the year.
We anticipate the change in demand to be temporary, deriving from the new
manufacturing capacity just recently launched in Europe and North America,
which are our main market areas”, Nina Kopola says in her review. 

In longer term, the demand forecasts for nonwovens have not changed. Suominen
continues to anticipate its target markets to grow annually by some 2–9%,
depending on the product segment and geographical region. In addition,
Suominen’s outlook statement regarding its net sales and operating profit
development in 2016, disclosed on 29 January 2016, remains unchanged. Suominen
expects that for the full year 2016, its net sales and operating profit
excluding non-recurring items will improve from year 2015. 

In 2015, Suominen implemented its strategy and focused particularly on
advancing its 60 million euro growth investment program and on enhancing its
product development. 

”At our plants in Alicante and Paulínia, we modernized the existing
manufacturing capacity in order to increase the share of products with higher
added value, such as medical nonwovens, in the offering of both plants. The
investment at Alicante plant is currently in ramp up phase, and in Paulínia we
already supply the new products. Moreover, the largest initiative in our growth
investment program, the new production line at our Bethune, SC plant, is
progressing as planned and on schedule. Based on the concept products of the
new line, we are currently negotiating with both customers and raw material
suppliers. We repeat our earlier estimate and state that the installation of
the new line is expected to be completed during the second half of 2016. 

The relevant new content of the review by the President & CEO has been
presented in this release. The presentation material related to the review will
be available at www.suominen.fi after the Annual General Meeting. 

Suominen Corporation
Nina Kopola, President & CEO

Suominen in brief

Suominen manufactures nonwovens as roll goods for wipes as well as for medical
and hygiene products. The end products made of Suominen’s nonwovens – wet
wipes, feminine care products and swabs, for instance – bring added value to
the daily life of consumers worldwide. Suominen is the global market leader in
nonwovens for wipes and employs over 600 people in Europe and in the Americas.
Suominen’s net sales in 2015 amounted to EUR 444.0 million and operating profit
excluding non-recurring items to EUR 31.2 million. The Suominen share (SUY1V)
is listed in Nasdaq Helsinki Stock Exchange (Mid Cap). Read more at
www.suominen.fi. 

Distribution:
Nasdaq Helsinki
Main media
www.suominen.fi