Stora Enso Oyj - Company Announcement

Stora Enso rethinks business structure and organisation

Helsinki, Finland, 2013-04-23 11:59 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- STORA ENSO OYJ
STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE 23 April 2013 at 12.59 EET 

Stora Enso plans to launch a Group streamlining and structure simplification
project intended to achieve annual fixed cost savings of EUR 200 million,
including the earlier announced EUR 30 million in the Building and Living
Business Area, with the full impact starting from the second quarter of 2014.
The project is planned to include all Business Areas and corporate functions.
In addition to reducing costs, the planned project would reduce
interdependencies between businesses and enable a stronger focus on growth in
value creating businesses. 

“We plan to clearly and decisively further reduce our fixed costs to revenue
ratio not only to adjust to the decline in market demand, but also to clearly
add resilience against the cyclical and structural changes in our revenue. The
reality is that our European driven printed media markets have shrunk more than
20% since 2008, and there is no reason to believe that the structural change of
the past five years in Europe will slow down or change direction in the
foreseeable future,” says Stora Enso CEO Jouko Karvinen. 

It is planned to change from four Business Areas to three Divisions by
integrating the current Building and Living Business Area with the Printing and
Reading Business Area in a new Division mainly focusing on mature businesses
and geographies. The other two Divisions would be the existing Renewable
Packaging and Biomaterials Business Areas, which would remain as they are and
concentrate on growth markets and businesses, as well as innovation. 

It is planned that the Divisions and corporate functions would undergo
organisational streamlining. Further outsourcing alternatives in Group shared
services and sale of non-core assets will be considered. As far as possible, it
is planned to centralise functions in one location instead of several. 

“The planned project is vitally important in supporting our transformation
towards a value-creating renewable materials company focusing on growth
markets. We start the plans from a position of relative strength and with a
solid balance sheet and liquidity, thanks to our earlier actions. These plans,
combined with our financial strength, will give us flexibility and agility to
make future choices and achieve our strategy,” says Jouko Karvinen. 

The planned new Division combining the current Building and Living Business
Area with the Printing and Reading Business Area would be led by Karl-Henrik
Sundström, currently Chief Financial Officer of Stora Enso. The Company will
immediately begin the process of recruiting a new CFO. 

The leadership of the two other Divisions will remain as it is today, with Mats
Nordlander heading Renewable Packaging and Juan Bueno heading Biomaterials. 

The segment reporting will remain as before to give the markets continued
transparency. 

The plans announced concerning the Division structure would be in effect by 1
July 2013. All detailed plans are subject to the outcome of co-determination
negotiations. 


For further information, please contact:
Jouko Karvinen, CEO, tel. +358 2046 21410
Karl-Henrik Sundström, CFO, tel. +46 1046 71660
Lauri Peltola, EVP, Global Identity, tel. +358 2046 21380
Ulla Paajanen-Sainio, SVP, Investor Relations, tel. +358 2046 21242

www.storaenso.com
www.storaenso.com/investors


Stora Enso is the global rethinker of the paper, biomaterials, wood products
and packaging industry. We always rethink the old and expand to the new to
offer our customers innovative solutions based on renewable materials. Stora
Enso employs some 28 000 people worldwide, and our sales in 2012 amounted to
EUR 10.8 billion. Stora Enso shares are listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki (STEAV,
STERV) and Stockholm (STE A, STE R). In addition, the shares are traded in the
USA as ADRs (SEOAY) in the International OTCQX over-the-counter market. 

STORA ENSO OYJ