UPM Paper ENA Reorganizing Head Office Activities

UPM, Helsinki, Finland, reports that, with respect to its goal of simplifying its operating models and structures to address the competitive challenge in mature European business, UPM Paper ENA, which becomes effective on November 1, plans to reorganize its head office activities. The aim is to improve profitability by creating a leaner management structure. In this regard, UPM Paper ENA's head office will be relocated from Helsinki to Augsburg to be near the main markets and close to customers.

The planned changes will have an impact to the whole UPM Paper ENA's way of working. According to the plan, the new organization would be smaller than the current one and have less organizational layers. The new leaner management structure will improve agility and speed up the decision making process. The management will also have a strong operational focus, the company notes.

The employee consultation process in Finland will be started immediately, covering the current head office staff of UPM Paper Business Group. This employee consultation process does not cover Tampere Supply Center nor the mill organizations. The number of positions affected by the planned changes is 75. If this plan is realized, the above mentioned changes would have an impact on a maximum of 45 positions in Finland.

"These planned measures are regrettable to our personnel, however, necessary due to the weak profitability development during the first half of the year. With these changes, we hope to bring the UPM Paper ENA's profitability on the right track," says Bernd Eikens, EVP, UPM Paper ENA.

The company plans to begin the employee consultation process today, October 3, which will last approximately six weeks. Decisions on organizational changes will be implemented as soon as possible, latest at the end of the consultation process. Decisions on job reductions and support for impacted employees will be made when the consultation process has been completed.

UPM consists of three Business Groups: Energy and Pulp, Paper, and Engineered Materials (until October 31). The Group employs around 22,000 people. UPM's annual sales exceed EUR 10 billion.

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