“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 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.