Restructurings

Effective January 1, 2026, Essity's business areas will be as follows: Health & Medical, Personal Care, Consumer Tissue and Professional Hygiene. The new business areas reflect the organizational change being made to accelerate the company's growth rate and more rapidly achieve its financial targets.

In Finland, the process ended earlier, reducing 150 positions, as the company reported in November 2025. Negotiations in other countries have now concluded, resulting in 160 additional reductions. Altogether, the company will reduce 310 positions through the process.

Roseburg Forest Products announced that it has ceased operations at its Weed, Calif., veneer plant as of Dec. 3, 2025. The company is consolidating veneer production at its Oregon mills, where it has installed new, highly efficient veneer equipment. The move strengthens Roseburg's long-term competitiveness in engineered wood and softwood plywood markets.

UPM is a material solutions company with world-class businesses in growth markets. With the intended graphic paper Joint Venture between UPM and Sappi announced today, UPM aims to position the communication paper business for continued value creation for its customers in a way that benefits UPM shareholders. Assuming the Joint Venture is formed, UPM would achieve a stronger growth profile, improved margins and leverage, with no direct sales exposure to the declining European and North American graphic paper markets.

50 jobs have been lost after the closure of Saxon Packaging in Lowestoft, which was acquired by Smurfit Kappa (now Smurfit Westrock) in 2016.

International Paper has announced a proposal to close five sites in Germany, affecting approximately 500 roles, as part of its strategic review to enhance efficiency and respond to challenging market conditions.

New Senior Leadership Announced for EMEA/APAC and Americas.

Stora Enso is initiating a strategic review of its Central European sawmills and building solutions operations. The review, to be carried out in 2026, will cover one business unit of Wood Products business area, including seven sawmills in Austria, Czechia, Poland, and Lithuania, and further processing units with three cross-laminated-timber (CLT) mills, as well as wood procurement, and international sales and distribution operations. Whilst the business in scope has a strong position in an attractive market, it does not bring strategic or operational synergies for Stora Enso's core renewable packaging operations.

Essity is launching measures to create better conditions for profitable growth. Actions include an organizational change that decentralizes decision-making and strengthens end-to-end accountability for each product category, and a cost savings program that is expected to generate annual savings of approximately SEK 1bn with full effect by the end of 2026.

Mativ will close its Wilson facility by the end of 2025, affecting 50 employees according to a WARN notice. The first job separations are set to begin Dec. 1.

The planned actions will affect the entire organisation and result in 200 redundancies.

Lenzing plans to cut up to 600 jobs by the end of 2027 as part of a restructuring to streamline operations and increase efficiency.

Effective immediately, production will halt and operations at the company's Pilar, Argentina site will begin winding down. The company will continue to fulfill pre-existing commitments out of the site and ensure continuity for customers during this transition.

The change negotiations concern a total of slightly more than 2,000 employees. Possible measures could include redundancies and reorganisation of tasks and operations. The estimated need for reductions is up to 315 people, of which 155 are in Finland.

The reduction of personnel is 220.

The review is expected to be concluded by the end of 2026.

The plans would affect a maximum of 82 positions.

Kimberly-Clark is slated to cut 25% of its production capacity at its Cold Spring facility in Fox Crossing, reducing 16 lines to 12 effective January 2026, according to local union leaders.

Due to prolonged weak profitability and the uncertain market outlook, Metsä Group is to initiate the planning of a significant cost savings and profit improvement programme. The aim of the programme is to achieve annual cost savings of approximately EUR 300 million, which are expected to be implemented gradually from 2026.

Greif said it will permanently close its steel and polymer drum facility in Merced, Calif., as part of its previously announced optimization efforts.

Driven by structural overcapacity in the graphic paper markets and the need to ensure long-term competitiveness of its operations, UPM Communication Papers plans to end paper production at UPM Kaukas paper mill, Finland, reducing the annual production capacity of coated mechanical paper by 300,000 tonnes.

To ensure long-term viability, the proposed restructure includes the potential closure of Paper Machine 1, Paper Machine 4, Offline Coater 2, and Sheet Finishing.

Company to Exit Molded Fiber Business; Additional Facility Changes Planned

The idea would be to make two independent companies, which could focus more on their individual areas and be more streamlined. Stora Enso would continue as a renewable packaging provider.

As of 1 July 2025, Metsä Group's Executive Management Team will consist of the heads of each of the five business areas, the Group EVP, CFO, the EVP, Human Resources, and the EVP, Legal and Compliance..