Tissue World Magazine | ExitIssues
GLOBAL TISSUE GIANT GEARS UP FOR A NEW ERA IN PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION Fundamental restructuring has been a feature of 2023 across various regional operations for Essity. Here, TWM talks to Matthew Urmanski, North American Vice President Sales & Marketing for Essity’s Professional Hygiene business, to get the latest on the company’s plans in North America.
T
he past six months have been a particularly strategically important period for Swedishheadquartered Essity. Key points to include: the “continued high sales growth and higher margins” reported in its half-year report; fully exiting its business from the Russian market; securing £2.2m from the UK government to trial the use of hydrogen power at its paper manufacturing plant in north-west England; announcing an ongoing strategic review of its ownership in Asian hygiene company Vinda, and its Consumer Tissue Private Label Europe division, with the aim of reducing Consumer Tissue’s share of the company’s total sales. In North America, Essity also announced it will be implementing restructuring measures in its Professional Hygiene division that include the closure of two production plants in New York state. Essity’s paper mill in South Glens Falls has now been closed, while its converting facility in Greenwich and its warehouse and distribution centre in Saratoga Springs will remain open likely through to the end of the year. Restructuring costs are estimated to amount to approximately SEK1.2bn, and the company said the measures are expected to have a low single-digit negative impact on volume in the second half of 2023 and full-year 2024. At the time of the announcement in July, the company confirm that it was continuing to improve
profitability by focusing production and sales on its “more innovative and value-creating customer offerings.” Now in October 2023, Matthew Urmanski, North American Vice President Sales & Marketing for Essity’s Professional Hygiene, explains to TWM that Essity’s tissue business in North America is “solely a professional hygiene business”, and with sales of $1.4bn in 2022 it represents about 40% of the company’s professional hygiene business globally. The business includes dispensing systems, paper towels, bath tissue, napkins, skin care, wipers, and the Tork Vision Cleaning IoT solution, which Urmanski says is a data-driven system that enables customers to identify when dispensers need to be refilled and areas needed to be cleaned. Tork, Essity’s professional hygiene brand, is the global leading professional hygiene brand and serves customers across the full spectrum of commercial and public environments such as offices, airports, stadiums, universities, manufacturing sites, health care facilities, restaurants and more. Urmanski adds that with Tork Xpressnap as “the market-leading napkin dispensing system in the US,” the market has “strongly responded to the introduction of the patented Tork PeakServe Continuous Hand Towel System, which delivers the highest capacity paper towel dispenser in the market.” With three dispenser formats (including for recessed) and two options on refills, he says it is a
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