• Home
• Newsroom
• The location of the planned new wetlaid line decided – Suominen prepares an investment in its Bethune plant in the United States

The location of the planned new wetlaid line decided – Suominen prepares an investment in its Bethune plant in the United States

Helsinki, Finland, 2015-04-09 15:00 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Suominen Corporation   Press Release   9 April 2015 at 16:00 EEST

THE LOCATION OF THE PLANNED NEW WETLAID LINE DECIDED – SUOMINEN PREPARES AN INVESTMENT IN ITS BETHUNE PLANT IN THE UNITED STATES

Suominen, a globally leading supplier of nonwovens, announced in January that it has started a planning process to execute an investment in a new wetlaid production line in North America. Suominen has now decided that, if the planning process proceeds as expected, the location of the planned manufacturing line would be Suominen’s existing plant in Bethune, South Carolina, USA.

As announced in January, the planned investment constitutes the most significant single initiative in Suominen’s 30–50 million Euro investment program and supports Suominen’s growth target for the strategic period of 2015–2017.

“The planned manufacturing line would contribute essentially for the execution of Suominen’s growth strategy. Through successful strategy execution, as we have announced, Suominen would become a company with a net sales of roughly EUR 500 million by the end of 2017. Besides, the investment would support our target to further increase the share of products with higher value-added in our portfolio,” Saara Söderberg, Vice President, Marketing & Product Management and the Project Manager of the investment initiative, says.

“We selected the Bethune, SC plant as the platform for this potential investment for several strategic and financial reasons.  Bethune is ideally located in the Carolinas, the nonwovens hub of North America, and is favorably located from a logistical standpoint of serving our customers and managing our raw materials.  Moreover, the Bethune plant already has ongoing operations, a very talented staff, and has considerable infrastructure already in place for the expansion,” according to Larry L. Kinn, Senior Vice President, Operations Americas. 

Suominen continues to prepare the investment project, with finalization of the decision still pending. Therefore Suominen cannot yet comment the total value of the investment.

For further information, please contact:

Saara Söderberg, Vice President, Marketing & Product Management and the Project Manager of the investment initiative, tel. +358 (0)10 214 5223  (timezone GMT+2)
Larry L. Kinn, Senior Vice President, Operations Americas, tel. +1 860 292 4314
(timezone GMT -5)


Suominen in brief

Suominen manufactures nonwovens as roll goods for wipes as well as for medical and hygiene products. The end products made of Suominen’s nonwovens – wet wipes, feminine care products and swabs, for instance - bring added value to the daily life of consumers worldwide. Suominen is the global market leader in nonwovens for wipes and employs approximately 600 people in Europe and in the Americas. Suominen’s net sales in 2014 amounted to MEUR 401.8 and operating profit excluding non-recurring items to MEUR 26.9 (continuing operations). The Suominen share (SUY1V) is listed in NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Stock Exchange. Read more at www.suominen.fi.