Stora Enso Group’s fine-paper unit plans to cut as many as 285 European jobs under a restructuring plan to begin this year.

Operations at the mill in Uetersen, Germany, will be modified to place more emphasis on specialty papers. The Nymölla mill in Sweden and Oulu mill in Finland also face revamping, as do sheeting plants in Belgium and the United Kingdom.

Mills that produce tobacco board are not affected by Stora Enso's restructuring plans which aim to reduce annual costs by about EUR 20 million and which will be completed by the second business quarter of next year.

“Fine paper demand is still clearly below pre-crisis levels, and there are no signs of sustained recovery,” said Hannu Alalauri, vice-president at Stora Enso’s fine paper business. “We are comparing the best practises at all our mills so we can continuously adopt the most efficient ways of working,” he said.

Redundancies will be spread among employees in Finland, Sweden, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom, Stora Enso said. A one-time cash provision of about EUR 16 million will be recorded in second-quarter financial results, the company said. (pi)