Nonwovens company Suominen is celebrating its 120-year history. Mr. Juho Wiktor Suominen (1877–1935) established a tannery workshop in Nakkila, Finland, on April 16, 1898. Today, one of Suominen Corporation’s eight production plants is located at the same site.

Juho W. Suominen’s company started out handcrafting leather for local shoemakers, but by 1908, thanks to increasing demand from the shoe industry in Finland, the company was already operating a factory-like tannery powered by a steam engine. Later, the weakening position of the shoe industry and new alternatives to leather entering the market forced the company to change its course, and in 1965 Suominen started manufacturing nonwoven products such as carpeting, wadding and single-use wipes, in addition to leather. Since then, Suominen Corporation has produced faux fur and plastic bags, among other things, but from 2014 onwards Suominen has been a purely nonwovens company. Today, Suominen’s nonwovens are used as raw material for wipes, sanitary napkins, swabs and many other products.

The Suominen family sold its stake in the company in 1984 and, since then, Suominen has been involved in many acquisitions and divestments of businesses. Suominen, as it is today, was born in 2011, when it acquired Ahlstrom Corporation’s Home and Personal wipes fabrics business area.