In the fourth quarter, Suominen’s net sales increased by 4% from the comparison period to €115.6 million ($130.6 million). Sales volumes decreased from the comparison period but increased from Q3/2021 while sales prices increased following the higher raw material prices. Currencies impacted net sales positively by €2.7 million ($3 million).

Net sales of the Americas business area amounted to €68.9 million ($77.8 million) and net sales of the Europe business area €46.7 million ($52.7 million).
  
In financial year 2021, Suominen’s net sales decreased by 3% from the comparison period to €443.2 million ($500.6 million). Sales volumes decreased while sales prices increased following the higher raw material prices. Currencies impacted net sales negatively by €11.1 million ($12.5 million).

Net sales of Americas business area were €265.2 million ($299.5 million) and net sales of Europe business area €178.1 million ($201.1 million).

“The second year of the Covid-19 pandemic was for Suominen twofold. In the first half of the year Suominen’s sales volumes and results continued on the record levels of 2020. Suddenly in the third quarter the volumes dropped temporarily due to overstocking in the supply chain followed by partial recovery in the fourth quarter,” says Petri Helsky, president and CEO, Suominen.

Suominen continued executing its strategy published in 2020. During 2021 the company completed three investment projects. Two of them were in Italy, one to increase the capacity by restarting a line and another to increase its capabilities in sustainable nonwovens, Helsky says. The third project was in the U.S. to increase Suominen’s capabilities to offer new innovative products.

“The cornerstone of our strategy is sustainability, and we are continuously developing our offering and operations accordingly,” he says. “We are targeting to increase the sales of sustainable products by 50% compared to the base year of 2019 and launch 10 sustainable products per year. In 2021, the sales of sustainable products were 47% higher than in the baseline year 2019 and during the year we launched 16 sustainable products. In our operations we want to use resources efficiently and to operate with the smallest possible impact on the environment. We have concrete reduction targets for our greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, water consumption and waste to landfill and we progressed steadily towards these targets in 2021. For example, as part of our work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we made the decision to shift entirely to fossil-free electricity in all our European sites.”
Looking at the year ahead the company sees challenges, especially in the coming months. “Certain major customers still struggle with their inventory levels,” Helsky says. “Combined with the recent surge of Covid-19 cases which impacts both our and our customers’ operations, the near-term demand picture seems very volatile. We also continue to have a lag between the rising raw material, energy and logistics costs and our sales prices. We expect the demand for our products to stabilize starting from the second quarter of the year as the end consumer demand is expected to remain above pre-pandemic levels.”