Location: HELSINKI, FINLAND

Sales: $1.3 billion


Description: ∫Key Personnel
Jan Lang, president and CEO; Risto Anttonen, deputy of the president and CEO, senior vice president, Advanced Nonwovens (interim); Jean-Marie Becker, senior vice president, home & personal nonwovens; Tomi Bjornman, senior vice president, filtration; Laura Raitio, vice president of glass and industrial nonwovens; Gustav Adlercreutz, senior vice president, legal affairs, general counsel; Diego Borello, senior vice president, purchasing and sustainability; Claudio Ermondi, senior vice president, Innovations & Technology; Seppo Parvi, chief financial officer; Rami Raulas, senior vice president, sales and marketing; Daniele Borlatto, senior vice president, release & label papers; Patrick Jeambar, senior vice president, Technical Papers

Processes
Needlepunch, resin bonded, spunlaced, nanofiber, spun melt/spunbond, wetlaid, wetlaid/Hydraspun, wetlaid/spunlace composite, composite nonwovens, wetlaid/Trinitex, SPC, Caustic Entanglement, film based composites, process enhancements,

Plant Locations
Alicante, Spain, Barcelona, Spain, Bethune, SC, Bishopville, Brignoud, France, Carbonate, Italy, Chirnside, U.K., Cressa, Italy, Green Bay, WI, Groesbeck, TX, Hyun Poong, Korea, Karhula, Finland, Louveira, Brazil, Madisonville, KY, Malmedy, Belgium, Mikkeli, Finland, Mozzate, Italy, Mt. Holly Springs, PA, Paulinia, Brazil, Sassoferrato, Italy, Stalldalen, Sweden, Tampere, Finland, Taylorville, Turin, Italy, Tver, Russia, Windsor Locks, CT, Wuxi, China

Major Markets
Wipes, filtration, industrial (Medical, Food Packaging, Wallcover, Building, Automotive)

Sales in Ahlstrom’s FiberComposites division increased 4.9% to reach $1.38 billion (€987.4 million) last year thanks to organic growth as well as the integration of acquired businesses. At the same time, operating profits decreased mainly due to low demand in the fourth quarter, overall weak performance in wipes and additional costs related to ramp-ups and the integration of acquisitions.

In 2008, the operating environment of the FiberComposites segment was characterized by the rapid change in the global economy. In the beginning of the year, demand for most of Ahlstrom’s nonwoven products was still strong, especially in high growth segments like the windmill industry. By the fourth quarter, demand decreased across all business areas, especially in filtration due to the global decline in the automotives and construction industries. Demand remained brisk in medical and food applications.

In response to these challenges, Ahlstrom announced in April 2009 it would initiate a further restructuring program with the aim of gaining annual cost reductions of €50 million with a full effect in 2010. When announced, it was reported that these measures could impact up to 400-500 employees globally and would extend throughout Ahlstrom’s global businesses.

Even before this, Ahlstrom was streamlining its business. In July 2008, the company divided its nonwovens division into two parts— Home & Personal Nonwovens, covering mainly Ahl strom’s wipes business—and Advanced Nonwovens, incorporating food, medical and industrial nonwovens. According to executives, the high rate of investment and subsequent growth of Ahlstrom’s wipes business, which included former Fiberweb, Green Bay Nonwovens and Orlandi spunlace businesses as well as capital investment in Connecticut and Brazil, had required a special focus on its resources. Most of the effort was put on maximizing efficiency of the global wipes manufacturing platform, adapting it to a slowing market growth and some overcapacity.

A first step toward this goal came in January when Ahlstrom announced it would restructure its Italian spunlace business in response to weakened demand for wipes. The measures, including the shutdown of its Gallarate plant as well as a single production line in Cressa Italy, affected 48 employees.

“The planned actions will consolidate Ahlstrom wipes manufacturing organization in Europe into fewer, more efficient sites. This will additionally allow focusing the organization even more on quality and service. We will not exit any market segment or discontinue products; we’ll continue serving customers as usual despite the restructuring actions,” said Marco Martinez, com muni cations director for Ahlstrom’s nonwovens business.

A second effort was announced in June, when Ahlstrom decided to shut down one of its spunlace lines in Bethune, SC and move the products previously made on the line to Green Bay, WI.

Despite the slowdown, sustainability remains a priority both in Ahlstrom’s wipes business and throughout its product lines.

“We see a growing interest for more sustainable products coming from consumers, end-users and converters. While all the players in the value-chain are getting more environmentally conscious, there is also an increasing number of specific regulations, which is pushing this process,” said Mr. Martinez who called sustainability in both its products and processes one of Ahlstrom’s key priorities.

This commitment is shown in Ahlstrom’s new line in Chirnside, Scotland, which enables the company to make environmentally sound products, for the infusion beverage as well as other markets, based on biodegradable and compostable materials.

"In some applications, certain environmental or sustainability requirements have become a market standard, even long before the recent sustainability hype,” Mr. Martinez said. “In some cases, combinations of environmental and performance benefits could enable end users or brand owners to differentiate, enter or create new premium market segments, gaining competitive advantage and getting economic benefits even if the material cost per unit was higher.”

Within medical and food nonwovens, demand continues to be strong for Ahlstrom which currently has two major growth investment projects in progress there. The new line in Chirnside, Scotland, based on spunmelt nonwovens, will primarily serve the growing infusion products market with next generation products used, for example, in tea bags. This unique production line is able to process renewable and compostable plant-based fibers. This has led to the launch of new, environmentally friendly premium tea bag material, which conforms to EN13432 norms for biodegradability and compostability.

A second, longer term investment project within Ahlstrom’s Advanced Nonwovens division is ongoing in India, where Ahlstrom is establishing a new medical nonwovens plant in the Mundra Special Economic Zone in Gujarat. Operations are estimated to start in the first quarter of 2010 and the new plant will make a full range of SMS fabrics for medical applications such as drapes, gowns, facemask and sterile barrier systems.

Another important industrial market for Ahlstrom is wall coverings, where the company sees a clear movement to higher end wall coverings led by an increased designer interest in home decoration. Additionally, growing market demand for sustainable substrates is driven by the number of eco-conscious manufacturers and consumers.

Recently launched EasyLife mid-tier nonwovens responds to these trends. Made from a mix of natural and synthetic fibers and complementingthe existing ranges of papers and EasyLife high-tier nonwovensubstrates, this product is suitable in applications as backings aswell as in facings for direct printing, the new materials will combinebenefits of paper and nonwoven substrates to deliver excellent printability,optimum design performance and efficient processability.

Also important to Ahlstrom is its filtration division, which hasalso been the subject of a great deal of investment in recent years.With a long history in the engine filtration market, where it oncesupplied mainly wetlaid nonwovens media, Ahlstrom decided a fewyears ago to expand it role into other filtration areas. What followedwas a string of investments starting with Hollinnee LLC, giving itaccess to the HVAC market, continued with Lantor, which addedneedlepunching capabilities, Fibermark’s absorbent materials businessand HRS Textiles to enhance its place in air filtration and endedwith Sassoferrato, Italy-based Fabriano Filter Media, a maker of microglassfilter medial, which gave Ahlstrom exposure to high efficiencyair filtration markets.

Ahlstrom has also made a number of capital investments in its filtrationbusiness, most recently two sister needlepunch lines, mainlyfor dust filtration, in Bethune, SC and Wuxi, China, to help roundout its newly acquired business. However, more recent attentionhas been paid to rationalizing and optimizing these assets. Recentefforts have included the closure of sites in Darlington, SC andBellingham, MA in early 2008. Lines from these sites were movedto Groesbeck, TX and Bethune, SC, respectively. A liquid filtrationconverting operation once located in Mt. Holly Springs, PA has alsomoved to Bethune.

According to Jerome Barrillon, vice president of sales, liquid filtration,filtration has been defensive against weakened economies.While the OEM segment of this business has suffered in the wake ofautomotive industry problems, success has been seen in the aftermarketbusiness as consumers are more careful about taking care ofexisting vehicles. The same can be said in Ahlstrom’s HVAC business,which was hurt by the recent construction slowdown but at the sametime has benefitted from consumer interest in protecting their assets.

New technology continues to also be important to Ahlstrom’s filtrationbusiness. This includes Ahlstrom’s Disruptor product—esignedspecifically for improving the quality of water throughparticulate filtration properties produced by both electro adsorptionand mechanical filtration. Improved taste and odor qualities areprovided through the addition of powdered activated carbon (PAC).