UPM President & CEO, Jussi Pesonen, opened a new extension of the UPM Research Center in Lappeenranta today. UPM renewed the Research and Development strategy and centralized its global paper industry research and development in Lappeenranta last year.
"We wanted to establish a high grade center where R&D work is driven by the interests of customers and where researchers are encouraged to co-operate and network across traditional borderlines with others, noted Jussi Pesonen at the opening ceremony.
Mr Pesonen hopes that research institutes in the public sector would consider the benefits of centralization. "The tendency has been to establish research centers in many different locations in Finland. However, I think that in such a small country we cannot afford to divide our resources in several locations. High level scientific work would better be facilitated agreeing on the roles of the universities and establishing specialized research units, emphasized Mr Pesonen.
UPM Research Center focuses on investigating fibers, paper, coating, printing, the environment and developing the efficiency of production lines. Mr Pesonen noted that the success of the Finnish paper industry is based on innovations and offering new solutions to clients that increase cost effectiveness and quality.
Some 140 researchers will work in the UPM Research Center. After the enlargement there are 7200 square meters in the building including office and meeting rooms and a printing laboratory. UPM uses 50 million euros for Research and Development each year that is approximately 0.5% of turnover. In addition to UPM Research Center in Lappeenranta, there are research units in Germany and North America. UPM Wood Product Division has a R&D Center in Lahti.
For further information please contact:
R&D Vice President, Pekka Hurskainen, UPM, tel. +358 204 15 4261
UPM
Corporate Communications
June 17, 2005
