PORTUCEL : Soporcel Group: a powerful presence at Paperworld 2012 Press-Release

Press Release - 9 January 2012

Own brands showcased at the world's largest paper industry trade fair Portucel Soporcel Group: a powerful presence at Paperworld 2012

• Group brands boost sales and extend market leadership

• Group now sells to 114 countries around the world

• Navigator, the world's leading brand in its segment, celebrates 20th birthday in 2012
The Portucel Soporcel group, Europe's leading manufacturer of uncoated woodfree printing and writing papers, will once again show its products at Paperworld, a global trade fair for the paper and office materials industry, held once more in the German city of Frankfurt, from 28 to 31 January.
This important event will offer the Group yet another opportunity to present itself as the leading company in the market and to showcase its successful policy of developing its own brands.

Own brands: market leaders

The Group will use the fair to present the latest products sold under its Pioneer, Navigator, Discovery, Inacopia, Explorer and Multioffice brands, all of them market leaders.
One of the products in the spotlight is Pioneer Fresh Inspiration 75 g/m², a lightweight paper product offering clear environmental benefits whilst maintaining all the quality credentials enjoyed by the brand in the eyes of its consumers. This product launch has consolidated the brand's commitment to the premium segment and is designed to satisfy consumers with a new attitude to natural resources. The marketing claim "Do more with less" reflects the Group's ground-breaking approach to paper with a lower grammage than the traditional 80 g/m2.

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In terms of results, the top performing brand is Navigator, the world's leading brand in its segment, now celebrating its 20th birthday. Navigator is currently sold in more than 90 countries and recorded growth of 5% in the first eleven months of 2011, in relation to the same period in the previous year.
With a fresh new image, the Discovery brand has consolidated its presence on the European market with growth of approximately 19% in the first eleven months of 2011. Growth at this level was also enjoyed by the Inacopia brand, now celebrating the 30th anniversary of its launch.

Explorer also achieved remarkable growth on the European market, with sales up by more than 53% in 2011 in relation to the previous year, thanks to the extension of the distribution network to central European countries.

Group increases share of European paper market

Despite difficult market conditions, the Group's brands have recorded excellent growth. The Group continued to place all its output on the market, allowing it to achieve an increase in the overall value of paper sales.
In the first eleven months of 2011, the mix of products sold performed well, with premium products accounting for 60% of sales in quantity in Europe. Growth of 13% over the period in the quantity of paper sales meant that the Portucel Soporcel group's mill brands accounted for 59% of all sales of cut-size products.

The Group has continued to extend its presence around the world, increasing the number of countries to which it regularly sells its products to a record total of 114 (November 2011). Thanks to this performance, the Group represented 48% of total UWF exports by European manufacturers and 62% of cut-size exports. In strategic markets, the Group achieved extremely high export shares, accounting on its own for 76% and 62% respectively of UWF exports from Europe to the USA and Africa.

Significantly, from January to September 2011, the Group accounted for 2.9% of Portugal's total visible exports, incorporating a high coefficient of national value added.
The Portucel Soporcel group operates in one of the backbone sectors of the Portuguese economy and enjoys a leading position in the international pulp and paper markets. As a vertically integrated forestry group, it owns Portugal's only forestry

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research institute dedicated to studying the eucalyptus species, leading the world in genetic improvement of Eucalyptus globulus. It is also Portugal's top producer of certified plants and its largest forestry operator, managing 120,000 hectares of certified woodlands. To cap all this, it is the leading European manufacturer of eucalyptus cellulose pulp, and the fourth largest in the world, the leading Portuguese producer of energy from biomass, the largest European manufacturer of office paper, and the sixth largest in the world, accounting for 9% of conventional and containerized export cargo handled at Portuguese ports and for a significant proportion of Portugal's visible exports.
www.portucelsoporcel.com

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