The global Covid-19 pandemic continues to cause uncertainty in Valmet’s operating environment. This has impacted especially the workload in the services business, which is done close to customers.
During the year, Valmet has strived to balance the workload of the services employees by moving employees to other parts of the company, reducing new recruitments, and by utilizing vacations. Also, temporary lay-offs have already been realized earlier this year.
Due to financial and production-related reasons, especially because of the decreasing workload, the company starts co-determination negotiations for temporary lay-offs in Finland on November 24, 2020. The employees under negotiations are Services business line’s employees in Finland and the employees of the EMEA area organization in Finland. The lay-offs are going to be temporary, and they are estimated to last up to 90 days at maximum.
At this point, it is estimated that the need for temporary lay-offs concerns around 360 employees. The targeting of the lay-offs and the number of impacted employees will be finalized during the co-determination negotiations.
Valmet employs about 5,200 people in Finland, of which about 1,680 employees in services business line and EMEA area organization.
Valmet is a global developer and supplier of process technologies, automation, and services for the pulp, paper, and energy industries. Its strong technology offering includes pulp mills, tissue, board, and paper production lines, as well as power plants for bioenergy production. Its advanced services and automation solutions improve the reliability and performance of our customers’ processes and enhance the effective utilization of raw materials and energy.
Valmet’s net sales in 2019 were approximately EUR 3.5 billion (approximately Rs 30,848 crore). Its head office is in Espoo, Finland, and its shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
