shape
A mAgAzine from sca on trends, mArkets And business nº 2 2009
colombia loves its
local shops
voices from the
shAreholder meeting
Blood and urine
Why different liquids require
different protection
three analysts talk
sca's strategy
hurrayeveryday
for the
smAll pAckAges
A green choice
Design guru
at home with four families
meet thomAs mAyerhoffer
thumbs up for sCa's report ★ green jobs with forest handling
Contents Nº 2 2009
Leonie and Robert live
with their three children in an
attractive old apartment
in Bonn. If they could make a
wish, they would like
their own Mary Poppins.
6
we do a spontaneous bop
in the kitchen to
old funk, that’s how
we spice
things up.
16
04 Shape up
Did you know that bacteria love the kitchen sink
and that sustainable forestry can generate 10 million ”green jobs”? Read the Shape up pages.
06 Shape cover
Whether you live in Shanghai, Moscow, Pittsburgh
or Bonn – life is mostly about the everyday. Shape
talks to four ordinary families in different parts of
the world about their daily lives.
16 trend
Small packages are often better for the environment since they mean less wasted food.
20 profile
20
When designing high-tech products, Thomas
Meyerhoffer has earned his reputation by breaking
the norms. Now his tissue dispenser for SCA has
been recognized with several prestigeous awards.
23 technology
Why are there different products for incontinence
and sanitary protection? Shape untangles the differences between blood and urine.
26 Sca inSide
30
Three analysts comment on the SCA strategy and
the future. Read also how SCA forests will end up
in Swedish households when the company seals a
deal with Ikea.
30 outlook
In Colombia, everyday life circles around local
shops called las tiendas. To get a piece of this attractive market, SCA looks for a local partner.
23
SCA Shape is a magazine from SCA, primarily geared toward share­
holders and analysts, but also for journalists, opinion leaders and oth­
ers interested in SCA’s business and development. Shape is published
four times per year. The next issue is due in September 2009.
Address SCA, Corporate Communications, Box 7827, 103 97
Stockholm Telephone +46 8 788 5100 Fax +46 8 678 8130
34 economy
First quarter results were lower than for the same
period last year but still better than analysts had
forecast.
Publisher Bodil Eriksson Managing editor Anna Selberg
Editorial Anna Selberg, SCA, and Göran Lind, Anna Gullers,
Appelberg Design Tone Knibestöl, Appelberg
Printer Sörmlands Grafiska AB, Katrineholm
Cover photo ISTOCKPHOTO
SCA Shape is published in Swedish and English. The contents are printed on GraphoCote 80 gram from SCA Forest Products. Reproduction only by
permission of SCA Corporate Communications. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors or persons interviewed and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the editors or SCA. You can subscribe to SCA Shape or read it as a pdf at www.sca.com.
[ 2 *2009] Shape SCA *3
shape up
d
vErE
O
C
E
.
lb
I WIl d grass hE
a
h
g
n
mT
sa
han
Of s ITh TrEE lans frO T In
W
En
sP
ITIOU gOvErnmEE-yEar
b
m
a
r
l
IOn
lOCa InEsE ThPrOTECT
h
l
ThE C nmEnTa lan.
O
n
r
O P
EnvI
aCTI sOUrCE: Er.sE
bacteria
bra
n sCh
nyh
ET
weakened paper
consumption 2008
Overall paper consumption in Europe decreased by
more than 2 percent during 2008, when compared to
2007, according to preliminary statistics from the
European confederation of paper indutry, CEPI.
Within the EU, industrial production and retail sales
began declining in the first and second quarters of
2008 and industrial and consumer confidence continued to suffer throughout last year.
Paper and board production in Europe decreased
by 100 million tonnes, which represents a fall in the region of around 4 percent over 2007. This is a reflection
of the weakening of the global economy which caused down-time and
closures in most parts of the industry over 2008 and particularly during the final months of
the year,
the CEPI
reports.
photo :IStoCkphoto
E,
s’ TIm
r
a
E
Oy
n
In TW OrE Tha
m
Sinks are hot spots for
Bacteria love sinks. Almost half of all American kitchen sinks
– 46 percent – harbor high levels of bacteria. The kitchen sink has
more germs than either the bathroom sink or the refrigerator door
handle, according to a study from the Hygiene Council that was
sponsored by Lysol. The bacteria found included E. coli, which can
cause urinary tract infections, pneumonia and diarrhea.
It’s easy to forget to clean and disinfect the sink after washing
fruits and vegetables that might contain illness-causing bacteria, a
precaution that can avoid cross-contamination of kitchen surfaces.
The same study found that nearly 90 percent of kitchen cloths
and sponges examined globally had high levels of disease-causing
bacteria. Even cloths and sponges that appeared to be clean or new
failed the test. Four-fifths of salmonella cases are acquired at home
through cross-contamination, not in restaurants.
Fewer business
transactions in 2008
The value of business transactions in the forestry, paper and packaging sector fell a full 23
percent to 21.3 billion dollars in 2008 compared
to 2007. This was revealed in a new report from
PricewaterhouseCoopers, which also predicts that
continued uncertainty in the financial markets, the
economic downturn and lower global demand will
result in a record-low level of transactions (mergers and acquisitions) in 2009.
The largest deal last year was International Paper’s purchase of Weyerhaeuser’s packaging and
recycling production for 6 billion dollars.
TOTal valUE Of TransaCTIOns
WIThIn PaPEr- and PaCkagIng
11,4
2003
18,5
2004
21,0
photo: IStoCkphoto
2005
25,7
2006
27,6
2007
21,3
2008
0
4*SCA shape [ 2 *2009]
6
12
18
24
30 Billion dollar
photo: AlexAnDer pIhl
Around 37,000 EU hospital
patients die each year from healthcare-acquired infections. up to
30 percent of these infections are
considered to be preventable
by intensive hygiene and
control programs.
SourCe: europeAn CleAnIng JournAl; fIgureS from the europeAn Centre
for DISeASe preventIon AnD Control
Investments in sustainable
forest management can mean
10 million new “green” jobs.
That’s the view of the UN’s
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The world’s trees and forests
are important for absorbing
carbon dioxide, and investments in sustainable forest
management are key to the task
of mitigating climate change.
“Investments in sustainable
forest management could be a
way to create millions of green
jobs and as a result both reduce
poverty and improve the environment,” says Jan Heino, assistant general-director of the
FAO’s Forestry Department.
In several countries, including the US and South Korea,
investments in the forestry sector are already included in their
economic stimulus packages.
Planting and restoring forests
are an important part of India’s
rural job guarantee program.
More planted forests and
better forest management
would also curb extensive deforestation, which is a problem
in many parts of the world.
That would reduce carbon
dioxide emissions and potentially have a greater positive
impact on climate change than
any initiative proposed or considered so far by world leaders,
the FAO says.
[ 2 *2009] SHAPE SCA *5
photo: IStoCkphoto
SuStAinAblE
forESt mAnAgEmEnt
giving grEEn jobS
SHAPE covEr
cHinA
Long live
Yue, Lin and Yue look forward to the
weekends when they go together to one of
Shanghai’s parks to play and relax.
mEdiAn HouSEHold incomE PEr montH:
RMB 2333 (about US$ 342)
AvErAgE numbEr of cHildrEn: 1.6
lifE ExPEctAncy: 73 years
AvErAgE AgE At wHicH cHildrEn StoP uSing
diAPErS: 2-3 years (many use “open crotch pants)
wHo tAkES cArE of tHE cHildrEn: parents &
grandparents
rEStAurAnt viSitS/PErSon/montH: 6 visit/
week (downtown residents)
HAvE A dAily nEwSPAPEr: 7% (but a newspaper
can circulate around many people)
ProPortion of PAPEr rEcyclEd: About 35%
(2006), increasing
AvErAgE kilogrAmS of toilEt PAPEr uSEd
PEr PErSon/yEAr: 1.6 kilogram
moSt common cAr brAnd: Volkswagen Jetta
HAvE comPutErS At HomE: 10-15%
clEAn At lEASt two timES A wEEk: 64%
bEliEvE conSidErAtion for tHE EnvironmEnt
iS imPortAnt/ExtrEmEly imPortAnt: 56%
EvErydAy lifE!
HouSEHold incomE PEr montH: $5,863
AvErAgE numbEr of cHildrEn: 2.1
lifE ExPEctAncy: 77 years
AvErAgE AgE At wHicH cHildrEn StoP
uSing diAPErS: 3 –4 years
wHo tAkES cArE of tHE cHildrEn: 52%
by parents or other family members, 38%
day care facility
rEStAurAnt viSitS/PErSon/montH:
0.9 visits
HAvE A dAily nEwSPAPEr: 41%
ProPortion of PAPEr rEcyclEd: 55%
moSt common cAr brAnd: Ford
HAvE comPutErS At HomE: 75%
clEAn At lEASt two timES A wEEk:
46%
The Smails in Pittsburgh, US, let the concerns about
bEliEvE conSidErAtion for tHE Enclimate change and consumption reflect in their
vironmEnt iS imPortAnt/ExtrEmEly
lifestyle.
imPortAnt: 37%
6*SCA SHAPE [ 2 *2009]
uSA
ruSSiA
The Perovas in Moscow spend their savings on
holidays abroad.
MEdiAn HouSEHold incoME PEr MontH:
15 280 rubel/month (about US$ 472)
AvErAgE nuMbEr of cHildrEn: 1.41
lifE ExPEctAncy: 67.5
AvErAgE AgE At wHicH cHildrEn StoP
uSing diAPErS: 1.5-3.5 years
wHo tAkES cArE of tHE cHildrEn: 95%
mothers
rEStAurAnt viSitS/PErSon/MontH: 52%
of Russians go to the restaurant once a month
or less
HAvE A dAily nEwSPAPEr: 18%
AvErAgE kilogrAMS of toilEt PAPEr
uSEd PEr PErSon/yEAr: 1.7kg
MoSt coMMon cAr brAnd: Russian VAZ
(LADA brand)
HAvE coMPutErS At HoME: 11%
clEAn At lEASt two tiMES A wEEk: 45%
bEliEvE conSidErAtion for tHE EnvironMEnt iS iMPortAnt/ExtrEMEly
iMPortAnt: 17%
I dag besväras var tionde person av inkontinens.
Och i takt med att allt fler människor lever längre kommer
antalet öka. Det finns flera effektiva behandlingar
och hjälpmedel – men trots det är det fortfarande
många som inte söker hjälp.
Regardless of where in the world we live, we all have one thing in common: everyday life. For human
beings, just dealing with the day-to-day is where the action is. So in a nod to the importance of our
not-so-ordinary daily lives, Shape met with four families to see how they deal with the commonplace:
Who picks up the kids? How is the garbage handled? Where do they shop for food? And how do they
add spice to their lives? Maybe with a spontaneous dance in the kitchen…
MEdiAn HouSEHold incoME/MontH: approx. 2,916 euro (about US$ 3,966)
AvErAgE nuMbEr of cHildrEn: 1.37
lifE ExPEctAncy: 77.5
AvErAgE AgE At wHicH cHildrEn StoP
uSing diAPErS: 3 years
wHo tAkES cArE of tHE cHildrEn: mostly
the mothers
rEStAurAnt viSitS/PErSon/yEAr: Not
regularly/from time to time
HAvE A dAily nEwSPAPEr: 61%
ProPortion of PAPEr rEcyclEd: 44%
AvErAgE kilogrAMS of toilEt PAPEr uSEd
PEr PErSon/yEAr: 10 kg
MoSt coMMon MAkE of cAr: Volkswagen
HAvE coMPutErS At HoME: 2/3 of population
clEAn At lEASt two tiMES A wEEk: 36%
bEliEvE conSidErAtion for tHE EnvironMEnt iS iMPortAnt/ExtrEMEly iMPortAnt:
35%
gErMAny
The Hellemanns in Bonn, don’t have much
spare time, but know how to spice up an ordinary Tuesday night.
[ 2 *2009] SHAPE SCA *7
germany
shape cover
The Hellemanns
Health, and a little
bit of sustainability
text: michael lawton PHoto: thomas müller
i
t’s cake baking time in the
roomy old kitchen in the
stylish old apartment of the
Hellemann family in Bonn,
Germany. Greta, 5, is cutting up apples; Lotta, 3, is plastering the sides of
a baking tin with lots of butter; and
Fanny, 1, is sitting on the big kitchen
table. Their mother Leonie, 37, is do-
8*SCA shape [ 2 *2009]
ing everything else needed for apple
cake. But today is a bit special: Robert, 42, has a rare day off, so he’s home
for a change. He’s carefully blowing
eggs out of their shells, so that the
shells can be used for the kindergarten’s Easter celebrations.
“I usually leave home at 7 and don’t
get back until 6:30 or 9:30, so I don’t see
much of the housework or the cooking,”
Robert says.
Leonie adds, “But we have a rule that
whoever cooks doesn’t clean up the
kitchen, so Robert does that.”
“We’re typically German in that
way,” he says. “The man is responsible
for the trash and the cellar.” “And we
produce a lot of rubbish,” Leonie says.
“We drown in packaging.” That’s because they buy so much through online
(“almost everything except groceries
– I would feel amputated without my
wireless LAN,” Leonie says) and also
because they go supermarket shopping
once a week.
“When I was younger I would sit
around on a Saturday morning and read
the paper, then go out to the market and
buy things at leisure,” Leonie says. “But
now that I have three children, I go to an
organic supermarket and get everything
at once.”
“I often do the shopping on a Saturday evening,” Robert says.
“Unless I’ve already done it on Friday
morning, when I’m being a good housewife,” Leonie adds quickly.
Leonie cooks her meaLs from
scratch – you won’t find ready-made
dishes in her kitchen. There’s meat only
about twice a month, fish more often, but
mostly it’s a rather Mediterranean diet
based on vegetables.
“Tomatoes, zucchini, pasta and risotto
are staples throughout the year,” Leonie
says. “But because we buy organic, the
rest tends to be regional and seasonal.”
The children eat what the adults eat,
although she’s finding that since the
older two go to kindergarten they are
getting fussier. “So sometimes we have
spinach with fish fingers or some other
typical children’s food,” she says.
Cooking is obviously important in the
Hellemann household, and the children
are well trained. “Greta has cooked on
her own for all of us,” Leonie says. “She
made salad and scrambled eggs, and she
was very proud.”
Both parents are busy people. Robert works long days as a cardiologist in
private practice. While Leonie is in her
sixth year of maternity leave from her job
as an advertising copywriter, the family
and the household are still a full-time occupation. But she recently started knitting clothes and soft toys for a luxury
children’s label (“Goldspatz by Mizipaprika” – “Golden Sparrow by Pussy-Pepper”) that she started with a friend.
“The advantage of that is that you can
talk while knitting,” says Robert.
Otherwise they don’t have much
spare time. They watch very little television, just the news or an occasional
documentary. Leonie describes her leisure activities as “cooking, eating, reading and doing as little as possible.” They
get a newspaper at the weekend and a
weekly news magazine.
The heLLemanns see themselves
as a bit like the LOHAS demographic
(Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability), but “more on the health than the
sustainability,” Robert says. Leonie
does yoga and they eat well, but they
leave the computer turned on and they
don’t like the light given off by energysaving bulbs.
“We’re not typical Germans, neither
in our jobs nor our lifestyle,” Leonie
says. “Perhaps we’re typical of a certain
kind of German family, with university
degrees and two careers, living in a stylish old building.”
We’re not typical
Germans, neither
in our jobs nor our
lifestyle.
THE HEllEmAnnS
PArEnTS: Leonie, 37; Robert, 42
CHildrEn: Greta, 5; Lotta, 3;
Fanny, 1
livE: In an apartment in a grand
old townhouse in Bonn, Germany.
Work: Robert is a cardiologist,
Leonie is an advertising copywriter.
HoW do you SPiCE uP your
EvErdAy lifE?
- With a spontaneous bop in the
kitchen to old funk (the children
look a bit puzzled, but they join in)
WHAT Would fACiliTATE your
EvErydAy lifE THE moST?
- Mary Poppins – um, no, a kitchen
roll from which you could tear off a
sheet with one hand - either that or
eight extra hours a week, which you
could add to any day you needed
them.
[ 2 *2009] SHAPE SCA *9
china
shape cover
Yue, Lin and Yue
Recycling with
garbage collectors
text: jan hökerberg PHoto: gao erqiang
Yue Jiahao spends his days driving the
streets of Shanghai as a chauffeur for a
Japanese company.
“I’ve been driving cars for a living for a
long time, so I’ve seen a lot of changes in
the city,” he says. For one thing, there are a
lot more cars on the road. In 1999 Shanghai had only some 20,000 private cars.
By 2007 that number had grown to more
than half a million.
Living standards of both urban and
rural households in China continue to
rise, but there is still a big disparity between the cities and the countryside.
Yue is married to Lin Xiuyu and they
have a 9-year old son, Ziyan, who attends third grade in primary school.
Lin, who works as a secretary in the city,
takes Ziyan to school in the mornings
and picks him up in the afternoons.
Like many other urban middle-class
Chinese, the couple have bought their
own apartment, in a central location
near the busy Huaihai Road.
“We decided to get some extra income by renting it out since there is big
demand in Shanghai for rentals, especially from expatriates working for
foreign companies,” Yue says. They
moved into a less expensive rented flat
where they plan to live for the next
several years.
Many affluent urban Chinese families employ an ayi, or domestic helper,
to look after their child (because of China’s family policy, most couples have
only one child), cook their meals and
clean the house. But Yue and Lin handle the domestic chores themselves.
“My wife cooks on the weekdays and
I normally cook at the weekends,” Yue
says. “She also does most of the shopping, but occasionally I also do that.”
When Lin buys meat she usually
goes to the supermarket. “But for vegetables and fruits I definitely prefer the
traditional markets, since they have
more fresh items,” she says.
Yue and Lin are not fond of readymade food and prefer to cook their
own meals from scratch.
The Chinese goveRnmenT promotes recycling, but the country so far
lacks a sophisticated system for collecting household garbage.
“We try to separate glass, plastic
bottles and cardboard from the other
garbage, and then our son sells them to
different garbage collectors,” Yue says.
The Yue family members are happy
with their lives, and they all look forward to weekends when both parents
are off work.
“I drive the family to one of Shanghai’s parks where we can relax and have
fun together,” Yue says.
The Yue familY
husband: Yue Jiahao, 53,
chauffeur.
Wife: Lin Xiuyu, 39, secretary.
son: Yue Ziyan, 9.
live: in Shanghai’s
Luwan District.
WhaT Would improve or
faciliTaTe our everYdaY life:
Nothing in particular.
small joYs in life: Weekends in
the park with the family.
10*SCA shape [ 2 *2009]
Jetzt gibt es Tempo auch
als Toilettenpapier.
Advertisement for the brand Tempo says that it is available as toilet paper at last.
www.tempo-toilettenpapier.de
neu
usa
shape cover
The Smails
Health crisis
changed lifestyle
text: geof becker PHoto: gene j puskar
w
hen Howard Smail
was diagnosed with
an inner ear problem
that affected his balance, he could no longer work or drive.
As with many families, the health crisis
forced the Smails of Pittsburgh to make
dramatic changes in their lifestyle.
Even as Howard, 66, his wife Connie,
49, and their 13-year-old son Matt adjusted to Howard’s disability, they saw
the changes in a broader context, a response to concerns about climate change
and consumption and a welcome return
to more traditional values.
“My parents grew up in the Depression, and my mom reused everything,”
says Connie, a communications and
media consultant. “It’s not that she was
cheap – she’d just say ‘waste not, want
not.’ I’m finding myself doing the same
thing now.”
Her family HaS become champion
recyclers. Instead of throwing away plastic food storage bags, Connie washes and
reuses them. Rather than buying wicker
baskets for shelves, she decorated cardboard boxes in old gift-wrapping paper.
“Our son gets so much paper from
school announcements, I now rip up all
that paper into little sheets and use them
for shopping and reminder lists. I’ll never buy paper again, and there’s a lot less
paper in my garbage,” Connie says.
PittSburgH , a city of about 300,000,
makes recycling easy. Residents mix
glass, metals and plastics together in one
blue plastic bag and recycle most paper
in another, including advertising slicks
and old phone books. They place the
bags at the curb for twice-monthly pickup. Residents can also use containers if
they wish. The Smails don’t compost,
but Pittsburgh offers free classes for residents who want to get started.
Howard’s disability presents chal12*SCA shape [ 2 *2009]
My parents grew up
in the Depression, and
my mom reused
everything. It’s not
that she was cheap
– she’d just say ‘waste
not, want not.
lenges for an active family, especially
with a 13-year-old who plays soccer,
basketball and volleyball, but friends
and family help out, picking up Matt after practice several days a week. At the
same time, Howard helps at home with
chores and cooking. In fact, preparing
food has become a family focus.
Meals start with carefully planned
shopping. Connie stops at several stores,
several times a week, guided by coupons
and specials, and making substitutions
for cost and diet. Howard is diabetic
and she watches fat intake. They cook
together Sunday nights, preparing meals
for the entire week.
“We’re always trying out new things,
but you have to make tradeoffs with the
economy being so tight. Do I use tomato
paste or tomato sauce? One may be more
cost-effective because it has more spices.
It’s like planning a project at work. I go
to several stores to be economical, but I
also plan each trip so I don’t throw away
money on gasoline.”
The SmailS have cut back on vacations
while increasing at-home activities like
their meals, as well as reading, walks and
backyard basketball. Matt plays video
games. For entertainment and news they
watch TV, surf the Web and read the local
newspapers. Connie believes her family’s
decision to live smarter and more simply
reflects broader trends in her community
and the nation to reduce unnecessary
consumption.
Yet the Subaru-driving mom still
sees things that bemuse her.
“I was watching this guy in a gasguzzling SUV the other day, and he
had this huge box of doughnuts on
the dashboard and I’m in my little car
drinking a cup of tea I brought from
home. And I thought, ‘I’m really living a different life from him.’”
THE SmAilS
mom: Connie Smail, 49, communications/media consultant
DAD: Howard Smail, 66, retired
CHilD: Matt, 13, student
livE: Live in Pittsburgh, home
to about 300,000 people in the
southwestern part of Pennsylvania
in the US Midwest.
How Do you SPiCE uP your
EvEry DAy lifE?
When we spent more for recreation
and leisure, our definition of ”spicing things up” involved dinners,
movies, and sports activities - playing golf, bowling, for example, or
going to professional games
Now, we’ve come to enjoy family
nights at home where we make it an
”event” to all sit in the same room
(we never used to) and watch the
same funny movie or TV show. We
treat it like going out to the movies,
where we popcorn, and have special
treats. We laugh lots and laugh hard.
Also, because we’re more often at
home and in each other’s company,
situational humor comes into play.
These moments are hard to describe
and are only funny to us. But we’ve
really come to relish these moments
that truly spice up our lives!
wHAT woulD fACiliTATE your
EvEry DAy lifE THE moST?
Two things would make our every
day life easier: if Howard’s medical problem would improve so that
he could regain his driving and his
ability to work. These two factors
would greatly reduce Connie’s
stress, by freeing her up from all
the driving and errands that are essential to maintain family life.
[ 2 *2009] SHAPE SCA *13
russia
shape cover
try to eat dinner together every night.”
In Russia there is no recycling system
for either paper or glass. Nor is tap water considered safe to drink, so the family buys five-liter containers of water.
When asked about what environmental
considerations affect their purchases,
they mention the importance of buying healthy products. “I try to buy fruits
and vegetables that come from Russia,
things without toxins,” Jelena says.
The family is not very interested in
The Didenko-Perova family
“We put our money
into foreign travel”
w
text: DaviD isaksson PHoto: alexey myakishev
hen Jelena Perova
hus
welcomes us, her husband Petr and their
Ale
two-year-old son Aledown
ksandr are still playing in the yard downstairs. The Didenko-Perova family live
on the seventh floor in a newly renovated
three-room apartment in south Moscow.
There’s a huge flat-screen display in the
living room, and the bookshelves hold
DVDs as well as books in both English
and Russian.
“I originally come from a town that’s
20 minutes from here by car”, says Jelena. “Well, nowadays, it’s 40 minutes
away because traffic has gotten worse”.
The fact that it now takes twice as long
to get to Jelena’s hometown says something about the enormous development
that has taken place in Russia, and especially Moscow, in the last few years.
Jelena is a psychologist. She stays home
with Aleksandr, but she works three days
14*SCA shape [ 2 *2009]
a week from home and a babysitter comes
to help take care of the boy. Petr works for
Microsoft and travels a lot in his job.
Jelena offers us tea and cookies in the
kitchenan explains that she’s in charge
of buying food for the family and cleaning the house, she says. “It’s not that
we’re trying to maintain traditional gender roles, but because I’m home, it’s easier for me to be in charge of the house,”
she says. Looking to Petr she adds, “If I
went to work every day you would probably do more, wouldn’t you”?
She ShoPS for food about twice a
week at a large grocery store. “Sometimes I go to one of the local stores and
buy something little. Every now and
then I go to the market. But I would
rather shop as little as possible.”
She almost never buys processed
food. “No, I would rather cook myself,
even if it’s usually something simple. We
the news. “We never watch TV,” Petr
says. “Even though we have two TV
sets, we actually have no antenna. And I
don’t like printed newspapers. Subscribing to newspapers by mail isn’t popular
in Russia, and for logistical reasons it’s
not possible for me to buy newspapers.
They’re usually sold in subway stations,
and I drive to work. At my job I read a few
news websites online.”
They spend most of their free time at
home, but they like to be outdoors. Petr
snowboards and Jelena does fire dancing.
On their vacations they travel abroad,
three or four times a year if possible.
“Moscow is pretty horrible in the summer because it’s so warm,” says Jelena.
“We travel a lot more than Russians do
in general. And we speak English – that’s
not very common in Russia.”
the DiDenkoperova family
father: Petr Didenko,
computer expert, 32
mother: Jelena Perova,
psychologist, 26
chilD: Aleksandr Perov, 2
live: In a two-room apartment in
south Moscow, Russia
small joys in life: “We like to
take walks and go to the movies. We
also like staying at home and watching a movie together.”
What WoulD make everyDay
life easier: “We’re really happy
with our lives. It wouldn’t make life
easier, but if we could wish for anything, it would be for better air and
less traffic in Moscow.”
White
has never been so
SCA Containerboard has devoted significant time and resources to successfully
addressing the technical challenges of white top liner production. New manufacturing
technologies, sophisticated monitoring and long experience combine to maintain
high quality. The result is products demonstrating high perfomance, superb runability
and excellent printing results. The world-class surface smoothness and cleaner sheets
of SCA Presentation Liners are the key to packaging with attractive brightness
and brilliant colours.
SCA White Top Kraftliner - SCA White Top Testliner
s c a c o n t a in e r bo a r d.co m
trend
Small packagesmean
less wasted food
Wrapping and packaging have long been viewed as environmental bad guys,
or at best necessary evils. But there’s a growing realization that the right kind
of packaging can help reduce a product’s impact on the environment and
increase food availability in poorer countries.
TexT: Sven lindell phoTo: getty imAgeS
e
very day, food worth
millions of dollars is
thrown away, most of
it unnecessarily. In industrialized countries,
up to half of all food
produced is thrown away because of improper handling or because the “sell-by”
date has expired, regardless of whether
the food is bad or not. Of all the fruit and
vegetables transported in the EU, almost
10 percent go to waste.
16*SCA SHAPe [ 2 *2009]
The value of wasted food in the EU is
about EUR 10 billion (USD 13 billion)
a year. “With packaging that’s properly
dimensioned, this waste can be significantly reduced,” says Ole Jørgen Hanssen, director of the Norwegian research
institute Östfoldforskning.
One cause of waste may be that producers use packaging that’s too big.
Consumers don’t manage to eat up the
contents before the food goes bad. Partly it’s a case of package sizes that were
designed for an era when the norm for a
household was four people. But households today consist of fewer people than
before. Single-person and two-person
households have increased considerably
in recent years.
“So food waste can be reduced by
adjusting the size of the packaging to
modern households,” Hanssen says.
“Then there’s a greater chance that
the food will be eaten up by the bestbefore date.”
“It’s also a question of developing
more efficient packaging that keeps
food longer and allows the food to hold
up better in transit,” Hanssen says.
In some poorer countries, up to half of
all food is destroyed because of problems
with logistics and packaging systems.
TODAy ThE PACkAgINg industry
understands that it can contribute to a
more sustainable society by developing
products and services that solve many
of the problems of wasted food.
Norway and Sweden are at the cutting edge of this development, Hanssen
observes. “Now it’s a matter of passing
on this understanding,” he says.
That’s because the man in the street
as well as politicians still have the idea
that packaging is an environmental
threat, rather than a tool for reducing
waste and achieving a more sustainable society. Surveys also show that
people generally believe that small
packages are worse for the environment and that packaging itself is the
biggest problem.
“But the fact is that packaging represents only one-tenth of the impact
on the environment if you consider the
product and the packaging as a whole,”
Hanssen says. A much bigger threat
stems from actual food production,
which generates vastly greater CO2
emissions than packaging.
hANSSEN IS lEADINg a project that
will show how optimal packaging solutions can help reduce emissions that
affect the climate. “Good documentation is also needed in order to change
people’s views on this,” he says.
Among other things, the project has
studied the effects of giving a product
new packaging, in terms of material
and design as well as size.
As an example, Hanssen cites a
producer that changed the packaging
for its cheese, cutting the number of
pallets needed for shipping by twothirds. “Basically, it’s often a question of simply economizing, adjusting
packaging to prevailing conditions in
society,” he says.
Food waste can be
reduced by adjusting the
size of the packaging to
modern households. Then
there’s a greater chance that
the food will be eaten up by
the best-before date.
Ole Jørgen HAnSSen, vd ÖStfOldfOrSkning
AdjuStmEnt A bEnEfit
SCA Packaging is developing and
manufacturing specially designed
packaging, made mainly of corrugated board. Its customers are
producers in almost every industry, from domestic appliances to
vegetables. SCA Packaging employs
some 23,000 people in more than
300 locations in about 30 countries.
“Our success is based in large part
on our always being ready to adjust
production to what the market
requires and what customers need,”
says Magnus Renman, head of R&D
and Innovation at SCA Packaging.
Packaging entails complex production operations, with thousands
of unique tools, each adapted to
the individual customer’s specific
product. “We can develop new tools
very quickly if a customer wants
a new shape or look,” he says.
SCA Packaging is also making
great progress in its research to de-
velop more efficient packaging. Its
Innovation Center in Brussels is continually developing the next generation of packaging and applications.
Also within other business areas there’s a continous search for
smart and efficiant packaging.
One recent example is SCA’s
brand for incontinence protection,
TENA, which recently introduced
more efficient packaging for
several of its products. The new
packaging holds more protection
than previously, and less material
is used in producing the carton.
Among the other benefits, less
shipping is needed, thus reducing emissions from airplanes
and trucks. The new packaging
also means that inventories will
require less space and there will
be less garbage. Overall, the
impact on the climate will be
reduced with every product.
[ 2 *2009] SHAPE SCA *17
trend
FrAntic
building
in egyPt
In Egypt, a baby is born every 20 seconds. The country’s 85
million inhabitants are crying for new housing, and foreign
investment is growing rapidly. “Egypt is the economic engine
of the entire region,” says Cherif Sayed at the Swedish
Trade Council’s office in Cairo.
text: mAtS wigArdt PHoto: iStock ocH mAtS wigArdt
The road from Cairo Cairo to Al-
exandria is lined with gigantic billboards
advertising new housing complexes.
Heavy trucks rumble past in a steady
stream. Along one side of the road is
the fertile green of the Nile Valley, on
the other the edge of the desert. Egypt’s
economy is on the rise. A number of
factors are contributing to the growth
– greater political stability, lower taxes,
simplified customs regulations, trade
agreements with the EU and a well-educated, English-speaking labor force.
The global financial crisis has not
affected Egypt the same way as other
countries. “Obviously, there are signs of
the crisis, and the stock market is falling,” says Cherif Sayed, the head of the
Swedish Trade Council’s office in Cairo.
“But the banking structure looks different in Egypt. People here don’t borrow
for consumption to the same extent as
in the West.”
Egypt has the largest population in the
18*SCA SHAPe [ 2 *2009]
region. The number of inhabitants is estimated at 85 million or more in an area
only slightly more than twice the size of
Sweden. The people are young – onethird of them are under age 15, and 43
percent are between 15 and 39.
“Egypt is flourishing,” Sayed says.
“When there is growing turbulence elsewhere in the Middle East, money is invested in Egypt.”
The building sector may be flourishing the most. Poor people are getting new
housing, the young and well-educated
are receiving housing subsidies, and the
country’s well-to-do middle class is moving out of downtown Cairo to three entirely new neighborhoods.
New hotels and restaurants are being developed. Egypt aims to double the
number of tourists in the country, and foreign investment is rising rapidly. “Egypt
has become a beachhead for trade with
North Africa and the Middle East as well
as southern Europe,” Sayed says.
SwediSH wood
in tHe deSert
in 2009, SCa Timber plans to sell
72,000 cubic meters of solid wood
products to egypt. The construction boom has made the country
an important market for Swedish
wood products.
many new residences are being
built, and the demand for timber
for doors and windows is high. in
a short period, imports of Swedish
timber have risen several times to
800,000 cubic meters a year, and
they are forecast to reach a million
cubic meters soon.
The sales organization Uni4 marketing aB, jointly owned by SCa,
has been an established player
in the timber products market in
North africa and the middle east
for many years.
The basic idea is to sell large
volumes of lower-grade wood
products in countries where
producers don’t have their own
representatives.
Jöran ekberg at Uni4 sees egypt
as an important market where
Swedish sawmills have an outlet for
bulk goods and Vi grade timber.
“But egyptian buyers demand
good products of all types,” Jörgen ekberg stresses.
SHAREHOldERS’
mEEting witH
ExHibit On
SUStAinAbility
almosT 400 SCA shareholders attended SCA’s annual general meeting, which
was held April 2 in a warm and sunny
Stockholm. While waiting for the meeting to begin, those in attendance could
expand their knowledge by viewing an
exhibit on SCA’s sustainability goals and
its work with ecological landscape plans
for good forest management and the
protection of nature. In his speech, Jan
Johansson, president and CEO, summed
up SCA’s operations in 2008 and emphasized the Group's focus in the short and
medium term: strengthening cash flow
and capital efficiency as well as increasing
the rate of innovation.
FOUR qUEStiOnS tO
FivE SHAREHOldERS
1. Why did you come to the annual
General meeting?
2. When did you buy your shares?
3. are you worried about the financial
crisis and how sCa will manage?
4. What’s your view of sCa?
Åke Janson, 74,
Falkenberg.
1. Because my wife
and I own shares in a
number of companies
that have their shareholders’ meetings now,
apart from sCa, like
electrolux and Investor, and because
our daughter, who lives here in stockholm, can babysit our little puppy
while we attend the meetings.
2. Ten or 15 years ago.
3. no.
4. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the
diaper factory in Falkenberg and I’ve
rarely, if ever, met so many positive
people, from the factory floor to the
top management. I was also really
impressed by their perfect safety
procedures, which is something that’s
attracted a lot of attention in sweden
these days, you know, given the scandal with the glass found in the chicken.
anders källman,
73, nynäshamn.
1. Because I wanted to
meet Jan Johansson.
2. I bought them
through an investors’
club in 1969 and because I worked in the
forest industry.
3. not really – sCa will no doubt manage. But it’s important to manage the
forests well.
4.I think sCa is a decent company.
FrIda Hall, 26, lidingö,
with her daughter moa strömgren,
9 months.
1. Because I’ve never been to a shareholders’ meeting before and because
my dad wanted to see us.
2. It was rather recently, but we’ve had
sCa shares in our family for a long time.
3. no, it’s stable because sCa makes
products that everyone always needs.
4. It’s a good company that makes
essential products that people can
always use.
olle söderquIsT,
80, Hedemora.
1. I’m interested in sCa
and also have a daughter in sollentuna that
my wife and I can visit
at the same time.
2. I bought them
around 10 years ago because I’ve
owned forests myself and have an
interest in forest companies.
3. not about sCa, but more generally,
of course I’m worried. sCa has certain
disadvantages given that all its forest
holdings are way up north and require
long transportation routes.
4. I know sCa as a company that’s
close to forests, which is good. I’m
pretty unfamiliar with the rest.
marIanne
nordsTrand 60,
sundbyberg.
1. I’m interested in
what is said here and
try to go every year.
2. It was sometime in
the 1980s.
3. Yes. When I hear that things will get
worse and worse, I get worried. after
all, the world affects sCa as well.
4. It’s a good company.
[ 2 *2009] SHAPE SCA *19
ProfilE
Breaking
Swedish-born designer Thomas Meyerhoffer made his name by challenging
convention in the high-tech world. Now he’s bringing his unique vision to
everything from surfboards to paper dispensers.
text: AlEtA WAtSon photo: WWW.mEyErHoffEr.com
From his studio high above the
California coast on a sunny spring
day, Thomas Meyerhoffer gazes out
over a wide expanse of Pacific Ocean,
the luminous blue stretching unbroken to the horizon.
The view is stunning, but the small
home office is hardly what one would
expect of a high-powered designer
with a roster of big-name clients and
a string of honors, including most recently a 2009 International Forum
Design (iF) award for a line of tissue
dispensers he created for SCA. There
are no stylish suites filled with expensive furniture here, no larger-thanlife photos of past projects lining the
walls, no swarm of hip associates at
Meyerhoffer’s beck and call.
Then again, the Stockholm native
is no ordinary designer. He broke the
mold long ago when he studied both
transportation and product design at
20*SCA SHAPE [ 2 *2009]
the Art Center College of Design in
Pasadena, California. Unlike most
industrial designers, he never wanted to specialize. Since graduating in
1991, he has made his name creating
an impressive range of new products
for iconic brands such as Apple, Nike
and Sony Ericsson.
“I don’t see myself as many other
designers do,” Meyerhoffer says. “All
they do is talk about design and go to
design conferences and look at design
magazines and so forth. I never look
at design in magazines. I find inspiration elsewhere.”
He’s more interested in how people
use and experience the objects he creates than whether the products mesh
with any academic theory. “I’m not
subscribing to any style of design,” he
says. “I don’t belong to a school at all.
On the contrary, I think the things
most inspiring to me are nature and
evolution.”
Straight out of college, the designer worked at Porsche in Germany
then moved on to work for IDEO, a
San Francisco design firm, before
joining Apple in 1994. That’s where
he hit the big time as the designer of
the colorful, translucent eMate, a
groundbreaking portable computer
intended for the school market. It became a forerunner of the iMac.
the hallmarks of a typical Meyerhoffer design were all there in the
eMate – an organic sculptural shape,
attractive yet functional details and
an appeal to the user’s emotions. Its
unusual clamshell housing and bright
color made the computer feel more
like a toy than a business tool. Still,
there was serious attention to issues
such as the way the integrated handle
fit into a child’s hand.
the mold
“It really was the computer that
broke out of the beige boxes,” the designer says. “It was the first organic,
soft-shaped, translucent computer.”
In 1998, with the Apple triumph
and a collection of important design
awards on his resume, Meyerhoffer
launched his own firm in Montara,
a quiet little beach town 25 minutes
south of San Francisco. “I wanted to
design more things than just computers,” he says. “Obviously I respect
Apple design – by far they’re the best
out there. But I thought life was more
than that.”
Since then he has designed everything from computers and cell
phones to snowboard bindings and
surfboards. He divides his projects
between large international firms
and small Silicon Valley startups.
“I like to work with technology
startups because obviously most of
these companies are open to doing
something different,” he says. That
freedom to try new things led him to
design the first cell phone with a pivoting top for Danger and a soft rubber Wi-Fi computer for Chumby.
[ 2 *2009] SHAPE SCA *21
ProfilE
I still appreciate the approach of
Silicon Valley. There are very few
rules of what you should wear, how
you should behave.
Meyerhoffer travels all over the world
for his projects, but he feels an affinity
for Northern California. “I still appreciate the approach of Silicon Valley of
innovation, of creativity, of individuals
– that there are very few rules of what
you should wear, how you should behave,” he says. “I love that you can go
down the street and you don’t really
know where people belong. The guy in
jeans and flip-flops could be a billionaire
company founder. That doesn’t matter.
What matters is that people are trying
to create things which they’re interested
in, their passion.”
Montara is ideal as far as the designer
is concerned. It’s near enough to Silicon
Valley and an international airport for
him to get to client meetings readily. Yet
it’s close to nature and the big waves he
loves to surf.
CompaCt and lean, with a shaved
head and piercing blue eyes, the 44-yearold Meyerhoffer spends much of his
free time riding waves up and down the
Northern California coast. His most recent project, a revolutionary hourglassshaped surfboard, grew out of his passion for the sport. It may be his most
personal design.
His search for a ride combining responsiveness, speed and glide led to the
colorful experimental surfboards displayed at the Cooper-Hewitt National
Design Museum’s Triennial in 2006.
From them emerged a range of commercial models, dubbed the Modern Meyerhoffer, scheduled for introduction in the
US in May 2009.
The designer lives, works and raises
his 8-year-old son Dylan in the most
modern home in Montara, all sharp
angles, bare wood, concrete and glass.
22*SCA SHAPE [ 2 *2009]
Upstairs is the studio overlooking the
sea. Downstairs are offices for the three
associates who work at the house.
Although the house reflects a Scandinavian sensibility, Meyerhoffer says he
doesn’t really miss living in his native
Sweden, although he visits frequently.
at the same time, Meyerhoffer
says he was honored to design the new
range of Tork dispensers for Sweden’s
SCA. He spent two years developing the
17 paper dispensers destined for public
restrooms all over the world. “I think
it’s amazing in working with them that
they’ve taken so much care to create this
well-designed product and to support
that and invest in it,” he says. “They are
aware that this is the only connection
they have with the user.”
In March 2009 the dispensers’ elegant
shapes and precise functionality earned
them an iF award at Europe’s biggest
industrial design competition in Hannover, Germany. The Elevation dispenser
also received a Red Dot product design
award in Essen, Germany, in April.
Despite the strong dispenser design it
is unobtrusive and timeless. “You don’t
want the product to stand out,” he
says. “You want to do what you
need to do in a restroom, and of
course you look for the paper. And
when you look for the paper, you intuitively have a nice experience.”
“It was interesting to connect back
to Scandinavia and bring these qualities – the longevity of the form, the
strength in the form and the simplicity
of the form – into the product of a Scandinavian company,” he says. “But it was
brought in in a way that it works all over
the world, and it’s a universal language
and a universal product.”
Elevation – the paper dispenser that has
already won prestigous awards.
Chubby and soft – even though
it’s a computer.
Emate – as appetizing as a toy.
TECHNOLOGY
BOdY fLuidS
pose a challenge
TO ENGiNEErS
Different body fluids require different absorption
materials. Blood contains blood cells and proteins, while
urine holds various salts, which explains why sanitary
protection and incontinence products are so different.
text: HENrik EmiLSON illuStrAtion: LEif ÅBjörNSSON
i
f all body fluids consisted simply of water, life would be easy for
manufacturers of diapers, sanitary
pantyliners and incontinence protection pads. A single gram of superabsorbent polymer can easily take in up
to a kilo (one quart) of pure water. But
fluids like blood and urine contain many
other substances. This puts demands on
manufacturers because the same absorbent material cannot be used effectively
for different kinds of body fluids.
Eje Österdahl, a scientist at SCA Hygiene Products in Gothenburg, Sweden,
knows where and how superabsorbent
polymer works best. When an absorption product is developed, certain requirements must be met to deliver on
consumer need.
“The speed at which the material absorbs liquid is important, especially for
urine products and especially for light
incontinence,” Österdahl says. “Those
products must take in a lot of liquid very
quickly. When an incontinent women
loses control of her bladder, there may
be up to 50 ml of urine a second in the
worst-case scenario, so the material has
to work quickly.” He contrasts this flow
with menstrual blood, where it is common to have 50 ml of fluid for an entire
period of five days.
“It gives a little perspective, from persecond to per-period,” he says. “There’s
a major difference in speed and a major
difference in requirements.”
Along with absorption capacity,
other criteria such as spreading qualities must also be considered. As much of
the product as possible should be used
so that no single area is soaked through.
Retention qualities are also assessed, as
it is important for the liquid to remain
in the material even if it is subjected to
pressure, such as when a person wearing
the product sits down.
In the old days – before 1986 –
fiber-based fluff pulp was used for both
blood and urine. But 1986 saw the arrival of superabsorbent polymer, which
allowed a liquid to bind chemically with
small plastic granules of polyacrylate.
The technology is based on osmosis,
a process in which differences in salt
concentration work to even themselves
[ 2 *2009] SHAPE SCA *23
TECHNOLOGY
Tough demands on protections
One second!
50 ml
50 ml
With urine leakage,
a big amount of fluid
can be released in a
second...
...while the same
amount menstrual
flow is divided over
several days.
Urine
During the ‘70s fiberbased fluff pulp was
used in the urinal
protections (as well as
for menstruation).
The protection
easily leaked.
1970s
Menstrual
flow
The spreading quality is important. As
much of the product
as possible should
be used so that no
single area is soaked
through.
out. Liquid flows into the particles to
even out the concentration difference
between the inside and outside, and the
particles swell up. It’s the same thing
that happens when you salt a slice of raw
eggplant – the liquid from the vegetable
is forced out because it tries to even out
the difference in salt content.
“In 1986 everyone thought superabsorbents were a great invention, but it
was soon apparent that they didn’t work
as well on urine as they did on pure water,” Osterdahl says. The reason for this
is that urine contains much more than
just water – including many ions like Na+,
K+, NH 4+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl-, PO43-,
SO42- depending somewhat on the individuals and what they’ve consumed.
Then there is less difference between inside and outside the superabsorbent, so
the driving force will be weaker. “The
24*SCA SHAPE [ 2 *2009]
The fiber-based fluff
pulp was used in the
menstrual protection
(as well as for urinal
protection) during the
‘70s . The protection
leaked.
higher the concentration, the more the
superabsorbent is affected,” he says.
“If someone drank three beers, his/her
urine would be watered down and easier to take care of than if she/he hadn’t
drunk so much liquid.”
Salts in the urine affect the absorption capacity of the superabsorbent, which in principle can be reduced
by half. Because salt content varies from
person to person and from day to day,
it was a question of finding a balance in
the product that worked for everyone all
the time. When superabsorbents were
first introduced, a problem known as gel
blocking developed. The molecules were
loosely cross-linked then, and as a result
they could swell up further. Certainly,
this was effective and good, but the granules swelled up so much that they stuck
Superabsorbents arrive
on the scene, and fluid
is enclosed in plastic
granules...
1980s
Despite superabsorbents,
menstrual protection
still leaks. Albumin
proteins form a dense
layer on the surface.
together and formed a dense membrane
that meant no more liquid could pass
through to the granules in the lower layers. By adding more cross-linking agent
to the molecules, the capacity of the superabsorbent was reduced. Each granule
absorbed less liquid, but the granules
underneath were not blocked.
“We basically sacrificed capacity to
gain better function,” Österdahl says.
“The technology was then further refined by having loose cross-linking in
the nucleus of the granules but tighter
cross-linking on the surface. Then the
nucleus could expand well without the
granules sticking to one another.”
As a result of research and advances,
superabsorbents work well for urine.
But what about menstrual blood? In
the beginning, Österdahl and his colleagues thought the problem with su-
Gel blocking
...but the granules swell so much
that they stick together and
the liquid cannot reach the granules underneath. Protection
still leaked.
More agents known as cross-linkers were
added. Each granule absorbs less fluid but
doesn’t block the granules underneath.
The protection stays dry.
1990s
2000s
At the end of the ’90s a new
fluff pulp structure – Efficapt
– with good absorption is
introduced.
Now a new solution consisting
of cellulose fiber with a small
quantity of superabsorbents,
which lock in moisture and
prevent odor.
Efficapt
Recent yeaRs have seen the use of
a special fluff pulp that is very good at
absorbing blood. The material, called
Efficapt, was introduced in 1997. Now
mAny nicknAmES...
along with diapers, sca produces menstrual protection and
incontinence protection in many
countries.
menstrual protection
LibResse
(northern and eastern europe)
sanitary napkins and pantyliners
in every market. tampons in selected markets.
bodyfoRm
(Great britain)
sanitary napkins and pantyliners.
Abumin
protein
perabsorbents absorbing blood was
due to blood platelets and blood cells.
These simply did not want to penetrate
the material. Because of the fine pores
of the superabsorbent material, function deteriorated even further. Today
they know that the problem is due to
the protein albumin, which coats the
surface with a tight layer so that not
even water can penetrate. “That’s why
superabsorbents aren’t very good at absorbing menstrual flow,” he says. “Obviously, there’s not just blood in the
menstrual flow – there are other body
fluids as well – but it’s these proteins
above all that make it difficult for us.”
Many buy
sanitary napkins
for other
reasons besides
menstruation.
another solution has been developed that
is based on cellulose fibers but includes a
small quantity of superabsorbent. Even
though superabsorbent polymer does
not work as well with menstrual blood,
it still serves a function. “Even if we recommend the right product for the right
thing, many buy sanitary napkins for
other reasons besides menstruation, such
as light incontinence,” Österdahl says.
“So there’s a reason for having superabsorbents in the material. A superabsorbent also helps keep odor down, because
the liquid that enters a superabsorbent
becomes locked in and is not as readily
available for the process that produces
odor. The superabsorbent also absorbs
moisture from the air and makes the
product less sweaty to wear.”
But how much easier it would have been
if all body fluids were pure water.
nana
(france)
sanitary napkins and pantyliners.
nuvenia
(italy)
sanitary napkins and pantyliners.
nosotRas
(Latin america)
sanitary napkins, tampons and
pantyliners.
saba
(mexico and central america)
sanitary napkins and pantyliners.
LibRa
(australasia)
market leader in menstrual protection in australasia. Libra is sold
as sanitary napkins, tampons and
pantyliners.
incontinence protection
tena
available in more than 90 countries. incontinence protection for
men and women. the product
range also includes skincare products and washing liquids.
[ 2 *2009] SHAPE SCA *25
sca inside
The analysts:
focus on casH flow
Is SCA investing enough in its hygiene operations? How serious are the problems in
Packaging? Shape has brought together analysts Andreas Lundberg (Handelsbanken),
Celine Pannuti (JP Morgan) and Mikael Jåfs (Cheuvreux) to discuss SCA’s strategy
and long-term growth opportunities.
text: göran lind, Petra lodén
How well has SCA handled the adjustment to weaker demand?
Andreas Lundberg: The company
has admittedly done a bit but I think
that, like almost everyone else,
they’ve misjudged the severity of the
fall. Because demand has dropped
so quickly, it’s been really difficult to
make adjustments in time.
Celine Pannuti: SCA has been adjusting to the down turn in demand for a
long time by cutting capacity - especially within packaging, but also forest
products, which is good. The severity
we now see in the economy makes it
very difficult for SCA to have an impact on its own, as the whole industry
needs to cut and adjust to the situation.
Mikael Jåfs:SCA’s structure, with
its large share of consumer products, has meant the company has
weathered the financial downturn
relatively well and hasn’t been affected as much as other companies.
But 30 percent of sales come from
packaging, and things have gone
just as badly there as they have for
others. In pulp, solid wood products
and publication papers, demand has
26*SCA sHaPe [ 2 *2009]
also fallen significantly – like with
everyone else in the industry.
because it’s in the banks’ hands. But
the trick is to determine when to shift
gears, when to invest in growth.
Is it the right tactic to focus on improving cash flow and being more
careful with investments, even in
new markets?
SCA’s aim is to increase its share of
hygiene operations. Is this changeover going quickly enough?
AL:Given how weak cash flow has
been for a while and what the financial situation looks like, measures
are needed to increase cash flow. But
there should still be some investment,
so the question is to not make cuts
too quickly.
CP: Focusing on cash flow and cash
management is definitely the right
thing to do – right now even more
than ever. Investments in new markets, especially in developing countries, where hygiene products have a
potential, should however continue.
These are less cyclical categories and
it seems wiser to cut in other markets
or other divisions.
MJ:In the current market situation,
SCA has no other choice than to focus
on improving cash flow. The question
of financing is difficult right now, so
investments will probably be put off
AL:Well, you always hope for more,
given how wonderfully those operations are doing, but we think things
are going along at a pretty good pace.
CP: The company’s evolution to be
more focused on hygiene could go
faster.This could be achieved either
organically or through M&A. Disposing of non-core businesses could
also help.
MJ: The investment in expanded
hygiene operations is right. Of
course, many investors want SCA
to only invest in its hygiene operations, but the reason the company
has survived the economic fluctuations so well is precisely this mix of
different operations, those sensitive
to changes in the economy and those
that are less so. However, the conglomerate structure of the company
is not very popular with investors
because it generally means less of
an ability to keep up with the stock
market when it takes off.
How serious is the situation in
packaging operations? Is SCA doing enough to reduce capacity?
AL:Sure, some cuts have been made
as part of their share, but obviously
it’s tough when there’s such a sharp
drop in demand. But we think there
are still things the company can do in
terms of its own costs.
CP: The situation for packaging is very
serious; it has been serious for two
to three years. Increasing costs and
overcapacity has held back returns and
now demand is under pressure as well.
The industry is under intense pressure to adjust the capacity but yet the
question is what will be the shape of
growth when demand will return?
MJ: The situation for packaging operations is pretty serious. I wouldn’t
be surprised if they generate a big loss
in 2009. There’s overcapacity in the
industry and SCA can’t do much right
now. They’re stuck, and it’s not the
time to sell right now.
When could there be a turn upward
in demand, and which parts of SCA
can benefit first?
AL:We think there will be a slight
improvement at the end of 2009, and
obviously those parts that are sensitive
to fluctuations in the economy have
the most to gain from a rebound.
CP: The markets are expecting that
second half of 2009 we will see a
recovery on a very depressed base. I
think there will be a weak recovery
and lots of ups and downs for some
time and a weak demand in 2010.
If demand goes up the most cyclical
divisions will benefit first, packaging,
paper and forest too.
MJ:Most analysts and that includes
me have no idea when demand will
rebound. Maybe the second half of
2009. We’re keeping our eyes open
for signs of change, like in pulp prices
or other industry indicators. So far
nothing’s been seen.
SCA’s long-term growth potential
is mainly in its hygiene operations,
through the development of a middle class in the emerging economies. What’s your view on this?
AL:There’s still a lot to be done in a
number of today’s emerging markets,
like China, India, Russia, Mexico
and a few others. Brazil is also an
interesting market for the future, particularly in hygiene products.
CP: SCAs competitors such as
Procter & Gamble and KimberlyClark have been in the emerging
markets for a long time, SCA was a
bit late to the game in that respect.
SCA has to continue to invest in these
markets. SCA has a good presence in
Eastern Europe but the company has to
improve its exposure to Asia.
MJ:The growth of the middle class in a
number of developing countries means
growth potential for SCA’s hygiene
operations. Especially in markets where
SCA is able to operate well, where there
isn’t too much corruption.
Greatest challenge in the long term?
AL:At the end of the day the most
important one is to get the return
on capital to a more decent level, ie
substantially higher than the cost of
capital. There are several roads to go
but in the long run it’s probably best
to sell some of the underperforming
business areas. It’s not easy selling
parts of packaging at the moment but
we think it’s positive that the company
see to the costs within this segment.
CP: The conglomerate structure
doesn’t make sense to me and is hindering long term prospects. I think there
is a lot of value creation potential
should SCA focus its investments and
resources in developing countries and
in the categories of tissue and personal
care. When good times come back they
should take the opportunity to re-shape
their portfolio and look at divesting
packaging and newspaper.
MJ: The greatest challenge for SCA
is in getting rid of its conglomerate
rebate.
ClEArEr rEPorting witH gri
For the first time, SCA has compiled
its sustainability report using GRI,
the Global Reporting Initiative, the
most frequently used standard for
sustainability reporting in the world.
GRI has developed global guidelines
for how companies should report
on everything that falls under the
concept of sustainable development.
SCA’s sustainability report for 2008
was prepared using GRI’s A+ Level of
reporting, which has been verified by
PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“Sustainability sometimes comes
across as a little fuzzy, and GRI is a
tool to make reporting more reliable, consistent and comparable,” says
Marita Sander, project manager for
SCA’s sustainability report. “Greater
transparency is in line with our sustainability policy.”
Adjusting to the new requirements
was relatively easy. “We had most of
the data available, but we compiled
a number of new
core indicators
for social performance, among
other things.”
SCA’s website
www.sca.com
has a GRI index
showing the
different indicators in more
detail.
[ 2 *2009] SHAPE SCA *27
ScA on tHE
EtHicAl liSt – AgAin!
For the second year in a row, SCA
has been named one of the world’s
100 most ethical companies. The
Ethisphere Institute in New York
has ranked the companies that are
the best in their industry, out of
10,000 companies examined. The
Ethisphere Institute works with issues related to corporate governance, business ethics, corporate
social responsibility, anti-corruption and sustainability.
Disco chocolate
wins design contest
The innovative chocolate package
Disco Choco took home the gold
medal when SCA held its first packaging design contest, called Design
Challenge. The aim was to develop
a packaging concept for chocolates
sold in stores. The packaging was
to be innovative but also had to take
into account trends, industrial restrictions and environmental aspects.
Natacha Lesty, a French student at
the École Internationale de Design,
won first prize. Along with the
prize of 3,000 euros, she was also
invited to do an internship at SCA
Packaging’s Innovation Center in
Brussels.
Miriam Liébana Yeste won the
consumer-oriented prize with packaging that doubles as a note pad.
environment
ScA moving into
friEndly building
SCA is moving its headquarters next April to the new Waterfront Building
in downtown Stockholm. Waterfront, which will be completed in 2010, is being built with the latest environmental technology.
“Waterfront meets a number of requirements for the environmentally
friendly workplace of the future, which together with cost considerations
has been important in our decision,” says Gordana Landén, SCA’s senior vice
president of human resources.
The building is expected to be twice as energy-efficient as the EU’s Green
Building Standard. Smart solutions move energy between the different areas of the building. Among other features, heat in the glass facades will be
converted into warm water that is distributed to cooler parts of the building.
Cooling will be produced using water from Lake Klara, the canal that runs
through central Stockholm. Inside the building, a reservoir of 250 tons of
water freezes at night and is then used to cool the premises during the day.
28*SCA SHAPE [ 2 *2009]
ProtEction
for All PAntiES
Libresse Hipster was recently
launched in the European market. It’s a super-thin pantyliner shaped to fit hipster or boxer panties.
“Different types of underwear require different types of
pantyliners, so we’ve developed
Libresse Hipster,” says Stefan
Eggermont, trade marketing director retail, SCA Personal Care
Europe.
The consumers who tested the new
pantyliner have
been positive;
96 percent
thought there
was a great
need for the
product and
80 percent
said they liked
it.
sca inside
a tiger by tHe tail
Classical Japanese tattoos featuring
the tiger as a common motif provide the
inspiration for SCA’sthe new Libero spring
collection diapers. Five patterns will adorn
millions of diapered bottoms this spring.
Illustrator Yuko Shimizu, creator of the
“Tiger Collection,” says the biggest challenge in designing diapers was breaking
away from traditional diaper patterns to
create something new.
Shimizu grew up in Japan and has lived
and worked as an illustrator in New York
since 1999.
Today she works for New York Times,
Time and Rolling Stone magazine and has
produced illustrations for MTV.
New
box
Preserves birdlife
SCA Packaging in Hungary has
developed the Hirundo box, a new
solution to protect birdlife. At the
end of the summer, swallows – including the barn swallow Hirundo
rustica, which gave its name to the
box – gather in flocks before their
long journey to Africa. At the same
time, ornithologists meet to mark
the birds in order to study their lives.
Marking has to be done at night because the birds hunt in the daytime.
But the birds cannot be released
before dawn because they can then
fall victim to night predators. So the
swallows have to stay overnight in
the ring-marking station.
Up to 40 swallows can be housed
in a Hirundo box during the night.
The box has a number of features
like holes for perching sticks, practical locks and a large removable
roof with a hatch cover that allows
the birds to be released quickly. The
Hirundo box has been used by many
organizations, including BirdLife
Hungary, the Pilis Nature Conservation Organization in Hungary and
the Budapest Zoo.
sca timber
becomes iKea
sHelves
SCA’s forests become timber
for IKEA’s Gorm shelving units
when the furniture retailer orders a million of its solid-wood
standbys each year.
Roughly 45,000 cubic meters of pine timber will be
needed each year for production. The bulk of this comes
from the Bollsta sawmill in
Sweden. TräTeam, SCA’s partner in Kramfors, Sweden, is investing some USD 4 million in
production equipment, and
10 employees will work in two
shifts to keep the shelf production operations running.
The shelves will be sold in
the Nordic region, Germany and the Benelux countries,
with deliveries beginning in
less than a year.
[ 2 *2009] sHaPe SCA *29
outlook
The good
neighbor
In Colombia, the center of community
life and commerce is the network of
some 450,000 small family-owned
retail shops. Hundreds of thousands of
people make their living from these
neighborhood institutions.
TexT: JuAn CAmilo mAldonAdo tovAr
And WilliAm CAigEr–SmitH
PHoTo: diAnA SánCHEz
30*SCA SHAPE [ 2 *2009]
The magic formula is to have a
Nora works from Monday
to Sunday, and she is the soul of
her neighborhood.
every time someone walks into Nora Garce’s
tienda in Bogotá, a little bell rings at the top of
the door. Another customer has come to see their
neighbor, or vecina, who runs the shop.
“Vecina, do you have a quarter of cheese?”
“Vecina, can I have a single cigarette?
“Vecina, how much does it cost to make a mobile phone call?”
Nora, whose small family-owned store is situated in the Colombian capital’s La Soledad
neighborhood, is the ultimate vecina. Everyone
knows her name. They rely on her if they suddenly need to buy on credit, and she’s always
there, from 7 am to 10 pm, seven days a week,
to offer everything from a nail to a single diaper. “That’s the magic formula,” Nora says as
she attends to the stream of customers who keep
the bell ringing. “You’ve got to have a variety of
products in very small sizes.”
According to Colombia’s National Merchants
Federation, known as Fenalco, the country has
some 450,000 family-owned stores, known as
tiendas. Each shop on average supports a family
of four to five people.
Fenalco estimates there are around 22 types of
tiendas, ranging from small bakeries to diverse mini
markets. They provide neighbors with “the basic
goods of the consumer basket,” says Lino Franco,
coordinator of the small stores division at Fenalco.
Franco has spent the past eight years working
with these small entrepreneurs, doing research
and helping them become more professional.
That’s how he has come to discover that, for instance, four-fifths of all dairy products and threequarters of the beer are sold through tiendas.
“Nowadays, with the crisis looming, their importance has increased,” Franco says. “Consumers have returned to the tiendas.”
In a small garage in a two-story house in a poor
neighborhood in southern Bogotá, Don Hernando, in his 50s, keeps a varied inventory from
fruits and vegetables to snacks, medicines and basic goods.
Don HernanDo’s sales have been down in
recent months. He stays afloat, however, because
his neighbors need him. As with many other small
stores, Don Hernando sells his products in tiny
amounts, to suit the tight financial capacity of his
customers. If they can’t afford a liter of oil, they
can buy half a liter or even a smaller bottle. “Consumers can sometimes bring their own containers and buy as much oil as they can afford without
having to pay for the bottle,” Franco says.
This system, known in Colombia as menudeo,
variety of products in very small sizes.
[ 2*2009] SHAPE SCA *31
outlook
is one reason small tiendas can survive shoulder
to shoulder with giant supermarkets. Don Hernando sells small amounts of butter, enough to
make one dinner, for a couple of cents. He will
open a chocolate bar and sell it by the piece, since
people can’t afford or don’t want all of it.
Every shop owner understands the magic of
menudeo. “People go to the supermarket and
buy all their goods every other week,” Nora says.
“But if they run out of something, there’s always
the tienda to get them out of trouble.”
Another significant difference between large
supermarkets and small shops, especially in the
current economic climate, is the owner’s ability
to sell to their neighbors on credit, called fiar in
Spanish. Nora laughingly calls it the “book of
forgetfulness.”
“The success of these shops is based on the
fact that there is a close personal relationship between the owner and the client,” says César Ferrari, a microeconomics professor at the Javeriana University in Bogotá. “This relationship
allows the owner to offer ways of financing their
customers in a way that does not exist in big
stores. This is even attractive for the owner, who
reduces the amount of cash that he has on a certain day, increasing his security.”
Agustina Buitrago works in La Candelaria. For decades she has
owned a small tienda.
Crisis or not, one fact remains: the tienda is
a functional center of neighborhood life. Nora receives dozens of house keys from around the block,
which she keeps until someone else comes to pick
them up. Owners typically help their customers by
passing on messages and receiving mail.
Franco once met an owner who spoke five languages and helped his customers with linguistic matters, from college homework to work
projects. Fenalco says 8 percent of shop owners
have university degrees.
Don Hernando recognizes the role that his
store plays on his block. “People here bring their
keys, their stories, their problems,” he says. “We
have become an emotional advising center.”
“I love the business,” Nora says. “I love having
contact with people.” While she says this, neighbor after neighbor walks in for a small packet of
deodorant, an aspirin tablet or a free dose of local gossip. “Economically we don’t have much,”
she says. “But we have a quiet life.”
32*SCA SHAPE [ 2 *2009]
Don Hernando competes with 40 other small tiendas in his neighborhood.
Economically we
Local focus
key to Latin
America
Small “mom and pop” shops are the
heart of the Latin American retail market, doing more business than big supermarkets. For SCA, the region’s distribution system is challenging.
In a market vastly different from
those where it started, SCA has built
up a solid and ethical business presence in Latin America with the help
of joint venture partners such as Colombia’s Familia. Using a strategy that
reaches out to traditional marketing
practices, SCA and its partners manage a complicated distribution system
that focuses on the family-run tiendas, or “mom and pop” shops spread
across the continent, a vital component of the Latin American economy.
The tiendas are part of the fabric of
South American life. Found in neighborhoods of small towns and large cities, they are often modest one-room
shops that serve the daily needs of
people living close by. Most customers shop from day to day, often buying
one or two diapers or a single roll of
bath tissue – just enough to get them
through until tomorrow. This particular element of the Latin American market is at once a challenge and an opportunity for SCA.
“Altogether these small shops represent a larger portion of the market than the large supermarkets, so
it is a big business opportunity,” says
Jan Schiavone, president of SCA
South America. “But to succeed here
you have to invest in the distribution,
which is obviously more challenging.”
For a company with a European
base, it is difficult to know the nuances of a new market. “That’s where the
joint venture company comes in,” Schiavone says. “The joint venture partner brings the knowledge about local
politics, financial systems and distribution that we marry to SCA’s expertise in manufacturing, marketing and
technology.”
SCA in Latin America
Gilberto and Gloria Montaña
are tienda owners in the
traditional neighborhood of
La Candelaria in Bogotá.
The usefulness of this cultural knowledge goes further. “It’s very important
that we understand the consumers and
then bring the right type of products to
the market,” Schiavone says. Building
trusted and recognized brands is vital in
Latin America, especially among poorer people who tend to choose their local tienda over a supermarket. “These
people have very limited resources. They can’t risk trying cheaper, less
well-known products, so they stick with
the high-quality, consistent brands.
They can’t take a chance on something
they’re not sure about, because they
can’t afford to make mistakes.”
Did you know that…
SCA has been working in
Latin America since 1980 when
it launched the SABA brand
through a joint venture company
in Mexico.
SCA operates in Mexico, Central
America, the Dominican Republic,
Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela,
Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile,
and also exports into Argentina,
Brazil, Paraguay, Cuba and a
number of Caribbean islands.
SCA employs about 5,500
people in Latin America.
SCA has 13 plants in Latin
America.
SCA distributes to all major
Latin American retailers and
more than 2 million small shops.
The main products that SCA
distributes in Latin America are
personal care products(baby
diapers, feminine hygiene, incontinence care and wet wipes)
and tissue products (toilet and
kitchen rolls, napkins, hankies,
wipes and facial tissues).
don’t have much. But we have a quiet life.
[ 2 *2009] SHAPE SCA *33
EcONOMy
Market gives thumbs up
The stock market gave SCA good grades when it presented its first-quarter
report on April 27. Net profit for the period, SEK 1,119 million, was lower
than a year earlier but better than analysts had forecast.
Despite a bleak economy, SCA’s report for the first quarter contained good
news on a number of fronts. Tissue operations, which account for 36 percent
of SCA’s sales, posted a 58 percent rise
in operating profit to SEK 864 million.
Higher prices, lower raw material costs
and a better product mix were behind
the increase. Another contributing factor
was the positive impact of earnings from
Procter & Gamble’s European tissue operations, which were acquired in 2007.
Personal Care operations also provided a lot to be happy about. Sales in
SCA’s emerging markets, particularly
Latin America and Southeast Asia, rose
22 percent, and price increases were implemented in a number of markets. In
all, Personal Care reported sales of SEK
6,476 million, a rise of 16 percent from a
year ago. However, a large part of the increase was due to a weaker exchange rate
for the Swedish krona. Operating profit
fell 6 percent to SEK 704 million, partly
because of higher raw material costs.
Forest Products did better than the
market had expected, despite a sharply
deteriorating economy and higher costs
for raw materials and energy. Price increases in publication papers limited the
decline in operating profit to 11 percent,
at SEK 583 million.
“We believe that our hygiene oper-
ations have prospects for favorable continued growth and that Forest Products
will have stable development,” President
and CEO Jan Johansson said in connection with the report.
The cyclical Packaging operations face
major problems, however. Profitability
has fallen even further as a result of lower
volumes and price pressure, and operating profit fell 87 percent to SEK 81 million. Testliner prices, for instance, have
dropped by more than 35 percent from
a year ago. In response, SCA is carrying
out an extensive savings program.
“Eleven corrugated board plants will
be closed, and several others will be
streamlined,” Johansson said. “This
means a reduction of about 2,200 in the
number of employees.”
The program is expected to provide
SEK 1,070 million of savings, with full
effect starting from the second quarter
of 2010. This year, however, will see
a charge to income of SEK 1,7oo million
for the measures in the Packaging division.
NEt SAlES iNcrEASEd
by 3 PErcENt
OPErAtiNg PrOfit
dOwN 14 PErcENt
iMPrOvEd PrOfit cOMPArEd tO lASt quArtEr
Share of sales, Q1.
Share of operating profit, Q1.
Profit before tax, MSEK.
1,000
Packaging
4%
Tissue
36%
1,438
1,438
1,500
1,150
Packaging
26%
Personal Care
32%
1,946
1,703
Personal Care
23%
2,013
2,000
Forest
Products
26%
2,342
Forest
Products
15%
2,019
2,500
500
Tissue
38%
34*SCA SHAPE [ 2 *2009]
Q
Q
2/
20
0
3/ 7
20
Q
07
4
/2
0
07
Q
1/
20
0
Q
2/ 8
20
0
Q
3/ 8
20
Q
0
8
4
/2
0
0
Q
8
1/
20
0
9
0
www.libero.se
SC A Products AB
TIGER COLLECTION 2009
For sman & B odenfor s
Kan man hitta
besparingar
utan at t göra
avkall
på kvalitén?
Är det möjligt att
minska lagret
av förpackningar
utan att betala mer?
Är den enkel
att öppna,
packa upp
och göra sig
av med?
www.scapackaging.se
Hjälper
förpackningen
till att
marknadsföra
produkten?
att
t
e
d
Går
ina
l
k
n
före ingen?
n
pack
Breda krav ger bättre
förpackningsekonomi
Förpackningen är en del av din produkt.
Alltså måste du bredda kraven på din förpackningsleverantör. På SCA Packaging är
vi mogna för nya frågor. Välkommen att
ställa oss mot väggen.
Ad in Swedish, encouraging customers to increase
their requirements on their packaging supplier.