Trailmaker customer 3D fibre product project in Metsä Spring: Strong internal support is vital in developing new businesses

Metsä Group builds new competitive edge through innovation. Metsä 3D fibre product is a development project that aims at building a significant new business based on sustainable packaging solutions. The goal is to replace packaging solutions made of plastics and aluminium.

Metsä Group’s innovation company Metsä Spring started to construct a 3D fibre product pilot plant in Äänekoski, Finland, in December 2020. The 20 million € investment is made together with Valmet. The plant is scheduled to start operations in late 2021.

“We have an ambitious goal to build a significant new business based on the top competence of Metsä Group, Valmet and several other companies. We will use sustainable wood fibre as our raw material and produce first-class packages while minimizing the total environmental impact of the manufacturing and maximizing the positive effects in the use and end-of-life”, says Jarkko Tuominen, Project Lead at Metsä Spring.

Jointly discussed plan

“Having a strong internal support for the project is vital. During the Trailmaker process, we formed a common view of the goals, implementation steps and resource needs”, says Tuominen.

Metsä’s top management, project management and key people from a current core business participated in the Trailmaker process. During the intensive process, the project, its objectives and progress were reviewed together from many perspectives.

“We can now refer to the jointly discussed plan, and everyone can see that the project is progressing systematically and as agreed."

TRAILMAKER is a concept for faster strategy execution:

• Concrete common view and commitment

• Identified capability needs

• Visibility

12.5.2021