Helsinki, Finland, 31 August 2011 -- (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UPM Plywood plans to clarify its operations model and to streamline the organization. To implement the plan, UPM Plywood is starting cooperative negotiations with employees on restructuring of its headquarter operations, sales, and mill maintenance in Finland.

The planned restructuring to improve efficiency would reduce UPM Plywood’s personnel in the headquarter operations and sales to a maximum of 75 persons and in mill maintenance in Finland to a maximum of 50 persons. The goal of the planned actions is to streamline the organization, clarify management and decision-making, improve operational efficiency, and improve competitiveness in the highly competed market.

”The cornerstones of our strategy are first-class customer service, operational excellence, and continuous renewal. By developing and clarifying our way of operation we aim to ensure that we can fulfil the changing customer needs even better than before. Our highly skilled personnel, the best known brand in the business, and our versatile product range provide us with a solid ground to develop our operations also in the future. However, we also have to improve our cost competitiveness continuously,” said Kim Poulsen, senior vice president, UPM Plywood.

The cooperative negotiations will start immediately, and will be conducted in accordance with each country’s local legislation. The goal is to complete the negotiations by the end of October.

UPM Plywood offers high-quality plywood and veneer products mainly for use by the construction, transport, and furniture industries. The sales of UPM Plywood in 2010 were EUR 347 million and it has about 2600 employees. UPM has six plywood mills and a veneer mill in Finland, and plywood mills in Russia and Estonia. For additional information, visit www.wisaplywood.com.