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Tissue World 2011 drew over 2000 visitors from 88 countries

Nice, France... The Tissue World 2011 show (www.tissueworld.com), organised by UBM Asia (www.ubmasia.com) during 28-31 March at Acropolis Convention Centre in Nice, France, attracted over 2,000 tissue professionals from an impressive 88 countries around the globe. Tissue World is world’s largest gathering place for the soft tissue paper business, covering products such as facial tissue, household paper towels, toilet tissue, handkerchiefs and table napkins. These tissue products are a very important category in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) business, with an estimated global value amounting to USD70 billion per annum.

This year is special as the entire tissue chain, from major global wood pulp suppliers to some of the world’s biggest retailers, were in attendance. Of course, Tissue World is still centred on tissue production at paper mills and converting plants but now we have successfully broadened it both back to raw material supply and forward to retailers.”

Excellent keynote from Kimberly-Clark
The management and technical conference, attended by a record 360 professionals, got off to a good start on Monday (March 28) with a very informative keynote speech by Suhas Apte, Global Vice President of Sustainability at Kimberly-Clark, producers of the world-famous Kleenex brand.

Entitled ‘A Better World through Sustainability’, the presentation kicked off with a humorous video that Greenpeace had made following its cease-fire in the Kleercut fiber sourcing war that had been going on for five years between the two groups. Apte said this showed how hardened enemies could find common ground and that K-C, while renowned for its positive sustainability efforts over many decades, was now after the Greenpeace fight moving faster than ever in terms of sustainability and environmental compatibility. “It was a tough fight,” he said, “but we learned a lot and are today a much better company for it.”

His agenda covered External Forces Affecting Tissue Industry; Sustainability Drivers, ROI, Practices; and Sustainability at Kimberly-Clark. Following this Mats Berencreutz, President of SCA Tissue Europe; and Riccardo Balducci, Environmental Manager of the Sofidel Group, gave excellent speeches outlining their viewpoints on sustainability. A common theme for all three of the speeches was that the business case for sustainability is very strong and in many ways will continue to strengthen in coming years.

Greenpeace: Cooperation over confrontation
Following these presentations, the next speaker up was from Greenpeace, which had been invited to Tissue World for the first time ever. Many delegates said they were not quite sure what to expect: confrontation or cooperation. The speaker, Chiara Campione from Greenpeace, Italy, did an excellent job of explaining why Greenpeace exists, what their aims and objectives are, and how they are willing to work together with progressive corporations, instead of always being in the confrontational mode.

While underlining that there are still pulp and paper companies that are acting very irresponsibly with respect to the environment, she was overall very engaging and gave a very constructive presentation.

Busy show floor
On the show floor, which featured more than 180 leading suppliers of equipment, technology and solutions to the tissue business, there was an incredible level of activity. Both exhibitors and visitors were buzzing about a wide variety of new expansion projects being considered. “I was shocked by the number of visitors who turned up at our booth to talk to us. We could have used two more conference rooms to handle all the meetings,” said Marco Marcheggiani, president of Metso, the world’s largest supplier of tissue machines.

Another exhibitor, Clay Campbell, Global Tissue Business Development Manager at chemical supplier Kemira, explained: “It was crazy. At one point we had executives from four major tissue companies at our booth waiting to discuss our latest solutions. This is the first time we have exhibited at Tissue World Nice and we are, of course, incredibly pleased with the result.”

For more information, please contact Ms Gwen Ng / Jessica Pang at Tel: (65) 65 65920890/893, Fax: (65) 64386090, Email: gwen.ng@ubm.com / jessica.pang@ubm.com or refer to our website at www.tissueworld.com