Sappi has set its sights on shaping the future of the labels in Europe, hand-in hand with customers – as Gratkorn’s new mill director makes clear
Recent years have seen significant changes and developments at Sappi’s flagship label papers mill in Austria – alongside tens of millions of euros in future-focused investment. The latest step in this extensive programme dedicated to expanding and augmenting our labels offer at the mill came recently with the appointment of Martti Savelainen as Mill Director.
Savelainen is a man with clear views on how Gratkorn can redefine industry standards in wet glue labels – and has a track record of delivering industry-best excellence at his previous role as mill director at Kirkniemi in Finland. For him, Gratkorn’s state-of-the-art technical infrastructure mean that current and future customers can rely on constant availability and full risk management.
The recent investments in Gratkorn – including the paper machine rebuild of PM9, new embossing calender and integrated reprocessing of industrial waste – position the mill as a central pillar in Sappi’s global label paper supply,
Martti Savelainen, Sappi Gratkorn’s Mill Director
“The combination of vertical integration, modern automation and high‑efficiency energy systems allows us to produce label papers with exceptional consistency and sustainability performance.
“With PM9, we now operate one of the most advanced and largest-scale label machines in Europe – combining a wide deckle, high speed and sophisticated coating capabilities with strong economies of scale. This gives Sappi a clear ‘right to win’ in labels, enabling us to serve global customers with competitive cost, year-round capacity and reliable supply.”
Delivering the quality and reliability the market demands
For Savelainen and the whole team, “exceptional consistency” and “exceeding customer expectations” are fundamental. “Consistency is key across all grades,” he says. “We use a combination of inline monitoring, advanced automation and targeted label‑specific measurements such as Cobb, ink retention, curl behaviour and wet‑strength performance. These ensure that we can deliver the level of quality the market expects – reel after reel.”
And it’s the market that defines the standards that the mill works to – and the goals it sets. “Converters, printers, bottlers and even recyclers all influence the performance envelope,” Savelainen continues. “We look at the full chain – printability, adhesion on different containers, visual appearance in retail, and recyclability. It’s the combination of these parameters that ensures that a Gratkorn label paper meets the needs of the whole value chain. Our monitoring includes inline sensors, laboratory validation and statistical process control across key variables.”
Of course, technical excellence has to be combined with robust, end-to-end reliability if customers are to be served and supported well. “Label papers support fast‑moving consumer goods, where reliability is essential,” Savelainen stresses. “Our integrated site structure, new PM9 capacity and unique logistics system – including strategically positioned warehouses and decades of trading expertise – allow us to deliver stable service levels year‑round to all global regions.
“This is supported by our global order booking system, which creates transparency across planning, production and customer service. A balanced mix of production-to-order, customer stock agreements and strategically held standard material ensures flexibility and high OTIF performance – even in peak seasons.”
As PM9 continues its ramp-up phase, the focus remains firmly on embedding process discipline, developing teams around new technologies and ensuring a stable, high-performance transition for customers.
Listening to customer needs
It’s close alignment between the mill, R&D and Sappi’s extensive, experienced sales teams that sits at the heart of the commercial success of label papers such as Parade Label Pro and Parade Label WS – something that Flavio Froehli, Sappi Europe’s VP Marketing & Sales, is keen to highlight.
We work as an agile, unified team that listens closely to customer needs. This collaboration drives continuous improvement in both product performance and service reliability – and ensures that what the market needs is what we deliver.
Flavio Froehli, Sappi Europe’s VP Marketing & Sales
“A recent example was the structured roadmap we developed with customers during the PM9 transition, providing full transparency on qualification materials and accelerating testing processes. In another case, targeted feedback on wet opacity led to rapid optimisation, bringing performance to benchmark levels within months.”
Such high standards of delivery go hand-in-hand with valuable support. “Sappi is one of very few label providers whose technical teams are ready and available to problem solve on-site with customers,” Froehli continues. “We can also offer bespoke service solutions to individual customers – solutions tailored to result in impressive productivity savings.”
Working to improve sustainability across the value chain
At Gratkorn, switching to renewable fuels has been a long-term priority – hence the mill’s recent, extensive BioFit project to enhance biomass storage and handling capacity. Today, the mill operates three storage silos and a conveyor system to move biomass throughout the mill, alongside a railway depot to receive material by rail rather than only by road. As a result, at the end of BY25, Gratkorn was operating with 60% renewable energy – up from 56% in BY23, and 40% in BY21.
“With Scope 2 emissions effectively at zero due to our clean energy sources, and an integrated process from timber through to internal waste repulping, Gratkorn has an outstanding sustainability profile,” says Savelainen. “We are constantly improving raw material efficiency and investing in cleaner technologies. For me, our use of clean energy generated from pulp production residuals, the wood industry, hydropower and solar, sets new benchmarks for responsible label production.”
As with so much else to do with the mill, Sappi and customers, setting new sustainability standards is approached as a joint enterprise. “We work hand-in-hand with brand owners to map their sustainability targets,” says Froehli. “And to propose paper solutions that reduce CO₂ impact, improve circularity and lower waste throughout the label value chain.
“One exciting future opportunity is expanding the use of wet‑strength papers into PSL segments where filmic materials are currently dominant. This opens pathways to replace plastics with renewable, fibre-based solutions.”
Sustainability support also comes at a mill-to-customer level, as Savelainen is quick to point out: “We adapt formulations and processes to help customers with recyclability, lightweighting and material efficiency.”
Shaping the labels market of tomorrow
All in all, the investment, progress and commitment shown by Sappi and the hard-working teams at Gratkorn underline what Froehli describes as “our long-term belief in label paper and our ambition to shape the market together with our customers”.
The last word goes to Savelainen, as a mill director with his sights set very firmly on the future. “We have the right team, the right technology and a state‑of‑the‑art machine,” he says. “Seeing Gratkorn develop into a best‑in‑class label centre is already truly exciting.”
Related articles
Further modernisation at Gratkorn brings increased sustainability dividends
A new biomass feed has come into operation at Sappi’s Gratkorn mill in Austria, marking the latest step in our Europe-wide decarbonisation journey
When innovation meets its perfect match
How two pioneers push label design further with Parade Label WS
Why great quality shouldn’t be taken for granted in wet-strength wet-glue labelling
You need your labelling solution to sell your brand superbly – time after time. Your chosen solution needs to deliver on quality in a variety of ways.