Jaakko Pöyry Group and paperX.com Announce Exclusive Co-operation Agreement


Jaakko Pöyry Consulting, the world’s leading consultant to the forest industry and a Jaakko Pöyry Group company, and paperX.com, the first central marketplace focused on the European paper industry have announced on March 6, 2000 an exclusive co-operation agreement. PaperX.com will operate an independent exchange for sellers and buyers in the EUR 50 billion European paper and packaging market. PaperX.com will go live in Summer 2000.

Jaakko Pöyry Consulting has, over the last two months, assisted paperX.com in the design of the core exchange and the refinement of the value proposition. Jaakko Pöyry Consulting will provide to paperX.com market research and data and offer continuous advice on technology, business development and activities to paper buyers and suppliers.

Commenting on the announcement, Rainer Häggblom, Chairman and CEO of Jaakko Pöyry Consulting, said; "I believe the paperX.com solution will provide real value to all participants in the European paper industry and provide the opportunity to make the industry truly global. It will allow participants to significantly reduce interaction costs and improve supply chain management. The increased liquidity and transparency in the market place will improve overall industry efficiency."

Lars Åke Helgesson, Member of the Board of paperX.com stated: "It is with great pleasure that we announce this partnership agreement. Jaakko Pöyry Consulting are the undisputed world leaders in their field, and their knowledge of the paper business is without parallel in the industry." Bjarne Lie, CEO of PaperX.com continues: "This relationship will help ensure that we design and build exactly what the industry wants. Jaakko Pöyry Consulting’s customer segmentation and activity-based costing analysis of sales and marketing costs in the paper industry has already provided important insights for our ongoing development efforts."

Jaakko Pöyry Group is a client- and technology-oriented, globally operating consulting and engineering firm with offices in more than 30 countries. It has three core areas of expertise: forest industry, energy and infrastructure & environment. Group companies employ 4500 people. Group net sales are about EUR 400 million.

JAAKKO PÖYRY GROUP OYJ

Erkki Pehu-Lehtonen
Teuvo Salminen