Sappi’s trading arm is headquartered in Hong Kong and manages a network of 11 sales offices serving more than 100 countries worldwide. Producing around 5.6 million tonnes of paper a year, Sappi provides full-service packaging for companies using speciality and graphic papers, and release liners. Sappi is also the world’s largest manufacturer of dissolving wood pulp, generating 1.3 million tonnes a year. Used by converters globally to create viscose fibre for fashionable clothing and textiles, dissolving wood pulp is also applied in a wide range of consumer and household products.

Sappi counts large international brand owners as among those who benefit from its extensive paper offerings, which are produced not just in Europe, but also in the United States. “We invest heavily to develop products in more than one site,” Wiersum says.

With growing interest in global sustainability programmes, Sappi has applied ecologically effective approaches to its business. Its innovations focus on developing bio-compostable products and processes that reduce waste. A lot of packaging today is either purely plastic-based or a combination of different layers of polymer films or coatings with paper, which hinders a product’s reusability and recyclability. Sappi develops more paper-based solutions that promote recycling without compromising a product’s internal protection. As the use of eco-friendly materials is gaining ground in China and across Asia, Sappi offers its technical knowledge to potential partners who share its passion.

“The regulatory standards and environmental requirements in China are now becoming stricter, and that is an opportunity for us because this is the world we know,” Wiersum says. “We are good at integrating business, people and the environment to continually create, evolve and inspire.”