Although most of the world’s biggest consumers for dissolving pulp are in Asia, there is one success story much closer to home.

Freudenberg is a global technology group with around 50,000 employees in some 60 countries and annual sales of more than 9.4 billion euros in 2018. The Group’s headquarters are in Weinheim, Germany.

Among its many applications is sponge-cloth. Freudenberg is best known for leading brands Wettex and Vileda – the former is market leader in the Nordic region with around 50% of the sponge-cloth market.

Magnus Swartz, supply chain manager for Freudenberg Home and Cleaning Solutions, Sweden, explains that the company’s relationship with Södra began in 2014 when Södra started to supply a small proportion of the mill’s pulp, rising gradually to 50% and then to sole supplier today. “We saw a cost benefit to having one supplier but also enhanced performance. Södra’s hardwood dissolving pulp has very high purity levels. Although we don’t spin our fibres, we are like a small viscose plant in that ours is a chemical process. The more impurities in the pulp, the more reactions you get and therefore the more chemicals you need. Since this is now a very clean process due to the high level of purity in Södra’s dissolving pulp, we have been able to reduce our chemical usage as well as seeing a very good-quality sponge-cloth at the end, which is fantastic.”

Dag: “We’re extremely pleased with our cooperation so far. Face-to-face technical meetings and discussions have really paid off. Long may it continue!”