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Sequana announces Antalis/Arjowiggins merger
Consolidation in the European paper market took yet another step forward as Sequana announced that Arjowiggins' fine and thin paper activities will be "ultimately integrated" within merchant Antalis.
French parent Sequana said following the reorganisation, its two subsidiaries will benefit more from each other's strengths.
The news comes as Arjowiggins chief executive Charles Dehelly abruptly left the company, with Sequana chief executive Pascal Lebard taking over as chairman and chief executive of Arjowiggins.
Lebard said: "The changes we are considering today are an active part of Sequana's strategy, which is definitely geared towards strengthening Antalis' specialised distribution business, in order to fully benefit from its position of European leader, while accelerating and promoting Arjowiggins' sales."
A spokeswoman for the company said the potential for staff redundancies was "not the issue at this early stage".
She said: "We will always inform firstly employee representatives of any project that could require prior consultation."
Elsewhere, the European Commission (EU) has approved the sale of M-real's Reflex mill to Arjowiggins.
The deal is subject to Arjowiggins divesting the Reflex carbonless and digital imaging businesses to a third party within 180 days time.
An industry insider said it remains to be seen how M-real or Arjowiggins take the matter further and whether the other carbonless paper mills show an interest to buy it.
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Comments
Colin Thompson - 09 June 2008
While customer retention and its goals have not changed, the entire customer retention business is busy reinventing itself from what it was just a few short years ago.
Whether new technologies drove new thinking or vice versa, it's hard to say. But, one think is for sure, what retention is - is really different. New reporting and tracking methods reveal how customers interact with content, not just, where they go and what they open. Smaller, but highly qualified audience segments based on customer intelligence are replacing broad, shallow pools derived solely from basic demographic information.
Moreover, customers are no longer sitting back and waiting for the next brand experience - they are finally having some say in developing it.
Simply put, the goal structure is as shown below:
Distinctive Capability - The clutch of skills or competencies that distinguishes the company from the competition and will enable it to seize the opportunities that arise in the future - whatever they may be.
Market/Product - The focus of application for the company's skills and competencies.
Identify - Communicating a clear, positive perception and image of the company to each of the audiences who are important to its future wellbeing.
People - Organising the skills and competencies of the company to meet the needs of the customers both now and in the future.
Profit/Performance - Defining the results expected.
! - Customising the strategy to meet the special needs of an organisation. Yes, Strategy Planning comes first; we need to know the `full` ingredients to be successful.
Consolidation is the future for survival!
Colin Thompson
Cavendish
www.cavendish-mr.org.uk
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