UPM makes an impact

UPM Kymmene’s big bold stand conveyed not just the size of its operations, but also their breadth.

The Finnish forest products giant recently rebranded as “The BioFore Company” to highlight its stretch from biofuels to plywood and its Ecobuild presence carried through the message.

As well as its WISA Plywood brand, the company gave a prominent showing to its ProFi Deck – in fact it covered 40m² of the stand. The composite is based principally on waste plastic and paper its self-adhesive label operations, plus an element of virgin fibre.

“Using paper fibre means it’s lignin free, so doesn’t grey like other wood-fibre based decking,” said Edward Robinson. “This is definitely a growth product for us. In the US composites account for 20% of all decking sales now, and in Germany, Holland and France its 10%. And we see growing prospects in the UK, where ProFi Deck is distribute through Travis Perkins. At Ecobuild it’s attracted interest from architects, designers and landscape gardeners.”

Also featured on the stand was UPM Façade coloured softwood cladding which is end-matched and requires no further finishing on site. This is currently being sold in the UK by James Donaldon & Sons and has been used on the Aurora eco-homes pilot project by South Lanarkshire College.