Werner Söderström Corporation of the SanomaWSOY Group will incorporate the operations of its book printing division in a new limited company, WS Bookwell Oy. The incorporatisation is part of the structural arrangement announced on 24 November 1999 by which WSOY Group?s printing units were organised as an autonomous business area.
Mr. Magnus Breitenstein, M.Sc. (Econ.), has been appointed Managing Director of the new company. He has served WSOY's book printing division since 1996, first as marketing manager and since November as the head of the division.
WS Bookwell Oy has production facilities in Porvoo (multi-colour printing) and Juva (1-colour line). These units printed 21.3 million books in 1998 for the Nordic markets; about 40% of the production is exported. The division's net sales in 1998 amounted to FIM 186.5 million, and the average number of personnel was 307. The entire personnel of WSOY's book printing division will transfer to WS Bookwell retaining their existing employment benefits.
WS Bookwell Oy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of WSOY and thus part of the SanomaWSOY Group. The new company has its registered office in Porvoo.
WSOY Group has been seeking new synergies for its printing operations during the autumn by organising them into an autonomous business area, led since the beginning of December by Mr. Pekka Pätynen, Director, business area Printing. WSOY's business area Printing comprises WS Bookwell Oy, Lönnberg Painot Oy which specialises in printed advertising products, and Tummavuoren Kirjapaino Oy, whose operations consist of digital printing. The net sales of the business area amount to FIM 320 million, and its units employ a total workforce of 500.
SANOMA-WSOY OYJ
Raija Kariola
Vice President
Investor Relations and Group Communications
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