M-REAL UPGRADES AVANTA BOARDS TO OFFER SUPERIOR PRINTABILITY WITH A MORE GENEROUS YIELD

Avanta Prima, have been upgraded, and now offer superior printability combined with a more generous yield. The virgin fibre Avanta grades are especially designed for demanding end uses such as beautycare packaging, while Avanta Prima is also ideal for healthcare end uses.

Foilability of Avanta Ultra is now improved, as a result of its higher visual smoothness. Its brightness has been increased from 89% to 90% ISO brightness, providing even better colour contrast, wide colour range and quick colour matching.

Both Avanta Ultra and Avanta Prima have been light-weighted by 2-4%, but without loss of thickness and stiffness. Lightweighting gives better yield per tonne, providing cost savings across the whole supply chain from converter to consumer, as well as improved sustainability.

The moisture content of both Avanta Ultra and Avanta Prima has increased, enhancing the cutting and creasing properties of the boards. In addition, the consistency of both grades has been improved due to tighter grammage tolerance.

Production of the improved grades started at M-real’s Kyro Mill (in Finland) from 1st March 2007.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Avanta Ultra: A fully coated folding boxboard (GC1) for beautycare and other demanding packaging. Suitable for offset, gravure and flexo printing.

Avanta Prima: A fully coated folding boxboard (GC2) for healthcare, beautycare, food and consumer durable packaging. Suitable for offset, gravure and flexo printing.

M-real Corporation, headquartered in Finland and employing over 14,000 people, is a European paper and paperboard company, providing premium solutions for consumer packaging, communications and advertising end-uses. Through its worldwide sales network, M-real serves its customers who mostly comprise publishers, printers, paper merchants, offices and well-known consumer product companies and carton printers.

M-real Corporation is listed on the OMX Helsinki Stock Exchange. The sales of the in 2006 were EUR 5.6 billion. M-real is part of the Metsäliitto Group. With sales of EUR 8.5 billion, Metsäliitto Group is the eighth largest forest industry group in the world.

For further information please contact:

Mr. Markku Romano, Vice President New Accounts, M-real Consumer Packaging

tel: +32 (0)2 227 66 60
e-mail: markku.romano@m-real.com