Market trends
Handling tumultuous times in the tissue and towel market Article by Richard Cho, Global Marketing Director, Tissue and Towel Solenis
The unfolding of the past several months has led to more unpredictability than any of us could have imagined. Stayat-home orders, social distancing guidelines and consumer panic buying have created major irregularities in tissue and towel market dynamics and consumption patterns. These challenges also present a great opportunity to help tissue and towel producers adapt and respond to these sudden changes.
PUSHING FOR PRODUCTIVITY
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s consumers around the world actively stockpiled supplies and household staple items, tissue makers were pushed to maximize production. In some countries, bath tissue sales increased by more than 50% during the early months of the pandemic. Though machine utilization rates spiked to nearly , there ere still difficulties meeting demand. or Solenis, being part of a larger effort to help customers increase output through higher production efficiency as an opportunity to transform our expertise and capabilities into tangible benefits for our customers and, ultimately, for consumers ho rely on their products every day. Our teams partnered with tissue makers across the globe to help optimize wet-end process and coating stability to improve productivity and paper quality. These efforts have helped multiple customers achieve record machine speeds to meet the unexpected surge in demand. Beyond great chemistry and applications, many of our customers have also leveraged the Solenis OPTIX™ Applied Intelligence adaptive analytics platform to optimize their papermaking processes and meet quality targets. We have documented successes in reducing off-spec tissue production by helping customers significantly improve et tensile target adherence and reduce variability.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Richard Cho has held the position of global marketing director for Solenis Tissue & Towel since 2016. In this role, he is responsible for developing the global strategy, driving the innovation pipeline and leading digital communication for this vertical market. Prior to Solenis, Richard was the director of global marketing for Industrial Specialties at Ashland. Earlier in his career, Richard held brand management positions at Diageo and Campbell Soup Company. He holds a Master of Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
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PAPERFIRST MAG Autumn 2020
