How was 2022 for Solaris Paper? What were the highlights? What were the challenges?

For us, 2022 was full of significant highlights. The away from home market returned to its ‘new normal’ as people returned to workplaces, with the segment reporting year-on-year growth. 2022 also marked a full year of our new Sorbent Professional brand roll out, and after completing rigorous testing, we introduced the official Australian Made logo on our Sorbent Professional TAD hand towel range.

Using similar TAD paper technology to Handee Ultra, the TAD hand paper making and conversion to interleave towel is done in Australia. This supports Australian jobs as well as providing certainty and flexibility of supply for this important product, critical in hand hygiene, particularly in healthcare.

Finally, another highlight was winning the INCLEAN Excellence Award at the ISSA Cleaning & Hygiene Expo for our Sorbent Professional Jumbo toilet paper.

However, the year was not without its many challenges. The global supply chain crisis, as well as the availability and cost of containers, hit a peak in 2022, causing out of stocks and price rises on all imported products, however this has thankfully started to right size.

Pallet shortages was also another critical issue. Multiple factors caused this, including difficulty in importing wood to make pallets due the shipping crisis, combined with businesses stockpiling stock and pallets as a buffer to what may come.

Other challenges also included staff shortages, both due to illness as well as a tight labour market, as well as significant cost increases in raw materials, packaging, fuel, and energy which are all set to continue in 2023.

What are Solaris Paper’s main priorities for 2023?

Now we have full supply and hopefully, a more ‘normal’ year, we are looking forward to significant growth for our customers.

Our priority is to continue to grow the Sorbent Professional range with new product development, and we are happy to say we will continue the development of Australian-made products in our significant production facility in Melbourne.

What do you see as the main challenges the market is facing in 2023?

Hybrid working from home and office is the new normal, particularly with a tight employment market, which is likely to continue for the next few years.

On the one hand that will mean less usage of consumables than previously, however, on the other hand, businesses continue to focus on hygiene, so the increased need for cleaning products remains.

We are also seeing a shift from air dryers to hand towel for increased hand hygiene compliance, combined with more sanitiser, sanitising wipes, and facial tissue as more people come back to the office.

With hand hygiene continuing to be a priority for all, particularly in healthcare, we see a continuing switch to the more absorbent and therefore effective TAD hand towel which is softer on frequently washed hands.

What steps is Solaris Paper taking to create a more sustainable supply chain?

Solaris Paper is uniquely part of a vertically integrated company, owning from seed to finished goods which compared to our competitors, gives us more visibility and control over our supply chain.

Over the past 10 years, Solaris Paper and our supply partner APP have worked hard to ensure a sustainable and responsibly sourced supply chain and our independently audited commitments include no deforestation and no illegal logging.

Our sustainable plantations in Indonesia grow a combination of rapidly renewable Acacia and Eucalyptus which, in a tropical environment, reach full maturity in five years (vs old growth forest that take up to 25 years). As a result, we plant 1 million trees a day, every day – that is true sustainability in action!

Our goal is to demonstrate responsible business practices throughout our global operations and supply chain – working in harmony with local communities, as well as protecting forests, peatlands, and biodiversity.

To be successful, we know that we need to demonstrate the clear links between our products and production processes, and the needs of our customers.

We are independently audited annually across the supply chain by PEFC and SEDEX. PEFC is the largest certifier in the world, certifying two-thirds of the world’s sustainable forests. All Solaris Paper tissue paper products are 100 per cent PEFC certified, exclusively sourced from plantations (no mix).  SEDEX certifies our responsible sourcing

In Australia, with Solaris Paper’s Away from Home range, most of our products are made from sustainable virgin fibre and are packaged in sustainable and recyclable packaging (wrapped in paper and in recycled cartons).

We are working towards removing plastic packaging. For example, our Australian made Sorbent Professional hand towel wrap will move to paper in the new year.

That leaves the window in the tissue boxes that performs an important hygiene seal, and some jumbo toilet rolls that come in plastic bales. The challenge is the extra cost of changing to cartons, so we are exploring how to move forward.

Are there any key sustainability commitments Solaris Paper has made for 2023? How will you measure your progress?

In 2012, APP established a Sustainability Roadmap Vision (SRV), our comprehensive strategy for sustainability. While the vast majority of our targets in SRV 2020 have been achieved, with the recent developments, we have realised that we need to expand the scope of our commitments to sustainability.

With that in mind, we created the SRV 2030 through an extensive review from our internal team and external resource. Compared to SRV 2020, this evolution covers an increased range of issues and aligned well with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

We are committed to transparently disclosing our sustainability journey through our Sustainability Dashboard and annual Sustainability Reports, aligned with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards.

We work with a number of partners including EcoVadis, CDP, Sustainalytics and Spott.  In order to be part of the solution to the global issues and to keep track of global trends and updates, we are part of several global platforms including the UN Compact.

What learnings has the company taken from the challenges faced over the past 12 months?

These last three years have taught us to be flexible and to ‘pivot’ (an overused but still very relevant word!) to quickly find work arounds for unexpected problems.

We have also become even more integrated – we know so much more about supply chain than we ever did.  The solutions we have established over the past couple of years have set us up with more flexibility for what the future may hold.

What advice would you give to fellow leaders in the cleaning industry?

Keep your customers happy with quality as it’s the little touches that leave a lasting impression and continue to work closely with suppliers to optimise your business.

This first appeared in the January/February issue of INCLEAN magazine. Read the original article here. 

Comment below to have your say on this story.

If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at info@incleanmag.com.au

Sign up to INCLEAN’s newsletter.