Tieto Study: Where Is the Tissue Industry Heading? Insights from Global Producers

Tieto (formerly Tietoevry), in collaboration with Tissue World, has conducted the Global Tissue Market Study 2025, drawing on insights from 82 tissue-producing companies across 24 countries on five continents. The findings reveal a fundamental shift in how tissue producers are redefining their strategic priorities.

The study was structured around four key themes: market trends, digitalization and AI, efficiency, and sustainability. It also includes a comparative analysis against our previous 2022 study, providing clear visibility into changes in priorities, investment behaviour, and execution gaps. The results highlight an industry navigating inflationary cost pressures, tightening sustainability requirements, growing operational complexity, and accelerating digital demands. 

One of the most significant findings is a realignment of strategic priorities. Customer satisfaction now shows the strongest consensus as a strategic focus, surpassing both sustainability and profitability. While profitability remains essential, it is increasingly pursued through customer-centricity and operational efficiency rather than as a standalone objective. At the same time, digitalization supported by MES, ERP and S&OP systems with artificial intelligence have moved to centre stage as the primary enablers of business transformation and data driven operations.

“Continuous operational efficiency improvements, optimising energy use, the usage of raw materials, and meeting regulatory compliance cannot be managed without advanced information systems providing high-quality and trustworthy data. The new technology fast development, especially in digital and GenAI, also underscores the importance of capable and committed talents with combined new technology and industry know-how. This, together with aging and industry transformation, explains why leading players are investing heavily in upskilling across digital, operational, and industry-specific domains to build resilient, future-ready businesses,” says Jarmo Ropponen, Head of APAC and Head of Tissue, Pulp, Paper & Fibre, Tieto Indtech.

What we also found is that many companies are lacking behind and companies aiming for future success must be prepared to take bold strategic actions now. Sustainability and efficiency need to be embedded into business models, and day-to-day operations require a strong digital operational backbone in the fast-changing and very volatile market.

Explore further and download your copy of the complete whitepaper. 

For further information, please contact: 
Jarmo Ropponen, jarmo.ropponen@tieto.com
Head of APAC and Head of Tissue
Pulp, Paper & Fibre, Tieto Indtech

Arto Huuhilo, arto.huuhilo@tieto.com
Global Head of Business Development
Pulp, Paper & Fibre, Tieto Indtech

Tieto is a leading software and digital engineering services company with global market reach and capabilities. We provide customers across different industries with mission-critical solutions through our specialized software businesses Tieto Caretech, Tieto Banktech and Tieto Indtech, as well as our digital engineering business Tieto Tech Consulting. Our around 15 000 talented vertical software, design, cloud and AI experts are dedicated to empowering our customers to succeed and innovate with latest technology.

Tieto’s annual revenue is approximately EUR 2 billion. The company’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ exchange in Helsinki and Stockholm, as well as on Oslo Børs. www.tieto.com