ITOCHU Announces Formation of Capital and Business Partnership with Paptic Ltd

September 6, 2021

ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") announced today that ITOCHU has agreed on a capital and business partnership with Paptic Ltd (headquartered in Espoo, Finland ; hereinafter "Paptic") and acquired the company's shares.

PAPTIC is a new type of material made of sustainable wood fiber and its base of technology was initially developed by three founders of Paptic at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. (VTT). With its flexibility and strength, it has great potential to reduce environmental impact since it is reusable, recyclable along with paper supply chain, and biodegradable. ITOCHU was introduced to Paptic by the Commercial Section of the Embassy of Finland in 2020 and is now operating as Paptic's strategic marketing partner in Japan.

PAPTIC is chosen in various applications in Europe, such as carrier bags (alternative to paper bags) for high-end department stores and primary packaging (alternative to plastic) for a leading food and confectionery company in Finland, being highly rated as a solution to reduce environmental impact brought from other conventional packaging materials.
(In January 2021, PAPTIC won the WorldStar award, an international award for innovative packaging solutions organized annually by the World Packaging Organization (WPO). https://www.worldstar.org/winners_detail/304/2021/%20/%20/Finland/ )

Through this capital and business partnership with Paptic Ltd, ITOCHU acquired the exclusive marketing rights of PAPTIC, a new type of material, in the Japanese market. ITOCHU is firmly set to contribute to the reduction of environmental impact in Japan by promoting PAPTIC and developing further applications continuously.

ITOCHU has raised "Contribute to, and strengthen initiatives in the SDGs" as one of the Basic Policies in our medium-term management plan, and will accelerate to develop sustainable society by reducing its environmental impact by taking this business partnership with Paptic as a significant milestone to increase our focus on the eco-friendly wood-fiber-based material business.

Bouquet of roses wrapped in PAPTIC (courtesy of ROSE GALLERY)

PAPTIC packaging which won the WorldStar Award

Soft packaging for confectionary

Sewn drawstring bag

Carrier bag of high-end department store

Carrier bag (so thin that it can be seen through)

Outline of PAPTIC Ltd

Corporate name Paptic Ltd
Headquarters Espoo, Finland
Established 2015
Business Activities Development of packaging base papers,
manufacture (OEM) and licensing of packaging materials
URL https://paptic.com/
Revenue 1.3 million euros
Capital 4.2 million euros
Major shareholder VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. (VTT)