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A bulk purchase of toilet and kitchen paper
Photo: Rene Traut / dpa
Not everyone can do something with the company name Essity spontaneously.
The made-up word summarizes the English terms "essentials" and "necessaryities".
But when you know that the Swedish company is one of the very big manufacturers of tissue paper, the name makes perfect sense - because such products are indeed quite necessary and essential.
For example the toilet paper.
If anyone can remember the seemingly endless beginnings of the corona pandemic last year: That was the stuff that was either hoarded in large quantities at home - or that suddenly was no longer available in the supermarket: toilet paper, Handkerchiefs and kitchen towels.
The time of scarcity is long gone, of course, but now there is again bad news: Essity has announced that the products will be significantly more expensive.
You will have to increase the prices by a total of almost 20 percent "to compensate for the cost development," said the head of the company's consumer goods business, Volker Zöller, the news portal "T-Online".
"What has happened in our industry in the last few weeks is no longer normal."
Company wants to adjust contracts
Toilet paper is made from recycled materials such as waste paper and from short-fiber cellulose such as eucalyptus wood.
The pulp prices in particular have "gone through the roof," Essity now explains.
Then there are the current logistics problems.
»The logistics prices have quadrupled in some cases.
That made the situation even worse, ”said Zöller.
“The situation will not ease in the next few months.
Price increases are therefore inevitable. "
Talks with retailers will soon be started, if not already done.
»We have open contracts with most customers, so we can react more quickly.
But long-term contracts also urgently need to be adapted, "emphasized Zöller.
"I assume that the cost development will also be reflected in the shelf prices."
Essity sells brands such as Zewa, Tempo and Tork.
The company's most important competitors include the Italian Sofidel with its Regina products and the German company Wepa, which, among other things, produces many own brands on behalf of retail chains.
chs / dpa