Stora Enso was formed in 1998 through the merger of the Finnish company Enso Oyj and the Swedish company Stora Kopparbergs Bergslags Aktiebolag (STORA).
With roots going back as far as the 1300’s, Stora Enso has had many forms with diverse operations, overseas expansion, mergers and acquisitions, all the while meeting new business challenges. Change is very much a part of our heritage, and our ability to adapt has been the foundation of our endurance.

1288 is actually the first recorded documentation of Stora operations, namely copper mining near Falun, Sweden. This business progressed to become Stora Kopparbergs Bergslag in 1862, and encompass mining, iron, and wood activities. While it was several hundred years before any pulp, board or paper was produced, forestry was always a central part of the company. Wood was needed as fuel and for heating the copper ore to extract the metal. In the 1970s, Stora sold its mining and metal operations to focus on forestry, pulp and paper.

The Enso part of the company dates back to 1872, when the W. Gutzeit & Co sawmill firm was founded in Kotka, Finland, by the Norwegian Hans Gutzeit. It was the first steam-powered sawmill in Finland. In 1912, Gutzeit acquired the Enso träsliperi AB. By the late 1990s, following a number of mergers and acquisitions over the years, Enso-Gutzeit had become Finland's largest forestry company. In 1996, after a merger with Veitsiluoto, the company took the name Enso Oy.

Today, the transformation continues, as Stora Enso focuses on all the possibilities of renewable materials, with the forest as a foundation.

You can follow our company developments in more detail here (click the image to enlarge)