30/09/2009 SAGA brand opens path to completely new cooking culture With the launch of its new SAGA brand this September, Metsä Tissue is unveiling a global branding strategy targeted at the baking, cooking, food processing and food service segments, designed to win the hearts, minds and loyalty of both consumers and professional customers. Our baking and cooking business has lacked a channel for uniform marketing communication. The offering has had a fragmented naming structure and, thus, relatively weak recognition in markets other than Finland, where the Serla brand is virtually a household name among consumers interested in baking and cooking. SAGA - with its slogan, ‘Lovely Little Things' - makes a tempting promise to customers worldwide: that big things can be achieved in cooking by changing small details. The SAGA brand story promotes an entirely new cooking culture leveraging the unique benefits of cooking paper: easy, efficient and hassle-free preparation of tasty, healthy, aromatic food - with the added bonus of less washing up and a clean conscience for having chosen an environmentally sound product. “We will introduce the benefits of cooking paper directly to end users in homes and workplaces where food is prepared. We want our message to reach every chef in every bakery, food factory, restaurant, hotel and other institution, as well as everyday chefs at home,” explains Mari Lappi-Kaipio, Vice President, Marketing. The new brand strategy will embrace all core processes from R&D and production to sales and marketing. Product innovations will accompany the new branding strategy. In future, the Metsä Tissue baking and cooking offering will be sold and marketed under the SAGA brand, except in Finland, where consumer cooking products will retain the familiar Serla brand name. Co-branding opportunities with Serla are being considered, too. The official launch of SAGA started this month in Germany, the largest baking and cooking market for Metsä Tissue. After Germany, SAGA will travel to Poland, France and Russia. “We are already strongly involved in the rapidly growing Eastern European markets and are continuing to seek out entirely new markets and segments,” says Raija Mörö, SVP, Baking and Cooking. For a starter kit packed with tips and valuable information, check out the www.sagacook.com website, a key element of the new branding campaign, and what will hopefully soon become a lively international forum for the growing SAGA community. For further information, please contact: Mari Lappi-Kaipio, mari.lappi-kaipio[at]metsatissue.com Tel. +358 1046 47449 Raija Mörö, raija.moro[at]metsatissue.com Tel. +358 1046 47610 SAGA is a new, high-quality brand for consumers and professionals in baking and cooking markets globally. With its smart, user-friendly features, SAGA makes it easy and inspiring to prepare, cook and serve tasty and healthy food. The SAGA offering consists of multipurpose food-grade and greaseproof cooking and baking papers. SAGA is a registered trademark of Metsä Tissue, the world's leading supplier of cooking papers.