Solutions by industry · Pulp, Paper & Forest Products
In asset-intensive forest industries, an individual mill can often justify another project. Leadership still has to decide where limited capital will create the greatest long-term value across the entire asset portfolio. Weissr connects mill strategy, capital allocation, budgeting and Capex Management so those choices can be compared in one view.
Trusted by leading industrial organisations
In short
Capex planning in pulp and paper is about deciding where capital will create the most value across an entire portfolio of mills and converting plants, not simply assessing projects site by site.
02 · Industry Capex reality
Every mill naturally has investments that improve reliability, efficiency, sustainability or capacity. Headquarters has a different responsibility: deciding where the company should invest across the whole network, given the capital actually available.
Investment intake still runs as scattered spreadsheets, manually merged into one master file every planning cycle.
Approval workflows sit disconnected from the original request, so the same numbers are re-entered by hand at every stage.
Leadership needs one system from request creation through post-completion review instead of separate tools at each mill.
The result is local optimisation, with individual mills optimising for themselves rather than for company-wide long-term cash flow.
03 · Strategic decisions
Mills, machines and converting assets are evaluated together, on the cash flow of the company as a whole, against the capital the company actually has.
04 · Capex Strategy
Weissr models every credible alternative for a mill or converting asset, including invest, hold, convert and divest, against the rest of the portfolio and a “do nothing” baseline. The comparison becomes apples-to-apples across the network rather than mill-by-mill in isolation.
05 · Capex Management
Inside the allocated frame, Weissr handles requests, approvals, budgets, forecasts and post-completion review in one system, instead of the manual consolidation of site files that most mills rely on today.
06 · The asset network
Capital flows toward the highest-value nodes, while lower-value assets are flagged for maintain, run-for-cash or exit review.
Integrated pulp mill
Modernisation vs. sustaining capital
Paper machine
Grade conversion alternative modelled
Converting plant
Capacity expansion under review
Sawmill
Reliability and automation investment
Energy & recovery
Decarbonisation pathway
Legacy asset
Run for cash / exit alternative
Weissr capital portfolio
One prioritised portfolio across the mill network
07 · Capex Strategy in practice
“We have actively deployed the Weissr approach to capital allocation and have executed investments that are creating real competitive advantage.”
Stephen Scherger
EVP & CFO, Graphic Packaging International
“It is extraordinary and nothing short of dropping a bomb in the world of capital allocation. This is not an incremental improvement. It's a radical transformation of how you allocate capital.”
John Williams
CEO, Domtar Corporation
Customer stories
“We have actively deployed the Weissr approach to capital allocation and have executed investments that are creating real competitive advantage.”
Stephen Scherger
EVP & CFO
potential uplift in future cash flow
“The simplicity in the methodology has helped us focus on company cash flow and long-term strategy.”
Henrik Sjölund
President & CEO
strategic alternatives compared
One platform for the capital cycle
Software solution
Decide where capital should go.
Model long-term investment alternatives across the entire asset portfolio and understand which path creates the greatest long-term value.
Add-on module for Capex Management
Turn strategic priorities into capital allocation.
Reconcile strategic direction with bottom-up investment demand and allocate budgets across the organisation.
Software solution
Control what happens next.
Manage requests, budgets, approvals, forecasts and investment follow-up in one governed environment.
Capex outcomes
Strategic
Capital is directed to the highest-value mills and assets, not the loudest requests.
Financial
A Global Packaging Company case identified a +40% increase in future discounted cash flow.
Operational
More than 25% less time spent assembling capex data, as seen at a Nordic saw milling group. Read the customer story
$700B+
Value of assets analysed in Weissr
1,000+
Production sites globally
ISO 27001
Certified information security
Enterprise-grade security and governance across every deployment
Capex Maturity Assessment
Answer a short set of questions on process, data, visibility and cash flow, and get a report showing your level in each area.
Take the assessmentCapex explained
Capex planning in pulp and paper is about deciding where capital will create the most value across an entire portfolio of mills and converting plants, not simply assessing projects site by site.
That perspective has become increasingly important after decades of consolidation across the global pulp and paper industry. Companies are often managing large, mature production networks where the real question is not only which projects to fund, but which sites and assets should continue to receive capital over the long term.
Historically, the industry has also seen significant investment go into sites that were later scaled back or closed. Good Capex planning therefore means looking beyond the immediate project case and comparing sustaining, modernisation, expansion, conversion and, where relevant, exit alternatives on a common financial basis across the portfolio.
Once priorities are set, those decisions then need to carry through budgeting, execution and post-completion review.
By comparing every mill’s strategic alternatives (sustaining, modernisation, expansion, conversion, run-for-cash and exit) on one common financial basis, and then selecting the combination that creates the greatest long-term discounted cash flow within the available capital, rather than approving mill requests in isolation.
Capex Strategy decides where capital should go across the mill network over the long term. Capex Management governs what happens once capital is allocated: requests, approvals, budgets, forecasts, execution and post-completion review. Both are needed; they answer different questions.
Each option is modelled as a full strategic alternative with its own investment profile, cash flows, risks and timing, then evaluated against every other alternative in the portfolio. Leadership sees the value of converting one asset versus maintaining another rather than reviewing each case separately.
It depends on scope and the number of sites, but published Weissr cases include a Nordic Saw Milling Company that went from start to an operational system in nine weeks, with over 25% less time spent on capex processes afterwards.
Yes. In the published Global Packaging Company case, more than 100 full-scale strategic alternatives were modelled including a do-nothing baseline, which is what makes it possible to judge whether an investment genuinely beats the alternative of not investing.
A conversion changes the asset’s future cash flows, market exposure and remaining useful life, so it must be compared against modernisation, new capacity elsewhere and divestment on the same basis, not evaluated only against the status quo of that single machine.
One published European pulp, paper and packaging company piloted the Capex Strategy process at divisional level, then scaled globally with a six-month train-the-trainer program, divisional Capex Strategy Committees and a Group Strategy Forum.
