Monday, December 15, 2025
The blend of material science and premium design is driving the forestry industry into lucrative packaging markets, highlighted by Stora Enso‘s recent collaboration has successfully enhanced its innovative Papira® wood foam with a luxurious, fully customizable surface finish, unlocking new avenues for sustainable product aesthetics.
At the heart of this development is Papira®, Stora Enso’s plastic-free, cellulose-based packaging foam. Derived from wood fibre from sustainably managed Nordic forests, Papira® is positioned as a direct, lower environmental impact alternative to traditional fossil-based foams like expanded polystyrene (EPS) and polyethylene (PE).
Papira’s core value proposition aligns perfectly with the burgeoning global movement toward a circular bioeconomy:
The flocking breakthrough
The true innovation lies in the cross-industry partnership that has transformed Papira’s functional surface into an aesthetic feature. Stora Enso partnered with Krekelberg Flock Products and Flocktechniek – C&B Innovations to apply advanced flocking technology to the wood foam.
Flocking is a textile engineering technique that uses an electrostatic field to propel short micro-fibres onto an adhesive-coated substrate, creating a densely packed, vertically aligned, velvety texture.
For this sustainable application, the partners utilised a cellulose-based flock fibre supplied by Krekelberg. These fibres, derived from eucalyptus pulp, are also biodegradable and produced with water-based adhesives and FSC®-certified components, ensuring the surface treatment adheres to the same high environmental standards as the Papira® substrate itself.
The application was executed by Flocktechniek – C&B Innovations, who leveraged their industrial flocking expertise to ensure a high-quality, durable, and premium tactile effect on the unique cellulose-foam substrate. This technical achievement ensures that the finish is not only beautiful but also robust enough for protective packaging applications.
Unlocking creative freedom
The flocked Papira® structure opens a significant new design space for renewable materials. Unlike many recycled or bio-based products that have limited aesthetic versatility, the flocked finish offers brands full customisability:
Juulia Kuhlman, Director of Business Development at Stora Enso, emphasised the strategic importance of this development: “Sustainable materials shouldn’t limit creativity — they should expand it. This collaboration shows how Papira®’s renewable fibre structure can be enhanced for completely new surface expressions, demonstrating what’s possible when material innovation and design meet.”
This collaboration successfully challenges the long-held industry notion that choosing a sustainable, low-carbon material necessitates a compromise on high-end design, particularly in luxury, cosmetics, and electronics packaging, where tactile quality and visual appeal are paramount.
By integrating the protective capabilities of forestry-derived foam with a premium, renewable surface finish, the partnership between Stora Enso, Krekelberg, and Flocktechniek highlights a powerful model for the future of the circular economy: one where low-carbon performance and design freedom are seamlessly united in a single, innovative solution.
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Tags: cellulose flock, flocking technology, plastic-free packaging, protective packaging, renewable materials, sustainable design, Wood foam
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