More and more gingerbread biscuits are being exported from Annas Pepparkakor AB in Sweden. 70 years after its foundation the company is now the world's largest manufacturer, producing over 2 500 tons annually. This is the equivalent of an impressive 500 million gingerbread biscuits. Half of these already go to international partners in a couple of dozen markets. The giant Swedish department store IKEA is one of those who have contributed to this export success.

Ensocoat SBS board, which is manufactured by Stora Enso Packaging Boards, has been selected as the principal card material for the Hallmark Cards in the Dutch market. The choice was based on the board's brightness, good stiffness and overall service together with the company's aim to cut costs. Stora Enso Packaging Boards and Hallmark Cards Nederland B.V. signed a long-term partnership agreement in December 1999. The wholesalers are Bührmann-Ubbens.

New packaging application has been launched on the European sausage and cured meat packaging markets. Sausages and cured meats can now be packed in a paper-lidded vacuum pack which provides the same barrier properties as aluminium or plastic. The superior printability of the paper lid contributes to enhancing the appeal of the product on the shop shelf.

A muesli package which does not require an inner bag was launched on the market in Norway this autumn. This is a CTMP based packaging concept designed for Europe's extensive muesli and breakfast cereal market to guarantee good barrier properties. Stora Enso Packaging Boards' Performa Barr board is now used in all the muesli packs of Regal Mölle's Bajas product family.

The launch of a series of square and rectangular tubes in sizes up to 300 x 300 mm and 400 x 200 mm by Stalatube Oy will open up novel applications in the transport, building, offshore and heavy engineering industries. The stainless steel hollow sections offer the prospect of stronger bearing steel sections in construction applications and lighter vehicle body designs.

The National Pension Insurance Fund (The 6th AP-Fund) and the venture capital company Emerging Technologies invest 9.3 million Euros in the Swedish company Linq, which is opening up an office in London shortly. Linq has developed the product family LinqPortal for complete corporate portals, a fast growing market in both Europe and the U.S. The corporate portals bring all the information and functions that earlier were spread all over the intranet and other technical systems together, and in that way makes it clear and useful. This makes it possible for big companies to function as small companies where all the information is shared between the co-workers.

Clothing, shoes and accessories in fish-leather could be the height of fashion in the 21st century. "More and more fashion houses are showing an interest in fish-leather," says Susanne Bergholtz, joint owner of Sea Skin Scandinavia, Sweden's only tannery for salmon leather. According to the company, fish-leather is as exclusive as lizard, snake and other exotic leathers, making it an excellent material for the clothing and shoe industries. The leather is strong and attractive, easy to produce and it doesn't smell of fish. Finnish fashion designers and Swedish shoe manufacturers have already taken the new material on board.

domaininfo.com dropped its prices today to $24.50 per year for .com, .net and .org registrations. Moreover, registered agents and partners receive discounts on the new price. Previously, an address in these top domains has gone for approximately $70 for two years.With this price drop, domaininfo.com is taking a firm foothold in the world market for domain names.

Decision Support Panel (DSP), a Swedish software company, meets the partner level requirements for the Data Warehousing Alliance 2000 program. The executives that founded DSP have spent the last seven years creating leading data warehousing solutions based on Microsoft standards. Their current product is a client front-end tool that brings data warehousing functionality to users in Microsoft OutlookÒ.

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