2024

ANNUAL Report

Spinnova in brief

Spinnova technology transforms the way textiles are manufactured globally. Based in Finland, Spinnova has developed breakthrough patented technology for making textile fibre from wood pulp or waste, such as leather, textile or agricultural cropping waste, without harmful dissolving chemicals.

Spinnova technology creates no side streams in the fibre production process, and the SPINNOVA® fibre has minimal CO2 emissions and water use, as well as being biodegradable and recyclable. Spinnova technology uses a mechanical process which gives the fibre the look and feel of a natural cellulosic fibre such as cotton.

Year 2024 was transformative for Spinnova

The company refreshed its strategy and focuses now on technology sales and delivering the technology together with its partners. The value of the Spinnova technology to technology sales customers will be magnified by a strong focus on technology development and adoption of the fibre in the textile industry. 

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Read CEO Tuomas Oijala’s review on the year 2024 below

Year 2024 was transformative for Spinnova. At the beginning of the year, we focused intensively on deepening our understanding of the market and our customers and updating our strategy in line with this. We met many key players in the market, and it was clear that the textile industry needs more sustainable materials and alternatives to natural fibres. Our mission is to change the raw material base of the textile industry. We decided that we will do this by helping the industry build production lines that take sustainably produced pulp and turn it into a natural cotton-like fibre. This solves existing fibre supply chain challenges, improves sustainability metrics of final products, and supports circular fibre supply chains.

The Capital Markets Day we held in March was a very important day for us, as we announced our updated strategy and targets. Our renewed strategy is centred on the best path to creating shareholder value by focusing on a capital-light model where we generate income from the value our fibre production technology adds to our customers. These revenues are expected to come from the planning and engineering of facilities, delivery of proprietary equipment, and licenses and service agreements to enable operations. Although our focus is no longer on fibre production and sales, we continue to be active in co-developing our fibre product with brands and textile suppliers, which demonstrates and grows the addressable market for the SPINNOVA® fibre.

An important part of the refreshed strategy is our targets for the short, medium, and long term. We aim to achieve EBIT-positive results by the medium-term (2028-2030), and we expect to reach our set targets without raising additional external funding. During the first half of the year, we completed a difficult, but important, restructuring programme to ensure we can effectively implement our strategy and to ensure our cost base is in line with our strategic targets. I want to thank everyone for their leadership, collaboration, and resilience in making this happen. We now have a stronger and clearer organisation in place.

Throughout 2024, we reached several significant milestones. We signed a Letter of Intent in March with our long-term partner, Suzano. This agreement outlines Suzano’s plans to invest in Spinnova’s technology. Technology development of fibre spinning has progressed well in terms of increasing the output of the fibre drying units, and the main sub-processes have already been validated separately. However, validating process efficiency metrics at targeted capital and operating expenditure levels at the Woodspin factory for the entire process from pulp to fibre was not met during 2024, and therefore, the pre-engineering phase was delayed from the planned timetable at the end of 2024. Alternative plans are being pursued together with Suzano for the fastest way to validate end-to-end process efficiency metrics in order to move to the next phase of the project. Suzano is responsible for the MFC development, and Spinnova is responsible for the fibre-spinning development. It is important to note that based on brand and supply chain feedback, we have demonstrated that we can make good fibre, and our focus is now on ensuring efficiency and cost-competitiveness of future factories.

We formed a partnership with global technology supplier Valmet, which will supply the main equipment for future factories. This collaboration with Valmet accelerates our development, pairs us with an established industrial partner experienced in delivering similar projects and expands our technology sales to a pool of new customers. Another key achievement was the Letter of intent signed in July with Ecco, our joint venture partner, which further solidifies our commitment to scaling leather-based fibre production at Respin. Both parties aim to decide on scaling and commercialisation by the end of Q1 2025.

We continue to ensure our fibre product is visible in the end consumer market, and a very exciting development this year was the commercial launch of high-volume products featuring SPINNOVA® fibre. Bestseller, for example, launched t-shirts under their JACK & JONES brand in April, marking the first commercial product made with SPINNOVA® fibre produced at the Woodspin joint venture factory. In addition, JACK & JONES, Vero Moda, and Rukka produced Summer Olympics 2024 collections for Danish and Finnish athletes, including SPINNOVA® fibre.

Our collaborations extend beyond product launches to commitments to future fibre production volumes. We announced a collaboration with PUMA to develop products from SPINNOVA® fibre for future collections, particularly in products of PUMA’s Sportstyle category. The letter of intent was signed by Spinnova’s joint venture, Woodspin, to secure PUMA’s access to sustainable fibre volumes for several years. We also teamed up with ASK Scandinavia, a premium brand based in Helsinki, to create a limited-edition work tote bag inspired by Nordic design. Through these partnerships, we continue to make strides in raising consumers as well as brands awareness about sustainable fashion.

In recognition of our groundbreaking innovation, Business Finland granted Spinnova an R&D loan of up to EUR 12.7 million to support our ongoing research and development initiatives.

Financially, 2024 turned out as expected and in line with our financial guidance. Our revenues totalled EUR 0.76 million, and our operating result was EUR –18.3 million. We continued to invest in R&D, our own pilot, as well as in our joint ventures, Woodspin and Respin. Our net cash position remained strong, totalling EUR 40.9 million by year-end. Our ongoing cost savings programme, including personnel and external spending adjustments, has progressed according to plan, and the majority of the expected EUR 1.6 million annual run-rate savings have already been achieved.

I want to thank all our stakeholders for their support and trust. 2024 has been a year of hard work and many changes, but we are ready for the future and remain strongly committed to our strategic goals announced at our Capital markets day 20024. As we progress, we look forward to achieving even more significant milestones together.

Tuomas Oijala
CEO