The Navigator Company is now one of Portugal’s leading players on the world stage.
The Navigator Company is the leading European manufacturer of uncoated printing and writing paper and bleached eucalyptus pulp.
The forest is one of the most important pillars for the sustainability of The Navigator Company’s business, acting at all times in keeping with a set of principles and rules on responsible management, which conciliate environmental, social and business concerns.
The Company is committed to its growth strategy, supported by an industrial structure that sets international standards for size and technological sophistication.
The Navigator Company's Human Resources and Social Assets Policy is based on a set of values which inform its operations and investment in human capital.
The Navigator Company’s communication policy seeks to cultivate a close relationship with customers, to provide a permanent response to market needs and to build loyalty with fundamental stakeholders.
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With a business model founded on technological research, innovation and sustainability, The Navigator Company is today a global benchmark.
The Navigator Company is an integrated producer of forestry, pulp, paper, tissue, sustainable packaging solutions and bioenergy, whose business is based on state-of-the-art mills with cutting-edge technology. It is recognised as a benchmark for quality in the sector throughout the world.
Inspired by people, their quality of life and the future of the planet, the Company is committed to creating sustainable value for its shareholders and society as a whole, leaving future generations a better planet, through natural, recyclable and biodegradable sustainable products and solutions that contribute to carbon sequestration, oxygen production, biodiversity protection, soil formation and the fight against climate change.
The raw material used by The Navigator Company is based on forests planted exclusively for this purpose. Every year, Navigator’s nurseries have the capacity to give life to more than 12 million trees. These nurseries – some of the largest in Europe – produce more than 130 different species of trees and shrubs. Many of these, although not economically viable, are financed by the company to conserve biodiversity and ensure the continuity of the species.
The forests under management by The Navigator Company in Portugal have a carbon stock, excluding carbon in the soil, equivalent to 6.2 million tonnes of CO2 , a figure that remains stable thanks to the sustainable management model followed by the company.
The Group’s forestry business is vertically integrated, with its own research institute, and it is responsible for planting a vast area of forest in mainland Portugal (1.2 per cent of the country’s area), 100 per cent certified under the FSC® and PEFC systems. It has an annual production capacity of 1.6 million tonnes of paper, 1.6 million tonnes of pulp and 375.5 MW of installed power generation. In tissue paper, Navigator has an annual production capacity of 165,000 tonnes and an annual processing capacity of 180,000 tonnes. In 2023, 76% of the energy produced by Navigator in its industrial complexes came from renewable sources, including biomass, giving it a leading role in the sector, with around 37.4% of the country’s total using this environmentally friendly, non-fossil fuel. Renewables also accounted for 80 per cent of the primary energy consumed by the company in the same period.
As part of the Group’s growth plan, in 2023 The Navigator Company acquired the Consumer Tissue business of Spain’s Gomà-Camps, strengthening its strategic position in the Iberian tissue market and making it the second largest player in the segment.
The expansion of this business area continued in 2024 with the acquisition of Accrol Group Holdings plc, one of the UK’s leading tissue manufacturers, which strengthens Navigator’s position in Western Europe.
On another front of its growth, at the end of 2021 The Navigator Company launched a new line of packaging products under the gKraft brand, with the aim of helping to accelerate the transition from the use of plastic to the use of natural, sustainable, recyclable and biodegradable fibres, thus once again demonstrating its commitment to sustainability and the preservation of the environment.
In the same vein, it is preparing to inaugurate the first integrated production line for moulded eucalyptus pulp parts in the second half of 2024, which will be launched under the gKraft Bioshield brand. With a production capacity of around 100 million units a year, this plant will be the largest in southern Europe and one of the largest integrated plants on the entire European continent.
The company is the third largest exporter in Portugal and the largest generator of National Added Value, accounting for approximately 1% of national GDP, around 2.5% of national exports of goods, and more than 30,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs. In 2023, The Navigator Company had a turnover of €1.953 billion. More than 92% of its products are sold outside Portugal and are destined for 134 countries.
Navigator was the first Portuguese company, and one of the first worldwide, to define the ambitious commitment to decarbonise its industrial complexes by 2035, bringing the national and European targets forward by 15 years. The investment allocated to the Decarbonisation Roadmap amounts to 340 M€, to be implemented between 2019 and 2028, 89% of which has already been implemented or is in the process of being implemented.
In 2023, as a result of the investments made, Navigator decided to bring forward its intermediate emissions targets by three years, so that by 2026 it will have reached the targets originally set for 2029. In 2026, direct fossil CO2 emissions will be around 60 per cent lower than in 2018, the reference year. In 2023, this reduction was already 41 per cent.
This commitment is the culmination of a responsible business management strategy which, in 2023, was awarded the “A-” classification in CDP Climate Change and CDP Forest, respectively recognising the company’s leadership in combating climate change and in forest management.
At the end of 2022, The Navigator Company received approval for its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets from the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), affirming its leadership in sustainability and its ambition to find solutions to the climate challenge in line with science.
The ongoing commitment and investment in improving ESG performance is also reflected in the positive external assessment by independent organisations. In 2023, the Company was once again classified as a low-risk company for investors and recognised as an “ESG Industry Top Rated company” in Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Rating for 2022.
It was also recognised with an “A” rating by MSCI ESG Ratings, which aims to measure a company’s resilience to long-term ESG risks.
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