Letter to stakeholders and Q&A with CEO

Every trail we follow is shaped by people – the communities we serve, the teams we empower, and the values we uphold. At Sappi, we believe that sustainable progress begins with understanding local needs and investing in shared value.

Like the fox navigating snow-covered terrain, we move with agility and intent – alert to change, guided by experience, and grounded in ethical purpose. This instinctive adaptability mirrors our approach: making smart decisions swiftly, with courage and integrity, and always with safety foremost in mind.

The communities beyond our fence lines are places we are also proud to call home. Their prosperity is not only linked to our own – it is deeply valued and actively nurtured. Our social impact approach is collaborative. We partner with communities to jointly identify and leverage opportunities that support local needs while aligning with Sappi’s purpose. While each region has its own programmes, they share common themes – forestry-related activities, environmental protection and conservation, education, and community welfare.

Through targeted enterprise and supplier development (ESD) programmes, we support local businesses and foster inclusive economic growth. We maintain open, proactive dialogue with stakeholders to build trust and mutual understanding.

Internally, we invest in training, succession planning, and skills development to prepare our workforce for future demands. We manage reputation with care and uphold ethical standards in every decision – ensuring that our path is shaped by smart choices and ethical resolve, moving swiftly but never at the expense of safety or integrity.

Our people-centred approach strengthens our social licence to operate and reinforces our commitment to shared progress – with every step, we remain alert, responsive, and purposeful.

A channel is more than a passage – it is a chosen course, shaped by intention and skill. As we begin the next phase of our Thrive strategy, we reflect on a journey steered with stamina, precision, and responsiveness. Like a gondolier navigating shifting waters, we have moved through capacity expansion, product realignment, and strategic repositioning – attuned to our environment and guided by purpose.

At Sappi, prosperity is not defined by profit alone. It is the ability to create enduring value – financial, social, and environmental. For shareholders, it means disciplined stewardship and operational excellence. For communities, it means investing in renewable resources and partnering for shared progress. For the planet, it means embracing sustainable solutions with eco-effective ingenuity.

Looking ahead, for the immediate future we return to our basics: sustaining financial health, optimising asset utilisation, cash generation and managing costs. While demand for graphic papers continues its structural decline, our focus on market-share growth is delivering results and reinforcing our competitive position. In the dissolving wood pulp (DWP) segment, we remain cautiously optimistic. Despite global headwinds, the long-term outlook is positive, and we are well-positioned to respond with agility and clarity.

In a resource-constrained world, prosperity flows through the channels we choose – those defined by resilience, ethical resolve, and collective strength. As we navigate toward our next horizon, we do so with quiet confidence and a steady hand, steering toward value that endures.

Every course we chart is shaped by our relationship with the natural world. At Sappi, we are custodians of land and forests, committed to using woodfibre responsibly – not only to drive business success, but to contribute to long-term environmental and social value across generations.

Our environmental strategy is rooted in certification, traceability, and continuous improvement in sourcing and land management. Through precision forestry practices, we optimise plantation health and productivity while advancing biodiversity protection. These efforts ensure that our raw materials are sourced from responsibly managed plantations that meet rigorous sustainability standards.

We take proactive steps to reduce our environmental footprint. Our operations are guided by robust environmental management systems that help us lower emissions, conserve water, and improve energy efficiency – often with internally generated bioenergy. As part of our climate action strategy, we are accelerating decarbonisation across our value chain, aligning with science-based targets and global climate frameworks.

Stewardship at Sappi means moving beyond compliance. We integrate circular design principles, regenerative land-use practices, and climate resilience into our operations, balancing business needs with ecological integrity. Our approach is intentional, adaptive, and informed by the evolving expectations of our stakeholders and the realities of a changing climate.

As we adjust our sails to meet the shifting tides of climate change and global expectations, our direction remains clear: to protect, restore, and regenerate the natural systems that sustain us, through measurable action, transparent reporting, and continuous innovation.

Our voyage is powered by innovation – guided by purpose, leadership, and a steadfast commitment to sustainability. Sappi uses renewable resources to make woodfibre-based products, and we are a diversified, innovative, and trusted leader focused on sustainable processes and solutions. From dissolving wood pulp to packaging and speciality papers, we continue to expand our portfolio with offerings that meet evolving customer needs and rising environmental standards.

We invest in meaningful engagement across the value chain – collaborating with customers as well as brand owners, converters, and suppliers to unlock shared value. By listening closely and partnering widely, we identify opportunities to enhance product performance, all the while looking to reduce environmental impact, and supporting long-term returns.

Our product strategy is dynamic and forward-looking, anchored in circularity, and market relevance. Through fact-based support and technical expertise, we help customers navigate their own ESG challenges with confidence and clarity.

In a world transitioning from a fossil-based economy to a circular bioeconomy, Sappi offers a compelling vision: a sustainable business with an exciting future in woodfibre – delivering relevant solutions, enhanced value, and trusted partnerships. Beyond our product portfolio, we offer a suite of technical and development services supported by highly qualified teams of technicians to improve customer efficiencies and scientists who continuously explore new applications for woodfibre and collaborate with customers through targeted R&D initiatives.

On this voyage of delivering traceable, responsibly sourced products, we deploy state-of-the-art technology to ensure precision, reliability, and transparency. Every offering is a step forward – advancing purpose-led growth, regenerative design, and global impact. We are actively building a circular economy that benefits both business and the world.

Just as rivers carve their course over centuries – shaping landscapes through persistence and adaptability – our journey begins with a path defined by nearly 90 years of resilience, reinvention, and purpose. Sappi’s Thrive business strategy is more than a roadmap; it is a long-term commitment to sustainable growth, operational excellence, and enduring trust, all while creating meaningful value for our stakeholders.

As Thrive evolves, we stand at an inflection point. The environment around us is shifting – reshaped by global forces that continue to redefine business: climate change, resource scarcity, consumer and employee expectations, and the rapid pace of technological innovation. Our strategy evolves in response, slightly adjusted to remain fit for purpose, reaffirming our commitment to building a thriving world through renewable innovation and shared prosperity.

Our path is not static – it adapts with intention. Whether responding to market pressures or environmental imperatives, we remain focused on long-term value creation. Strategic clarity, technological innovation, and disciplined execution keep us on course – propelling us forward with purpose.

As we look ahead, our focus sharpens: sustaining financial health, deepening stakeholder value, and unlocking opportunity through collaboration and eco-effective ingenuity. The river may change course, but its direction remains true.

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About this report

Our Annual Integrated Report for the year ended 30 September 2025 provides an overview of how we create value through our purpose, vision and strategy.

This report reflects on key opportunities and risks in our markets, our performance against financial and non-financial objectives, and our goals and focus areas for the year ahead.

Although the report’s primary audience is our shareholders, it contains information relevant to a broad group of stakeholders. Our group and regional sustainability reports address a wider audience with more detail on stakeholder engagement and key material issues. The main content of this report is supplemented by supporting appendices.

Holistic value creation

We take a holistic approach to creating value, recognising that Sappi’s long-term sustainability depends on delivering meaningful outcomes for our stakeholders. We see value beyond delivering returns to our shareholders, and we focus on maximising every resource throughout our value chain to ensure those returns are sustainable. We recognise that our sphere of influence and impact extends beyond our mill gates.

Materiality

This report considers material information relevant to our stakeholders based on extensive ongoing engagement. We assessed materiality against the backdrop of current business operations and industry trends and the global economic environment. We adopt a double materiality approach to enhance our stakeholders’ understanding of the impact of environmental and social issues on Sappi’s enterprise value and the impact of our activities on the environment and society. For a deeper understanding of the material matters that affect our business, refer here.

Scope and boundary

This report covers the period from 01 October 2024 to 30 September 2025. We aim to present material, relevant and complete information, while ensuring comparability. The issues and indicators included in this report reflect our significant economic, environmental and social impacts and factors that may substantively influence investors’ assessments and decisions.


In determining our material matters and value creation over time, we consider the following timeframes:
  Short term: One to two years, in line with immediate risks and opportunities.
  Medium term: Three to five years, in line with management accounting’s five-year financial forecast plan.
  Long term: Five to 30 years, considering the nature of our mill operations and capital investments for long-life assets, Sappi Forests’ research planning horizons in response to climate change and the EU’s plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Our reporting boundary is critical to our materiality determination process. Our reporting boundary includes all our operations (refer to Where we operate) and considers risks and opportunities beyond our financial reporting boundary that may significantly affect our ability to create value. These include material matters arising from our operating context, strategy, stakeholder issues, opportunities, risk management processes and SDG commitments, among others.

Assurance

We obtained limited external assurance on selected sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs) in our 2025 Sappi Group Sustainability Report www.sappi.com/2025GSDR, which includes the independent practitioner’s limited assurance report. Our internal audit team verifies sustainability information by reviewing the procedures we applied to collect, measure, calculate and validate non-financial data, as well as reviewing reported information and supporting documentation.

Most of our key operations undergo external verification, including:

  • Europe: The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme
  • Europe and South Africa: ISO 50001 energy certification
  • Globally: ISO 45001 environmental certification, ISO 9001 quality certification and ISO 45001 health and safety certification.

Some of our mills are certified to the ISO 22000 food safety management standard and EN 15593 management of hygiene in the production of packaging for foodstuffs.

We are assessed in terms of the forest certification systems we use. In South Africa, an external rating agency assesses our broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) performance.

These external assessments and certifications and stakeholder interactions ensure our performance indicators are reliable, accurate and pertinent. The Social, Ethics, Transformation and Sustainability (SETS) Committee is satisfied that the sustainability information presented in this report has been provided with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

Our financial information is verified by our external auditors. For information on the combined assurance framework relevant to the disclosure in this report and the independent auditors’ report, see our group Annual Financial Statements at www.sappi.com/annual-reports.

Board approval

The Sappi Limited board of directors (board) acknowledges its responsibility for ensuring the integrity of the 2025 Sappi Annual Integrated Report. To the best of its knowledge and belief, the 2025 Sappi Annual Integrated Report addresses all issues material to the group’s ability to create and preserve value in the short, medium and long term and fairly presents the group’s integrated performance and outlook.

The board believes that the 2025 Sappi Annual Integrated Report has been prepared in accordance with the IR Framework and speaks to Sappi’s use of and effect on the 4Ps (addressing value creation, preservation and erosion), which are aligned with the six capitals.

The board thus approved the 2025 Sappi Annual Integrated Report on 05 December 2025.

Mr NL Sowazi   Mr BR Beamish
Chairman   Independent
Mr MA Fallon   Mr JM Lopez
Independent   Independent
Ms ZN Malinga   Ms B Mehlomakulu
Independent   Independent
Mr RJAM Renders   Mr LL von Zeuner
Independent   Independent
Ms E Istavridis   Mr SR Binnie
Independent   Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Mr GT Pearce    
Chief Financial Officer    

Forward-looking statements

In line with the IR Framework, this report contains forward-looking statements that enable users to understand the challenges and uncertainties Sappi is likely to encounter in pursuing its strategy. This information is included throughout the report.

For important information relating to these forward-looking statements, refer here.