The Navigator Company has announced the launch of gCELL, a new brand for its pulp portfolio, aligned with the differentiation and value creation it brings to the global pulp market. With gCELL, Navigator brings its pulp business under a unified and distinctive identity rooted in more than 70 years of expertise in Eucalyptus globulus pulp production.
The company pioneered Eucalyptus Bleached Kraft Pulp 70 years ago – a leadership that traces back to a landmark moment in 1956, at the Company’s Cacia mil (Aveiro), where a small team demonstrated, for the first time worldwide, the industrial production of kraft pulp from eucalyptus, namely the Eucalyptus globulus. Internally remembered as the TE‑24 project, this breakthrough confirmed the potential of eucalyptus fibre and led to two major innovations: the large-scale industrial production of eucalyptus kraft pulp and the development of high-quality papers based on 100% eucalyptus fiber. It also revealed the versatility of this raw material, opening the way to future applications such as tissue, as well as packaging papers, specialty and decor papers, and emerging applications such as molded cellulose solutions.
Navigator is now Europe's largest producer of eucalyptus-based pulp, with an annual capacity of 1.6 million tons. Since its inception, innovation has been embedded in the company's DNA, combining industrial know-how with a forward-looking approach to fiber performance and customer needs.
Four pillars driving gCELL’s value proposition
The new brand is built on four core pillars: innovation and heritage, credibility and reliability, versatility, and sustainability. These pillars are grounded in tangible strengths: a long-standing track record of industrial innovation, fully integrated operations ensuring consistent quality, the unique adaptability of Eucalyptus globulus fiber across multiple applications, and a production model based on renewable resources and efficient use of natural inputs.
Together, these pillars express the unique value of Navigator's Eucalyptus globulus fibre and its ability to support a wide range of sustainable end-uses.
The name gCELL reflects both the origin and essence of the product. The dot and the letter "g" refer for globulus as the genesis of Navigator's guarantee of reliability, performance and versatility. "CELL" refers literally to the smallest unit of life - the foundation of living organisms - and to cellulose, being the basis of a wide range of high-quality products, in a variety of end uses. The organic design of the lettering represents the adaptability and versatility of Navigator's pulp, allied with its consistent high quality.
"gCELL represents a natural evolution of our pulp business", said João Escobar Henriques, Global Pulp Sales Director at The Navigator Company. "By creating a dedicated brand, we are reinforcing the unique value of our fiber and strengthening our connection with customers. gCELL is more than a name - it reflects our commitment to delivering high-performance, sustainable solutions that help optimize processes and enhance end-product quality."
Credibility and reliability are central to the gCELL proposition. Navigator's fully integrated mills provide full production control, helping ensure consistent quality across the entire value chain, from sustainably managed forests to industrial transformation. The company's operational expertise spans multiple applications - including printing and writing, packaging, tissue and moulded cellulose - and is supported by proven industrial credibility, reflected in leading brands such as Navigator premium office paper.
The gCELL portfolio serves a broad range of applications, including printing and writing papers, tissue, packaging papers, decor and specialty papers. The unique properties of Navigator's pulp deliver outstanding performance across these applications, combining high strength properties, excellent dimensional stability, optimal surface properties, superior brightness, high bulk, excellent softness, low dust levels, strong runnability and high printing quality.
Sustainability as a core driver of performance and value
Sustainability is a core pillar of gCELL. Navigator's Eucalyptus globulus fibres are sourced from sustainably managed forests, and the pulp is produced from responsibly sourced, deforestation-free raw materials. The company's certified managed forests are covered by internationally recognised standards, including FSC® and PEFC, while certifications across the value chain remain a competitive and strategic pillar.
The brand also reflects Navigator's broader commitment to resource efficiency and climate action. Eucalyptus globulus enables lower wood usage compared with other species for the same quantity of final application, supporting the saving of natural resources, while also contributing to reduced consumption of water and chemicals in the production process.
Navigator works to ensure the sustainable use of soil and forestry resources, including biodiversity, and has set the goal of cutting direct CO2 emissions from its industrial complexes under the EU ETS by 86% by 2035, compared with a 2018 baseline. The company is also recognized among the top performers in the forestry sector globally for sustainability and ESG risk management.
Driven by innovation, reliability, versatility and sustainability, gCELL creates unlimited possibilities for sustainable end-uses. With the launch of the new brand, The Navigator Company reinforces its strategy of moving up the value chain and strengthening its leading positioning in eucalyptus pulp, combining a legacy of innovation with a future of excellence.
About The Navigator Company
The Navigator Company is an integrated producer of forest products, pulp, paper, tissue, sustainable packaging solutions, and bioenergy, whose operations are supported by state-of-the-art facilities on a global scale, equipped with cutting-edge technology. It is recognized as a benchmark for quality in the industry worldwide.
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 for society as a whole, leaving a better planet for future generations 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 Company’s ongoing commitment and investment in improving its ESG performance are also reflected in positive external evaluations by independent entities. Navigator was recognized by Sustainalytics as a “2025 ESG Industry Top-Rated Company,” reaffirming its leadership in the forestry and paper sector. This recognition places the Company on the prestigious global list of “2025 ESG Top-Rated Companies,” consolidating its position as one of the companies with the best environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices worldwide.
The raw material used by The Navigator Company comes from forests planted exclusively for this purpose. Every year, Navigator’s nurseries have the capacity to grow more than 12 million trees. These nurseries—among the largest in Europe—produce more than 130 different species of trees and shrubs. Many of these, even though they are not economically viable, are funded by the Company to conserve biodiversity and ensure the continuity of the species.
The forests managed by The Navigator Company in Portugal hold a carbon stock, excluding soil carbon, equivalent to 6.4 million tons of CO2, a figure that remains stable thanks to the sustainable management model followed by the Company.
The Group operates a vertically integrated forestry business, with its own Forest and Paper Research Institute—RAIZ—and is responsible for planting a vast area of forest in mainland Portugal (1.2% of the country’s total area), 100% certified by the FSC® and PEFC systems. It has an annual production capacity of 1.6 million tons of paper and 1.6 million tons of pulp. In tissue paper, Navigator has an annual production capacity of 165,000 tons and an annual processing capacity of 310,000 tons.
In 2025, 78% of the electricity generated by Navigator came from renewable sources. The Company is responsible for producing 3% of Portugal’s electricity, including 34% of the electricity produced in the country from biomass. Renewables also accounted for 80% of the primary energy consumed by the Company.
As part of the Group’s growth, in 2023 The Navigator Company completed the acquisition of the Consumer Tissue business from Spain’s Gomà-Camps, strengthening its strategic position in the Iberian tissue market and becoming 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 leading tissue manufacturers in the United Kingdom, which strengthens Navigator’s position in Western Europe.
On another front of its growth, The Navigator Company launched, in late 2021, a new line of packaging products under the gKRAFT™ brand, with the aim of helping to accelerate the transition from plastic to natural, sustainable, recyclable, and biodegradable fibers, thereby reaffirming its commitment to sustainability and environmental preservation.
In the same vein, in the second half of 2024, it inaugurated the first integrated production line for molded eucalyptus pulp parts, which will be launched under the gKRAFT™ Bioshield brand. With a production capacity of approximately 100 million units per year, this factory has become the largest in Southern Europe and one of the largest integrated facilities on the entire European continent.
The Company is Portugal’s third-largest exporter and the largest generator of National Added Value, accounting for approximately 2.5% of national goods exports and providing over 30,000 direct, indirect, and induced jobs. In 2025, The Navigator Company reported a turnover of €1.97 billion. More than 90% of its products are sold outside Portugal and are shipped to 117 countries.
The Navigator was the first Portuguese company, and one of the first worldwide, to set an ambitious commitment to decarbonize its industrial complexes by 2035, anticipating national and European targets by 15 years. It is estimated that implementing all the initiatives in the Decarbonization Roadmap will represent an investment of over €350 million between 2019 and 2028.
In 2023, as a result of the investments made, Navigator decided to bring forward its interim emissions targets by three years, meaning it will achieve, as early as 2026, the goals initially set for 2029. By 2026, direct fossil CO2 emissions will be approximately 60% lower than in 2018, the baseline year. By 2024, this reduction had already reached 41%.
This commitment reflects the company’s responsible business management strategy, which in 2024 was awarded an “A” rating in the CDP Climate Change and “A” in the CDP Forests assessments, recognizing, respectively, the company’s leadership in combating climate change and in forest management.
At the end of 2022, The Navigator Company received approval of its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets from the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), affirming its leadership in sustainability and its ambition to seek solutions to the climate challenge, in line with science.
It was also awarded an “A” rating by MSCI ESG Ratings, which aims to measure a company’s resilience to long-term ESG risks.
