WESTMONT, Ill., Jan. 20 -- Some employees have clamored for dropping the difficult-to-pronounce "Kymmene" as long as customers and suppliers have stumbled over it, which is one of the reasons UPM-Kymmene is now known commercially as "UPM." The name change for the world's largest producer of magazine and catalog papers is occurring in conjunction with a global re-branding campaign the Company is undertaking. "UPM" will be used in all commercial communication (including sales and marketing, media relations, customer communications, etc.). The Company, however, will continue to use "UPM-Kymmene" in legal and financial transactions and communications, as well as in its Website and e- mail addresses. The Company's Griffin logo also will continue to be used, accompanied by the "UPM" lettering. The second half of the Company's unusual name (pronounced "Kim-Mea4-Knee" by most North Americans and "Que4-Ma-Kna" by many Europeans) was formed when the Finland-headquartered corporation was created in 1995 by a merger of Kymmene Corp. and Repola Ltd. and its subsidiary, United Paper Mills Ltd. (UPM). Although the current corporate entity is relatively new, its origins extend to the early 1870s when the Kymi (short for "Kymijoki," or "mighty river" in Finnish) paper mill was founded along the banks of Finland's well- known Kymi River. "Kymmene" is the Swedish language version of "Kymijoki." Swedish enters into the Company's legacy because, in earlier times, much of Finland's paper industry was run by its Swedish-speaking minority. (Sweden and Finland are separated only by the Baltic Sea's narrow Gulf of Bothnia, and to this day, many Finns learn to speak Swedish, in addition to Finnish and English.) This change applies to the Company's Corporate, Paper and Wood Products divisions and their respective units and functions throughout the 17 countries -- including the United States and Canada -- in which UPM has operations.