IT business as usual at CHH Tissue

It’s business as usual as far as IT goes at Carter Holt Harvey’s tissue division, CHH IT head Pat O’Connell says.

CHH said last week that it was looking at selling the tissue division, either directly or through a share float.

O’Connell says projects at CHH Tissue such as Xpedite, the company-wide rollout of Windows XP and an upgrade to SAP R/3 4.7 will continue. Another example is a recently installed SAP CRM system, which went live earlier this month at the table napkin part of the tissue division. “We’re working on a possible extension of CRM into another entity inside the tissue business.”

What happens to the tissue division’s technology platforms depends on what form any sale takes. “If it’s a trade sale and it’s to someone with a completely different systems environment, they may turn them off.”

However, a public offering would probably mean continuing with the status quo. In that event, CHH Tissue’s SAP applications may continue to be supported by Oxygen, CHH’s SAP consulting and support division, but on different licensing terms, O’Connell says.

A CHH statement says the decision to scope selling the tissue division came after “a strategy review which will see CHH increase its focus on core capabilities, particularly in wood fibre processing and marketing”.

CHH Tissue is worth $690 million. Its brands include Treasures nappies and Sorbent toilet tissue.