Company says it may reopen paper mill when economy improves

Talk about it

The company that closed a paper mill in the Fox Valley says it could reopen the plant once the economy improves.

Mark Suwyn, the chief executive officer of New Page, met Thursday with officials and former plant workers in Kimberly.

They want New Page to sell the plant to someone who would reopen it.

Suwyn said he’s open to that – but not if the new company would hurt New Page’s business elsewhere by making coated papers.

He said there’s no market for those papers right now and that’s why the Kimberly mill shut down in early September, leaving 600 people out of work.

Also, Suwyn said the federal government must enforce its trade laws, so cheap imports from Asia would stop flooding the market and illegally cut into American profits.

Still, the CEO said he remained optimistic about a turnaround.

If he wasn’t, he said New Page would not be spending $8-10 million a year to heat the closed mill in Kimberly, and maintain the idle paper machines so they don’t rust out.

Suwyn would not comment on reports that a German company was interested in buying the plant.

A union official said it was “more of the same.”

Up to a third of the former workers staged a sit-down protest near the meeting room.

Tags: wisconsin news, new page paper mill, kimberly