Catalyst Leadership Visits Biron Paper Mill

In their first visit to the Biron, Wis., USA, paper mill as its official owner, Catalyst Paper leadership reaffirmed the company's interest in ensuring the mill's longstanding success. "We're in the business to own and run mills for the long-term," said Joe Nemeth, president and CEO. "So our intentions are pretty simple — do that with Biron and Rumford."

In October, Catalyst Paper, Richmond, B.C., Canada, announced it would buy NewPage Corp.'s paper mills in Biron and Rumford, Maine. The two mills were divested to expedite the Department of Justice's review of Verso Paper Corp.'s acquisition of NewPage, which, at the time, operated three mills and one research and development facility in central Wisconsin.

This past week, the sale of the Wisconsin and Maine mills to Catalyst for $62.4 million in cash was closed as the NewPage-Verso merger was finalized. Nemeth and other Catalyst officials visited the new Biron mill on Thursday of the past week. Nemeth said Catalyst will continue to support and invest in the mill's two paper machines, as well as "strategically invest" in its mechanical pulping and energy island. "For us, it's to make Biron mill the No. 1 mill in coated groundwood products, we believe we have the assets, the people, and we have the plan to make that happen," he said.

As for whether Catalyst will cut or add jobs because of the transition, Nemeth said jobs won't initially be affected. Currently, the mill employs more than 400 people.

Although the Biron paper mill is now a Catalyst facility, it shares synergy with Verso's Wisconsin Rapids mill and is located across the street from Verso's research and development facility — and all were also formerly owned by NewPage. Specifically, a pipeline connects Verso's Wisconsin Rapids mill to Catalyst's new mill. The Biron mill receives pulp from the Wisconsin Rapids' mill and also uses its wastewater treatment facility. Nemeth said this partnership will continue.

"Although we're fierce competitors, there are certain things we're going to collaborate and cooperate on to make sure that we sustain the competitiveness of both assets," Nemeth said.

With the addition of the Biron paper mill and the Rumford, Maine, paper mill, Catalyst now produces a full range of paper grades, from newsprint to labels, Nemeth said. "We're going to leverage the fact that we have full product width and we're going to leverage the fact that we now have assets in the west, the Midwest, and the east — in fact we're the only paper company in North America that has that geographic base," he added..

Catalyst executive leadership will continue to visit the mill during the next few weeks.