Finch Paper (Glens Falls, N.Y., USA) reported this week that it has gotten more efficient in the last few years and plans to use its profits to make many capital upgrades in 2019.

CFO Alex Rotolo said 2017 was a tumultuous year in the paper industry as a lot of companies went out of business. While that was not good for those employers, it caused paper prices to increase as the supply shrank.

"Because the market finally balanced, we were able to get fair prices for our paper and make a profit," he said. "We’re taking the funds that we were able to make in 2018 and investing them back in the business in 2019 in the form of capital improvements. We have a higher capital budget than in any recent history," he said.

There are 84 projects in Finch’s capital plan, according to Rotolo. This includes hardware and software upgrades to the paper machines. The overall goal is to improve the quality and speed at which the company can change the machines to handle different types of paper, according to Rotolo.

"The machine can quickly see little changes and make changes so the paper quality is more uniform, and also just reliability. Our control systems are old so we’d like to have new systems," he said.

Other improvements include high-voltage electric upgrades to improve the resiliency of the systems and protect against power failures from the grid, upgrades to the waste treatment plant and improvements to the sheeting assets for increased capabilities and improved efficiency.