K-C Gives Everett Mill Workers 60-Day Layoff Warnings

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Most of the 750 employees at Kimberly-Clark’s plants in Everett, Wash., USA, in late October were told that they could be laid off in the next 60 days, but the notice doesn't affect attempts to sell the business, according to a report by Everett-based Snohomish County Business Journal. K-C is in exclusive talks with Atlas Holdings LLC, Greenwich, Conn., a company that specializes in turning around distressed businesses, regarding the potential sale of K-C’s pulp mill at Everett, Wash.

K-C announced in January that it was closing down the last of its pulp operations, including the Everett mill. On September 1, the company announced it would lay off workers if a buyer is not found by the end of the year.

"We're continuing the process to try to sell the plant, but the due diligence is still ongoing," K-C spokesman Bob Brand was quoted in the Journal article. "There's no guarantee there," he added. "We have to continue to plan for closing the plant."

The Everett mill was started up in 1931 as Puget Sound Pulp and Timber Co. It became Soundview Pulp Co. in 1935 and was purchased by Scott Paper in 1951. Scott merged with K-C in 1985. Since the merger, K-C has invested some $300 million in the Everett operations, installing major wastewater treatment systems, adding a new effluent outfall, and switching its pulp bleaching from elemental chlorine to chlorine dioxide.