Clearwater Paper Brings New TAD Machine Online at Shelby

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Clearwater Paper Corp., Spokane, Wash., USA, has completed the next phase of its newest tissue facility at Shelby, N.C., with the startup of a new through-air-dried (TAD) tissue machine. Upgrades to a second TAD machine, located at the company's North Las Vegas, Nev., mill, have also been completed. The enhancements enable the facility to produce TAD ultra-bathroom tissue and household towels.

In regard to the Shelby startup, Gordon Jones, chairman and CEO, noted that "construction of all phases to date of the nearly one-million-square-foot facility came in on-time and on-budget. The dedication and support of Clearwater Paper's 200 Shelby employees have already made this facility a huge success."

New production and distribution capability at Shelby is expected to increase the company's ultra and premium offerings to existing southern and East Coast customers. Collectively, the two TAD machines will create new opportunities to expand the company's private label consumer tissue business around a national manufacturing footprint, supplying these key products to customers across the U.S.

"The completion of the flagship facility in Shelby fulfills one of Clearwater Paper's primary business strategies — to focus on growing the consumer products segment of the company," said Linda Massman, president and COO. "Combined with the recent upgrade at our North Las Vegas facility, these two important projects have helped Clearwater Paper achieve our goal of a coast-to-coast manufacturing footprint focused on best serving our private label customers."

Brian Hoaglund, expansion project leader, said that "we clearly owe a big thanks to the hundreds of contractors who have worked methodically night and day for two years to build one of the finest tissue manufacturing complexes in the world. We worked seamlessly with government agencies from Shelby, Cleveland County, and the state of North Carolina throughout the process."

Clearwater Paper's Las Vegas TAD machine was completed in 2004 to fill a void in the private label tissue marketplace, which lacked a leading national brand equivalent (NBE) ultra-premium quality paper towel product. Since the machine became operational, Clearwater Paper has been a leading supplier of TAD paper towels to regional and national private label retailers in the U.S.

"The Las Vegas upgrade was a success for many reasons including excellent project management," said Bill Copenspire, VP consumer products manufacturing. "We completed significant pre-installation work before the scheduled outage and had very good communication between Clearwater Paper and an army of vendors."

Bruce Woodlief, director of marketing, added that "Clearwater Paper can add NBE TAD bath tissue to our product lineup at a time when the ultra-quality tier is the highest growth segment in bath tissue. The addition of TAD bath provides retail customers with a significant quality improvement over their existing conventional ultra-bath product."

Clearwater Paper produces consumer tissue, AFH tissue, parent roll tissue, machine glazed tissue, bleached paperboard, and pulp at 15 facilities in the U.S. and Canada. The company is a supplier of private label tissue to major retailers and wholesale distributors.