Clearwater Paper has announced that it has transferred the unit at Ladysmith, in Wisconsin, to Dunn Paper for the sum of about 72 million dollars. The company intends to use the net proceeds to finance the expansion of the Shelby site, N.C. and, opportunistically, pay their debts.
“In the consumer product sector”, says Linda K. Massman, president and managing director, “our strategy is focused on optimisation of the network to meet the increasing demand of sectors for very high quality tissue products. Consequently, we have decided to sell our Ladysmith factory, which produces recycled paper and which is not in line with this strategy”.
“On behalf of Clearwater Paper, we sincerely thank the Ladysmith team for their hard work and commitment to supplying our customers with high quality products and services”, adds Massman. Henceforth the Ladysmith employees are employees of Dunn Paper. “Ladysmith is a critical element of our strategic growth at Dunn”, comments Brent Earnshaw, managing director of Dunn Paper. “The additional capacity of Ladysmith will allow for more rapid growth in the specialist/absorbent tissue market and their source of recycled fibre is perfectly suitable for a variety of applications within the Dunn portfolio”.