RUMFORD – Bright and early this morning, banners announcing the new name of the local paper mill will be hung at various entrances around MeadWestvaco Paper Division.
A $2.3 billion deal was sealed late Monday afternoon for NewPage Corp. to buy five coated and carbonless paper mills scattered around the country owned by MeadWestvaco Corp., including the Rumford mill.
NewPage Corp. is a newly created company owned by the New York investment firm Cerberus Capital Management, LP.
Included in the $2.3 billion deal are the Rumford mill, mills in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland and Kentucky, and about 900,000 acres of forestlands in Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee, according to a news release issued by MeadWestvaco. The five mills employ 6,300 people, according to NewPage.
Tony Lyons, spokesman for the Rumford mill, said the primary goal under the new ownership is to work safely and productively.
“We’ll just keep making paper,” he said.
Gary Curtis, Rumford mill manager, will continue in that position and will become a vice president of NewPage Corp.
Gary Hemingway, president of Local 900, said he and many of the employees were feeling uncertain about the new ownership.
“The five mills are stand-alone, like we refinanced ourselves,” he said. “I have not met the new owner and probably never will.”
That’s because, he believes, the new owner is an investment firm and not another corporation.
MeadWestvaco announced intentions to sell its five paper-making mills in January. No employment changes were predicted. The Rumford mill employs about 1,100 people.
Banners will appear at the upper and lower gates, the entrance to the administration building on Hartford Street in Rumford, and at the Mexico office on Main Street. Permanent signs will be erected within a few weeks, said Lyons.
This is the fourth change in ownership for the local mill in the past quarter-century. Mead, based in Ohio, and Westvaco, based in Connecticut, merged in 2002. Prior to that, Mead bought the mill from Boise Cascade, LLC, which had bought the mill in 1976 from Ethyl Corp. The mill was established just over a century ago as the Oxford Paper Co. by Hugh Chisholm.
Lyons said baseball caps and T-shirts with the new mill logo will be passed out to employees during the next few days.
Cerberus Capital Management LP, manages more than $15 billion in funds and accounts, including Anchor Glass, Alamo Car Rentals, Rubbermaid and National Car Rentals.
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