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Clearwater Paper

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Clearwater Paper Corporation
Company typePublic
NYSECLW
S&P 600 component
IndustryPulp and paper industry,
Private label tissue
Founded2008
Headquarters,
Key people
Arsen Kitch (CEO)
Productspaperboard, pulp,
tissue products
Revenue$2 billion in sales
DivisionsPulp and paperboard;
Consumer products
Websiteclearwaterpaper.com

Clearwater Paper Corporation is a pulp and paper product manufacturer that was created on December 9, 2008, via a spin-off from Potlatch Corporation. With its headquarters in Spokane, Washington, the new company started with four locations for the manufacture of bleached paperboard, consumer tissue, and wood products.[1]

In late 2010, the company acquired Cellu Tissue Holdings, Inc., headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, which increased its tissue manufacturing presence in the eastern United States and Canada. The total number of manufacturing sites rose to fourteen, with another in construction.[2]

In November 2011, the company completed the sale of its Lewiston, Idaho, sawmill to Idaho Forest Group of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.[3] Today, the company has two divisions: consumer products, and pulp and paperboard.

The company's newest facility at Shelby, North Carolina, officially started up in December 2012, producing its first private label through-air-dried (TAD) finished roll and converted tissue paper product to compete with national TAD tissue brands. Clearwater Paper also completed upgrades to its North Las Vegas facility, allowing the facility to produce TAD ultra-bathroom tissue and household towels.

Clearwater Paper is the premier supplier of private label tissue products to the major retail grocery chains.[4] It supplies more than half of the store brand bathroom tissue, paper towels, facial tissue and napkins to grocery stores in the United States.[1]

Clearwater Timber Company

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The Clearwater Timber Company was founded in December 1900 by Frederick Weyerhaeuser and John A. Humbird, who initially logged over 40,000 acres on the Clearwater River in Idaho.[5]

Clearwater Timber land holdings grew to over 236,000 acres by 1927 when the company started up a sawmill on the Clearwater River in Lewiston, Idaho.[6]

Economic conditions worsened during the Great Depression and the Clearwater Timber Company was acquired by Potlatch Forests Inc. in 1931.

Potlatch

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Potlatch Forests Inc. grew its footprint nationally following World War II and expanded into manufacturing of pulp and paperboard with the startup of a mill at Lewiston in 1950. A second mill started up in Arkansas City, Arkansas in 1977.

Potlatch also entered tissue manufacturing in 1953 by buying a mill in Pomona, California. In 1963, Potlatch began manufacturing private label tissue products at its Lewiston mill. Potlatch started up a tissue plant in North Las Vegas, Nevada in 1993 and expanded to the Midwest in 2000 with a converting line in Benton Harbor, Michigan."Big Expansion Set For N. Las Vegas Tissue Plant". Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved November 2, 2024.</ref> Potlatch consolidated its Midwest tissue converting operations in Elwood, Illinois in 2006.[7]

Spin-off from Potlatch

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The spin-off from Potlatch Corporation was announced by its board of directors July 17, 2008, with the official date for the creation of Clearwater Paper being December 9, 2008. Potlatch Corporation would become a real estate investment trust (REIT) while Clearwater Paper retained Potlatch tissue and paperboard manufacturing facilities.[8]

According to the IRS, the spin-off was ruled to be a tax-free distribution of stock as Potlatch issued 1 share of Clearwater Paper stock for every 3.5 shares of Potlatch stock, with fractional shares paid in cash. Clearwater Paper stock began trading on December 17.[9]

Manufacturing Divisions

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Clearwater Paper's facilities in the United States serve two separate divisions—consumer products and pulp and paperboard—within the company.

Consumer Products

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The consumer products segment manufactures and sells household tissues, including paper towels, napkins, bathroom tissue and facial tissue. It produces over half of the store-brand, household tissues sold in grocery stores in the United States.[citation needed]

The consumer products division produces through-air-dried (TAD) paper towels, as well as premium and value brand towels. It makes napkins in ultra, two-ply and three-ply dinner napkins, plus value one-ply luncheon napkins. The bathroom tissue produced is mostly two-ply ultra, though other types are manufactured and sold. The facial tissues produced by the division include ultra lotion facial tissues. Clearwater Paper primarily produces ultra and premium qualities of the tissue it produces, though it does manufacture lower grades as well.

Pulp and paperboard

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Clearwater Paper's large wood pulp mill, Lewiston, 2010

The company's pulp and paperboard segment manufactures bleached paperboard, primarily for the packaging industry. Solid bleached sulfate board is a type of paperboard that is used in the production of folding cartons, liquid packaging, plates, cups and some commercial printing applications.

The pulp and paperboard segment also produces softwood market pulp, which is used as the primary raw material in the production of a wide variety of paper products, and slush pulp (excess or waste pulp), which it sends to the consumer products segment.

The pulp and paperboard division operates one facility in Idaho and one in Arkansas.[10]

Facilities

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Prior to the acquisition of Cellu Tissue in 2010, Clearwater Paper operated four facilities in the United States, which were previously owned by Potlatch until the spin-off. Those facilities included Cypress Bend, Arkansas; Elwood, Illinois; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Lewiston, Idaho.

With the acquisition of Cellu Tissue Holdings, Inc., the company purchased 10 additional consumer products facilities at: East Hartford, Connecticut; Ladysmith, Wisconsin; Long Island, New York; Menominee, Michigan; Natural Dam, New York; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada; Thomaston, Georgia; and Wiggins, Mississippi.

The company's fifteenth facility is located at Shelby, North Carolina.

Clearwater Paper shut its Thomaston, Georgia, facility in December 2013 and its Long Island, New York, facility in February 2014, reducing the number of locations to 13.

Washington

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Clearwater Paper's headquarters office is located at 601 West Riverside Avenue, Spokane, Washington, 99201.

Environmental Policies

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Clearwater Paper also markets a number of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) products,[citation needed] including the brand Ancora, a high-end, coated, double-side bleached white paperboard. Of the three similar products manufactured in a full variety of sizes in the United States, it is the only one that has on-label FSC certification. Another of Clearwater Paper's brands is Candesce, which is sold for use in premium lines of C1S folding carton as well as paperboard for commercial printing, carded packaging and liquid packaging board. Candesce is the only brand of SBS (solid bleached sulfate) with FSC certification across its full range of calipers.[citation needed]

Clearwater Paper's paperboard mills in Cypress Bend, Arkansas, and Lewiston, Idaho,[11][12][13][14] are also FSC and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Chain of Custody certified.[15]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Clearwater Paper Company History". clearwaterpaper.com. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  2. ^ "Clearwater Paper Completes Acquisition of Cellu Tissue". Paper Age.com. December 27, 2010. Retrieved November 9, 2011.
  3. ^ Williams, Elaine (October 27, 2011). "Clearwater Paper sells sawmill to Idaho Forest Group". Lewiston Morning Tribune. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  4. ^ "Clearwater Paper Corp: NYSE:CLW quotes & news". Google.com. July 21, 2016. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
  5. ^ "Lumbermen In Idaho". Idaho State University. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
  6. ^ "Lumbermen In Idaho". Idaho State University. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
  7. ^ "Potlatch Consolidates Midwest Tissue Converting at Elwood, Illinois; Benton Harbor, Michigan Converting Line to Close". Potlatch Corporation. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
  8. ^ "Potlatch Board Approves Spin-off of Pulp-Based Businesses". investors.potlatchdeltic.com. July 18, 2008. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
  9. ^ "In brief: Clearwater Paper now separate from Potlatch". The Spokesman-Review. December 17, 2008. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  10. ^ "Home". SEC.gov. 2015-12-18. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
  11. ^ "Huge pulp mill on schedule, president says". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). July 18, 1950. p. 12.
  12. ^ "New pulp mill and bridge nearly done at Lewiston". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). July 28, 1950. p. 5.
  13. ^ "Potlatch reports gains in Lewiston paper mill". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). March 24, 1968. p. 30.
  14. ^ Tate, Cassandra (December 24, 1975). "Potlatch: never a rose garden". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). p. 1A.
  15. ^ "New SFI Chain-of-Custody Certifications" (PDF). SFI Newsletter. November 1, 2009. p. 2. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
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