Great Northern Paper hiring additional employees to meet increase in sales and customer demand
(Editor's Note: Based on a press release from Montagne Communications of August 7, 2012)

Less than a year from reopening, northern Maine mill will start second papermaking machine

East Millinocket, ME - Just ten months after purchasing the closed mill in East Millinocket and putting hundreds of people back to work, Great Northern Paper LLC will hire an additional 37 workers with the restart of Paper Machine #5. The hiring represents a 16% surge to its current workforce of 235, at a time when Maine's Katahdin region continues to push for new jobs and economic growth. GNP plans to hire the new employees and put PM #5 into production by the first week in September.

GNP is seeking employees for: Salaried Management-level, Wood Room, Grinder Room, Paper Machines, Warehouse, and Maintenance.

"After launching an aggressive sales and marketing campaign, we have a 35-40 day backlog of orders and are sold out through the end of 2012," said GNP President and CEO Richard M. Cyr. "It's fantastic to see an increase in sales at the mill, but even better to know we are putting 37 people to work in a community that desperately needs job growth."

Some of GNP's product line includes newsprint, directory paper, and Baxter Brite used for inserts, flyers, books and financial publications. The mill was recently in the news for producing more than 3,000 tons of paper for the popular Fifty Shades trilogy of books on its Baxter Brite grade. GNP's responsiveness, service, and the paper's consistent performance made Baxter Brite a reliable choice for Fifty Shades paper merchant Midland Paper and the books' publisher, Vintage, an imprint of Random House, Inc.

"Being a part of the Fifty Shades phenomenon has been exciting for us. It's great to know millions of people are reading books on our paper," said Cyr. "Our recent successes have proven we are here to stay in a community that has embraced us since we first purchased the mill late last summer. By adding jobs and other businesses to the region, we are focused on growth."

Cate Street Capital, who owns GNP, plans to open the torrefied wood production facility Thermogen Industries LLC in 2013 at the site of its former mill in Millinocket, ME. The plant will hire 25 full-time employees and produce 110,000 tons of torrefied wood per year for overseas, coal-fired, power plants who will reduce dangerous emissions by adding torrefied wood to their fuel mix.

Cate Street Capital, through its subsidiary Great Northern Paper Company, LLC, purchased the two shuttered paper mills in East Millinocket and Millinocket, Maine in August, 2011. GNP closed the sale and restarted East Millinocket's facility in less than two months, putting 225 employees back to work and re-launching the historic and revered Great Northern Paper brand.

For the Katahdin region, with an unemployment rate of nearly 22% since the East Millinocket mill shut down in April 2011, the news was greeted with celebration and relief. Cate Street worked rapidly and diligently in collaboration with Maine Governor Paul LePage, the Maine Attorney General's office, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Towns of East Millinocket and Millinocket, the labor unions, wood suppliers, and international customers to fit together all the needed pieces to successfully purchase and restart the Mills.

Cate Street Capital, with locations in New Hampshire, Maine, and Colorado focuses on finding and supporting green technologies and environmentally sustainable projects for a better world.

For additional information about Cate Street Capital or Great Northern Paper Company, contact Scott Tranchemontagne at: Scott@Montagnecom.com, or visit www.CateCapital.com.

Now that you are Ahead of the Curve, stay there by joining TAPPI.
For a modest investment of $174, receive more than US$ 1000 in benefits in return.
Visit www.tappi.org/join for more details.