Almost a year and a half ago, The Commercial did a story on Evergreen Packaging, with the head of the company that owns the Pine Bluff paper mill saying they were looking for “strategic alternatives” regarding the mill. One of those alternatives would be to keep running the mill; another was to sell it.
Note that none of the alternatives included shutting down the mill, which has been in operation for decades.
That did not stop a few folks from going straight to the-sky-is-falling mode, suggesting how the closure would affect so many people and how their granddad worked there for 30 years, etc.
The recent announcement that a Brazilian company was buying the mill should put much of that unease to rest. Very high in the news release about the sale, the companies said the new outfit, Suzano S.A., has agreed to offer employment to the current workers.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The point is that the mill represents quite an asset. The fact that it didn’t fit neatly into the future plans for the current owner, Pactiv Evergreen, did not mean that the mill had no value to another concern. That new concern has now been identified.
To emphasize that, we refer to another part of the press release that said as part of the deal, Suzano will continue to supply Pactiv Evergreen with liquid packaging board, which is what is produced at the Pine Bluff mill. So the old company still needs what the Pine Bluff mill makes — Pactiv Evergreen just didn’t want to be the one making it.
Currently, there are close to 800 employees at the mill, according to the previous story. It will be a while before the sale is completed and the new company’s fingerprints are on the operation in Pine Bluff. But chances are a new number of employees will be consistent with that older number if the operation is to continue as planned. Who knows, it could even grow, as there is more capacity at the Pine Bluff mill than is currently being used.
One element that can take a back seat, when it comes to big corporations and how they use assets, is the environment. On that subject, this too could be an upgrade. On the Suzano website, much thought is given to the idea that the company operates in an ecologically responsible manner, with some content appearing to come directly from Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, in which the title character says “I speak for the trees.”
“We are a Brazilian multinational company with 100 years of history,” Suzano states on its website. “We learned from the trees that life is always renewing itself and that, with them, it is possible to create a more sustainable future.”
The Lorax would have been very pleased to hear that, we imagine, and so are we.
As one interested person said, these sorts of things — big companies figuring and refiguring and buying and selling — are rather routine. There might come a time when the mill is of no value, but that time is not now. Best wishes to Suzano in its new acquisition. The community looks forward to meeting you!