Neenah Paper a ‘Clear Leader’

By Pete Bach, The Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wis.

Mar. 14–ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Neenah Paper’s top executive said Thursday the firm will try to sell its pulp mill in Pictou, Nova Scotia, and attempt to divest the remaining 500,000 acres of timberland it owns there by the end of this year.

The maker of fine paper, with a mill in Neenah, added the former Fox River Paper Co., facility in Appleton to the fold in a 2007 acquisition. That addition coupled with the purchase of a German papermaker is gaining solid traction, said Sean Erwin, chairman, president and chief executive officer.

“Our integration efforts have been completed on or ahead of plan and we are now the clear leader in the premium (paper) segments,” Erwin told analysts in a conference call.

Erwin said price increases in some grades bolstered the financial picture.

Neenah Paper shut down a mill in Ohio and another in Massachusetts, which had been part of Fox River Paper group.

Consolidated net sales of $256 million in the fourth quarter marked a 44 percent increase from the same quarter in 2006.

“We have a much more balanced platform on which to grow,” said Bonnie Lind, chief financial officer.

The company recorded a fourth quarter dip of $300,000 in operating revenues, to $2.9 million, a decline that reflected settlement of a class action lawsuit alleging inequities in certain retiree benefits following its sale of the Terrace Bay, Ontario pulp mill in 2006.

The company said consolidated net income in the quarter included an after-tax charge of $3.2 million, or 21 cents per share.

But on the year, the company reported net income of $10.2 million on consolidated net sales of $990.5 million.

Neenah Paper employs about 250 at its Neenah mill and about 265 at the Fox River mill and converting/distribution center in the Town of Menasha, plus another 250 or so workers at the mill in Whiting near Stevens Point.

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