Wausau Paper Shuttering Brainerd Mill; 130 to Lose Jobs

MOSINEE, WI—Wausau Paper (WPP) announced the closure of the company’s technical specialty paper mill in Brainerd, MN, to occur early in the second quarter of 2013. The closure will affect approximately 130 employees.

The company recently announced its intent to strategically reposition the company to focus on its tissue business. A range of alternatives for the divestiture of the technical specialty business have been explored. It has become clear that Brainerd will not contribute to those alternatives and the closure will significantly improve the continuing Paper segment operating results.

"A number of factors, including our accelerated exit from the print business, protracted global economic weakness and recent competitive paper capacity additions in Asia have impacted the viability of the Brainerd operations and created operational losses from the mill that were unsustainable,” said Hank Newell, president and CEO of Wausau Paper. "Our employees and the community of Brainerd have done all we have asked in our efforts to create a long-term viable operation and we thank them for their support.”

Pre-tax closure charges are estimated to be $47 million, with non-cash charges, primarily related to the write-down of long-lived assets, accounting for approximately $44 million of the total. First quarter, pre-tax closure charges of approximately $36 million are expected with the remaining charges occurring over the balance of 2013. After considering income tax liabilities and the anticipated reduction in working capital, the cash impact of the closure is expected to be neutral on a cumulative basis.