Paper firm cutting 23 workers at Lewiston

Company-wide layoffs at Clearwater Paper Corp. will result in 23 people losing their jobs at the mill in Lewiston, a spokesperson said Friday.

The cuts at Lewiston include eight salaried employees, who were notified this week, as well as 15 hourly positions, which the company will determine in conjuction with the workers’ union, said Virginia Aulin, vice president of public affairs.

“We’ll work with the union to determine how best to align our hourly head count with our operating needs,” she said in a phone interview with the Tribune.

There are also about 50 unoccupied positions at the Lewiston mill that will be eliminated, Aulin said.

Once those cuts are in place, Clearwater Paper will employee approximately 680 people at the Lewiston mill. There are another 500 employees who work in the mill’s tissue manufacturing area, which was recently taken over by Sofidel America Corp. Sofidel America Corp — a subsidiary of Sofidel S.p.A., a privately held company headquartered in Lucca, Italy — bought all of Clearwater Paper’s tissue operations for $1.06 billion in November.

Clearwater Paper now focuses on pulp and paperboard production at mills in Lewiston; Cypress Bend, Ark.; and Augusta, Ga.

This week’s cuts in Lewiston are part of a 10% reduction in jobs company-wide. A total of 250 positions will be eliminated, but only about 135 of those jobs were occupied, Aulin said.

While many employees transferred to Sofidel following the sale of the tissue business, Clearwater Paper’s overhead costs are still “too high for our new business,” Aulin said. Also, the paperboard market is in a down cycle and another company is expected to push into the market in the latter half of 2025. Those factors led to the elimination of jobs, Aulin said.

Clearwater Paper is offering severance packages, health care subsidies and outplacement services to the salaried employees who were cut, Aulin said.

“We value our relationships in the Lewiston community,” she said. “We have great assets here and are committed to maintaining and improving the performance of our assets as we get through the market downturn and into the future.”

A Brazilian company, Suzano SA, was supposedly considering a takeover purchase of Clearwater Paper, according to a December media report, but the company later announced it had no such plans.

Aulin said Clearwater Paper makes it a policy to not comment on market rumors like that.

“It’s our goal to become ... a premier independent paperboard packaging supplier to North American converters,” she said. “That’s our strategy, which is why we sold (the tissue operations) and we bought the Augusta paperboard mill in Georgia in the spring. That is our future goal.”

Baney may be contacted at mbaney@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2251. Follow him on X @MattBaney_Trib.