Virginia recycled newsprint mill idles indefinitely

White Birch Paper Co., a Connecticut-based company that owns the Bear Island recycled newsprint mill in northern Hanover County, Virginia, has announced it plans to idle the paper-making plant indefinitely, according to a report in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. 

The company says it will supply customers, which include the Richmond Times-Dispatch and other Virginia publications, from its three other paper mills in Canada, the newspaper reports. 

The Bear Island mill produces about 240,000 metric tons of newsprint annually. After opening in 1979, the mill underwent an expansion in 1994 that added a recycling plant that turns old newspapers into pulp to make newsprint, reports the newspaper.

White Birch Paper says the 165 employees of its Bear Island mill were notified May 17 of the pending closure. The final date of operations will be announced shortly, the company says.

Employees will be given severance payments and job placement services, a spokesman told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

White Birch blamed the closure on “difficult market pricing, challenging cost fundamentals and declining demand.”

“It is truly unfortunate to have to make this difficult decision, and we will be forever grateful to the employees at Bear Island for their tireless efforts and service,” says Christopher Brant, the company’s president and chief operating officer, in a statement.

Richmond Times-Dispatch reports White Birch says it will also explore “alternative industrial options” for the site. The company did not indicate whether it plans to sell the plant, which sits on a 250-acre property.

The closure comes about five years after White Birch was acquired out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by an investment group that included members of the Brant family, who manage the company, and affiliates of Black Diamond Capital Management LLC.