Wausau Paper to Close Mill

Wausau Paper, headquartered in Mosinee, Wis., has announced plans to close its technical specialty paper mill in Brainerd, Minn., by the second quarter of 2013.

In an announcement, Wausau says the decision to close the mill is part of the company’s earlier announcement it was repositioning its operations to focus on the tissue business. The company says that while a range of alternatives for the divestiture of the technical specialty business have been explored, it has become clear the mill will not contribute to those alternatives and the closure will significantly improve the continuing paper segment operating results.

Hank Newell, president and CEO, commented on the closure, "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,” says Hank Newell, president and CEO of Wausau.