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Joining FutureMark Paper Group is helping Manistique create a brand, not a commodity
LIKE LONG LOST SIBLINGS reunited after many years of separation, the Alsip, IL and Manistique, MI, paper mills are now back under the same umbrella - this time that of the FutureMark Paper Group.
After suffering through numerous ownership changes, including a bankruptcy shut down in August 2011, the Manistique mill re-opened just one month later thanks to the efforts of Jon Johnson, now executive vice president and general manager, as well as the foresight of the local bank, mBank, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Still, this was a short-term solution and a buyer was needed for long term survival.
TheWatermill Group, a Lexington, MA-based private investment firm, which had purchased and repositioned the Alsip mill in 2009 as FutureMark Paper (PPI, February 2011, June 2011), first visited the Manistique mill in November 2011 and was intrigued by the possibilities of this northern Michigan mill, finalizing the sale in May 2012. Although the two mills are separate legal entities, they are operated under a marketing alliance called Futuremark Paper Group and share common senior management There are now 150 employees, up from 120 when the sale was finalized withWatermill. And, the mill has been profitable every month since the purchase.
Originally opened as a groundwood pulp/newsprint mill in 1920, the Manistique facility has evolved to produce about 130,000 tons/yr of uncoated print- ing and writing grades from a 100% recycled furnish. (For a more complete history, see boxed copy) Recently it has made a bold move into lightweight brown kraft packaging papers, which now accounts for about 25% of capacity and is growing. And, the mill still produces a small amount of newsprint mostly destined for local markets. Its market for other grades extends about 700 miles.
"We started making kraft paper in early 2011," says Johnson. "This was an attraction for FutureMark andWatermilll, that a paper machine could quickly switch between high bright and kraft"
At first, Johnson adds, FutureMark and Watermill were skeptical about the mill's ability to switch so quickly. But, knowing the printing and writing market was in decline and kraft paper was growing, creative management searched for a way to enter a new market...