Dunn Paper buys five paper mills

Dunn Paper, Inc. has acquired five specialty mills from the Clearwater Paper Corp. so it can expand its presence in the paper market.

The transaction includes the sale of five Clearwater Paper specialty-tissue and machine-glazed paper mills in East Hartford, Connecticut., Wiggins, Mississippi., Menominee, Gouverneur, New York, and St. Catharines, Ontario.

Gregory Howe, vice president and CFO of Dunn Paper, said the deal for the five mills has been in the works for several months.

“I think what we are looking to do is expand, so we can really enhance our product line to our customers,” Howe said. “This was a great opportunity for us and our customers.”

The cost of the acquisition was not made available. Howe said he has no intention of disclosing that or any other private financial information.

Howe said Dunn Paper has never made such an acquisition. He said there will be no impact to the Port Huron operation.

The five mill locations include nine paper machines with more than 200,000 tons of production capacity across a set of product lines that would make machine-glazed paper, coated paper, specialty napkins, towels, tissues and wet crepe.

Howe confirmed about 470 people will remain under employment for Dunn Paper.

“We’ve acquired the mills and the employees along with those mills,” Howe said.

As a result of the transaction, Howe said Dunn Paper has expanded its presence in the specialty paper and tissue markets and can offer a wide array of products and solutions.

Dunn Paper produces specialty waxed, coated and uncoated machine-glazed papers used in food packaging and specialty label applications. The central office is in 218 Riverview St., Port Huron.

Contact Tony Wittkowski at (810) 989-6270 or twittkowsk@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @tonywittkowski.