50 Rockingham jobs moving to Scotland County
By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com
* June 25: ‘No decision’ on Cascades Tissue move
Cascades Tissue Group officials announced on Monday the transfer of it six-line converting facility from Rockingham to Wagram in nearby Scotland County.
The anticipated move, first reported by The Pee Dee Post in June, impacts 50 jobs at the Rockingham facility, located on Midway Road.
Hugo D’Amours, vice president of communications and public affairs, told the Post Monday morning that the reorganization of the converting platform and move to Scotland County was necessary because in Rockingham “we have a lack of space.”
“We wanted a bigger converting capacity in the south,” said D’Amours, who noted the company looked at multiple sites in the southeast United States. “We couldn’t do it from our Rockingham facility.”
D’Amours said a mix of incentives from county and state governments, a partnership with Richmond Community College — regarding workforce training — and a grant from Duke Energy helped to absorb some of the costs of the purchase of the Wagram facility and the transfer of equipment from Rockingham and other company-owned sites to Scotland County.
“Everybody got together for this project,” D’Amours said. “Basically, we wanted to stay as close as we can” to Rockingham.”
D’Amours said the transfer should be complete by the end of this year. In addition to the relocation of 50 Rockingham jobs to Wagram, he said the Wagram facility will begin hiring up to 60 new employees to handle the increased capacity.
Company officials said the move represented a $55 million investment — and up to $62 million when considering the cost of transferring equipment to Wagram.
Suzanne Blanchet, president and CEO of Cascades Tissue Group, said in a news release that “Cascades is expanding its presence in the Southeast, one of the fastest-growing markets in the United States. This investment will allow us to optimize our converting platform by relocating equipment presented used elsewhere, by adding new manufacturing equipment and installing robotized warehouse management. In doing so, we are moving closer to many key markets, and improving our productivity and logistics while enhancing customers service.”
The total annual capacity for the new converting plant is approximately 10 million cases on six converting lines, with the capacity to produce various tissue products including bathroom tissue, kitchen towels, paper napkins and hand towels for both the Away-from-Home and Consumer Products markets.
“This new investment in Wagram will allow us to further improve our tissue manufacturing and customer service through the addition of an ultra-modern converting plant that will be ideally situated to serve the growing needs of our customers,” said Mario Plourde, president and CEO of Cascades Inc.
Cascades Inc. is a North American leader in the recovery, manufacturing and converting of green packaging and tissue paper products.
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