NewPage was a leading producer of printing and specialty

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distrib ...

s in North America with $3.1 billion in net sales for the year ended December 31, 2012. NewPage was headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, and owned paper mills in

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. These mills have a total annual production capacity of approximately 3.5 million tons of paper. NewPage's Niagara Mill, located in

Niagara, Wisconsin Niagara is a city in Marinette County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,624 at the 2010 census. The city lies to the north of and adjacent to the Town of Niagara. It is part of the Marinette, WI– MI Micropolitan Statistica ...

closed in 2008, Kimberly Mill, located in Kimberly, Wisconsin closed in 2009, Chillicothe Mill, located in Chillicothe, Ohio sold in 2006 to

Glatfelter Glatfelter is a leading global supplier of engineered materials with a strong focus on innovation and sustainability. The company's high quality, technology-driven, innovative and customizable nonwovens solutions can be found in products that a ...

and is still operational, Port Hawkesbury Mill, located in

Point Tupper, Nova Scotia Point Tupper is a rural community in Richmond County, Nova Scotia, on the Strait of Canso, in western Cape Breton Island. History Extensive land grants in the area were acquired in 1863 by Henry Nicholas Paint, of Belle Vue, Canso, member of Pa ...

closed in 2011, re-opened in 2012 by

Stern Partners The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Orig ...

as Port Hawkesbury Paper) and Whiting Mill, located in

Whiting, Wisconsin Whiting is a village in Portage County, Wisconsin, United States and is a suburb of Stevens Point. It is included in the Stevens Point Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,724 at the 2010 census. Geography Whiting is located at ...

(closed in 2011. In early 2015, the company was acquired by the

Verso Corporation Verso Corporation, now Billerud Americas Corporation, was a North American producer of coated papers including coated groundwood, coated freesheet, and specialty products. The company restructured in 2016 following Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Verso ...

for $1.4 billion.

History

Two of the mills can trace their roots to the West Virginia Paper Company (aka the West Virginia Pulp & Paper Company and later, Westvaco) that was established in 1888 by William Luke on 50 acres (202,000 m²) of land along the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...

in an area known as "West Piedmont" (now

Luke, Maryland Luke is a town in Allegany County, Maryland, United States, located along the Potomac River just upstream of Westernport. Known originally as West Piedmont, the town is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population ...

). The mill in Luke remained a major economic factor in the area straddling the river into

Beryl Beryl ( ) is a mineral composed of beryllium aluminium silicate with the chemical formula Be3Al2Si6O18. Well-known varieties of beryl include emerald and aquamarine. Naturally occurring, hexagonal crystals of beryl can be up to several ...

and

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

, until it was closed in 2019. In 2005,

MeadWestvaco MeadWestvaco Corporation was an American packaging company based in Richmond, Virginia. It had approximately 23,000 employees. In February 2006, it moved its corporate headquarters to Richmond. In March 2008, the company announced a change to sta ...

's Printing and Writing Paper business was sold to investment firm

Cerberus Capital Management Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is an American private equity firm,Leaders Magazine"Providing Economic Opportunity: An Interview with The Honorable Dan Quayle, Chairman, Cerberus Global Investments, LLC". specializing in distressed investing. ...

for about $2.3 billion to form NewPage Corporation. NewPage originally constituted five pulp and paper manufacturing plants in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, and Ohio. In April 2006, NewPage sold their carbonless operations located in Ohio for $84 million to global specialty papermaker P. H. Glatfelter Company, based in

York, Pennsylvania York (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populatio ...

. In 2007, NewPage Corporation purchased the North American assets of

Stora Enso Stora Enso Oyj (from sv, Stora and fi, Enso ) is a manufacturer of pulp, paper and other forest products, headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. The majority of sales takes place in Europe, but there are also significant operations in Asia and S ...

(formerly Consolidated Papers, Inc.) which included mills in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nova Scotia. On September 7, 2011, the NewPage Corporation filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization due to negative cash flow for more than a year. NewPage Corporation announced December 21, 2012, that it has successfully completed its financial restructuring and has officially emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection pursuant to its Modified Fourth Amended Chapter 11 Plan which was confirmed on December 14, 2012, by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in Wilmington.

References

{{Reflist

External links

NewPage Corp. website

NewPage Digital website
Companies based in Dayton, Ohio Miamisburg, Ohio Mineral County, West Virginia Pulp and paper companies of the United States Defunct pulp and paper companies Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011