Tama cardboard mill closing June 2

TAMA — Tama Paperboard, one of the oldest and best known businesses in Tama, will be closing June 2.

The mill employs 85 people who have been notified their jobs are ending, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with Iowa Workforce Development.

The mill, which is owned by Graphic Packaging International, has been in operation for more than a century and manufactures recycled paperboard for consumer products and for the food and beverage industries.

During a recent earnings call with investors, Graphic Packaging President and CEO Michael Doss said the Tama property is one of the company’s “higher cost mills.”

The company, he said, decided to close the Tama mill in the second quarter, “earlier than we had previously anticipated.”

“Among our recycled paperboard mills, Tama has the smallest capacity and the highest cash production cost per ton,” he said. “This closure advances our strategy to simplify our paperboard network while strategically expanding capacity and lowering cost.”

The company also is closing two other older mills in Middletown, Ohio, and East Angus, Quebec, and building a new $1 billion facility in Waco, Texas, according to the Resource Recycling newsletter.

The Waco facility will provide 550,000 tons of capacity — on a par with the company’s mill in Kalamazoo, Mich. — which will more than replace the 350,000 tons of capacity lost from the closing of the three older mills.

The moves will increase the company’s North American capacity from 4.2 million tons of paperboard across eight mills to 4.4 million tons across six mills, according to an investment presentation, the newsletter reported.

Graphic Packaging International recycles secondary fiber into coated recycled paperboard and is the largest producer of that material in North America, according to Resource Recycling.

Tama Mayor Doug Ray, who worked 46 years at Tama Paperboard before he retired, said the mill’s closure is “disappointing.”

“At this time, the city of Tama will not make any comments until we see what the full impact to the employees and the community will be,” he said.

Ray said city officials would be meeting with company executives Monday and more information should be available then.

Bryan Valline, a 29-year paper mill employee who serves as the president of United Steelworkers Local 743, told KCRG-TV9 the closing is difficult for the plant’s workers.

“I would rather have six months to prepare for this rather than 60 days because these guys have invested over half of their lives here,” he said. “There’s got to be … a lot of emotions going through their heads.”

Another concern is the future of Cherry Lake, a park and recreation near the mill. The lake’s water supply is a well on the mill’s property that the mill operated and maintained.

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