The company expects to close the sale after receiving court approval, company spokesman Bill Van Den Brandt said.
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In February, lenders proposed acquiring the company for $325 million, plus the assumption of liabilities. The offer, though, was subject to higher or better bids through a court-supervised sale process.
Those bids had not materialized as of late April.
If the company had received better bids, it would have proceeded to an auction initially scheduled for today, May 9. With just the sole bid, the matter is going to the May 14 court hearing.
That sale is not expected to affect any company operations, including West Carrollton operations, Van Den Brandt said.
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He expects the plant to be a key part of the company’s operations.
“The West Carrollton facility is an important part of company operations,” he said. “They’re a key producer of our thermal paper — and that’s an important product for the future of the company. And the West Carrollton facility is a part of any sale of any assets of the company.”
PHOTOS: Inside look at Appvion (Appleton Paper) through the years
Last October, Appvion and some of its subsidiaries filed voluntary Chapter 11 cases.
The local plant has had ups and downs — but in recent years, mostly downs.
Appvion used to be Appleton Papers before changing its name in 2013. At the time, the Appleton, Wisc.-based company had about 100 workers at its 1030 W. Alex-Bell Road plant and several workers in Monroe. It still has about 100 West Carrollton workers.
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In April 2012, the then-Appleton Papers said it would lay off 330 West Carrollton workers as part of a plan to take base paper from a Canadian supplier. The local mill then become a thermal paper coating facility.
That decision was a dramatic shift from about 2007, when the Appleton, Wisc.-based papermaker invested $100 million into the local plant to expand production of thermal paper. The expansion at the time added about 35 jobs to what was then a local work force of about 410 employees.
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