Verso employs approximately 125 people at its headquarters in Miami Twp., company officials said Tuesday. The company also has two paper mills in Michigan, a roll to sheet converting facility in Wisconsin and two distribution centers in Sauk Village, Illinois and Bedford, Pennsylvania. It employs 1,700 employees nationwide.
Founded in 2012, BillerudKorsnäs has production units in Sweden and Finland, and offices in more than 12 countries. It employees more than 4,400 people.
“With the support of our talented team, Verso has successfully streamlined our operations and reduced costs while strategically investing in projects to enhance our ability to support our customers,” Verso President and CEO Randy Nebel said in a release. “This transaction builds upon our considerable progress and better positions the combined company to invest in our North American manufacturing capability, provide high-quality paper products to customers and accelerate growth.”
The agreement follows “careful consideration and negotiation” led by the special committee of the company’s board, which was formed following receipt of the unsolicited proposal earlier this year, Nebel said.
Christoph Michalski, president and CEO of BillerudKorsnäs, said the company will obtain cost-effective production of coated virgin fiber material in the Midwestern United States.
“We also plan to sequentially transform part of the business into paperboard production while continuing to serve the U.S. customers,” Michalski said in a release. “Our investments will create new U.S.-based jobs in a growing market and accelerate the transition from plastic-based packaging materials to renewable sources.”
In January 2015, Verso completed the acquisition of Miami Twp.’s NewPage Holdings Inc. Verso in early 2017 consolidated its two corporate offices in Memphis, Tennessee and Miami Twp. into one headquarters at 8540 Gander Creek Drive in Miami Twp., a move it said was aimed at eliminating “redundancy and inefficiency.”
Company officials would not comment on plans for its Miami Twp. office.
BillerudKorsnäs plans to convert Verso’s largest facility, its Escanaba mill in Michigan, into “a world-class, sustainable, fully integrated paperboard production site.”
One machine is estimated to be converted by 2025, a second machine by 2029, with a total capacity of around 1.2 million tons. BillerudKorsnäs estimates that the investment for the conversion project will be up to approximately $1 billion.
In addition to continued paper production in Escanaba during the conversion, BillerudKorsnäs plans to continue operating the Quinnesec Mill in Michigan. The mill has the capacity to produce about 430,000 tons of graphic and specialty papers and 240,000 tons of market pulp per year.
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