The unexpected announcement sent shock waves among the mill’s workers, city officials and others in the community.
Employees first learned Monday morning of the company’s plans to close and were “shocked,” but understood the business decision, said Kevin Richard, Mohawk chief operating officer.
Richard said he and Mohawk Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas O’Connor Jr. were in Hamilton on Monday. The Cohoes, N.Y.-based company purchased Beckett Mill in 2005.
“Our operating costs continue to be high,” Richard said. “We’re reacting to what we see as a permanent change in the text and cover marketplace.”
The impact of losing Mohawk and SMART Papers, which recently announced it is potentially closing within months, will be costly to the city, said City Manager Joshua Smith.
For both companies, Smith estimated the total payroll tax revenue loss is about $400,000, but the utilities revenue loss will be more than $5 million. That could mean higher utility rates for city residents, he said.
Smith said Mohawk’s announcement was a shock to him as well. He said the last conversation he had with Mohawk leadership was in early September, when the company announced there would be temporary layoffs. He said the attitude expressed to him at that time was “cautiously optimistic.”
“Our City Council is going to have to make tough decisions at budget time and our residents are going to have to rally around the community as we work to change Hamilton’s economy from one predicated on manufacturing to an economy that is more diverse,” Smith said.
While the city will continue to aggressively look for a buyer for SMART Papers and a potential tenant for Mohawk’s Beckett Mill, Smith said he is not encouraged from conversations he’s had with several paper companies in his home state of Wisconsin, which are switching to producing tissue papers to stay viable.
“It’s a sad, sad day for the employees, the company and the city,” said Dave Belew, a leading Hamilton philanthropist and former president of 17 years at the Beckett Mill prior to Mohawk.
Belew retired in 1992 after working at the mill for 32 years. He is married to Marge Belew, the great granddaughter of the company’s founder William Beckett.
“The mill has a history of wonderful employees and they still do,” he said. “Thousands and thousands of people worked there over the years. Beckett Mill still has a big place in my heart. It’s been such an important part of Hamilton and Hamilton’s history.”
Tim Bray, who represents the union workers for United Steelworkers International, said the news was a surprise to the workers and that he will be working with Mohawk and the local union’s leader, Floyd Strack, through the next steps in the process of the mill’s closing.
Richard said at the time of the layoffs in September, the company didn’t know the mill would close.
“The business market continued to decline,” Richard said.
The paper made in Hamilton is used to print corporate documents, such as annual reports. He said with the economy as it is, one thing companies are going to look at to save money is communication strategy and reducing print.
The 45 employees Mohawk temporarily laid off in September will return to work Oct. 31 to finish the year, he said. They are included in the total 137 jobs count, he said.
Customers can still buy paper short-term before the paper mill closes while looking for a new supplier. Mohawk will stop making dark color paper and coated paper after this, going from six paper machines at three mills to three paper machines at two mills in New York, he added.
He said the operating costs in Hamilton are higher than New York because here, the company pays the city for water and waste treatment, expenses it doesn’t pay in New York.
“There’s some external conditions outside their (workers) control,” said Richard. “We have invested heavily in this facility since 2005, trying to drive operating costs down.”
If SMART Papers closes next year, that means paper won’t be made anymore in Hamilton. SMART Papers, previously Champion Papers, 601 N. B Street, made industrial history by introducing the first two-side coated paper used for magazines, said SMART Chairman Tim Needham last week. Needham said earlier this month SMART will close in six to eight months unless it finds a buyer for all or parts of its business.
“They might as well close Hamilton down,” said Marcella Rommel, of Hamilton, at a convenience store on Heaton Street, not far from Mohawk’s plant.
Rommel said she’s lived in Hamilton 50 years and used to work at Ohio Casualty Group. She has been unemployed two years as of December.
“I’ve never seen a town go down so fast,” she said.
Maintenance and engineering employees at Mohawk said Monday the closing is just a bump in the road and disappointing.
“It’s pretty crushing,” said Bernie Wuennemann of Hamilton.
He said he’s one of several employees close to 60-years-old who worked at the mill 25 to 30 years. But Wuennemann said he had an inkling this could happen, though he was hoping for five more years for retirement.
After SMART said it could close, “I figured, ‘Oh my God, we’re next,’” he said.
About the Author