George F. Martin, president and chief executive officer, NewPage Corporation, has been named winner of the 2013 PIMA Executive of the Year Award. The award is PIMA’s highest honor and is bestowed on senior-level executives in the pulp, paper or converting industries for excellence in management and outstanding contributions to the industry as a whole.
“During an exemplary career in senior management and operations spanning 29 years in the industry George Martin has exemplified the strong leadership skills and vision that are absolutely critical for success in today’s global pulp and paper business,” said Larry N. Montague, TAPPI president and CEO. “His leadership and hard work provided important contributions to NewPage’s growth and emergence as one of North America’s leading printing and specialty paper producers. His accomplishments as a leader and his many contributions to the industry make him an outstanding choice as PIMA Executive of the Year.”
Martin has been president and chief executive officer for NewPage since 2010 and is a member of the company’s board of directors. He is responsible for the company’s strategy and mission, annual goals, and yearly revenue and profitability targets; and more recently, for the successful emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Over the past decade, he has been an instrumental leader throughout the company’s mergers and acquisitions as well as in the establishment of NewPage Corporation in 2005.
He began his career with Westvaco holding various key operating, technical and staff roles. In 2002, he became director of integration for MeadWestvaco Papers Group and was then named vice president and mill manager of the Escanaba, Michigan facility in 2003. In 2005, he was promoted to senior vice president of operations for NewPage where he was responsible for the company’s 10 manufacturing facilities.
Martin is an active member of various industry organizations and currently holds board positions at the American Forest and Paper Association and the National Association of Manufacturers. He holds a B.A. degree in chemistry from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and a doctorate in organic chemistry from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
For more information on the Executive of the Year award see the PIMA Honors link
Marketing Campaign Showcases the Power of Unconventional Thinking
NewPage Corporation (NewPage) has announced the launch of its SHIFTERS marketing campaign to promote its recent introduction of Sterling® Premium, an American-made, premium coated printing paper. The campaign includes direct mail, email, personal and general URL websites and social media; and features a printed brochure that utilizes Layar technology, a leading augmented reality platform, to view videos.
"With the launch of Sterling Premium, we asked our customers to embrace an essential 'shift' in how they have conventionally thought about coated paper," said Steven DeVoe, vice president, Marketing for NewPage. "Sterling Premium is a game-changing solution for agencies, brand marketers or printers looking for the qualities of a premium coated sheet without a premium price tag. Since its introduction, we have been overwhelmed by feedback from our customers that this unconventional product outranks other premium sheets in optics, print performance and price."
"The SHIFTERS campaign recognizes and celebrates individuals and businesses that think unconventionally or question the status quo," said Tanya Pipo, commercial product manager, premium sheets & C1S for NewPage. The campaign includes a printed brochure showcasing the Sterling Premium line and features four unique SHIFTERS: New Era Guitars, Graeter's Ice Cream, Shinola (watches, leather goods, bicycles and journals) and Del Popolo (wood-fired pizza). Pipo adds, "Each of these inspirational and passionate businesses has a unique story to tell about how they are "shifting" the expectations and imaginations of their customers. They remind us that anything is possible and inspire us to make products like Sterling Premium."
A cornerstone of the SHIFTERS brochure is the use of Layar technology to enhance the reader's experience with the printed page by displaying videos on a smartphone, without ever leaving the brochure. There are four videos; each telling the story of a SHIFTER. Readers are guided by the Layar icon throughout the brochure.
The SHIFTERS campaign also includes the use of social media whereas users and fans can engage with NewPage around content pertaining to the featured SHIFTERS and the SHIFTER mentality. SHIFT your thinking and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Sterling Premium, and its digital counterparts Sterling® Premium Digital™ and Sterling® Premium Digital™ for HP Indigo, carries three chain-of-custody certifications and contains 10 percent post-consumer recycled fiber. All NewPage products are made in the United States. To learn more about Sterling Premium and NewPage, visit www.NewPageCorp.com.
SOURCE NewPage Corporation
A bill supported by environmental organizations that carved out an important exception for the Luke paper mill is struggling after being rejected by a House committee.
While the bill remains alive in the Senate, the prognosis for final passage is uncertain.
Should the bill fail, it returns the situation to the status quo and the Luke mill would be unaffected, officials said.
But the status quo is a bad idea, said a spokesman for a key Maryland environmental group.
“This critical bill for Maryland consumers and the environment overwhelmingly passed the Senate with bipartisan support and came just one vote short of passage in a key House committee. Unfortunately, a handful of delegates decided to continue to send Maryland ratepayer dollars to out-of-state, polluting companies. This bill would have supported new, clean-energy jobs in Maryland,” said Tom Carlson, the Maryland campaign director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Carlson said he wasn’t sure how likely reviving the bill in the House was, but the network would continue to work with delegates.
Fighting the battle against industry lobbyists in Annapolis isn’t an easy task, Carlson said.
“The Senate version of the bill remains alive and could be acted on favorably by a ... House committee in the next week if any delegate reconsiders their position,” Carlson said.
The bill passed the Senate 33-13 on March 28, but the companion House bill was reported unfavorably by the House Economic Matters Committee by one vote on April 1.
The bill includes a list of renewable energy sources and makes the Luke paper plant eligible for renewable energy certificates.
“It’s like taking 250,000 cars off the road,” said Carlson.
The bill is also good for consumers, because it stops tax dollars from going to out-of-state companies.
In 2011, Carlson said, the certificates were worth $3.8 million, 91 percent of which ended up out of state.
The energy certificates can be traded and sold. Their value is equal to one megawatt-hour of electricity generated by a renewable energy source.
The certificates are expected to grow in value as time passes, sending more money to out of state companies, Carlson said.
It could amount to a value of $33 million heading out of state next year, Carlson said.
“The longer we wait, the worse this is. ... It’s outrageous,” Carlson said.
The initial bill would have redefined renewable energy sources to exclude “black liquor,” Carlson said.
The current bill’s certificates for the mill would expire in 2018.
The bill, though, directs the governor to find funding for the plant equivalent to what they might lose from phase-out of the certificates.
New Page Corp., based in Miamisburg, Ohio, owns the Luke mill and is a leading producer of coated paper in North America that operates 10 paper mills with 20 paper machines in the U.S. and Canada.
The Point Tupper paper mill has been running smoothly since its restart, according a delegation from the plant.
During the regular monthly meeting of Port Hawkesbury town council on Tuesday, three employees of the plant’s new owner, Port Hawkesbury Paper, painted a rosy picture of the mill’s operations.
Foncie Farrell, mill operations superintendent for Cape Breton, said production at the plant has exceeded expectations.
“The restart went very well considering the mill was down for over a year,” said Farrell. “It was kept in a state of hot idle, and that means the machines were turned regularly.”
In addition to having the mill produce excellent product, Farrell said he was surprised to have such a positive response from wood contractors who in many cases had started selling their materials to other mills.
As part of a new agreement, the mill has entered into a partnership with smaller mills to help it produce its raw product.
“It’s our intention, if a landowner or contractor wants to sell us everything that he harvests off his woodlot, we want to be able to buy that,” said Farrell. “We can market that to other markets.”
The mill, formerly operated by NewPage Port Hawkesbury, shut down in September 2011.
In October, the first roll of glossy magazine-style paper rolled off the production line.
Since that time, 304 people, including 267 full-time employees, have started work at the mill in various departments, including operations, maintenance, administration, forestry and salary.
While the mill remains a significant employer in the Strait region, there has been a net loss of about 250 jobs as the new owner has chosen to forgo producing a newsprint line.
Comments made around the table at council were positive toward the company’s purchase of the mill.
“You can just (be) happy that Mayor MacLean’s not here because he’d be hugging and kissing you,” said Coun. Bert Lewis. “Everybody in the region is very, very happy that the mill is up and running again.”
Deputy mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton echoed the sentiment of gratitude toward the mill’s operator.
“It’s such a wonderful thing to have you here and for you to express such great news,” she said.
Andrea Coombs, an outreach worker at the plant, said Port Hawkesbury Paper is currently the only large forestry operation that is certified to the Maritime standard in Atlantic Canada.
The mill is certified under the Forestry Stewardship Council, which includes certification from the process of moving wood out of the forest, down to selling the product to a paper customer.
“It really helps us when we get to those higher levels to compete with other companies, when we have that certification,” Coombs said.
It is a blast from the recent past, but NewPage Holdings Inc.’s annual report may hold some interest for Nova Scotians.
NewPage Holdings, the new name of the former owner of the NewPage Port Hawkesbury paper plant at the Strait of Canso, booked an US$18 million gain after the “deconsolidation” of the Nova Scotia plant from its American operations.
In the 2012 annual report of its predecessor company filed over the weekend, NewPage Holdings management said it separated NewPage Port Hawkesbury from its operations in the United States effective Sept. 6, 2011, because it “lost control” of the Nova Scotia plant as part of a settlement agreement under the federal Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.
The Ohio-based company reported a 2012 profit of about US$1.3 billion (US$12.58 per share) on sales of US$3.1 billion. NewPage also reported a loss of US$498 million on sales of US$3.5 billion in 2011 and a loss of US$656 million on about US$3.6 billion in sales in 2010.
Most Nova Scotia taxpayers know the sad story of NewPage Port Hawkesbury and would be happy never to see the name NewPage again.
After NewPage sought protection from creditors in September 2011, it threw the Strait of Canso and northern Nova Scotia into an economic crisis. The NDP government stepped in with $36.8 million to keep the plant on “hot idle” to allow a quick restart of the operation once a new buyer was found.
Eventually, Stern Partners Inc. of Vancouver acquired the paper mill after the provincial government agreed to put up $124.5 million over 10 years. Before that, the workforce and pensioners also agreed to accept major concessions, including a major downgrade of pension benefits.
In its annual report, NewPage Holdings, which emerged from creditor protection in the U.S. on Dec. 21, indicated that as a result of the deconsolidation of NewPage Port Hawkesbury, the company adopted the cost method of accounting for its Nova Scotia investment.
“Upon adoption of the cost method, we evaluated our investment in (NewPage Port Hawkesbury) for impairment and determined that our entire investment had experienced an other-than-temporary decline in value and was fully impaired,” management said.
“As a result of the de-recognition of the assets and liabilities, combined with the settlement payment and fair value of the remaining equity interest, the deconsolidation of the … (Port Hawkesbury) subsidiary resulted in an US$18 (million) gain recorded in reorganization items, net.”
NewPage also says the biomass project it planned to build at the Nova Scotia plant, in conjunction with Nova Scotia Power Inc., was part of the settlement under the arrangement with creditors, and some of the rights were given to Nova Scotia Power.
The power utility and the new owner of the paper mill have now adopted the operating agreement Nova Scotia Power had with NewPage, said the U.S. paper company.
In general, NewPage now says demand for its printing and writing paper products could be adversely affected by the economy and growth in the Internet. In fact, it says economic conditions and shifting consumer preferences have had an adverse effect on NewPage since 2008.
“Although advertising and print media usage began to increase during the second half of 2010 and initial months of 2011, demand began to decline later in 2011 and continued into 2012 due to lower advertising (spending) in an uncertain economy, coupled with a shift to electronic media (both content and advertising),” management said in the report.
source: http://thechronicleherald.ca By ROGER TAYLOR | Business Columnist ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )
NewPage Holdings Inc. (NewPage) has posted its 2012 Annual Report on the NewPage Corporation website, www.NewPageCorp.com.
About NewPage Corporation
NewPage is a leading producer of printing and specialty papers in North America with $3.1 billion in net sales for the year ended December 31, 2012. NewPage is headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, and owns paper mills in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. These mills have a total annual production capacity of approximately 3.5 million tons of paper.
The company's portfolio of paper products includes coated, supercalendered and specialty papers. These papers are used in commercial printing to create corporate collateral, magazines, catalogs, books, coupons, inserts and direct mail as well as in specialty paper applications including beverage bottle labels, food and medical packaging, pressure-sensitive labels and release liners.To learn more, visit www.NewPageCorp.com.
SOURCE NewPage Corporation
NewPageCorporation (NewPage), a leader in specialty papers for labeling and flexible packaging segments, has announced the launch of www.WherePaperWorks.com, a new website specifically designed as a comprehensive and easy-to-use on-line resource for converters, brand owners and end users of specialty papers. The new website features content on specialty paper applications, segments and innovation, including a downloadable calendar of industry events.
Created with the user experience firmly in mind, the website has been designed using the latest technology so the site is compatible with today's browsers and mobile devices. The site also includes news and social media content feeds, as well as a wide array of product information to help customers understand the complete range of specialty paper solutions at NewPage.
For more information, visit www.WherePaperWorks.com.
NewPage Holdings Inc. has announced that on February 1, 2013, Patrick Buchenroth, age 45, accepted the position of controller and chief accounting officer for NewPage Holdings Inc. and NewPage Corporation, effective February 25, 2013.
From May 2012 through January 2013, Mr. Buchenroth served as senior vice president of finance at ACCO Brands Corporation, a global supplier of branded office products, following the company's acquisition of the Consumer and Office Products Division of MeadWestvaco Corporation, a global packaging company. Prior to the acquisition, from August 2005 through April 2012, he served as chief financial officer for MeadWestvaco Corporation's Consumer and Office Products Division. In 2005, he was part of a team that orchestrated the sale of MeadWestvaco Corporation's Paper Division to form NewPage Corporation. Prior to these roles, Mr. Buchenroth was an audit partner for Deloitte & Touche, a public accounting firm.
Mr. Buchenroth is a CPA and a graduate of Wright State University with a double major in Accountancy and Finance. He is also the treasurer of the United Way of the Greater Dayton Area.
SOURCE NewPage
NewPage, the leading producer of printing and specialty papers in North America, announced that the launch of TrueJet® Book, a new addition to its award-winning TrueJet® Digital Coated Papers for production inkjet presses.
TrueJet Digital Coated Papers enable high speed, short run and variable data printing on production color inkjet equipment or related hybrid applications with offset class print quality and reduced total operating cost for the printer or publisher. Unlike conventional coated offset papers, TrueJet Digital Coated Papers are made with a combination of materials that result in improved inkjet ink dry times, improved inkjet print quality and productivity while maintaining the capability for offset printability in hybrid applications.
"The inkjet publishing segment is rapidly growing as books that were traditionally printed web offset are converted to inkjet printing," said Steven J. DeVoe, vice president, Marketing for NewPage. "TrueJet Book is designed specifically for high-speed, book publication print runs, is Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC®) certified and meets NASTA (National Association of State Textbook Administrators) specifications."
"TrueJet Book is offered in a 45 lb. matte finish and delivers offset-like quality for full-color variable inkjet presses to meet the requirements of our book publishing customers," added Dennis Essary, director, Digital Papers for NewPage. "Customers who are looking for a better value proposition from an inkjet grade have a new option for the book publishing market based on the award-winning TrueJet design."
TrueJet Digital Coated Papers is a result of several years of research and development and on-press testing with some of the top manufacturers of high-speed inkjet presses. NewPage was granted U.S. Patent 7803224 for the technology, which enables coated papers to be printed via multiple processes of inkjet, offset and laser. Additional patents are pending.
TrueJet Book has been awarded Kodak's 4 Diamond Rating for use on the Kodak Prosper™ press, and has also been recognized for HP Tseries presses without the need for a bonding agent.
NewPage and its TrueJet line of coated papers were recipients of a 2011 InterTech Technology Award. Bestowed by the Printing Industries of America, the award recognizes technological innovations expected to have a major impact on the graphic communications industry.
NewPage Corporation (NewPage) has announced that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in Wilmington has confirmed the Company's Chapter 11 Plan (the "Plan"). The Plan was accepted by the overwhelming majority of NewPage creditors entitled to vote. The Company will now proceed to close on the restructuring transactions contemplated by the Plan.
"We are pleased that the Court has confirmed our Chapter 11 Plan, clearing the way for us to officially exit bankruptcy, hopefully by the end of this year," said George Martin, president and chief executive officer for NewPage. "We will exit bankruptcy with substantially less debt and new financing at lower interest rates. NewPage will be well positioned to serve the needs of our customers and compete successfully in the North American paper industry."
SOURCE NewPage Corporation