Citing reduced demand and rising costs, Verso Paper Corp. said Tuesday it will slash production and eliminate 40 percent of the jobs at its mill in Sartell, Minn.
About 175 workers at the Sartell mill will be laid off Dec. 14.
Verso's downsizing, which also involves another 125 layoffs in Bucksport, Maine, comes as the Tennessee paper maker cuts its coated-paper capacity by 193,000 tons a year.
Verso is permanently shutting two of its three paper machines at the Sartell plant, which made 103,000 tons of paper a year. The central Minnesota city is just north of St. Cloud.
Sartell City Administrator Patti Gartland said that city officials were sad but not surprised. The Sartell machines were about 100 years old, she said.
"You couple the age of the equipment with the status of the economy and the paper industry overall, and it just didn't make for a very good combination. So while we would have liked to have not seen this happen, it was not a great surprise," she said.
Still, the layoffs affect 40 percent of Verso's workforce in Sartell. Gartland described the mill as the city's largest taxpayer and second-largest employer behind the Country Manor assisted-living center.
Verso CEO Mike Jackson called decision "difficult." While demand for the glossy papers the Sartell mill made remained "fairly stable," the machine cost structure was "unfavorable," he said in a statement. Still "we are mindful of the impact it will have on the affected employees and their families."
