Resolute Forest adding to Calhoun, Tenn., mill site

Resolute Forest Products plans to put up a new distribution center at its Calhoun, Tenn., production site as the company grows its tissue business.

The 300,000-square-foot distribution center under construction will provide storage for tissue products made at the mill, said Debbie Johnston, the company’s director of U.S. public affairs.

The goods later will be shipped to Resolute’s retail customers, she said.

Johnston said the center, slated for completion in August, will employ more than 30 people. She said construction of the center is the latest phase of $400 million Resolute is spending when it announced it was entering the tissue market in 2015.

St. Louis-based developer CRG is partnering with Resolute for the design and construction of the distribution center.

“We worked closely with them to carefully understand their needs in order to design and build a structure that will provide efficient storage and distribution of their products,” said CRG Eastern Region Vice President Scott Caplan in a statement.

Patrice Minguez, president of Resolute’s Tissue Group, said a recently constructed tissue machine and converting operation in Calhoun has positioned Resolute as one of the fastest growing providers of tissue products in North America.

Last August, Montreal, Canada-based Resolute said it was cutting 222 jobs in Calhoun as it was shutting down newsprint production operations and putting more focus on making tissue.

At the time, Johnston said the job cuts would leave the McMinn County facility with about 491 people.

“The goal is to turn the facility around so it can become profitable and a target for future capital investment,” Johnston said.

Resolute acquired the plant in 2007 with the merger of the former Abitibi-Consolidated and Bowater companies. The site was one of the earliest newsprint plants in the South when it was built in 1954.
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2018/mar/06/resolute-forest-building-calhoun-tenn-distribution-center/465280/