Idaho has a giant mill that makes toilet paper. Why its owner just sold that business

Clearwater Paper has reached a deal to sell the tissue operations at the company’s big Lewiston pulp and paper mill to an Italian company for $1.06 billion.

Clearwater Paper makes tissue paper at the mill and cuts and packages it into toilet paper, paper towels, paper napkins and facial tissues for sale to retailers such as grocery, club, mass-market and discount stores, which sell the products under their own brands.

The tissue comes from wood pulp that is also produced in the factory along the Clearwater River. That pulp also supplies the plant’s third product, paperboard. But only the tissue-paper operation was sold the Italian company, Sofidel, headquartered in Lucca, Italy.

The deal the two companies came about five months after Clearwater Paper President and CEO Arsen Kitch said his Spokane-based company was evaluating strategic options for its tissue business so it could focus on paperboard instead.

Paperboard, a kind of cardboard, is thicker and stiffer than tissue or ordinary paper and is used for cartons, other packaging, and printed presentations.

The sale would include Clearwater Paper’s tissue operations in three other U.S cities too, according to a news release about the agreement from Sofidel.

“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Sofidel, which we believe positions Clearwater Paper for its next chapter of growth and value creation,” Kitch said in a news release on Monday, July 22. “Clearwater Paper is transforming into a premier paper supplier in North America.”

500 Lewiston workers would get a new employer

About 500 of Clearwater Paper’s 1,300 Lewiston employees work in the part of the operation that Sofidel would buy, said Matt Van Vleet, a spokesperson for Clearwater Paper.

Sofidel is assuming the collective-bargaining agreements of the tissue operations, Van Vleet said.

“We look forward to welcoming all the new employees into our family and integrating the tissue business into our network to strengthen our growth by achieving scale and expanding our ability to deliver sustainable, energy efficient products to customers,” Luigi Lazzareschi, CEO of Sofidel, said in a news release.

A service agreement will govern Sofidel’s use of utilities such as electricity, steam and water at the Lewiston site, Van Vleet said.

Paper from cedar, fir, pine wood pulp

The deal is happening as Clearwater Paper is finishing significant upgrades to the pulp operation at its Lewiston plant. Initial figures from Clearwater Paper in late March put the estimated cost of the project at $75 million, including $37 million to rebuild one of two recovery boilers used in a process that converts wood chips into pulp for both tissue and paperboard.

Most of the pulp needed for the factory comes from this pulp operation, using softwood from cedar, fir and pine trees, Van Vleet said. The complex buys some hardwood pulp from elsewhere in the United States, Canada and Brazil, Van Vleet said.

Sofidel was founded in 1966 and makes 1.4 million tons of paper each year, including its most famous brand, Regina. It has 6,900 employees in Europe and the United States, according to Sofidel’s website.

“The acquisition of Clearwater Paper’s tissue business is another important milestone on our path to meet the growing demand for our products in the United States,” Lazzareschi said.

The deal is expected to close later this year and is subject to customary closing conditions, Clearwater Paper said.

Idaho Statesman Business and Local News Editor David Staats contributed.

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