Sappi to Permanently Close Mill in Muskegon, MI

"We understand the hardship this decision creates for our employees at the Muskegon Mill. We will be providing separation benefits and job placement services for our salaried employees and will be commencing discussions with union representatives regarding the terms of hourly employees' separation benefits," said Mark Gardner, President and CEO of Sappi Fine Paper North America. "Our workforce at Muskegon was very dedicated, achieving record productivity and safety performance in the last year of operation. Unfortunately, the scale of the site made it difficult to successfully compete against larger paper mills throughout the world. We will be retaining an adviser to seek purchasers for the mill not engaged in the manufacture of coated printing and writing paper."