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When Kimberly-Clark Corporation permanently closed its deinked pulp mill in Oconto Falls, Wis., in mid-1997, it looked like the final end to a long era of papermaking at the mill. The mill, previously owned by Scott Paper Co., had been an integrated mill producing tissue from sulfite pulp. The previous pulping and tissue operations were shut down in the 1980s and the mill was transformed into a deinked pulp mill in the early 1990s to supply the former Scott tissue mill in nearby Marinette. However, K-C acquired both mills as part of its 1995 acquisition of Scott, and in addition to closing the Oconto Falls mill, the company also downsized operations at Marinette in late 1997, idling two of the three paper machines.
Partners Concept Development Inc. (PCDI) of De Pere, Wis., saw the shuttered Oconto Falls mill as an opportunity to fill a niche in the tissue industry. PCDI President Ron Van Den Heuvel jumped at the opportunity to acquire the Oconto Falls mill and purchased it in July 1997.
Ron Van Den Heuvel is no stranger to the paper industry. Through PCDI, he is owner of 28 different companies, several of which have provided services to the paper industry for a number of years. The construction company, Spirit Construction Services has been involved in the installation of over 20 tissue paper machines for many major manufacturers and Vos Electric has also provided electrical work for many paper mills. This experience made implemenation of the Oconto Falls mill plan much easier.
While the Oconto Falls mill is the company’s first foray into paper manufacturing, it wasn’t originally scheduled to be first. PCDIis also building Re-Box Paper Inc in De Pere, Wis., to produce corrugated containers and laminated packaging base stock. While Re-Box Paper is logistically a converting operation, it will also include a 140,000 tpy paper machine that will manufacture the 100% recycled linerboard, corrugating medium and paperboard.
 The new Voith Sulzer Crescent former will produce 100% recycled tissue products, primarily for the away-from-home markets.
At Oconto Falls, the decision was made to return the mill to its origins as a tissue manufacturer. Consequently, plans to install a Crescent former were developed. Thompson Avant International Inc of Atlanta, Ga., was hired to act as an independent consultant on the project and provided feasibility and due diligence analysis. Thompson Avant’s role included project management oversight.
The machine was sized to manufacture 40,000 tpy of tissue products, including jumbo rolls of color tissue for paper napkins, table covers, facial tissue, toweling, and toilet tissue. Approximately 80% of production is focused on the away-from-home tissue markets with the remaining 20% of production for consumer market colored and specialty tissues. Products will be in a basis weight range of 8- to 24-lbs., with all fiber being supplied by the existing deinked pulp mill.
One focal market niche for the mill is tissue products with deep colors, colors that are more difficult for larger manufacturers to make. As Oconto Falls Tissue President Paul Anderson said, “We want to service the big manufacturers with grades that are less desirable for them to make, while providing them with the highest quality possible for tissue products. We can make products with colors ranging from pastels to medium and dark tones while maintaining a high bulk and softness.”
The opportunity at Oconto Falls became more appealing due to the availability of bonds to cover almost half of the $52 million cost. The company received $24 million in tax-free bonding authority from the State of Wisconsin. Additional funds came from a group of private investors.
Accelerated timetable. With funding secured, an accelerated timetable to get the new equipment installed and in production was established. The project was slated to be completed in under eight months, an ambitious schedule for installing a new machine in a new building. Spirit Construction was hired as the EPC contractor providing engineering, management and construction services for the project. The short timetable was desired because “time is money,” as Van Den Heuvel noted.
In addition to installing the new machine quickly, Van Den Heuvel, a De Pere, Wis., native, was insistent that as much work be done in Wisconsin as possible. Voith Sulzer Paper Technology was selected to supply the new Crescent former tissue machine. One important stipulation that PCDI made was that the machine had to be built in Voith Sulzer’s Appleton, Wis., operations. The only part of the new machine not manufactured by Voith Sulzer was the Yankee dryer which was manufactured in Brazil.
Given the tight schedule, close attention had to be paid to all aspects of the project to assure timely completion. One of the benefits of being a small company is that there is essentially no chain of command, allowing decisions to be made by a “committee” of two—Van Den Heuvel and Anderson. “By sharing a common vision for the project, decisions were made quickly, instead of going through layers of committees. That was critical to meet the project timetable.”
Construction on the new building began on December 7, 1997. In addition to constructing the new building, several outdated buildings were demolished with some land converted to green space. The new machine building was completed on February 17, 1998. The power plant was brought online first. While there are three power boilers at the mill, only one is required to run the entire mill.
Minor modifications were also made to the existing deinking equipment by Voith Sulzer to improve the quality of recycled fiber. The 130 ton per day deinked pulp plant was put into operation on April 7, approximately 100 days before the new machine began production.
One potential delay that threatened to push the start date back by two or more weeks was getting the Yankee dryer to Wisconsin. The Yankee made it to Houston, Texas, but due to shipping problems, was going to be two weeks late in arriving to Wisconsin. So the decision was quickly made to offload the Yankee and truck it to Oconto Falls from Houston. “The decision was easy to make quickly, because a two week delay was unacceptable,” noted Anderson.
The Crescent former installation was completed by early May 1998 and commercial tissue production began on July 17. The Voith Sulzer machine has a wire width of 140.5-inches and trims at 138-inches. General Electric supplied the machine drive system. The mill also took advantage of the latest technologies. Every drive that needed to be variable speed was installed as such. Every valve in the mill is computer controlled and monitored. Work stations around the mill allow all employees to view the current status of any operations system in the mill.
To complement the rapid installation schedule, the new machine has also gone through a rapid startup curve. Within three months of startup, the machine was producing an average of 100 tons per day and had produced 100% recycled tissue at its design speed of 5,500 feet per minute. A three-ply rewinder is available at the end of the paper machine. Only jumbo rolls are sold by the mill as it has no converting operations.
To manufacture the pastels and medium and dark tone colors, Braun & Lubbe is supplying a custom built dye kitchen which was scheduled to begin operation in December 1998. In conjunction with a custom color scanner from Measurex, the machine has the capability to repeatedly manufacture any color batch by computer matching.
 A custom dye kitchen from Braun & Lubbe will allow the mill to produce a wide range of colored tissue products.
In addition to the rapid installation and start of the new machine, the mill has experienced very strong sales as well. Production for the entire machine is already sold out for 1999. In fact, orders are so strong, the mill will install a second tissue former in April 1999 to produce super crepe products. The Thi-former from Officine Meccaniche Toschi will be 100 inches wide with a 6-foot diameter Yankee dryer and will have a capacity to produce approximately 10,000 tpy.
Labor force. The community enthusiastically supported the reopening of the mill. In just two days of answering the need to fill 54 available positions in the mill, nearly 1,100 applications were received. This allowed the mill to be very selective in hiring personnel. Because the mill only employs 54 people, an emphasis was made on hiring individuals who could work well in the team-oriented environment.
 The new building housing the paper machine sits adjacent to the mill office building (left) dating from the mill's earliest day.
“We focused on hiring people who share the same values and same concepts that Ron and I have. The people of eastern Wisconsin are good people with an excellent work ethic. We couldn’t ask for a better group of people to hire colleagues from,” noted Anderson. Employee relations are highly regarded in the company, as all employees are valued as colleagues. A profit sharing plan is also in place at the mill.
Training was held at Voith Sulzer, with employees hired four months before the new machine began production The mill operates on a modified shift schedule. Employees work 12 hour shifts on a four days on/four days off schedule with two day and two night shifts. They then work three days on/three days off, either all nights or all days.
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