NewPage Corp.
Based: Miami Twp.
Local employees: About 350
Total employees: About 7,500
Printing capacity: 4.4 million tons, including 3.2 million tons of coated paper.
The owner of NewPage Corp., a maker of coated paper with about 350 local employees, has no plans to move its headquarters despite a shakeup of top management.
NewPage President and Chief Executive E. Thomas Curley, board Chairman Mark Suwyn and Vice President of Human Resources Michael Edicola all resigned, the company announced Tuesday, June 15. Curley held the job for less than six months.
NewPage appointed Robert Nardelli, former CEO of Home Depot and Chrysler, as non-executive chairman.
“It was recognized early that the fit wasn’t right from both sides,” said NewPage Chief Financial Officer Dave Prystash.
NewPage will remain anchored here, Prystash said.
“There’s an historical tie to the area,” Prystash said. “Dayton is the legacy (locale) for NewPage, Mead and Westvaco. A lot of our employees were part of the fine papers division that was in this area.”
NewPage’s leased headquarters is at 8549 Gander Creek Drive, Miami Twp.
Cerberus Capital Management formed NewPage, the world’s largest producer of coated paper, after acqiring MeadWestvaco’s coated fine papers division five years ago. Nardelli is CEO of Cerberus Operating and Advisory Co., an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management.
The company has struggled to become consistently profitable. For the first quarter this year, NewPage Holding reported a net loss of $179 million, worse than the net loss of $114 million for the first quarter of 2009.
In late May, the company withdrew a registration statement from the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying it was not prepared at that time to proceed with an initial stock offering. Company leaders had talked of offering a publicly traded stock at least since 2007.
“Our business from a volume standpoint is substantially up compared to where it was a year ago,” Prystash said. All NewPage papermaking machines are operating, and the company is “100 percent sold-out.”
Frank Perkowski, president of Marietta, Ga.-based Business Development Advisory Inc., which follows the paper industry, said news of the shakeup did not surprise him. He believes NewPage is well-positioned, but he thinks the company will have to “shed capacity” in the years ahead.
“I think long-term, they (NewPage) are going to be a survivor, but I think they’re going to be facing some difficult times going forward,” Perkowski said.
Nardelli, in an conference call with industry analysts Tuesday morning, said the company sees an economic recovery in progress and wants to make sure its management team will take advantage of that recovery “with speed.”
“I don’t see any major strategic changes” in company operations, Nardelli said.
Nardelli said the company will form an executive search committee to find candidates for top jobs, including CEO. Prior experience and demonstrated leadership will be prized, said Dave Prystash, the company’s chief financial officer.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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