Tuesday, July 1, 2003 will go down as possibly one of the biggest days in the history of Tyrone.
At 11 a.m., it was announced that MeadWestvaco sold its factory in Tyrone to a group called Team Ten LLC. The investment is nearly $12.5 million dollars.
The sale was completed nearly 22 months after MeadWestvaco announced it was closing the Tyrone mill and eliminating 265 jobs.
The Tyrone mill opened in 1880 and was purchased by the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company in 1889. The mill nearly closed in 1970, causing the company to place a full page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal on behalf of Tyrone, “A Town for Hire.”
The West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company moved the pulp and flakeboard operations to Wickliffe, Ky. and the work force at the Tyrone plant was cut from a high of near 1,000 to 300.
Team Ten LLC. has registered with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as American Eagle Paper Mill.
“The management team believes the size of the operation, its strategic location along Interstate 99, and a qualified and available workforce, will support the production and delivery of quality products faster and cheaper than larger and more diversified paper mills,” said company president John Ferner. “The facility will have the flexibility to change grades quickly to accommodate the needs of its customers. Service to customers will be the priority and key to the success of this reopened operation.”
Before closing in October 2001, Westvaco’s Tyrone plant produced 100,000 tons a year of coated and uncoated paper. Production from the Tyrone plant was moved to the paper mills in Luke, Md., and Wickliffe, Ky.
The multimillion dollar project includes proposed financing of approximately $2 million in loans from the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority and Enterprise Zone Loan Program for land and building acquisition; nearly $1.3 million from the SBA 504 Program with bank financing by Kishacoquillas Valley National Bank in Reedsville and $1 million in working capital from the Opportunity Grant Program and Pennsylvania Small Business First.
The project also received a major commitment from Governor Ed Rendell in the form of a $3 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program. Funding will also be provided by private investor equity insertions. In addition, job training funds and job tax credits will be made available to start-up company by the Commonwealth and the Southern Alleghenies Planning and Development Commission.
The American Eagle Paper Mills will be a manufacturer of uncoated fine papers and is expected to be open by late summer.
Initial orders are already in place and Team Ten LLC will conduct operations at the Tyrone Mill location to meet the demand for uncoated paper products in the Middle-Atlantic and Midwest regions. The company’s initial product line will include American Eagle Envelope, Silver Spring Envelope, High D Reply Stock, Virgin Envelope and the American Eagle Offset.
These products will serve the magazine and book publishing, commercial printers, envelope converters and business form markets. Team Ten’s objective is to offer high quality, uncoated paper for commercial paper converting industry at a price which is competitive with other paper manufacturers.
The sale of the mill from MeadWestvaco to Team Ten was at a cost of $3 million and the total investment by Team Ten investors is nearly $5 million.
“Today we can say that paper making will write a new chapter at the Tyrone site that started here in 1880,” said Ferner. “Last week, Team Ten LLC signed a purchase agreement with MeadWestvaco to acquire and reopen this facility. In mid-July, when the final closing has taken place, this facility will be called American Eagle Paper Mill.
“No one in this audience could be happier about this than I am,” said Ferner. “The plant has been part of my life since I was born. My father worked here 45 years and I worked here for 30 years. The announcement that the mill was being shut down was devastating to me and when it happened, I was determined to do anything I could do to get the plant back into operation.”
Donna Cox, a spokesperson for MeadWestvaco said, “We are glad to reach an agreement with the new owners. We wish them the best of success with the mill. The decision to close the mill in 2001 was very difficult. This should be a happy day for Tyrone and a good thing for the area.”
