Georgia Pacific keeping Perry mill closed as it studies 'another business opportunity'

There will be no immediate international buyer to save the day for the now closed Foley Cellulose Paper mill in Perry.

The facility, which was once the "lifeblood" industry for the north Florida town, will remain closed for another year while Georgia Pacific studies if it is suitable for "another business opportunity."

The January announcement came four months after Georgia Pacific said it would sell the plant. The move effectively freezes local efforts to court a buyer in the global market to revive what had been a major economic driver of the Big Bend economy.

Georgia Pacific, a multi-billion dollar subsidiary of Koch Industries, announced in September it would lay off more than 500 workers who had earned doubled the state’s median income of $35,216 and would sell the facility. The last worker was laid off Nov. 16.

It told the Florida Department of Commerce in January – and what sources say up to a dozen companies that had inquired about purchasing the facility – it now planned to spend at least 12 months studying other possible uses for the facility.

“They threw a bucket of cold water on our efforts,” said Bob Cate, a former plant manager who served as spokesman for the Citizens Action Task Force, a group of retired Foley executives who had banded together to find a buyer.

A Georgia Pacific spokesman told the Tallahassee Democrat Thursday the company “will continue to accept calls from those interested in purchasing the site.”

“The Foley facility remains for sale. GP has also decided to evaluate the possible use of the site and facility for another business opportunity. GP anticipates this evaluation process to take up to 12 months or longer,” said Scott Mixon.

The papermill is one of seven worldwide capable of dissolving pulp fibers into chemicals used in the manufacturing of cell phones and acetate products, and as an additive in ice cream and shredded cheese.

The citizens group maintains the mill had been profitable for 60 years before GP bought it in 2013 and can be profitable again.

Cate traveled to a symposium in London in November to inform industry leaders that the Foley mill was on the market. The Department of Commerce credits the group with generating inquiries from 12 companies

The state vetted the companies and explained what incentives were available to help restart the plant.

Commerce then passed the companies’ names and contact information on to GP, which had picked Commerce to serve as an intermediary between it and Taylor County residents and prospective buyers.

“We won’t be sharing details on the number of companies or what companies have inquired about purchasing the facility,” said Mixon, the GP spokesperson.

Calculating the Cost The staggering numbers behind Perry paper mill closing: 2,000 jobs, $10 million in taxes lost

Mixon said GP would not share any details related to options it or Koch Industries may have under consideration for the mill.

GP insists it is not revisiting or evaluating the decision to close and sell the Foley mill.

Regardless if the announcement signals a change in plans, it has frozen local efforts to find a buyer and rebuild a major cog of the Big Bend’s economy.

The papermill had been in operation since the 1950s, and according to a University of Florida study supported more than 2,000 jobs in the heavily forested Big Bend, generated nearly $400 million in local spending, and produced $10 million in state and local tax revenue.

Cate, who managed the plant for 20 years, said GP has handled the plant closure and sale like a person who says they will have a garage sale on Saturday and when people agree to show up then says it is a Saturday sometime next year.

“It doesn’t mean I won’t come but you know, I’m going to move on to other options and other opportunities,” said Cate.

A local economic development official confessed he was not sure what to make of GP’s announcement. But former workers had more certainty.

Michelle Curtis feels betrayed by Georgia Pacific.

She worked at the mill for 35 years, retiring as a wood supply manager. She would purchase 550 semi-trailer loads of wood daily.

While environmentalists point out Foley’s effluent discharged dioxins and other toxins into the Fenholloway River and Gulf of Mexico, others note the mill’s role in supporting a countywide payroll of $77 million.

Curtis fumed when she discussed how GP has handled the plant’s shutdown.

Since September thousands of lives in Taylor County have been disrupted. She hears former mill workers have taken jobs that pay less than half what they were making. People have begun to move away from a county of 22,000 people and her two favorite restaurants have closed.

Curtis said GP had told the State of Florida, the Taylor County Economic Development Authority, and virtually anyone who asked, it had closed the mill “permanently and it was for sale.”

Then after the community enticed 12 companies to inquire about the facility and Commerce vetted them as potential buyers, GP announced its studying other options.

“I really don’t know what their strategy is, but I don’t believe anything they say,” said Curtis, who now plants trees for a forestry management company.

“I don’t know if they just want to make sure that another wood using industry doesn’t get in here quickly and competes with their other businesses,” said Curtis.

James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow him on X: @CallTallahassee

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Georgia Pacific Perry mill: Shifting plans blindside workers, officials