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Paper plant relocating to Maplesville
By Jason Cannon
Jason.cannon@clantonadvertiser.com
South Coast Paper, a Louisiana-based paper product operation displaced by Hurricane Katrina, has tapped Maplesville for a new paper cutting and packaging operation that will bring new jobs to the town and plans to be open by December.
“It’s going to be good for Maplesville,” said Chilton County Industrial Development Board Chairman, Obie Littleton. “Real good.”
South Coast Paper was forced to abandon their operation in Hammond, La. After Hurricane Katrina leveled the area.
“We were initially looking to put an additional facility in Alabama, so we’ve been looking at this project for about 10 months,” said South Coast Paper spokesman, Paul Mitchell. “We were going to keep our Hammond operation, but after Hurricane Katrina came through it changed the whole economics of that area…so we decided to consolidate it to the Maplesville facility.”
The Maplesville site will bring with it 30 new jobs to a labor force that was left jobless when Maplesville’s Gulf States operation closed several years ago.
“Gulf States employed over 200 people before they closed and they do a similar type business to what we do,” Mitchell said. “I believe there are skills in the local workforce that we could use.”
The Maplesville operation will be the second plant of its kind for South Coast Paper.
“Gulf States employed over 200 people before they do a similar type business to what we do. I believe there are skills in the local workforce that we could use.”
Paul Mitchell
South Coast Paper
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