GP acquires Grant Forest

Cleve Dowell/Clarendon Citizen

It was uplifting news all around as Clarendon officials received word that Georgia-Pacific, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of tissue, pulp, paper, packaging, building products and related chemicals, had acquired the Grant Forest Products facilities in Englehart and Earlton, Ontario, as well as its South Carolina plants in Allendale and Clarendon.

Georgia-Pacific has approximately 300 manufacturing facilities across North America, South America and Europe, ranging from large pulp, paper and tissue operations to gypsum plants, box plants and building products complexes.

The Grant Forest plants they have recently acquired will produce OSB – Oriented Strand Board. OSB is an engineered structural panel made of compressed wood strands arranged in three perpendicular layers and bonded together with a phenolic resin. Similar to plywood panels, oriented strand board is used in residential and commercial construction for sub-flooring, roof sheathing, exterior sheathing and other residential and commercial construction applications.

Clarendon County Council Chair Dwight Stewart said that the Georgia-Pacific officials he spoke with were “very cooperative and excited about coming to Clarendon County.”

One of the biggest issues for the opening of the plant is the FILO agreement … Fee in Lieu of Taxes agreement that Grant had signed prior to moth-balling its plant after the crash of the housing market in 2008.

“As I understand in meeting with the Georgia-Pacific officials, they are willing to accept the same FILO agreement that the county had with Grant,” Stewart said. “They were happy with continuing as it was written.
Stewart said that some revisions to the FILO agreement would be necessary including setting a specific operational date regardless of whether the company was making boards or not.

The county’s original agreement with Grant stated that the FILO would not be due until the company began production.

According to Stewart, Georgia-Pacific is talking about adding 150 jobs when they open.

“When we toured the Allendale plant, I was very impressed with the limited number of workers they actually had on the production floor, but the high number of folks working in computer control rooms,” Stewart noted. “I think they will be looking for the same sort of high-level workforce that was at Yanagawa and is at Federal Mogul.”

Stewart said Georgia-Pacific’s investment in Clarendon County is between $250-$300 million.

“This is a tremendous boon to our county,” he added.

Georgia-Pacific estimates that they will be off-loading raw material and dispatching finished materials on about 400 trucks a day.

“This will inevitably lead to auxiliary businesses in the heavy automotive industry,” Stewart added. “Needless to say, the timber business within a 100 mile radius of Clarendon’s G-P plant will definitely benefit.”

Georgia-Pacific officials said there is some work to be done to the existing plant to align it with G-P’s standards.

“There will be a lot going on in the next few weeks and we plan to impress our new employees that nothing is more important to us than having them return home safely each day. We know these operations are vital to the local community,” their announcement letter read. “We are planning to host an open house for the community in a few months.”

“Georgia-Pacific has a long and rich history in Clarendon County,” Stewart said. “We are happy to welcome them back.”