Bowater reorganizing operations

Bowater Inc. is reorganizing its forest and wood products operations in the United States and Canada into one new division and is consolidating its newsprint and directory paper businesses into one division.

Corporate officials say the reorganization and consolidation are effective immediately.

Richard K. Hamilton, 48, the vice president of wood products at Bowater’s Calhoun, Tenn., operations, is being promoted to president of the new forest products division and vice president of the company. Hamilton has more than 20 years of experience in various management capacities within the forest products industry. He will report to Arnold M. Nemirow, Bowater’s chief executive officer.

Bowater owns or controls nearly 3.6 million acres of timberland in six states and in Canada, along with three sawmills, which produce about 200 million board feet of lumber a year. More than 2.1 million acres of its timberlands are located in Maine. Great Northern Paper Co., a subsidiary of Bowater with mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket, is the largest private landowner in the pine tree state.

Corporate officials say that consolidating the forest and wood products operations into one separate business unit will enable the company to explore new opportunities to improve returns on those assets. “We have opportunities to develop greater value from our woodlands assets,” Nemirow said in a prepared statement. “Divisionalization has been an effective way to manage Bowater in its core paper products. I believe the same can now be achieved in or forest products division,” the CEO said.

Also, Bowater will consolidate its newsprint and directory paper businesses into one division. Arthur D. Fuller, 53, will be the president of the newly combined newsprint and directory division and executive vice president of Bowater.

Fuller, who was senior vice president of Bowater and president of its newsprint division, will report to Nemirow. Donald G. McNeil, president of Great Northern, will report to Fuller.

“The combination of these complementary core products will enhance the company’s opportunities to better serve its groundwood based customers and to develop strategies for improving our financial returns,” Newirow stated.