Fraser making changes Mill to transfer several managers

MADAWASKA – Management changes were announced Monday at Nexfor Fraser Papers Inc., including the transfer of the company’s Madawaska mill manager to the position of manager of operations at Katahdin Paper Co. LLC in Millinocket and East Millinocket.

Richard Arnold, Fraser vice president and Madawaska mill manager, will be replaced by Gilles Volpe, formerly mill manager at Fraser’s Edmundston operations.

Arnold is expected to start work today at Katahdin, which was purchased earlier this month by Brascan Financial, a Canadian conglomerate. Fraser, under President Bert Martin, has operating responsibility for Brascan’s new facilities.

Brascan owns 41 percent of Nexfor, the company that owns Fraser Papers Inc.

Volpe of Edmundston will be replaced as manager of Edmundston operations by Daniel Grandmaison, also of Edmundston. Grandmaison previously was manager of paperboard operations at Edmundston.

“This is happening because of Brascan’s purchase of Katahdin Paper,” according to Richard Marston, Fraser manager of human relations at Madawaska. “All the changes are effective Monday.

“We know of no other changes at Madawaska or transfers to Millinocket today,” Marston said of reports that other Fraser administrators would be moving.

The changes were announced Monday afternoon in a press release from Martin and Bill Manzer, executive vice president of operations for Nexfor Fraser Papers Inc.

Marston said the staffing proposal for the Madawaska-Edmundston operation of Fraser, announced one month ago, was continuing as planned. That plan called for cutting 325 positions at the two mills. That amounts to 20 percent of the approximate 1,600 jobs at the two mills.

“Morale seems to be good in the mill” despite the major cutbacks in jobs, Marston said.

The company has proposed early retirements to as many as 90 people in the Madawaska mill. Early retirements could reduce the number of younger workers losing their jobs out of the 190 jobs being cut there.

Marston said the Madawaska mill won’t be hiring college students this summer. The company usually hires between 35 and 40 college students to work at the Madawaska operation for three months each summer.

Last August, college students saw their summer work time reduced by one month when the company began cutting expenses. The company also stopped contracts on several capital projects at the mill last August.

Arnold will bring 24 years of experience with Fraser, all at Madawaska, to the startup of directory paper manufacturing at Millinocket.

“Dick’s broad experience in mill engineering and supervision of capital projects will be an important asset during engineering, construction and startup of the pulp mill slated to begin at the Katahdin operations in the near future,” Martin said Monday in a prepared news release.

Manzer said Volpe has 17 years experience with Fraser at Edmundston. Grandmaison has been with Fraser for 20 years.

Marston said Arnold is expected to move to the Millinocket area in the near future.