St. Marys Paper hires Dennis Bunnell

St. Marys Paper in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario has been idle since March.

With hopes of restarting the mill, St. Marys Paper has hired Dennis Bunnell, as its new chair of the corporation's board of directors and chief executive officer.

Bunnell has been in the pulp and paper industry for more than 35 years. Currently in Boston, Bunnell has held similar executive positions with American paper mills in Massachusetts, and most recently New York. Bunnell plans to relocate to the Sault in the near future.

Bunnell wants to rebrand the mill from its history as a single-product mill producing supercalendar paper, to a paper, green energy and a bio-economy business.

St. Marys Paper has been eager to land a long-term power co-generation contract with the Ontario Power Authority (OPA). Discussions with the OPA have been on-going for a year. The company wants to operate a 30 megawatt facility that would be fueled by 500 dry tons of wood waste daily in order to generate electricity and produce steam.

St. Marys Paper has had 3 owners over the last 25 years. Gord Acton and his ownership group rescued the mill from bankruptcy 3 years ago.

Read more:

St. Marys Paper turns to veteran in the industry (Sault Star)