Sofidel says hello to Lewiston

LEWISTON — The tissue manufacturing operations Sofidel America Corp. acquired from Clearwater Paper in Lewiston this year will be a vital part of the company as it grows its share of the private-label market in the United States, company officials said Wednesday.

Sofidel America is a subsidiary of Sofidel S.p.A., a privately held company headquartered in Lucca, Italy.

Sofidel’s Lewiston operations are the company’s highest-volume U.S. tissue producer now and will be number two in August when Sofidel completes the installation of a third paper machine in Circleville, Ohio, said Fabio Vitali, a vice president of marketing at Sofidel.

Vitali was part of a team of Sofidel executives visiting Lewiston on Wednesday to introduce Sofidel to the community.

The company’s CEO, Luigi Lazzareschi, provided an overview of Sofidel, which he described as the second-largest producer of private-label tissue in Europe, to a group of more than 100 Lewiston-Clarkston Valley leaders. Those attending the event could tour the facilities.

With the purchase, Sofidel is now the largest producer of private-label tissue in the U.S. retail market and the fifth-largest manufacturer of household paper tissue products worldwide, Lazzareschi said.

Sofidel supplies the majority of the top brick-and-mortar grocery and supermarket chains in the United States, along with large online retailers, Lazzareschi said.

“No matter if the economy is going up or down, demand is quite standard (for tissue),” he said. “Having a tissue operation in your area is a very good thing to have.”

The company entered the American market in 2012 with the acquisition of a company based in Florida with three plants in the U.S. It has grown steadily in the United States through other acquisitions and constructing the Circleville, Ohio, mill and another similar plant in Inola, Okla.

Executives at Sofidel see lots of opportunity in the United States, Lazzareschi said.

Only about 35% of U.S. tissue sales are private label, compared with 75% in Europe, and the three largest U.S. tissue makers are mostly focused on branded products, not private label, he said.

In Lewiston, Sofidel purchased what had been the Clearwater Paper tissue mill and its converting equipment where tissue from large parent rolls is cut into products such as toilet paper, paper towels, paper napkins and facial tissue.

The Lewiston assets were part of a $1.06 billion deal that closed last month. That transaction also included Clearwater Paper tissue mills and converting sites in Las Vegas and Shelby, N.C., and a converting facility in Elwood, Ill.

About 500 employees who staff the former Clearwater Paper tissue-making operations in Lewiston kept their jobs in the transition. Hourly employees are retaining their union status.

Sofidel will have close ties with Clearwater Paper, Lazzareschi said.

Sofidel’s Lewiston operation purchases pulp, steam and water from Clearwater Paper, Lazzareschi said. It also buys emergency response and security services from Clearwater Paper.

Sofidel plans to make a significant investment in Lewiston, Lazzareschi said.

Lewiston has three machines that make conventional tissue, the most common of five major varieties of tissue, Vitali said.

The oldest machine debuted in the 1960s. Another started producing in the 1970s and the newest started running in the early 1990s.

Those machines are functioning well, Lazzareschi said, and Sofidel has plans to make investments in Lewiston’s converting operations.

Sofidel’s Lewiston operations are part of a company that now employs about 3,500 in the United States and about 8,000 worldwide.

Sofidel is owned and operated by the second generation of the Lazzareschi and Stefani families, who founded the company in 1966.

Clearwater Paper still has a strong presence in Lewiston. It has about 800 employees who make pulp for paperboard and tissue and paperboard for products such as paper dishware and packaging for cosmetics.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.