Verso Stevens Point Mill Celebrates 100 Years of Specialty Paper Excellence

Verso Corp.’s Stevens Point Mill in Wisconsin, USA, this month celebrates a century of excellence in making specialty papers. With a 100-year tradition of innovation, passion, and customer commitment that continues today, the Stevens Point Mill is North America's largest state-of-the-art specialty paper mill with the capacity to produce 200,000 tons of high-performing specialty paper annually.

"We are extremely proud of the generations of dedicated men and women whose papermaking expertise has made the Stevens Point Mill an industry leader over the past century," said Verso President of Graphic Papers Mike Weinhold. "As we celebrate the mill's 100-year anniversary, our Steven's Point team is more committed than ever to delivering the innovative products that help make our customers successful." 

"Our mill's long-standing reputation for quality products, unmatched customer service, committed environmental stewardship, and generous community involvement is a testament to the exceptional people who've worked here over the years," said Stevens Point Mill Manager Craig Helgeson. "I want to thank all of our team members, past and present, for their dedication to our mill, our customers, and our neighbors." 

On July 11, 1918, the Consolidated Water Power and Paper Company began construction of a hydroelectric plant and paper machine complex that produced its first ton of paper in 1919. The mill's two paper machines manufactured 15 tons of fruit wrap tissue, tissue paper, toweling, and crepe paper per day, transitioning over the next few years to waxed bread wraps and high-grade crepe papers. When consumers moved away from paper bread wraps to plastic in the mid-1950s, the mill diversified its product line into flexible packaging papers with a focus on food packaging – a forward thinking decision that continues to benefit the mill and its customers decades later.

 

The mill invested more than $300 million in the 1990s, increasing capacity to more than 480 tpd and providing the opportunity to meet customer needs in additional markets such as thermally printed labels, wet strength beverage labels, and release liner papers. Continuing investment and rapid innovation in the 2000s have resulted in exciting new customer partnerships and additional capacity, now at approximately 550 tpd.  

 

"Verso's Stevens Point Mill was founded on hard work, integrity, innovation, and a relentless drive to satisfy our customers," said Verso VP and GM of Specialty Papers Ed Buehler. "These values and ideals, combined with our state-of-the-art facility and unwavering commitment to excellence, continue to position the mill as a specialty papers leader among packaging converters and consumer brands nationwide and in more than 20 countries around the globe."

For more information on Verso's broad specialty papers offering, email or visit Verso Specialty Papers online..