Quebec-based Cascades Inc. (TSX:CAS) is closing its Burnaby containerboard mill and laying off approximately 100 employees.
Cascades spokesman Hubert Bolduc told Business in Vancouver his company plans to sell the mill, which it has owned for about nine years. It will cease operations by December 1 at the latest.
“It depends on how long it takes to transfer orders from one mill to another and to do things the right way for our employees,” Bolduc said. “Usually we give ourselves about a two-month time period to achieve that.”
Cascades owns a mill in Richmond where 153 employees perform tasks such as folding cardboard to create boxes. That mill does not specialize in producing the component parts of boxes: 100% recycled linerboard, medium and gypsum. So, no workers are expected to transer to the Richmond facility.
Instead, work that the Burnaby mill previously performed will be transferred to either Ontario mills (Mississauga or Trenton) or to a mill in Niagara Falls, New York.
“This decision was made to mitigate the negative impact of several factors, such as the strength of the Canadian dollar, as well as very high labour and recycled fibre costs,” said Cascades CEO Marc-Andre Dépin in a release.
“In addition, the mill’s profitability has been below our expectations for a few years, and we could not pursue our operations under such conditions.”
Glen Korstrom
Twitter: GlenKorstrom