[August 20, 2011] Yorktowne Paperboard to close Tweet YORK, Pa., Aug 20, 2011 (York Daily Record - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- It's dej... vu for Robert Grant. More than seven months ago, the 25-year-old York man was laid off from Ceva Logistics in Springettsbury Township, when the company moved a portion of its international division to Philadelphia. After more than five months of collecting unemployment compensation, Grant landed a job in Yorktowne Paperboard's product support group. Now, he'll be back to square one in just 60 days. The Spring Garden Township mill will close Oct. 17, laying off 78 workers, said David Ascher, vice president and general counsel for the Newark Group, owner of the site. Yorktowne Paperboard traces it roots back to 1945 when it opened as Yorktowne Paper Mills Inc. under the ownership of the Sparler and Oakley families. During the late 1960s, at the height of Yorktowne Paper Mills' growth, the company produced daily 90 tons of paperboard products, commonly referred to as cardboard, according to "Greater York in Action," published by the York County Chamber of Commerce in 1968. In 1997, Yorktowne was acquired by Newark Group, which operates 11 recovered paper plants, 10 paperboard mills and 23 converting plants in the United States. This week, the Newark Group also stated that it will close its Newark Graphicboard-BCI plant and one of two paperboard machines at its Newark America mill, both in Fitchburg, Mass., Ascher said. "We firmly believe that these moves, combined with those announced at the end of June, position The Newark Group to compete effectively in today's market environment," Philip Jones, CEO of Newark Group, said in a statement. Each facility will "continue to operate until business is transitioned, in an orderly fashion, to other Newark locations," according to the statement. The Spring Garden Township plant, Ascher said, produces paperboard for companies that make cardboard tubes for large reams of paper and other industrial uses. Employees learned of the plant closure Thursday afternoon, assistant operator Blane Glatfelter said Friday. Glatfelter, 29, of York, said he quit his job at Bell-Mark Technologies in Dover about five and a half months ago for a better paying position at Yorktowne. "What can you think?" he asked. "You just have to go with it. You can't really react." At the mill, 63 of the company's employees are represented by United Steelworkers, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the state. Michael Smeltzer , executive director of the Manufacturer's Association of South Central Pennsylvania, said people like Grant and Glatfelter might find jobs with similar companies -- Glatfelter paper being the largest -- still operating in the county. The association has convened a task force to give job searching assistance and to inform workers at Yorktowne of their unemployment and insurance benefits, he said. "There will be opportunities for these folks to stay in a similar industry," he said. "These employees, many of them, are used to working with chemicals. I'm sure they have a certain skill set that makes them very marketable." ABOUT YORKTOWNE The plant began manufacturing paperboard products in 1945 as Yorktowne Paper Mills under the Sparler and Oakley families. During the late 1960s, at the height of Yorktowne Paper Mills' growth, the company produced daily 90 tons of paperboard products, commonly referred to as cardboard. At the time of its purchase in 1997 by the New Jersey-based Newark Group, the third generation business employed 145 employees in York County and 320 workers companywide. To see more of the York Daily Record, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.ydr.com. Copyright (c) 2011, York Daily Record, Pa. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]