The impact of the pandemic and the boom in takeout food delivery has spurred the restart of a Port Huron, Mich., paper mill owned by the Veldman brothers’ BMI Group.
Four years after being mothballed, the former Domtar mill in the Michigan border town is coming back to life thanks to a resurgence in the sustainable, lightweight specialty papers used in fast-food restaurant packaging, candy wrappers, medical table covers, tissue overwraps, and other sustainable uses.
Under the new banner of the Legacy Paper Group, the company is aiming for an August production start.
The mill’s cornerstone Paper Machine No. 8 will be restarted, putting out 30,000 tons annually of production, according to Mark Bessette, managing director of Legacy Paper Group. Two other machines are waiting in the wings as the market dictates.
To Bessette, a former Domtar executive at Port Huron, being involved in the mill’s restart is a “passion” project and “unfinished business” for other workers who are back aboard since the mill closure
Legacy Paper Group is a new subsidiary in the BMI Group, which purchased the mill site and its assets last October.
“I told Justus (Veldman) I would almost do it for free because that’s how much it means to me.”
The three Veldman brothers, owners of a former forest mill sites in Fort Frances, Red Rock, Iroquois Falls and lately Espanola, have made an undisclosed “seven-figure” investment in Port Huron, according to Bessette.
“They’ve been very supportive. I can’t speak highly enough of them in this process,” he said.
What’s created the business case to restart the mill is that dining habits dramatically changed during the pandemic with the proliferation of food delivery and the takeover of service platforms like Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub.
That’s led to a growing consumer demand for paper-based packaging offerings that are renewable, biodegradable and compostable over plastic alternatives associated with oil-based plastics and microplastic pollution.
Bessette said the new product line will not be a big departure from what was produced in Port Huron under the Domtar flag.
The No. 8 machine always held a good industry reputation for quality and its ability to produce ultra lightweight paper, something not too many domestic mills can deliver today, he said.
And customers have told them those specialty paper grades aren’t available in the U.S., but must be sourced in Europe and South America.
Though the restart plans had been underway for months, U.S. tariffs will put them in an advantageous position, as a U.S. manufacturer, in adding some “wind in our sails” by the time the mill, tentatively, restarts in mid-August.
Papermaking has been a foundational industry in Port Huron since 1888. This particular mill has been operating under various owners including Port Huron Sulphite and Paper Co., Port Huron Paper, Pentair, EB Eddy Paper, and Domtar Specialty Papers.
So far, 45 are on the payroll with recruiting underway to top up to 50.
Bessette said many recruited thus far are experienced local hands who know the business and have family legacy connections to the mill.
The name of the marquee and on the business cards will be ‘Legacy Port Huron Paper.’ The old seagull corporate logo will be changed to a dove.
"The (Veldman) brothers are men of faith, so am I, so from my perspective it wouldn’t have happened without divine intervention,” said Bessette.
