No Evidence of a ‘Non-Competition’ Clause for the Mill
Chillicothe and Ross County — The fate of the historic paper mill has been a big concern for two months, and one of the county commissioners has experience with the kind of corporate issues involved.
I have been wanting to explore the previous experience of Jack Everson even before he was mayor of Chillicothe. We sat down and chatted about that, and other aspects of the paper mill, for more than half an hour Wednesday.
The paper mill, operated by the Mead Corporation for more than a century, has been operated by “Pixelle Specialty Solutions” since 2018, a reorganization of the Pennsylvania-based P.H. Glatfelter Company. Pixelle was bought by Miami, Florida-based H.I.G. Capital LLC in 2022. (See my blog “Corporate Evolution of the Chillicothe Paper Mill in the Twenty-First Century.”)
Everson also clarified that he saw no evidence of a rumored ‘non-competition’ clause by Pixelle / H.I.G. Capital, which would prevent any competing paper company from operating the mill. He said there have been no restrictions on marketing and giving site tours to paper mill companies – tours which he said were given by Pixelle itself.
Part of my motivation for the interview was also to clarify his role in managing and sometimes closing industries. In a previous story I mistakenly reported that he was a “hatchet man.”
He said that instead, he was a “growth manger” who may have made harsh changes, but took care of the employees. The job of a “hatchet man” is to just make profits, usually by ruthlessly breaking up a company. (Everson said more on that after my video camera overheated and shut down.)
Also hear my chat with commissioner David Glass in February, who has experience with economic development…before he helped lead discussions on the paper mill situation. And, search the Scioto Post for our other stories on the “paper mill.”
Hear Everson (and me) in our own words in the three-video interview:
