Fort Mill company to lay off more than 400 workers in Tennessee, Arkansas.
A Fort Mill company will lay off more than 400 workers outside of South Carolina, due to business impact from the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Domtar announced on Monday it will temporarily idle its Kingsport, Tenn., mill and its A62 paper machine in Ashdown, Ark. for three months. The pulp product company based in the Kingsley area of Fort Mill will lay off a combined 446 employees.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is having a negative impact on communication paper demand, with offices, businesses and schools still closed in a large part of our markets,” said Domtar president and CEO John D. Williams in a release Monday. “Given the evolving market conditions, we are taking the appropriate steps to optimize our operations, which will ensure that we remain an agile, reliable partner to our customers. We regret the impact these temporary shutdowns will have on our Kingsport and Ashdown employees and their families, and we are doing everything we can to support them during this time.”
Other Domtar facilities remain in full operation. The temporary shutdown will reduce uncoated freesheet paper production capacity by about 144,000 short tons in three months.
The Fort Mill company has about 10,000 employees who serve more than 50 countries. Domtar produces fiber products that include hygiene and packaging materials. Annual sales, according to the company release, are about $5.2 billion.
Coronavirus impacts on Domtar come even as the company makes material for a variety of high-demand products, from toilet paper to diapers, tissues, wipes and packaging for food. According to the company website, specialty products even have medical applications and are used in hospital gowns, testing kids, labels, medical records, pharmaceutical inserts and more.
