PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County’s largest private employer isn’t entirely out of the woods yet, said the incoming president and chief executive officer, but he expects it to stabilize within three years and plans to begin investing back into the mill works.
“The mill has a future, it will be here for a while, but we have to get to a point where we get our cost structure under control and be able to put money back into the mill, ” said Charles Hodges, who will take the reins of the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill and the company’s box-making facilities in Richmond, British Columbia, from John Begley on April 30.
Hodges, who is now a consultant for the company, expects the mill, which employs 320 people, to continue to improve profits after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August as a private company under the control of its bondholders.
“We need to get to a point where we are process-stable,” he said.
“That could take anywhere from six months to three years.”
He’s even talking about hiring a few more workers.
“When I look at the head count in the mill right now, it looks to be OK,” Hodges said.
“But there are some places we need to beef up right now.
“We need to hire some qualified engineers.”
