Lake Superior Paper Industries In Harmony videotape

In January 1986, Duluth-based Minnesota Power and Pentair, Inc. a Roseville paper and machinery manufacturer had tentatively agreed to build a $400 million paper mill on the Bayfront in West Duluth. In 1985, the City of Duluth put together a package worth about $48 million for the plant. The joint venture would be known as the Lake Superior Paper Co., designed to produce about 236,000 tons per year of supercalendered paper product. It would require up to 200,000 cords of word per year for paper production and 90,000 cords of wood for fuel to produce steam. The partners hired former state legislator and city official Jack LaVoy to administer the comprehensive study. July 16, 1986, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that Duluth had the right to condemn Jeno Paulucci’s land to make way for a privately owned paper mill. Officials planned to demolish the Chun King plant on the Paulucci property. In 1989, Minnesota Power publicity materials thrilled to report in 1989, two years ahead of schedule, the paper plant was producing 240,000 tons of product. Nevertheless, Minnesota Power sold Lake Superior Paper Industries and its recycling plant to Consolidate Papers Inc., of Wisconsin Rapids. Minnesota Power got $112 million and the other partner, Pentair, Inc. of St. Paul, got $103 million in the sale. No one was saying at the time of the sale what would happen to the 330 employees at the mill and the 35 employees at the recycle plant. Naturally, Duluth city officials hoped that Consolidated would expand the facility. Everyone was saying Consolidated was a solid company, that 30% of its work force had been employed there for 20 or more years, and this would allow it to "broaden its base." Lake Superior Paper see Dulutian Jan/Feb 1986 p.8-11

Consolidated Papers, Inc. was incorporated in Wisconsin in 1894. The company and its subsidiaries operated primarily in the pulp and paper industry. Effective July 1, 1995, the Company acquired Lake Superior Paper Industries in Duluth, Minnesota (and two other paper companies in the upper Midwest). In March, 1996 it was reported that Jack H. LaVoy took a position with the state’s forest products industry, executive vice president of Minnesota Forest Industries, Inc. and the Minnesota Timber Producers Association.

Consolidate Papers, Inc., the parent company of Lake Superior Paper Industries announced in February 2000, that Consolidated was being purchased by Stora Enso Oyj, a Finnish paper-maker, for $4.8 billion. Duluth job cuts were announced in April 2000. Duluth’s plant employs about 350 people. Stora Enso Oyj sold its North American manufacturing operation, including the Duluth plant, to an Ohio-based company owned by Cerberus Capital in late 2007.