Courtesy / ND PAPER
Bruce Hogan
April 14, 2021
ND Paper names a Mainer as new head for Old Town pulp mill, purchased 3 years ago
Courtesy / ND PAPER
The ND Paper manufacturing facility in Old Town will be led by General Manager Bruce Hogan.
By William Hall
ND Paper, which bought the idled wood pulp plant in Old Town three years ago, has named a new general manager to head operations there — and he’s a native Mainer.
Bruce Hogan has been hired as vice president and GM of the company’s Old Town Division, according to a news release. He brings to the job 33 years of experience with well-known companies, including International Paper, Mohawk Fine Papers, Essity and Appvion.
In addition to his background as a process engineer, Hogan has led operations and management at several large-scale paper manufacturing sites across the country, the release said.
Outgoing GM Craig Kerschner, who has overseen startup operations at the mill since its purchase, has been promoted to ND Paper's corporate director of pulping technology.
CEO Ken Liu commented on the addition of Hogan, saying, “Bruce brings a breadth of knowledge that will be instrumental in helping us usher in a new era of growth and excellence at our historic Old Town Mill. Beyond operations, Bruce will also be critical in helping us execute the continued capital transformation program for the division.”
Hogan said in the release, “I couldn’t be more excited to join ND Paper. The transformation that Old Town is undergoing — investing in people, new process and better products to serve an ever-evolving marketplace — is a sign of future success. It’s one of the things that attracted me to ND Paper.”
Hogan and his wife are both natives of Auburn, and he graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in mechanical engineering.
“It feels great to be home,” Hogan added.
ND Paper LLC, an Illinois-based subsidiary of Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Ltd. of China, purchased the mill and 100 acres of property in Old Town for an undisclosed price in the fall of 2018. The plant reopened in August 2019.
It had previously been shuttered since 2015, after beginning operations in 1860 as a sawmill and moving into pulp production in 1882.
Prior to closing, the Old Town mill manufactured 155,000 metric tonnes of bleached hardwood kraft pulp annually. At the time of the purchase, ND Paper said it expected the facility to ultimately produce 275,000 tonnes of unbleached pulp per year.
“After millions of capital invested to restart the Old Town facility, the mill is currently producing unbleached kraft pulp for use as a raw material primarily in packaging papers,” spokesman Brennan Burks told Mainebiz. “ND Paper is planning additional investments in the coming months to further increase production output and optimize operations.”
The mill currently has 155 employees, Burks said.
ND Paper also operates a mill in Rumford, as well as ones in West Virginia and Wisconsin.
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