Local Government, Business Leaders Praise Kimberly-Clark Deal

Government and business leaders in the Fox Valley are pleased Gov. Scott Walker signed an agreement with Kimberly-Clark Corp. to keep its northeastern Wisconsin plant open and potentially expand it.

Peter Thillman, vice president of economic development with the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce, said the loss of 388 well-paying jobs would have had a statewide impact.

A recent report showed the Kimberly-Clark closure would have drained $100 million out of the four counties surrounding the plant over five years when it came to lost wages and taxes.

In early 2018, Kimberly-Clark announced it was considering the closure of the Cold Spring plant, which makes products like Depends and Poise.

The deal reached between Walker, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. and the consumer products giant is worth up to $28 million over five years and will keep the Cold Spring plant in Fox Crossing near Neenah open and save nearly 400 jobs.

If the plant shuttered, “it would have been a large, large loss,” Thillman said. “These are incredibly important jobs, very high tech, very high skilled and well compensated. This is a really state-of-the-art facility and we’re glad it is expanding.”

He cited a report by the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission that showed a $100 million loss over five years for the surrounding counties Winnebago, Outagamie, Fond Du Lac and Calumet.

Additionally nearby companies, like Over the Road Truckers, and printers depend on contracts with Kimberly-Clark.

Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson welcomed the news of the Kimberly-Clark bailout but added that last year’s economic troubles in the manufacturing industry, “did not get much attention from the state and a lot of people here wanted to know why that was.”

The following happened to major employers in the Fox Valley area in 2017:

• U.S. Paper Converters in Grand Chute closed.

• Appleton’s Apvion declared bankruptcy.

• Appleton Coated, of Combined Locks, went through receivership.

“It took the fourth announced plant, or company, that got in trouble and only then did we get any action or support,” Nelson said.

The gain in Wisconsin will come at the cost of about 350 jobs at a Kimberly-Clark plant in Conway, Arkansas that is set to close.

Many workers at the Cold Spring plant belong to the United Steelworkers union, which fought to keep it open.

Dave Breckheimer is president of United Steelworkers union 2-482 and is an electrician at the facility.

He said he regrets people in Arkansas will be out of work, but that the deal, “means that this facility will stay open for years to come. We are going to see the production volume from Conway, Arkansas come to this facility and it means a meaningful expansion to the facility to be able to handle that addition production volume.”

The Winnebago County Executive, Mark Harris, joined the praise for the state-funded deal, but said, “You have to ask yourself where is this money coming from?”