November 17, 2017 at 3:50 p.m.
Expera Coated Products dedicates new coater
Expera Coated Products dedicates new coater
By By River NEws Staff-
Local and state officials joined the leadership of Expera Coated Products, a business unit of Expera Specialty Solutions focused on making unique technical products used by the aerospace industry, in celebrating the addition of the coater.
"The new coater is a significant investment in the Rhinelander community and supports the manufacturing infrastructure in the region," Expera officials said in a press release. "Additionally important for the community, the additional equipment will help support the local Expera Rhinelander Paper Mill by consuming significant additional base paper produced by the Rhinelander mill. This project provides new family-supporting manufacturing jobs in our community and increases the local property tax base by occupying a previous vacant building."
The building was formerly the home of Printpack Inc. That company opened a new larger facility on State Highway 17 back in 2014, leaving the Kemp Street location vacant.
Expera expressed an interest in the building in the summer of 2016 but required a $15-million pass-through loan from Oneida County to the Northeast Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (NEWEDC), a sister corporation of the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation, to accomplish its goal of bringing a new manufacturing operation to the facility.
According to a lease/purchase agreement between NEWEDC and Expera Coated Products, NEWEDC purchased the Kemp Street building, renovated it for ECP's specific needs and purchased the capital equipment needed in the manufacturing process.
The loan is be repaid in six-and-a-half years, at 3.75 percent interest, with annual payments.
The county borrowed the money from the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands. The BCPL is one of the largest public investors in economic development projects and local infrastructure projects in the state, having invested more than $1 billion in communities over the past decade.
BCPL loans can be used for public purpose projects, including economic development, local infrastructure, capital equipment and vehicles, building repairs and improvements, and refinancing existing liabilities to reduce future borrowing costs, the agency website states. Interest paid on the loans is distributed to school libraries.
Expera Coated Products took formal possession of the building in November 2016 when NEWEDC board president Mike Gibbons handed a giant gold key to Jeff Verdoorn, manager of the Rhinelander Expera paper mill.
A year later, Verdoorn was on hand to celebrate the dedication of the coater.
"We purchased and then repurposed a 90-plus-year-old vacant potentially future-blighted manufacturing facility now back as a productive and ongoing entity," he said Thursday. "And by the way, we set the design up so I can put another coater in exactly like this one along the back wall, so it's ready for growth. We're creating approximately 20 good-paying and family supporting manufacturing jobs right here in the Northwoods and we'll produce a key component required worldwide for the highly technical aerospace industry along with specialty medical and other high-tech industry, again all right here in the Northwoods. Talk about a win-win-win."
Russ Wanke, CEO of Expera Specialty Solutions, said the coater is Expera's largest capital project in the last couple of years.
"It's a beautiful tool," he said. "We have a highly skilled team here at Rhinelander and to give them the additional capacity and the modern tool to be able to put their talents to work we're very proud of that and very pleased."
"Products produced here in Rhinelander at Expera, and that will be produced on this coater, are critical to production of modern aircraft," he added, noting that Expera's products will help Boeing continue to ramp up production of its 787 jet aircraft as well as new aircraft in the future.
Lieutenant governor Rebecca Kleefisch, who also serves as the state's jobs ambassador, offered her congratulations.
"I love the paper industry because it's honestly the lifeblood of Wisconsin," she said, noting that her father worked in the paper industry as an envelope salesman. "It's not only an industry of history but also an industry of the future and there's no better way to prove it than by taking a look at the coater behind me."
"I'm proud to call Expera one of my favorite companies in this entire state," she added.
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