Fortress Paper Ltd.

Once one of Canada’s leading industries, the pulp and paper sector has been feeling the brunt of changing worldviews and fluctuating consumer attitudes for the past several years. With the technology sector growing, demand for paper-oriented communication mainstays such as newsprint, telephone directories, copying paper, books, magazine and glossy print have gravely diminished. The result has been an unprecedented closure of pulp and paper mi...

Located in the Papineau Regional County Municipality in the Outaouais region of Western Quebec, about 35km from Gatineau, QC on the Ottawa River, the Thurso pulp mill is a staple in Thurso, Quebec. The Thurso mill dates back to the 1950s and was a major force in the pulp and paper industry in the Quebec/Ottawa region. Today, it continues the tradition. Employing nearly 300 people, the pulp mill currently manufactures high quality northern b...

A recent article in The Ottawa Citizen taking an in-depth look at the status of the logging, timber, lumber and pulp-and-paper mills along the Ottawa River valley laments the seeming demise of a once booming Canadian industry. “Driven by the imperatives of globalized economics and digital technology, Ottawa’s pulp-and-paper heritage has been reduced to a remnant,” writes Robert Sibley. One of the major reasons for this decline is the ...

When Fortress Specialty Cellulose (FSC) re-started the mill at the site in Thurso, Quebec, they couldn’t just jump into the dissolving pulp game. Since deriving dissolving pulp (or specialty cellulose) entails different pulping processes, equipment upgrades, and general production line changes had to be implemented first. In the meantime, FSC has restarted the mill as a northern bleached hardwood kraft (NBHK) pulp mill, resuming operations a...

Though the mill in Thurso, Quebec is currently a northern bleached hardwood kraft pulp mill and will be transformed into a specialized dissolving pulp mill by 2011, processed pulp isn’t the only commodity produced by the mill. At several different stages in the pulping process, energy is harnessed and recycled, saving the mill both time and money. Here are four ways energy is reduced, reused and recycled at the Thurso pulp mill: #1 –...

While waiting for the full transition to dissolving pulp, Fortress Specialty Cellulose (FSC) has re-started the Thurso mill as a northern bleached hardwood kraft (NBHK) mill, which was its previous role prior to the FSC purchase. This is the last article in a three-part series explaining how the kraft process works. Part 3: The Finished Product After the pulp has been cooked and the chemicals have been recovered for the next pulping proc...

While waiting for the full transition to dissolving pulp, Fortress Specialty Cellulose (FSC) has re-started the Thurso mill as a northern bleached hardwood kraft (NBHK) mill, which was its previous role prior to the FSC purchase. This article is the second in a series explaining how the kraft process works. Part 2: Recovery Once the pulp has been cooked, the next step is to wash it and dry it in order to ship it out to buyers. However...

Though Fortress Paper Ltd. originally purchased the pulp mill in Thurso, Quebec for the purpose of creating specialty cellulose, a number of transitions have to take place before the mill can start churning out the product that will eventually be used to make commodities like rayon clothing and cellophane. While waiting for these transitions, Fortress Specialty Cellulose (FSC) has re-started the mill as a northern bleached hardwood kraft (NBHK...

An interview with Chadwick Wasilenkoff, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Director, Fortress Paper Ltd. Editors’ Note: As Fortress Paper’s Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Director, Chad Wasilenkoff oversees the company’s production of security and other specialty papers. Most recently, Wasilenkoff was the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Titan Uranium Exploration Inc. from July 2004 to July 2006 and an independent pri...

When life deals you pulp, you make cellulose. Learn how to recognize business opportunities, then reach out and grab them. Any business needs a coherent strategy if it hopes to succeed. However, in a climate where marketplace and financial changes are becoming ever more rapid, clinging mindlessly to a strategy can be a recipe for disaster. Simply put, companies today must be more agile in their thinking to take advantage of business opportunit...