By Amy Widner of the Pine Bluff Commercial Staff

January 27, 2010...About 12 employees have already been hired and as many as 35 to 40 are expected at Pine Bluff’s newest paper-recycling company, The Paper Tigers Inc., according to plant manager Mark Stolki.

“Right now, I’d say we’re working at about 25 percent of our expected capacity,” Stolki said Tuesday.  “We’re going to have two [recycled-paper bailing] machine centers when it’s fully up and operating.  We’ve got one running right now.  Ultimately, we hope to go to two shifts [operating by mid-year].”

The Illinois-based company has been remodeling the facility, which is off Port Road on Byrd Street, for about six months.  The first workers arrived about a month and a half ago, and the first bailing machine was up and running three weeks ago.

The Paper Tigers is closing a similar plant in Camden, which has been open for seven years.  Stolki said there are 17 employees at the Camden plant.  All have been offered the option of working at the Pine Bluff facility and still have time to decide.

Stolki said the plant will accept waste and excess/rejected paper from area paper mills in various forms - rolls, slabs, bails, etc.  The paper is shredded and bailed at The Paper Tiger facility.  In that form, the recycled paper can easily be mixed with virgin paper pulp and re-introduced into a variety of paper products.  Thousands of tons of paper can move through the plant in a day, Stolki said.

“When you read on the box that the product was ‘made with 10-percent recycled materials,’ we’re that 10 percent,” Stolki said.  “It’s a neat business.  It’s part of the green movement.  We have very little waste, right down to the cardboard rolls - everything gets recycled.”

Stolki said the company chose Pine Bluff because of its proximity to area paper mills and the ready availability of skilled workers.

“We felt that there was an excellent workforce available here, and so far that’s been true.  We’ve been getting machine operators, forklift drivers - these are experienced, high-quality folks,” Stolki said.

Mayor Carl. A. Redus Jr. said he’s always been confident that the workforce in Pine Bluff and Jefferson County is second to none.

“I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” Redus said.  “Any and all jobs that can come to this community will help people provide for their families and give people what they need to have a better quality of life.”

Lou Ann Nisbett, executive director of The Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County, said the workforce is one of Pine Bluff’s many great assets.  The Alliance has been working with The Paper Tigers since July as they considered the facility.  Nisbett said she is glad to see the hard work paid off.

“This company is making a nice capital investment in the community and making jobs,” Nisbett said, noting that it is already creating support jobs and spin-off benefits.

For example, Stolki said a local contractor will be hauling the waste paper from the paper mills to The Paper Tigers plant.  Nisbett also noted things like office furniture and other supplies that are being purchased in Pine Bluff.

The Paper Tigers has similar plants in Savannah, Ga., and Lewiston, Idaho, Stolki said.  According to the company Web site, http://www.papertigers.com, they also have locations in Danville, Calif., Duluth, Ga., Marietta, Ga., Bedford Park, Ill., and Wake Forest, N.C.  The corporate headquarters are in Bannockburn, Ill., near Chicago.

“This is not a new business for us,” Stolki said.  “It’s a business we’ve been in for quite some time.”

Many of their customers are domestic, but they also work with overseas companies, Stolki said.

The bailing machine that is already operating is a new machine, and the second will be coming from the Camden plant.  Remodeling work continues on the 120,000 square-foot facility, which has been vacant for several years.  Nisbett said it has been used as warehouse space in the past.  The Paper Tigers is leasing the facility from Kinder-Morgan energy company, Nisbett said.

Stolki described the jobs as semi-skilled, including machine operators and forklift operators.  He said pay varies from about $8 to $12 an hour.  Referrals have been coming through the Arkansas Workforce Center’s Southeast Arkansas Workforce Investment Area, which is where job seekers should submit their applications.  Stolki is not taking them directly.

The Camden workers will be coming in the next few weeks, Stolki said, and no additional hirings are being made currently.

Pine Bluff has two Arkansas Workforce Centers offices: One at 3135 W. 28th Ave. in Regency Square and another at 2003 N. University, Suite 2.  Arkansas Workforce Centers provide job training and job placement.  More information is available by calling 575-9797 for the Regency Square location or 534-7700 for the North University location.