Finch Paper upbeat

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

The Facebook rumor mill was busy last week churning out purported news that Finch Paper was about to shut down.

The Chronicle directly asked Eric Wood, the Glens Falls mill president: Is it true?

“We are happy to re-port that there is absolutely no truth to the rumors,” Mr. Wood replied.

“In fact,” the Finch president told The Chronicle, “our employee meetings this week are intended to highlight our accomplishments and our positive outlook for the future of Finch; quite the opposite of what the rumors suggested!”

The rumors were no doubt fueled by recent shutdowns of Lehigh Cement, Essity tissue and Quad Graphics plus AngioDynamics’ announcement it will close in Glens Falls and Queensbury next year.

Plus there was word of Finch Paper employee meetings scheduled this week.

Here’s Mr. Wood’s entire e-mailed response.

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Hi Cathy –

Great to hear from you and your team. We are happy to report that there is absolutely no truth to the rumors.

We were alerted to the large number of recent posts on Facebook about Finch closing and were amazed by the justifications. (“Heard it from a credible source” is always one of my favorites.)

However, the immediate response from Finch employees refuting these rumors was very refreshing.

We understand the rumors probably propagate from the significant job losses brought on by the recent closures of several local manufacturing facilities.

Those changes will be hard on our community and will impact our collective friends, families, and the local sentiment around manufacturing in our region.

While Finch is certainly not immune to the challenges facing our economy, we have built a culture that fosters continuous adaptation and enables us to diversify our product offerings and develop relationships with new customers.

Using those tools, we have weathered the challenges of the past few years as we always do, and we have our employees to thank for their contributions to Finch’s longevity.

In fact, our employee meetings this week are intended to highlight our accomplishments and our positive outlook for the future of Finch; quite the opposite of what the rumors suggested!

So, in short, we have no intention of shutting down, and we look forward to many, many more years of producing high quality paper here in Glens Falls.

Thanks and let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Best regards,
Eric

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Finch Paper is nearing its 160th year. It was founded in 1865 as Finch, Pruyn and was locally owned for 142 years. In 2007, they sold the company to investors Atlas Holdings and Blue Wolf Capital, which formed a new entity, Finch Paper Holdings, LLC that operates the mill now.

A year ago on a plant tour, Finch officials told The Chronicle they had 600 employees and that first-year employees typically earned $55,000.

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