DULUTH — Once again, it looks like the name on the front of the local paper mill is about to change.
At 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, employees at ST Paper’s Duluth plant were informed of a likely pending sale of the facility to Sofidel, a privately-held Italian multinational company that ranks as the world’s seventh-largest manufacturer of tissue paper.
Bill Broydrick, a spokesman for ST Paper, expressed optimism that government support provided to help restart the shuttered plant will hold steady through the anticipated transaction, noting that Sofidel intends to not only maintain the 80-person workforce currently employed at the mill but to build on that number, as the facility expands its production in the future.
Sofidel, which already ranks as the No. 2 producer of tissue paper in Europe, has been making steady inroads into the U.S. market in…
