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>>> Orchids wins big contract


Higher-end work will put new client among tissue maker’s top five


by Geert De Lombaerde

09-01-17


http://www.nashvillepost.com/business/area-stocks/article/20974369/orchids-wins-big-contract


Executives with Orchids Paper Products say they have landed a big new customer that will help their new South Carolina plant ramp up operations.

In a filing with regulators, Orchids leaders don’t identify their new client, which is in a new distribution channel and has asked Orchids to make ultra-premium products starting late this year. But they expect that, once fully up and running next spring, the relationship will be one of their five largest and will — combined with some other recently won business — push Orchids’ revenue run rate to between $220 million and $240 million. Last year, the company’s sales totaled $164 million, with Dollar General and Family Dollar accounting for more than half of that number.

“We are extremely pleased to have qualified ultra-premium products on our new tissue machine,” President and CEO Jeff Schoen said in a statement. “We are also pleased to have added a new customer in a new distribution channel that we believe will help Orchids diversify its business and will move Orchids rapidly toward meeting its long-term goals.”

Brentwood-based Orchids spent $150 million on its new factory in Barnwell, South Carolina, and started operations there earlier this year. Through the first six months of this year, the company posted a net loss of $2.9 million on sales of nearly $74 million.

Shares of Orchids (Ticker: TIS) rose more than 3 percent Thursday to $10.20. They are, however, still down nearly 30 percent over the past three months. <<<