A seasoned veteran of the pulp and paper industry is looking forward to the challenge of being the manager of Catalyst Paper Corporation’s Powell River division.
“Some people would beg to differ, but I think the mill manager at these large, complex manufacturing operations is the best job in the world,” said Rick Maksymetz, who started his new position last month. “I love the complexity. I love the challenge. I love the opportunity to make an impact. I’m really looking forward to what I can do to work with the folks of Powell River and make this Powell River division a little more successful.”
Maksymetz has been in the pulp and paper industry for 33 years. The last 18 years, he was been in the mill manager position or higher for operations owned by Procter and Gamble, Weyerhaeuser and West Fraser. He’s worked in six different locations, five of them as a mill manager. “I’ve been involved with as many as eight different mills. I do have quite a vast experience. You might call me a gnarled veteran.”
Before taking the position with Catalyst, Maksymetz was the operations manager for West Fraser’s kraft pulp and paper business, which included facilities in Kitimat, Quesnel and Hinton, Alberta. Previous to that, he was the mill manager in Kitimat.
In his last role, he was involved with shutting down West Fraser’s Kitimat division. “For the first time in my 33-year career, I was actually involved in having to shut down a division. That certainly is a very, very difficult circumstance and having gone through it, you certainly get an appreciation for the effect it has on people and their families and the community. I would not like to see that have to happen anywhere else.”
The major issue for the Kitimat facility, as it is for any manufacturing business in Canada, was the high Canadian dollar, which remains a concern, Maksymetz said. “Our costs are in Canadian dollars, but our sales revenues tend to be in American dollars. As the exchange rate goes up, our costs stay the same and our revenues go down.”
A significant portion of North American pulp and paper facilities have been shut down, Maksymetz pointed out, and there continues to be a significant amount of consolidation and restructuring in the industry. “Catalyst has done a tremendous job in trying to position their assets to be competitive, by looking at new product development opportunities and getting their cost structure competitive,” he said. “Going forward, the big issue is what’s the ongoing demand for your products? Are you producing products that people are going to want to continue to have?”
Fibre is another big issue. “As long as we continue to have a reasonable fibre supply available in British Columbia, we’re very well positioned, as long as we keep our cost structure competitive and continue to produce products that people want. We have a reasonable opportunity of being here for the foreseeable future.”
One of the greatest strengths of the Powell River division is the willingness to try new product development, Maksymetz said. “There has been an ongoing process of converting products that would perhaps be very challenging to be competitive with, given the size of our paper machines, and converting to speciality products, products that return a greater revenue. The Powell River division has done an outstanding job over its history of doing that.”
He and his wife Karen are pleased with the move to Powell River. “I’m enjoying both the mill and the folks at the mill, getting to know the folks at the mill and getting to know the processes, and of course the community. My wife and I both believe it’s a real gem.”
Maksymetz joined the Powell River Chamber of Commerce and he’s on the board of the BC Resource Training Organization, which is responsible for apprenticeship programs for major trades, such as millwrights, welders, electricians, machinists and instrument mechanics.
