Naheola taking precautions amid record-breaking production

NAHEOLA – “We are seeing about two times our normal demand on the retail side,” said Scott Posey, Public Affairs Manager at Georgia-Pacific. “We are doing our best to meet that demand.”

The Naheola mill is at the forefront of the significant increase in demand for bathroom tissue during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Posey said that the mill is operating at full force to meet it.

“We are constantly breaking production records,” he told the Sun-Advocate. “God bless our workers; they are working hard.”

According to Posey, the mill is producing 50,000 to 60,000 cases per day.

With the mill operating at increased capacity, Posey said that precautions are being taken to protect workers.

“We are stringently pushing hand-washing, social isolation, promoting the 6-feet rule,” he said. “We’ve issued a lot of guidelines, trying to keep everyone safe.”

Posey said that meetings are being conducted by video conferencing, meals in the cafeteria are take-out only, and limits have been put in place on the numbers of contractors who come into the mill.

“We are issuing a questionnaire to those contractors who are allowed in, asking if they have been to certain areas, and getting information from them before they are allowed in,” Posey explained.

Posey said that workers are being continually provided with information about the spread of the virus and efforts to halt it.

“We have a task force that is meeting every morning to talk about the most recent information we have, and we are disseminating information to the employees,” he explained. “We have televisions throughout the mill to keep them up-to-date on the news.”

“Right now, there are no cases here,” Posey said. “It takes a team effort to keep it that way. We are hoping that if we do simple things diligently, we can keep it at bay.”

He added that the mill has engaged in planning for different scenarios, including ‘worse case’ planning in order to be prepared if the situation changes.

“It’s a big responsibility for us, and we take it seriously,” he said. “We are holding each other accountable for it.”