Patrick Schillinger Quotations

Our industries are under intense competition and for many of us, rail has been the most economical means of transporting in our raw goods and shipping out our finished products. Unfortunately, since most of our businesses are captive to only one major railroad, there is a monopoly of power and the railroads have been using this to dramatically increase prices and reduce service.

That's neither good nor bad. It just shows the change that's taking place.

It's clear the overall demand for paper, like white office paper, is declining. Electronic communications has really hurt that. But there's demand for paper board. There's a demand for tissue and certain specialty papers. There's always going to be a need for paper.

We're not dependent on just one line or grade of paper. We have a very diverse paper industry in the Fox Valley from fine paper to paper board to tissue. When there are fluctuating markets in one segment, usually the others offset any downturns.

We are not losing production. We have highly productive operations with fewer employees.