John Dillon Quotations

The external environment continues to be very difficult, ... We have continued to reduce our capacity to match demand from our customers, improved our operations and began to realign staff resources to better our financial results.

We've said all along that bringing together International Paper and Champion makes good sense because of the tremendous opportunities presented by a combined organization.

So far, this has been great. It's very easy to get around. I love it.

My job now is to keep the nucleus of the side for next season.

Now that the merger is completed and we have had a closer look into Champion's businesses, we are even more optimistic about the opportunities this acquisition will provide,

Nicky repeatedly stressed the value of advanced planning, preparation, and attention to detail. In addition to telling us some great stories, he validated the things we do already, gave us some great tips on how to improve our game and, most importantly, taught us a lot about making pace notes. Several of the the things he described came into play this weekend.

Nevertheless, the world economic environment is continuing to pressure our business even as we move into a seasonally stronger part of the year.

Our cash and stock offer is far more attractive to Champion shareholders,

Our capacity management and divestiture efforts, coupled with a rigid financial discipline, are having a favorable impact on our performance and will continue.

Our merger with Union Camp is going not only well, but well ahead of expectations.

Market conditions are more favorable than we've seen in some time. Our efficiency and cost-reduction efforts have racked up record savings during the last two years and are on pace to do so again in 1999.

We've got the best bid, we're excited about Champion, it's a company that fits very well with International Paper ( IP : Research , Estimates ). They're headquartered very close to our headquarters. Their businesses fit very well with ours - big printing papers business, an important wood and timber business - and they've got a nice, nice position in Brazil, as well as a position in Canada. We see $425 million in merger benefits from putting two U.S. organizations together.

We completed the first quarter with strong momentum, and we continue to improve our underlying cost structure in a difficult macro environment,

This survey reflects that CEOs are more concerned about the weakness in the economy than they were six months ago.

We've indicated that we see $425 million in merger benefits from putting two U.S. organizations together, ... That's somewhat different than with UPM, of course; they're headquartered in Finland, and they will not see the same kind of merger benefits that we will, and merger benefits are important in acquisitions and mergers.

But the market and economic conditions we are facing require that we further reduce costs within the company, ... We are realigning our resources as necessary to improve our financial results, while continuing our commitment to serve our customers.

As the buildings were modified through the years, they were not efficiently sealed for the control required in an air conditioned environment.

Don't get caught up in the horror that is Paul Runge. Don't make the jump that only a crazy person could do this.

Due to wet weather conditions, our wood costs were much higher than expected. However, these costs were partially offset by lower purchase prices for other raw materials and the continued success of our cost-reduction program.

There's no question in my mind we will be a stronger company.

The timing of the economic recovery remains uncertain, ... We didn't see any meaningful impact from it on our sales volumes and revenues this quarter. So, I am very pleased with what we have been able to accomplish by focusing on those factors we can control.

These second-quarter results continue the favorable trend in industry conditions that we began to see earlier this year, ... We will be divesting or closing operations that no longer meet the company's financial or strategic objectives.

Prices on several of our key products have started to move up in the U.S. and some of our major Asian markets are beginning to recover from the economic problems of last year, ... Overall, business has clearly improved, and we are optimistic that the price increases we announced will be fully implemented during the second quarter.

At some point in the future, I think there will be relatively few companies competing on a worldwide basis. From IP's perspective, what we are doing is building a strong leadership position in each of our businesses.

Although the economic problems in Southeast Asia continue to affect some of our major businesses, we've made significant progress in completing our restructuring program that was announced last July.

They're headquartered very close to our headquarters, their businesses fit very well with ours - big printing papers business, an important wood and timber business - they've got a nice, nice position in Brazil, as well as a position in Canada,

At least 62 low-income countries need both immediate, unconditional debt cancellation and extra aid to meet the U.N. development goals.

not significantly impacted as the company translates its European earnings to the United States.

Not only are our markets getting better and our internal cost-cutting programs succeeding, we are also seeing the benefits of our merger with Union Camp reflected in our earnings. Going forward, we will continue to manage production in line with our customer orders and not build inventory.

Champion declared our offer to be superior yesterday, ... So at this point we are the superior offer and we expect to go forward and merge the two companies.

These are difficult decisions impacting mills with a significant history for our company, ... However, the strong dollar has continuously weakened our export business in containerboard, while increasing imports of coated paper.

The mayor's statement speaks for itself, ... I have no comment beyond that at this point.