ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 16, 1990                   TAG: 9003162751
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FEW CUTS EXPECTED AT BIG ISLAND

A Georgia-Pacific official says some layoffs will result from his company's acquisition of Great Northern Nekoosa, but an inter-company report said there will be no significant cuts at plants such as the Big Island container board mill.

About 330 people work for Nekoosa Packaging, a Great Northern subsidiary, at Big Island in Bedford County, one of 25 Nekoosa Packaging operations.

Georgia-Pacific doesn't know yet how many people will lose their jobs, but the reductions will come at both companies, said A.D. Correll, executive vice president of the pulp and paper unit.

"Our job is to pick the best persons on both sides," he said.

The word within the company is that the reorganization "won't impact jobs significantly at the plant level," according to Tom Weiss, communications director for Nekoosa Packaging in Toledo.

Georgia-Pacific will be reorganizing its pulp and paper business to improve its earnings while trying to reduce its debt from the $4 billion purchase of Great Northern. The reorganization will be along product lines, Correll said in Atlanta. "Surely there will be some reduction in force," he added.

Weiss said Georgia-Pacific has started on a transition team study of the strengths of both companies. This is expected to take from two to three months, he said.

Earlier this week, T. Marshall Hahn Jr., Georgia-Pacific chairman, told New York security analysts that the Great Northern acquisition will save more than the initial G-P estimate of $80 million a year.

Hahn said his company has sold "some non-strategic assets each year, and it is reasonable to assume that this trend will continue." All businesses, plants and timberland are being reviewed for strategic fit and performance, Hahn said. 


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