Memphis’ Kruger churns out toilet paper
Economist: It’s not hoarding, it’s practicality
In this time of crisis, it’s no secret Americans cherish their toilet paper.
That’s why Walmart’s supplier of White Cloud toilet paper — the KTG USA mill in Memphis — is running strong.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s shelter-at-home executive order is set to take effect at 6 p.m. Tuesday for most of the city’s 650,000 residents.
But there’s no reason to hit the stores and hoard the rolls.
Memphis manufacturers, including Kruger Product’s KTG and International Paper, will stay open as essential suppliers of various must-have products. And even now, logistics firms are hiring to make sure trucks and depots keep handling essentials, such as the paper rolling out of Kruger’s mill.
“Our eight facilities across North America are working at full capacity and optimizing production to work with our customers to stock tissue products,” said a statement by Dino Bianco, Kruger Products’ chief executive officer.
Grocery chains throughout the nation have reported shoppers have cleared shelves of toilet paper. Psychologists and economists have come up with a simple reason.
It isn’t really hoarding. It’s practicality, reported New York Magazine, citing economist Jim Luke’s explanation: American families usually buy toilet paper every few weeks, but the new phenomenon of social distancing means people are unsure when they’ll shop again. So stock up now.
Whether it is practicality or simply seeing the next person in the check-out line with 200 rolls of White Cloud, it’s hard to say. For the time being, it’s been good business for Canada-based Kruger.
Its sprawling complex at 400 Mahannah has employed about 500 workers since the $316 million expansion in 2012. Kruger earlier bought the mill from Kimberly-clark.
What it takes to get the toilet paper and other products to store shelves are shipping containers made of cardboard.
International Paper, the nation’s largest maker of corrugated packaging, is also maintaining production.
IP is regarded as essential because many industrial and consumer-oriented companies box their products in the cardboard. In some companies, many individual boxes are loaded into larger cardboard boxes for delivery to stores and distribution centers.
“We’re continuing to keep our operations going around the globe,” said Adam Ghassemi, spokesman for Memphis-based International Paper.
IP’S 2,500 Memphis-area employees work chiefly in the head office buildings on Poplar Avenue. IP operates a box plant in the Memphis suburb of Olive Branch but no mills are located in the region.
While the headquarters has not been shut down because of the coronavirus outbreak, employees have been given the option of working from home.
“The vast majority of people are choosing to work safely from home if their job allows it,” Ghassemi said.
The Memphis headquarters oversees production, logistics, finance, procurement and administration for a company operating on four continents. IP is the largest manufacturer based in Tennessee with 50,000 employees throughout the world.
Even before the virus outbreak preoccupied Americans, International Paper’s head office staff had given thought to how the far-flung company could manage in the event operations were disrupted in Memphis.
Other corporations have set in place and practiced similar business continuity plans.
“We had to figure out what was the safest thing to do for our team members,” Ghassemi said, noting because of IP’S continuity plans, “it has not been a huge task for us to work from home.”
Ted Evanoff, business columnist of The Commercial Appeal, can be reached at evanoff@commercialappeal.com and (901) 529-2292.
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