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Clearwater Paper to Offer FSC Certified Premium and Ultra Tissue Products

^{Published on 2011-07-19 11:50:50 - Market Wire}
 

SPOKANE, Wash.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Clearwater Paper Corporation (NYSE:CLW) announced today that the company will offer Forest Stewardship Councila" (FSC®) certified premium and ultra-premium bath tissue, and ultra-premium paper towel products to retail customers. The Rainforest Alliancea™s SmartWood Program performed all certification audits to ensure conformance to the FSC standards. The company shipped the first batch of these new FSC-certified ultra-premium tissue products in early June.

"Clearwater Paper has paved new roads for FSC in the retail grocery private label arena"

aWe are delighted with Clearwater Papera™s commitment to sustainability, which meets increasing consumer demand for tissue products from sustainable sources,a said Tensie Whelan, president of the Rainforest Alliance. aClearwater Paper has set an example through the certification of its own products; a forward thinking accomplishment that other innovative companies will follow.a

In June 2010, Clearwater Paper began offering FSC-certified facial tissue to retail grocery private label customers. Since then, the company has applied the FSC logo and the Rainforest Alliance Certified^TM seal to millions of customer facial cartons, and currently supplies the largest case volume of FSC-certified private label products to U.S. retail chains.

aWe are excited to further expand our customersa™ choices - giving them more options to use quality tissue products from FSC-certified forests,a said Gordon Jones, chairman, president and CEO of Clearwater Paper. aThe addition of these high-quality tissue products reinforces our position as the leading U.S. tissue manufacturer to offer FSC certified tissue products for retail sales.a

Retailers now have a unique opportunity to feature this globally recognized certification on their premium private label tissue products. Certification allows retailers the ability to display the FSC logo and the well-known Rainforest Alliance Certified frog seal on their premium tissue products signifying strong environmental awareness for manufacturers, retailers and consumers.

aThe combination of certified premium and ultra-premium facial products since June of last year, coupled with increases planned this year, means that products certified by the Rainforest Alliance to FSC standards represent more than 50 percent of Clearwater Papera™s total retail product case volume nationwide,a stated Bob DeVleming, president of Clearwater Papera™s consumer products division. aThat amount of product, carrying both the FSC logo and the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal, offers both organizations significant exposure to the end consumer a" a win-win situation for everyone involved.a

FSC-certification indicates to consumers that the products they are purchasing come from responsible, well-managed forests where forest ecosystems are conserved and the rights of workers and their communities are protected.

aClearwater Paper has paved new roads for FSC in the retail grocery private label arena,a said Corey Brinkema, president of the Forest Stewardship Council-U.S. aThanks to Clearwater Paper, we now have expanded impact and visibility in a market that is trending toward environmentally and socially responsible products.a

ABOUT FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL

An international nonprofit organization, the Forest Stewardship Council was founded in 1993 to harness the power of the marketplace to encourage environmentally sound, socially beneficial, and economically prosperous management of the worlda™s forests. FSC standards and third party forest and forest products certification represent the world's strongest system for guiding forest management toward sustainable outcomes. FSC is the only forest certification program supported by the worlda™s leading environmental organizations. Its U.S. chapter, FSC-US, was established to coordinate the development of a national forest management standard, encourage the expansion of US forests managed under theFSC standard, and provide public education about the importance and value of forest stewardship. For more information, please see [ www.fscus.org ]

ABOUT THE RAINFOREST ALLIANCE

The Rainforest Alliance works with people whose livelihoods depend on the land, helping them transform the way they grow food, harvest wood and host travelers. From large multinational corporations to small, community-based cooperatives, businesses and consumers worldwide are involved in the Rainforest Alliancea™s efforts to bring responsibly produced goods and services to a global marketplace where the demand for sustainability is growing steadily. For more information, visit [ www.rainforest-alliance.org ].

ABOUT CLEARWATER PAPER (FSC® C051250)

Clearwater Paper manufactures quality consumer tissue, away-from-home tissue, hard roll tissue, machine glazed tissue, bleached paperboard, pulp and wood products at 15 manufacturing locations in the U.S. and Canada. The company is a premier supplier of private label tissue to major retailers and wholesale distributors. This includes grocery, drug, mass merchants and discount stores. The company also produces bleached paperboard used by quality-conscious printers and packaging converters. Clearwater Paper's more than 4,000 employees build shareholder value by developing strong customer partnerships through quality and service.

For additional information on Clearwater Paper, please visit our Web site at [ www.clearwaterpaper.com ]. Inquiries about Clearwater Paper tissue products can be made to [ tissue@clearwaterpaper.com ].

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 as amended, including statements regarding the market for the companya™s products, the availability of and plans for the company to offer certain products, the amount of FSC products offered and the acceptance of the companya™s products by customers and consumers. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, assumptions and projections that are subject to change, and actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, the supply of FSC certified wood fiber; the ability of the company and its suppliers to remain FSC certified; changes in customer and consumer preferences; changes in the United States and international economies; changes in raw material and energy costs; cyclical industry conditions; competitive pricing pressure for the company's products; changes in freight costs and disruptions in transportation services; unanticipated manufacturing disruptions; changes in general and industry-specific laws and regulations; unforeseen environmental liabilities or expenditures; labor disruptions; and other risks and uncertainties described from time to time in the company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and the company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements.