Business looking to hire 20 paper mill employees

MARIANNA, Fla. (WMBB) — Spanish Trail Lumber in Marianna has 20 job openings to fill.

Management said they want to hire some of the 450 WestRock Paper Mill workers who are soon to be unemployed.

“We realize that a lot of people in this area may not have worked in mills or industries such as this before and so we have on-the-job training for each of the positions we have available,” Spanish Trail Lumber Safety HR and Environment Manager Brent Caraway said.

Entry-level positions include equipment operations, running computers, and working control panels.

The pay is $18 an hour and you can earn overtime.

Caraway said everyone starts out in an entry-level job but many employees work their way up in as little as 6 months.

He also said they’ll assess the skill set of each paper mill employee to determine where they fit best.

Glen Smith II has been working for the company for 27 years and has worked his way up to supervisor.

“To me personally, you can’t find much better employer than Mr. Frank, which is the one that owns the Spanish Trail,” Smith said. “He takes good care of the employees. I have no complaints as far as that goes.”

Spanish Trail Lumber workers have full benefits: healthcare, dental, and vision.

Caraway said they also have an excellent 401k plan.

“This past year the performance was very well and the employees will be getting a 24% profit-share and that’s 24% of their gross compensation at one time,” Caraway said.

Over the next three years, there will be a $50 million capital investment into Spanish Trail Lumber.

Caraway said they’re not going anywhere any time soon and they’re looking to hire immediately.

CareerSource Gulf Coast officials also told us some other companies looking to hire: Berg Pipe Panama City, Trane Technologies, and System Service and Engineering in Lynn Haven.