A Closer Look At Essity: One Of Mercer County’s Biggest Employers
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The Yankee dryer was brought to Harrodsburg overnight in 2012. Road crews moved power lines and highway signs to accommodate the load, which was almost 21 feet tall, including trailer.
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
[email protected]
Harrodsburg is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. While the oldest continuous settlement has a lot of history to celebrate, one aspect of life in Mercer County that tends to get overlooked is the outsized role of industry.
Nearly 22 percent of Mercer County’s workers labor at a factory, making manufacturing the second largest segment of the workforce, according to the U.S. Census Department. With all of Mercer County’s gorgeous scenery, it can be easy to forget Harrodsburg is a factory town, home to manufacturing giants like Essity, a leading global hygiene and health company headquartered in Sweden. One of their brands, Tork, is the leading global professional hygiene brand meaning you’ll find Tork paper towels, toilet paper, napkins, soaps and wipers dispensed in public places such as restaurants, offices, airports, schools and in manufacturing sites. Many of the Tork tissue products are made right here in Mercer County.
The community got a good reminder of the scale of industry here in 2012, when Wausau Paper executed a $220 million expansion project for its Mercer County facility that is now owned by Essity. One of the biggest pieces of that expansion was the Yankee dryer, a metal cylinder with a smooth mirror finish that weighs 275,500 pounds and measures 18 feet across.
The Yankee dryer is a pressure vessel that removes moisture from pulp about to be converted into tissue paper. At the time it was brought to Harrodsburg, it was the first full machine of its kind in the United States. There were only two others in the western hemisphere back then, in Canada and Chile.
The $2.5 million dryer was specially manufactured by Voith, a firm in Heidenheim, Germany. It was cast in three pieces, assembled and transported to the Belgian port of Antwerp. It sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, around Florida and across the Gulf of Mexico to arrive in Mobile, Alabama, where it was sent up the Tombigbee River to Louisville.
To get to its home in Harrodsburg, Kentucky State Police blocked traffic while crews temporarily moved utility lines and overhead highway signs to accommodate the load, which was 20 feet, five inches high, including the 16-axle transport trailer.
The Yankee dryer took two days to make the trip to Hogtown, including a layover in Shelbyville. The entire operation required gigantic pieces with miniscule tolerances that needed to be assembled precisely to work right. The ball bearings for the dryer weigh 700 pounds each. Installing the dryer required a crane weighing 800 tons that was assembled on site from 40 truckloads of equipment. When fully operational, two huge motors spin the cylinder at a maximum speed of 6,500 feet per minute. At the time of its construction, the Yankee dryer was projected to produce 55,000 tons of towel and tissue paper products a year.
The Harrodsburg Herald/Robert Moore
Operators Ryan McMullen and Jim Hazen, and John Wells, who is currently site manager, Harrodsburg and Middletown, PH Europe and North America, were dwarfed by the Yankee dryer, one part of a $220 million expanion of the Harrrodsburg facility now owned and operated by Essity North America.
Essity North America now owns and operates the Harrodsburg facility, which employs 297 employees. Essity is a hygiene and health company with headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2023, Essity reported $2.4 billion in sales in the United States and Canada and $14 billion in sales globally.
Recently, the Harrodsburg Herald submitted some questions to John Wells, site manager, Harrodsburg and Middletown, PH Europe and North America, about Essity’s role here in Harrodsburg. Wells is the same executive the Harrodsburg Herald interviewed about the expansion back in 2012.
Harrodsburg Herald: What drew Essity to locate the facility in Mercer County?
John Wells: The plant was located to the facility in Mercer County to be in a good geographical area regarding our customer bases. This was in 1991 when Bay West Paper Corp. relocated to what is now the current Essity facility. A central geographic location still serves the plant well today.
Harrodsburg Herald: What keeps Essity in Mercer County?
Wells: Bay West Paper Corp. relocated to the Mercer County location in 1991 from Green Bay, Wisconsin, with growth plans. As the company grew over time and expanded in capacity, the name of the parent company changed several times, from Bay West Paper Corp. to Wausau-Mosinee Paper Corp. to Wausau Paper. Essity acquired the site in 2016. Our location, people, and access to distribution keep the site in Mercer County.
Harrodsburg Herald: How important is the Mercer County facility to the company?
Wells: We produce roughly 30 percent of the Tork professional hygiene products Essity makes in North America, with a good location for distribution to the central US. Our Harrodsburg site is also important to the company as it employs nearly 300 skilled and valued workers who help make our products with care and expertise each day. The work they do is essential to being able to deliver on customer needs and is always done with safety in mind. We couldn’t do what we do without them.
Harrodsburg Herald: What are your future plans for the facility?
Wells: We continue to grow in capacity. In 2012, we completed a $220 million papermaking investment at the site. In recent years, we have invested well over $40 million in new converting capacity for innovative products in the washroom. We expect to continue our growth and innovation.
Harrodsburg Herald: Does the company have any plans to recognize Harrodsburg’s 250th anniversary?
Wells: Essity is working on very exciting plans to give back to the community for the 250th anniversary.
Editor’s Note: This is the first article in a planned monthly series examining the impact of industry in Mercer County.
So did they become a top sponsor or was it the usual lip service the company known as essity is famous for? They have been involved in this community like a ghost. Rumors but no proof