Verso Incorporated (Verso Paper) Reinvents Corporation for Profits in 2017

Ivan Potter


Verso Inc. has been through a tough two years of bankruptcy, market collapses, and an uncontained global future for its products.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that late in 2016, Verso emerged from corporate bankruptcy with a plan of writing down almost 2 billion in debt owed to its creditors. Verso leadership convinced creditors of a new plan for massive profits to be gained with a new start for the company.

The strategy worked. Verso came back to life in late 2016 with a new stock price for the New York Stock Exchange of $12.00. The stock price in summer of 2016 was at four (.04) cents per share.

Today's market share stock price is $8.00. Part of this movement in stock to level off at around $8.00 per share is the forward thinking of the new corporate leadership commitment to reorganization of the core business.

During the summer (July), Verso completed its new reorganization of the company. Since that time, management has been reviewing, benchmarking and analyzing the existing framework for a way to revamp delivery of support services. In this process, new strategies have been designed to increase market share and more profits.

In 2017, Verso will create (1) Strategic Business Unit Organization, (2) Corporate Office Consolidation and the (3) Overhead Expense Reduction Project to forge anew corporate vision. Implementation of Each Strategic Initiative to Begin in January 2017.

Still left unsettled is the fate of the Verso--New Page paper mill located at Wickliffe, Kentucky. The plant was shuttered in 2015 with the loss of over 400 jobs to West Kentucky.

Efforts by a new Four River County Development Committee have sought to secure the plant and some 4,000 acres of land around it from Verso. So far that effort has not been successful.