Richmond County COVID-19 Heroes: von Drehle keeps the paper rolling

Toilet paper has always been a household staple, but under the current statewide stay-at-home order due to COVID-19, it has been quite the popular commodity.

Since 1974, von Drehle Corporation has been a distributor of high-quality paper towel, tissue, and dispensing products. Locally, the plant manufactures these products and has hundreds of distributors including government facilities and some healthcare operations. The purely paper mill does not use any trees and manufactures its products with 100% recycled materials from sorted office waste. As a substantial employer for Richmond County, around 85 of the highly skilled workforce employees are local residents. 

Director of Operations Justin Dawkins says he and his team have definitely been affected by both the substantial increase in demand for bathroom tissue and the COVID-19 global crisis. Dawkins said the pandemic sparked an enormous uptake in demand for toilet tissue, nearly doubling normal production amounts in the plant that already operated 24/7 with automated production. 

Although they do not produce an end-product at the plant, they do produce a couple hundred tons per day in jumbo rolls that are sent to their own converting facilities across the country. They have also seen an increase in demand for paper towels as more hand-washing stations are in place to mitigate the spread of the virus. 

To ensure the safety of its employees, the plant is operating under the COVID-19 working guidelines and taking numerous other precautionary measures. Another post-Corona crisis change has been their collective support of local restaurants. Dawkins said when restaurants became take-out only, they have ordered lunches every day for every employee from a local diner. 

We are so thankful for this local plant in our community and proud of the products they manufacture that have always been, but especially now, are essential staples. Representing Richmond County across the country, the von Drehle plant in Cordova proves a hometown paper mill makes a nationwide impact. 

Meghann Lambeth is director of the Richmond County Tourism Development Authority. She is writing a series on how local industries are contributing to the COVID-19 effort, which will also be published at the Richmond Observer. You can read the original post here.