One of the biggest employers in Southeast Tennessee plans to change its name in November.
AbitibiBowater, better known simply as "Bowater" to most of the nearly 700 employees who work at the company's paper mill in Charleston, Tenn., will change its company name on Nov. 7 to Resolute Forest Products, if company shareholders agree.
Company CEO Richard Garneau said the name change was adopted after the company emerged from a Canadian-supervised financial reorganization in December after filing for creditor protection two years earlier.
The new name is designed "to better reflect the fundamental characteristics of the company we are today, including our determination, strength and resolve to be a profitable, sustainable organization," Garneau said.
The Resolute moniker, scheduled to be voted upon at the company's upcoming annual meeting, follows six months of brainstorming about a new identity for the paper giant. The name was picked from among 1,400 suggestions.
"With our competitive cost structure, diversified revenue base and strong balance sheet, we are well positioned for the long term," Garneau said.
When communicating in French at the company's headquarters in Quebec, Canada, the company will use the name Produits Forestiers Résolu.
For customers, suppliers and employees, "little will change beyond how the company will refer to itself and its products," the company said in a statement posted on its website Tuesday.
The Resolute Forest Products logo is designed to highlight the forest in which the company works, the paper and lumber products it manufactures, and the modern and dynamic nature of the company.