5 Feet of Fury

Forget ‘green’: ’50 Shades of Grey’ creates more jobs than Obama?

And not the kind you think.

Logan Nee (remember that name!) reports:

Supplying it’s “Baxter Brite” paper, GNP signed a vital contract with Vintage Books to produce 3,000 tons of paper needed for E.L. James’ sultry romance series: Fifty Shades of Grey.

In a sensational occurrence, the mill is currently operating at maximum output. President and CEO of Great Northern Paper Co., Richard Cyr, says sales are up after a very extensive marketing campaign, adding that the mill currently has a 35- to 40-day backlog of orders and is sold out through the end of the year.

The company just recently added 37 more jobs at the mill and hope to expand by turning neighboring town Millinocket’s Great Northern Paper Co. mill, which stopped in 2008, into a wood pellet production facility which would produce 110,000 tons a year for European sale.

A fantastic story about how a measly book — an outdated design, diminished with technology and modern digitization — can help save a mill (also an outdated operation) and put close to 25% of a small town’s population back to work.