{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.moreno.senate.gov/press-releases/moreno-demands-answers-after-private-equity-firm-costs-nearly-1000-ohioans-their-jobs", "Moreno Demands Answers After Private Equity Firm Costs Nearly 1,000 Ohioans Their Jobs", "2025-04-17", "2025", "2025-04", "Republican", "Senate", "OH", "Bernie Moreno", "M001242", "www.moreno.senate.gov", "moreno", "https://www.moreno.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013Today, Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) sent a letter to Ross Bushnell, President and CEO of Pixelle Specialty Solutions, and Sami Mnaymneh, Founder and CEO of H.I.G. Capital, demanding answers after the announced closure of the Pixelle Chillicothe paper mill in Ross County, Ohio. The closure of the mill will cost nearly 1,000 Ohioans their jobs and shutter a factory that has been the cornerstone of the Ross County economy for over 215 years.\n\nMoreno called on the executives to clarify how much they personally profited off the acquisition and whether any proceeds of the sale were shared with employees.\n\n\u201cI write today on behalf of the nearly 1,000 Pixelle employees that are losing their jobs because of your selfish business decisions and corporate greed. You know what is an \u2018extremely difficult decision?\u2019 Figuring out how to feed and provide for your family when you\u2019ve been laid off after dedicating 37 years of your life to an employer because Wall Street elites decided that they want to \u2018align [their] operations with long-term business goals,\u2019\u201d Senator Moreno wrote. \u201cI can only conclude that H.I.G. acquired a landmark Ohio business with the sole intention of shutting it down to line your executives\u2019 pockets at the expense of hard-working Ohioans. I won\u2019t allow this carnage to stand. The only logical solution is for H.I.G to divest itself from Pixelle and the paper mill and find an operator that knows how to successful run and grow a company.\n\nH.I.G. Capital has a history of acquiring companies, forcing them to file for bankruptcy only years later, and leaving the employees and communities it decimates behind.\n\nRead the full letter HERE or below\n\nApril 17, 2025\n\nRoss Bushnell\n\nPresident and Chief Executive Officer\n\nPixelle Specialty Solutions LLC\n\n228 South Main Street\n\nSpring Grove, PA 17362\n\nSami Mnaymneh\n\nFounder, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer\n\nH.I.G. Capital\n\n1450 Brickell Avenue\n\n31st Floor\n\nMiami, FL 3313\n\nDear Mr. Bushnell and Mr. Mnaymneh:\n\nI write today on behalf of the nearly 1,000 Pixelle employees losing their jobs because of your selfish business decisions and corporate greed. You know what is an \u201cextremely difficult decision?\u201d Figuring out how to feed and provide for your family when you\u2019ve been laid off after dedicating 37 years of your life to an employer because Wall Street elites decided that they want to \u201calign [their] operations with long-term business goals.\u201d\n\nChillicothe is called Paper City for a reason. The first iteration of the paper mill was constructed in 1812. While the ownership of the paper mill has changed throughout its long history, from family-owned to under the ownership of a public company, its presence to the people of Chillicothe and perseverance remained resolute throughout tumultuous times in our history.\n\nYet somehow your collective greed and/or inept business choices managed to close the doors to a paper mill that survived the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the transition to the digital age, and a global pandemic. And yet, the paper mill and business are suddenly unable to survive the outcome of an acquisition by a private equity firm? As a businessman myself, the facts just do not add up.\n\nH.I.G. Capital is an investment firm with $69 billion of equity capital under management, riddled with Wall Street executives, including Mr. Mnaymneh, a billionaire five times over and one of the wealthiest people in the world. H.I.G. Capital\u2019s business model is to suck the proverbial blood out of companies it acquires until the companies declare bankruptcy, leaving the employees and communities it decimates behind.\n\nIn 2019, H.I.G. acquired the then-successful Jenny Craig company only to milk it for all its worth before Craig Holdings declared bankruptcy barely four years later. Similarly, H.I.G. Capital acquired Cleveland-based Supply Source Enterprises, only to drive it into the ground before the company declared bankruptcy in 2024. H.I.G.\u2019s corporate ransacking continued with Pegasus Home Fashions, Mobileum before it moved on to Pixelle. I\u2019m here to inform you that such lecherous, self-serving, and destructive behavior must end now.\n\nIn 2022, H.I.G. announced that one of its affiliates had completed the acquisition of Pixelle Specialty Solutions Holding LLC, who owned and operated the Chillicothe Paper Mill. Both of your respective companies boasted about the closing of the acquisition. According to the former Chief Executive Officer of Pixelle, Timothy Hess, \u201cPixelle has developed a broad, innovative portfolio of industry leading brands across the specialty papers and sustainable packaging markets. In under four years, we have transformed Pixelle into the leading specialty-focused paper producer in North America through three strategic acquisitions and successful implementation of a continuous improvement program.\n\nLikewise, H.I.G.\u2019s Head of North American Industrials bragged that Pixelle has \u201ca proven track record of building a best-in-class business and providing the highest levels of quality and service for their customers.\u201d He continued, \u201c[w]e are excited about the combination of H.I.G.\u2019s value-added partnership with Pixelle\u2019s differentiated capabilities in technically demanding specialty papers to embark on the next phase of growth.\u201d So, help me understand how kicking nearly 1,000 employees to the curb and shutting down an approximately 200-year-old paper mill is part of your \u201cnext phase of growth\u201d?\n\nI can only conclude that H.I.G. acquired a landmark Ohio business with the sole intention of shutting it down to line your executives\u2019 pockets at the expense of hard-working Ohioans. I won\u2019t allow this carnage to stand. The only logical solution is for H.I.G to divest itself from Pixelle and the paper mill and find an operator that knows how to successful run and grow a company.\n\nTherefore, I demand answers to the following questions, requests for information, and production of documents within six business days of receipt of this letter. If I do not receive the requested answers, information and documents, I will not hesitate to use the full force of my authority as United States Senator to investigate your companies and issue subpoenas. Additionally, if I do not receive the requested answers, information, and documents, I will encourage the Department of Justice and the Department of Treasury to utilize their authority to investigate all H.I.G. portfolio companies to prevent another disaster like this from happening again.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:06:22Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.moreno.senate.gov/press-releases/moreno-demands-answers-after-private-equity-firm-costs-nearly-1000-ohioans-their-jobs"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8003159891813993, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}