Idaho has a giant toilet-paper factory — an essential business amid coronavirus hoarding

Idaho has one of the largest toilet-paper factories in the world. But that hasn’t made Idahoans’ access to toilet paper any easier in the age of the coronavirus.

Clearwater Paper Corp. doesn’t operate a company store at its plant in Lewiston. It does not sell directly to the public. That hasn’t stopped people from trying.

“I’ve had calls from consumers asking if we can provide them toilet paper,” Shannon Myers, spokeswoman for Spokane-based Clearwater, told the Idaho Statesman. “I would have never imagined having someone in Florida calling and asking if we could ship toilet paper there.”

Grocery stores from Costco and Albertsons to Fred Meyer and Walmart, along with countless smaller stores, have run out of toilet paper during the past few weeks. Customers afraid of running short created a run on the product.

Clearwater is the largest supplier of private label toilet paper to retail grocery chains in the United States, according to its website. The Lewiston plant is the company’s largest. Clearwater does not generally identify its customers, who include retail chains that sell its toilet paper under private labels.

At least one is Costco. On March 21, the Moscow-Pullman Daily News reported that Clearwater shipped 216,000 rolls of toilet paper this month to the Costco store across the Snake River in Clarkston, Washington. That’s 7,200 30-roll packages, more than Clearwater shipped to the store in all of 2019.

The direct shipment to a local store is unusual: Myers says most of the plant’s toilet paper goes to warehouses in Idaho and other Western states first, before being delivered to stores.

Clearwater also is giving each of the Lewiston plant’s 1,300 employees 36 rolls of toilet paper and up to 24 rolls of paper towels, the Daily News reported.

The plant was already operating around the clock, seven days a week, before the coronavirus crisis struck the U.S. this month. So were Clearwater’s other toilet-paper plants in Nevada, North Carolina, Illinois and Wisconsin, Myers said. Demand was already high, and panic buying caused by the coronavirus pandemic has only increased it, she said.

While production has remained the same, the company says it has worked to ship more loads. Clearwater does not disclose production figures.

The factory is considered an essential business — thank goodness — so it is exempt from Gov. Brad Little’s stay-at-home order issued Wednesday.

Little keeps giving shoutouts to the factory, including once at a news conference Wednesday and again during an interview Thursday on Idaho Public Television. “We do have one of the largest toilet paper factories in the world,” Little told IPTV.

Myers said Clearwater is “one of the largest producers of private label tissue, and we believe that we are the only U.S. consumer tissue manufacturer that solely produces a full line of private-label tissue products for large retail trade channels.”

Clearwater was spun off from the Potlatch Corp. in 2008. In recent days, the company has taken steps to ensure workers observe the 6-foot rule and take additional steps to ensure their safety, she said.

Clearwater has plenty of competition in the U.S. market:

GEORGIA PACIFIC MAKES ANGEL SOFT

Georgia-Pacific said its bathroom tissue orders have doubled since early March. It produces Angel Soft, Quilted Northern, and Soft n’ Gentle brands.

Georgia-Pacific operates plants in 30 states, including toilet paper factories in Oregon and Washington. Their factories have also been running 24 hours a day.

“We’re quickly responding by expediting product that optimizes our existing inventory, increasing production, and utilizing a managed distribution process to smartly manage through this unusual period,” the company said in a statement on its website.

KIMBERLY-CLARK MAKES SCOTT

Kimberly-Clark, the producer of Cottonelle and Scott brands, has ramped up production to meet added demand this month.

“We want to assure consumers that we are doing our best to ensure a steady supply of product to stores, and will continue to make adjustments to our plans as necessary,” the company said in a statement to CNN Business.

Scott tissue was the first toilet paper packed on a roll in 1890.

P&G MAKES CHARMIN

Proctor & Gamble, which makes Charmin tissue, is producing record amounts of toilet paper at a factory in Mehoopany, Pennsylvania.

“During these extraordinary times, we are equally committed to serving those that depend on these products to meet critical needs,” spokesman Damon Jones told the Cincinnati Business Courier on March 19.

The average American family — with 2.6 people — uses 409 rolls of toilet paper per year, according to Georgia-Pacific. The calculation was made by using consumer behavior data collected by IRI, a market research firm, along with U.S. Census data.

Georgia Pacific estimates staying at home 24-7, would increase toilet paper usage by 40%. A two-person household would need 18 rolls over two weeks. (That increase would be offset by decreased usage at workplaces and other out-of-home toilets.)

An online toilet paper calculator — yes, there is such a thing — disputes that. It says 12 rolls of toilet paper in a two-person household should last 57 days.