Introduction

The Forest Hill Paper Company (FHPC) is a small, closely held paperboard manufacturer that produces “parent rolls” which are then distributed to converters for further processing. Due to their small size in comparison to many of their competitors in the industry, FHPC would be classified as a niche company as stated in the case. Part of FHPCs strategy, which will be looked at further below, is to create a niche based on service and rapid customer response that the larger manufacturing companies are too large to be able to do successfully.

Competitive Environment

The environment in which Forest Hill Paper Company operates in is a cyclical environment with upswings every three to four years. Due to the cyclical nature of the industry, customers try to anticipate times when they would not be able to get paper by ordering large quantities of paper at certain times and none at others. Because of this, FHPC has times when they are flushed with orders and cannot meet them with their production capabilities, and times when they are not running at optimal levels due to lack of demand. Along with this issue, the market share for domestic paperboard has been steadily declining. The most significant reason there is a decline in market share is the moving trend toward plastic and more environmentally friendly forms of paperboard. In general throughout the industry, companies have made little effort to expand capacities of the production facilities. At times the demand greatly exceeds the capacity of any one production plant. In boom times the industry as a whole experiences great increases in selling price for the paperboard products for most of the grades of