PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 12, 2022
Belfast-based GO Lab announced recently that it has secured through the Finance Authority of Maine and the New Markets Tax Credit program $85 million in financing, which, when combined with $35 million raised from private investors, will help the company bring manufacturing back to the shuttered plant. At full capacity, the plant is expected to produce three types of wood-fiber insulation worth $100 million a year. It will employ 120 people, helping replace the 214 jobs lost when Madison Paper Industries closed in 2016, a victim of the declining demand for paper. And by making loose-fill, batt and board insulation from chips of softwood, the new industry could play a key role in supporting forest products here in Maine. They can help replace what disappeared when the paper industry collapsed here, and give old paper towns like Madison a shot at a bright, new future.