RICHMOND, BC – On February 20, 2020, Paper Excellence Canada advised that its IT systems had been affected by malware. The event impacted the Company’s email capabilities and enterprise business systems that drive fulfillment of paper manufacturing at Crofton, Port Alberni and Powell River. While pulp manufacturing continued unabated throughout the period, paper operations were curtailed as orders could not be planned and manufactured because of the systems interruption.

Since the initial report, the Company’s IT experts alongside third party external advisors have completed assessing the impact of the malware and are currently undertaking actions to secure the system and re-enable communications and networks. The incident has been reported to the RCMP. The Company has also resumed papermaking operations at the Crofton facility falling back on manual fulfillment techniques while the systems are being restored. Plans will be developed in the coming days to restart papermaking activities at Port Alberni next week and Powell River beyond that once the manual fulfillment methodologies are proven out.

-30-

Paper Excellence, headquartered in British Columbia, is a diversified manufacturer of pulp and specialty, printing and writing, and packaging papers that operates 9 facilities in Canada and France producing over 3.6 million tonnes annually with a workforce of over 3,500 strong. Paper Excellence is poised to continue to grow with its strategy of operational excellence and high- quality, cost-effective products.

Media Contact: Graham Kissack, VP, EHS and Communications | Mobile – (250) 732-7991