Husband-wife team among dozens of new hires at Kimberly-Clark Millicent Mill

In a pandemic, job security can be harder to find than toilet paper at a supermarket, but for a regional South East town a mill is providing both.

Jo and Simon Hughes have returned home to Millicent with sons Hunter, 6 and Dusty, 3, and have both secured jobs at Kimberly-Clark's Millicent Mill. - Picture Jessica Ball

When Simon Hughes left the Millicent Mill a decade ago he never thought he would be back with his wife by his side.

After years working in the Western Australian mines where he met wife Jo the couple have returned home with sons Hunter, 6 and Dusty, 3 and are among dozens of new hires for 2020.

Kimberly-Clark’s Millicent Mill manager Adam Carpenter was happy to be hiring rather than laying off workers off but said the job opportunities had not been created by panic buying.

While hand towel remains in high demand at hospitals, he said sales of non-perishable toilet paper and tissues had been impacted by stockpiling and the lack of the traditional cold and flu season.

Adam Carpenter, Kimberly-Clark Millicent Mill manager. Picture: Jessica Ball

“It has been a strong year but not necessarily radically different, we have plenty of capacity to deal with the ups and downs that we see in consumer demand but we find that those peaks are often then followed by people not necessarily needing it,” Mr Carpenter said.

When the Hughes family returned to Millicent a few years ago, Mr Hughes continued fly-in, fly-out work and Mrs Hughes was a stay at home mum, but his new job as a technician has allowed her to continue her career in human resources.

Less than a month after Mr Hughes took the job, COVID hit and his colleagues in the mines were immediately out of work.

The couple said the mill had set them up for job security during the pandemic and into the future.

“I consider us really lucky,” Mrs Hughes said.

“The mill has been here for 60 years and it’s supported the community greatly over that time. This has been great but without that I think this mill is really a long term opportunity for us.”

Jo and Simon Hughes have returned home to Millicent with sons Dusty, 3, and Hunter, 6, and have both secured jobs at Kimberly-Clark's Millicent Mill. Picture: Jessica Ball

For Mr Hughes the lifestyle change has also allowed him to reconnect with his sons between school drop-off and pick-up, awards presentations and sport days.

“They didn’t really cope very well with me being away for three weeks, I wouldn’t get any phone time,” he said.

“It’s not a nice feeling when your kids don’t want to talk to you for three weeks.

“The eldest one was always good when I’d come home, I’d get the big arms around the neck and but then the little one he was real stand-offish and we didn't really have a very good relationship for the first probably two years of his life.

“Now he comes to my side of the bed.”

Mr Carpenter said Kimberly-Clark was hiring for the future and working towards a 2030 carbon neutral target, plastic elimination and developing sustainable alternatives to wood fibre.

“Considering the amount of asset and energy usage that we have here, that’s a really ambitious goal and it will be quite a challenge,” he said.