Sunday dinner at Ronda Geer’s house means family gathered around a table full of home-cooked food, football on the TV, and of course, high-quality paper towels on hand for any messes.
Ronda is part of the tissue division at First Quality. The plant where she works in Anderson, South Carolina, makes ultra-premium paper towels and bath tissue for leading retailers’ store brands.
It was a leap of faith when she joined First Quality 14 years ago from the auto industry. Now manufacturing paper products is such an integral part of her life, it’s hard to believe that when she started, the plant wasn’t even there yet. Her training began in a portable classroom at the construction site.
“We were hired and immediately started learning about papermaking,” she said. “It was like going to school. We had people from First Quality’s tissue plant in Pennsylvania come down and teach us everything we needed to know to do our jobs. We got to see the plant start up on day one. It was really amazing.”
From mentee to mentor
Continuous learning has been a hallmark of Ronda’s career at First Quality and helped propel her into her current role as a raw material specialist.
She earned the promotion while participating in a leadership-development program that paired her with a more senior mentor from the plant. She appreciated the program so much as a mentee that she went on to serve as a mentor for others who want to advance within the company.
“We do training sessions and teach classes to help people develop their skills,” she said. “At the end of the 10-month program there’s a graduation ceremony, and it’s awesome to see how far people can go.”
Now Ronda is most excited by the growth of the tissue division, including a new manufacturing site that’s currently under construction in Defiance, Ohio. It reminds her of those early days in the makeshift classroom.
“My advice to anyone joining the company is that if you’re open to learning, you can do anything here,” she said. “If you want to grow, you can grow at First Quality.”
