Clearwater Paper Corporation manufactures and supplies solid bleached sulfate (SBS) paperboard packaging products in the United States and internationally. The company offers SBS paperboard for use in folding cartons, food service, and commercial printing items; folding carton paperboards, such as blister, carded packaging, and top sheet products; food service paperboard, including liquid packaging, and cup and plate categories, as well …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key risks
Commodity Pressure / Weak DifferentiationGross margin at 9.1th percentile with high volatility suggests weak pricing power or commoditized products.
ROIC Below WACC or PeersROIC at 27.3th percentile suggests inefficient capital deployment.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Where CLW ranks in Materials: Construction, Forest & Carbon Materials
Clearwater Paper Corporation ranks #21 of 36
scored companies in Materials: Construction, Forest & Carbon Materials by moat score — the top 58%.
The widest moat in the group is United States Lime & Minerals, (USLM)
at 82/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near CLW in Materials: Construction, Forest & Carbon Materials
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 61
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 35
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 24
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 30
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 32
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
What is Clearwater Paper Corporation's moat score?
Clearwater Paper Corporation (CLW) scores 34 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as developing. It ranks #21 of 36 scored companies in Materials: Construction, Forest & Carbon Materials, the top 58%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 35 companies in Materials: Construction, Forest & Carbon Materials. Its strongest defense is Cost Advantage (61/100) and its weakest is Capital Efficiency (24/100).
How does Clearwater Paper Corporation compare with other Materials: Construction, Forest & Carbon Materials companies?
Clearwater Paper Corporation ranks #21 of 36 scored companies in Materials: Construction, Forest & Carbon Materials by moat score. The widest moat in Materials: Construction, Forest & Carbon Materials is United States Lime & Minerals, (USLM) at 82/100. The companies ranked closest are IT Tech Packaging, Inc. (ITP) at 34 just above it and Alpha Metallurgical Resources, (AMR) at 33 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 35 companies in Materials: Construction, Forest & Carbon Materials. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Clearwater Paper Corporation scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Clearwater Paper Corporation?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and CLW scores: Pricing Power (26), Cost Advantage (61), Customer Stickiness (35), Capital Efficiency (24), Resilience (30), Scale & Market Position (32). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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