Augusta’s second-biggest manufacturer is being sold to a Washington-state company in a deal valued at $700 million. Graphic Packaging Holding Co. and Spokane-based Clearwater Paper Corp. recently announced the signing of a “definitive agreement” that will sell Graphic’s bleached-paperboard manufacturing facility off Mike Padgett Highway and south of Augusta Regional Airport. The plant employs 963 people, according to the Augusta Economic Development Authority. E-Z-Go Textron is Augusta’s biggest manufacturer, employing 1,350. …The factory produces paperboard, which is heavier than cardstock but differs from multilayer cardboard. The Augusta plant coats its product with kaolin clay to produce a glossy white finish to the material that makes myriad consumer packaging items such as disposable coffee cups. “Augusta is a great fit with our strategy and improves our position as a premier, independent paperboard supplier to North American converters,” said Clearwater Paper CEO Arsen Kitch.