GEORGIA-PACIFIC CORPORATION

GEORGIA-PACIFIC CORPORATION. In 1927 Georgia-Pacific was founded by Owen Robertson Cheatham as the Georgia Hardwood Lumber Co. in Augusta, Georgia. Over the years it expanded, adding sawmills and plywood plants. The company acquired its first West Coast facility in 1947 and changed its name to Georgia-Pacific Plywood & Lumber Company in 1948. The company purchased the ST. REGIS PAPER COMPANY in Dubuque in the 1950s. One of the major customers of the company was the convenience store Casey's for which the plant manufactured cardboard pizza boxes.

In 1956, the company changed its name to Georgia-Pacific Corporation. In 1957 the company entered the pulp and paper business by building a pulp and linerboard mill at Toledo, Oregon. The company continued to make a series of acquisitions, including US Plywood in 1987, Great Northern Nekoosa in 1990, and the Fort James Corporation in 2000. The Fort James Corporation was the result of a series of mergers of enterprises that included the Fort Howard Corporation, the James River Corporation and Crown-Zellerbach. In August 2001, Georgia-Pacific completed the sale of four un-coated paper mills and their associated businesses and assets to Canadian papermaker Domtar for US $1.65 billion. (1)

It was announced on November 13, 2005 that Georgia-Pacific would be acquired by Koch Industries. On December 23, 2005, Koch Industries finalized the $21 billion acquisition of Georgia-Pacific. Georgia-Pacific was removed from the NYSE (it had traded under the symbol GP) and shareholders surrendered their shares for about $48 per share. Koch initially were only interested in the GP Building Products Business but GP CEO & President, Pete Correll refused to break up the company. Koch soon realised that they struck gold with the very lucrative NA Consumer Products Business. Koch Industries then spent the next 6 years focused on offloading the European business which was eventually made possible by a huge business turn around of the UK business. Koch sold to the European business in 2013 to SCA (now Essity) however with a proviso from The European Competition Commission that the UK & Ireland Consumer Products business had to be separated and sold off. (2)

The Georgia-Pacific Tower in Atlanta continues to house the company's headquarters. The Crown Zellerbach Building was built as the headquarters of Crown Zellerbach in San Francisco in 1959. (3)

In May, 1984 the announcement was made that Georgia Pacific would buy the New York-based St. Regis Corporation which owned ST. REGIS PAPER COMPANY in Dubuque. The local company was part of the domestic container division and had more than 250 employees. (4)

On January 11, 2010, Georgia-Pacific signed an agreement to acquire Grant Forest Products' oriented strand board ("OSB") facility at Englehart, Ontario and the associated facility at Earlton, Ontario, as well as its OSB facilities at Clarendon and Allendale, South Carolina, for approximately $400 million. The transaction closed in July 2013, following Canadian regulatory review and US court approval under the Hart-Scott-Rodino merger review process. (5)

On June 19, 2014, Georgia-Pacific announced it would acquire SPG Holdings. (6)

Maintaining a brown box facility in Dubuque, Iowa, Georgia-Pacific Corporation is one of the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of tissue, packaging, paper, building products and related chemicals. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company employs nearly 55,000 people at more than 300 locations in North America and Europe. Its consumer tissue brands include Quilted Northern, Angel Soft, Brawny, Sparkle, Soft 'n Gentle, Mardi Gras, So-Dri and Vanity Fair, as well as the Dixie brand of disposable cups, plates and cutlery. Georgia-Pacific Corporation's building products manufacturing companies are among the United States leading suppliers of building products to lumber and building materials dealers, as well as to large do-it-yourself warehouse retailers. (7)

In December, 2022 officials of the company announced that the facility in Dubuque would be closed since it was no longer economically viable. Corrugated box orders had declined nationwide and the potential cost of updating the Dubuque facility outweighed potential sales. The company then had 85 local employees. (8)

The 1985 through 2020 Dubuque City Directory listed 2150 Kerper Blvd.

---

Source:

1. "Georgia-Pacific," Wikipedia, Online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia-Pacific

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Hendricks, Mike, "Georgia-Pacific to Buy Dubuque St. Regis Plant," Telegraph Herald, May 1, 1984, p. 1

5. "Georgia-Pacific..."

6. Ibid.

7. "Georgia-Pacific Corporation," Yellow Pages, Online: https://www.yellowpages.com/dubuque-ia/mip/georgia-pacific-corp-14421280

8. Nieland, Grace, "Georgia-Pacific Plant Closing Its Doors," Telegraph Herald, December 30, 2022, p. 1A