Chistory, profile and corporate video
International Paper Co. engages in the business of manufacturing paper and packaging products. The company operates through four segments: Industrial Packaging, Printing Papers, Consumer Packaging and Distribution. The Industrial Packaging segment engages in the manufacturing of containerboards, which include linerboard, medium, whitetop, recycled linerboard, recycled medium and saturating kraft. The Printing Papers segment engages in the manufacturing of printing and writing papers. It operates in two lines of business Uncoated and Coated papers and Market pulp and Uncoated Bristols. The Consumer Packaging segment manufactures solid bleached sulfate board. Its coated paperboard business produces coated paperboard for a variety of packaging and commercial printing end uses. The Distribution segment operates through the company’s subsidiary xpedx, Inc., which distributes products and services to customer markets, including commercial printers with printing papers and graphic pre-press, printing presses and post press equipment. International Paper was founded in 1898 and is headquartered in Memphis, TN.“
“International Paper History
The company was incorporated January 31, 1898, upon the merger of 18 pulp and paper mills in the northeastern United States. Its founders and first two presidents were William Augustus Russell, who died suddenly in January 1899, and Hugh J. Chisholm. The newly formed company supplied 60 percent of all newsprint in the country.
Hudson River Mill
The Hudson River Mill in Corinth, New York, where the Sacandaga River joins the Hudson River, was a major pioneer in the development of the modern paper industry in the late 19th century. The first wood-based paper (newsprint) mill in New York, it was built by Albrecht Pagenstecher in 1869.
In the early 20th century, the Hudson River Mill was one of the company’s largest plants and served both as its principal office, and a place where paper workers helped shape the direction of the industry’s early labor movement.
After World War II, Hudson River Mill workers developed and perfected the production of coated papers for the company. Shifting economic forces resulted in the mill’s closure in November 2002. The historic mill was slated for demolition in 2011.
Mill workers’ strike
In 1987, the company’s paper mill workers went on strike at a number of its U.S. plants.
Acquisitions
1986–2000
In 1986, the company acquired the Hammermill Paper Company, founded in 1898, which managed eleven papermills nationwide, and had its corporate offices based in Erie, PA ; in 1988, the Masonite Corporation; and in 1989, the German paper company Zanders Feinpapiere AG and the French paper manufacturer Aussedat Rey. In 1996, it purchased Federal Paper Board. In 1999, the company purchased Union Camp Corporation, and in 2000 Champion International Paper. Additionally, it owns shares in the Chileancompany Copec.
2011
Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills Rajahmundry, which is now an International Paper company, is one of the biggest integrated paper and pulp manufacturing centers in India. The company produces writing, printing, and copier papers for foreign and domestic markets. APPM’s production facilities are two mills in Rajahmundry and Kadiam with a total production capacity of 240,000 TPA. The company is becoming a driving force in sustainability in the paper manufacturing arena through focused social and community programs, including pioneering work in raw material generation through social farm forestry. International Paper owns a majority interest in APPM, and the remaining shares are publicly traded on the Bombay and National Stock Exchange of India (APPAPER).
Restructuring, 2005–2006
In 2005 and 2006, the company undertook a significant restructuring, selling over 6,000,000 acres (24,000 km2) of forestland in the U.S., along with its coated paper, kraft paper, wood products, and beverage packaging businesses, as well as subsidiaries Arizona Chemical and New Zealand-based Carter Holt Harvey. The coated paper business (four mills in Maine, Michigan and Minnesota) were sold to Apollo Management and now operate as Verso Paper. The kraft paper business (composed of a kraft paper mill in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina and a dunnage bag plant in Fordyce, Arkansas) was sold to Kapstone Paper and Packaging and operates as Kapstone Kraft Paper.
The beverage packaging business, now called Evergreen Packaging, was purchased by Carter Holt Harvey, following the purchase of CHH by Graeme Hart. The company sold its wood products division to West Fraser Timber, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. This included 13 sawmills, making West Fraser the second-largest producer of lumber in North America, after Weyerhaeuser Company.
Challenges of an electronic world
Under pressure from budget sequestration in 2013, the Federal government of the United States (IP’s largest customer) has moved from physical checks to cheaper electronic transactions.
John Runyan, former head of federal government relations for IP, has become executive director of Consumers for Paper Options, a paper industry funded group that advocates for the use of paper documents for clients of the Federal government who are Internet challenged.”
*Information from Forbes.com and Wikipedia.org
**Video published on internationalpaper.com