This site is dedicated to the dedicated employees who worked for this very family-oriented company.
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As of June 30, 2002, Willamette Industries, Inc. was acquired by Weyerhaeuser Co. Willamette Industries, Inc. operates as a diversified integrated forest products company. The company operates in three segments: White Paper, Brown Paper, and Building Materials. The White Paper segment offers market pulp, fine paper, corrugating medium paper, business forms, cut sheets, kraft linerboard, and specialty printing papers. The Brown Paper segment manufactures corrugated containers and sheets, paper bags, and inks for grocery, department, drug, hardware stores, and fast food chains. The Building Materials segment offers lumber, plywood, particleboard, medium density fiberboard, oriented strand board, laminated beams, laminated veneer lumber, I-joists, and other wood products. Willamette was founded in 1967 and is based in Portland, Oregon.
Willamette Industries was founded in 1967.
Western Kraft + Willamette Valley Lumber Company
Willamette Industries, Inc. was a Fortune 500 forest products company based in Portland, Oregon, United States. In 2002 the lumber and paper company was purchased by competitor Weyerhaeuser of Federal Way, Washington in a hostile buyout and merged into Weyerhaeuser's existing operations.
History
Willamette Industries was founded in Dallas, Oregon, in 1906 as the Willamette Valley Lumber Company.Louis Gerlinger, Sr. was president of the new company and H.L. Pittock, vice president. George T. Gerlinger served as secretary and manager while F.W. Leadbetter was treasurer. George Cone served as director and mill superintendent.
In 1967, this company and several others merged to become Willamette Industries. The next year the company went public. The company continued to grow through acqusistions, including purchasing Bohemia, Inc. in 1991, which at the time was one of the largest lumber companies in Oregon. By 1999 it had grown to 14,000 employees with $4 billion in annual revenues and more than 100 facilities across the United States.
Products
Willamette had three operating divisions. A brown paper division produced bag paper, paper bags, cardboard, and liner board. The white paper segment made hardwood market pulp, business forms, and uncoated free sheets. The building materials unit manufactured lumber, plywood, fiberboard, particleboard, and laminated veneer lumber products. Customers were located in the US, Asia, and Europe.