Willamette Industries
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| Traded as | NASDAQ:WMTT |
|---|---|
| Fate | Hostile buyout by Weyerhaeuser |
| Successor | Weyerhaeuser |
| Founded | 1906 |
| Defunct | June 14, 2002 |
| Headquarters | Portland, Oregon |
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.
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 , 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 acquisitions, 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.
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.
In July 2000, the company was fined a then record $11.2 million by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for violations of the Clean Air Act. As part of a settlement with the EPA and the Department of Justice, Willamette also was required to spend an additional $74 million on pollution abatement at 13 factories. In May 2001, the company donated habitat to The Nature Conservancy in the form of permanent conservation easements. The total amount of land 1,740 acres (7.0 km²) with a value of $1.5 million.
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