Great Lakes Paper - Historical Time Line

Historical Time Line

• July 4, 1919, Organization of Great Lakes Paper Company Limited by Lewis L. Alstead and George A. Seaman; issue of letters patent

• 1920 acquires a proposed mill site adjoining Fort William, Ontario; acquires rights to Black Sturgeon and other timber limits

• 1923 Construction commences on groundwood mill

• 1924 First groundwood produced

• 1927-1929 Backus Brooks Enterprises of Minneapolis acquired the company and began erection of a paper mill.

• 1927 Construction commences on newsprint mill with two paper machines. One machine to be largest in world

• 1928 Operation of first newsprint machine "Judy"

• 1929 Operation of second newsprint machine "Jumbo" then the world's largest; mill consdered to be most modern paper manufacturing facility in the world.

• 1931 Enters receivership due to parent company, Ontario-Minnesota entering receivership owing Great Lakes $2-million

• 1935/1936 Group of 25 U.S. publishers purchases company from receiver; Ontario letters patent issued

• 1937 Woods department established reduce costs and establish control over wood delivery

• 1940 Acquires Dog River, Lac des Mille Lacs and English River timber limits

• 1953 Fox family of Montreal attains management control of company; executive offices moves to Fort William

• 1957 Number 3 paper machine "Jill" begins production

• 1958 Completed Paper Machine 4 "Jupiter" built by Black Clawson Company; at the time the largest paper machine in the world

• 1960 Horses no longer used in logging operations

• 1966 "A" Kraft mill begins operation

• 1973 New Kraft pulp mill

• 1974 began to operate a 32-rail car capacity ferry, the Incan Superior, between Thunder Bay and Superior, Wisconsin on Lake Superior. The service ran until 1992

• 1979 Canadian Pacific Investments purchases 54% after Fox family puts shares on market; name changed to Great Lakes Forest Products Ltd. (name changes to reflect company's expansion and diversification -- newsprint, kraft pulp, stud lumber, waferboard; (latter two products no longer manufactured at this location); purchase of Reed Paper in Dryden, Ontario.

• 1988 Canadian Pacific Forest Products Ltd. "CPFP" (result of merger between CIP Inc., Montreal, and Great Lakes Forest Products Ltd., Thunder Bay)

• 1990 Number 5 Paper Machine "Theresa Marie" part of a $500 million expansion/modernization program, was built to replace the now-defunct Paper Machines 1 & 2

• 1994 Avenor Inc. (publicly owned Company; CP Ltd. no longer majority shareholder: name change was inspired by the Latin root for advantage, meaning "going forward" and from the word, "north." Prior to the merger, Canadian Pacific Ltd. owned CIP and held 54.3% of Great Lakes with the rest owned by public shareholders. In September 1993, Canadian Pacific Ltd. divested itself of its majority ownership by selling all of its 36.7 million common shares in CPFP. Consequent to the sale, the company changed its name to Avenor Inc. Under Avenor, the Thunder Bay site saw the addition of the introduction of recycled fiber into and the rebuild/streamlining of its groundwood operation. A comprehensive modernization program upgraded the facilities to the top ranks of North American mills from both a quality and cost standpoint. Deinking equipment give the facility capacity for 992,000 tpy of newsprint with a recycled fiber content level of 20%.

• 1998 Bowater Pulp and Paper Canada Inc. (through the acquisition of Avenor Inc., July 24, 1998, Bowater became the second largest producer of newsprint in the world and the third largest producer of market pulp in North America)

• 2002 Bowater Canadian Forest Products Inc. January 1, 2002, amalgamation of two of Bowater's subsidiaries, Bowater Pulp and Paper Canada Inc. and Bowater Canadian Forest Products Inc. (formerly Alliance Forest)

• 2007 Bowater Inc. completed combination with Abitibi-Consolidated to become AbitibiBowater on October 29th.

• 2009 AbitibiBowater files for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and completes a restructuring.