Zig-Zag (company) - History of Zig-Zag

History of Zig-Zag

The company was founded in 1879 by Maurice and Jacques Braunstein. Based in Paris, in 1882 the company built the Papeterie de Gassicourt, a cigarette paper production plant near the town of Mantes-la-Jolie. In 1894 they invented the process of "interleaving" rolling papers. They called their papers Zig-Zag after the zigzag] alternating packaging process. In 1900, Zig-Zag was awarded a gold medal at the Universal Exposition in Paris.

Success led to expansion in 1936 to a new mill in Thonon-les-Bains. During World War II, the company's original facility in Mantes-la-Jolie was destroyed and at war's end, all production was shifted to the Thonon factory.

With the death of Jacques Braunstein, in the 1950s Zig-Zag was sold to a partnership of the Group Bolloré and competitor JOB. In 2000, Zig-Zag became part of Republic Technologies of which Group Bolloré owns 19 percent.

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