On May 1, 2020, Resolute Forest Products proudly marked its 200th anniversary. Resolute’s roots spread out across two centuries, over 20 predecessor companies, multiple countries and hundreds of communities.
Starting in 1820, in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, and over the following two centuries, the company grew from 20 sawmills along the banks of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec into a global leader in the forest products industry with over 40 pulp, paper, wood products, tissue and energy facilities across North America.
We have successfully weathered technological revolutions; two World Wars; the Great Depression of the 1930s; globalization; several pandemics, including cholera, the Spanish flu and now COVID-19; and changing economic and social conditions. We have flourished because of the unwavering support of our employees, customers and investors, the communities in which we operate, as well as our partners in both the business world and Indigenous communities.
For 200 years, Resolute and its predecessor companies have been transforming a renewable resource into products that consumers depend on in their daily lives. Here are some of the many milestones we achieved along the way.
Historical Milestones
1820
The very first predecessor of Resolute Forest Products is formed with the William Price Company, established in Quebec to export lumber to Great Britain.
1855
William Price Company is renamed William Price and Son.
1867
William Price and Son emerges as Price Brothers and Company.
1888
Laurentide Pulp & Company begins construction of a mill in Grand-Mère (Quebec).
1900
Belgo Canadian Pulp Company begins construction of a mill in Shawinigan (Quebec).
1910
Price Brothers and Company is renamed Price Brothers.
1910
W.V. Bowater and Sons is established in London, England, as a paper merchant.
1912
Price Brothers begin operations at the Kénogami paper mill, in Quebec.
1913
Robert McCormick of the Chicago Tribune starts up a paper mill in Thorold as the Ontario Paper Company.
1914
Frank Anson starts up the Iroquois Falls (Ontario) mill and the Abitibi Power and Paper Company, headquartered in Montreal (Quebec).
1915
Bathurst Power and Paper enters the paper market by building a paper mill in Bathurst (New Brunswick).
1920
Murray River Power and Pulp Co. is founded in Quebec.
1922
Murray River Power and Pulp Co. changes its name to Donohue Brothers Limited.
1924
Great Lakes Paper starts up a paper mill in Thunder Bay (Ontario).
1925
Canadian International Paper (CIP) is created as a fully-owned subsidiary of International Paper.
1925
Price Brothers starts up the Alma paper mill as well as a hydroelectric station at the facility, in Quebec.
1926
Bowater starts up its first paper mill at Northfleet (Kent), in England.
1926
Lake St. John Paper starts up a newsprint mill in Dolbeau (Quebec).
1927
Canadian International Paper starts up a newsprint mill in Gatineau (Quebec).
1928
Abitibi engineers a five-way merger, now owning 12 paper mills in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba.
1929
Donohue begins producing newsprint at the Clermont mill, in Quebec.
1930
Price Brothers completes the construction of the Price building in Québec City.
1931
Bowater starts up a paper mill in Ellesmere Port (Chester), in England.
1932
Consolidated Paper Corporation is founded through the merger of 5 Quebec paper mills.
1932
Abitibi goes into receivership until 1946.
1933
Price Brothers goes into receivership until 1937.
1938
Ontario Paper starts up a newsprint mill in Baie-Comeau as Quebec North Shore Paper, a subsidiary of Ontario Paper.
1939
Southland Paper Mills starts up the first newsprint mill in Lufkin (Texas).
1945
Stone Container is incorporated.
1950
Coosa River Newsprint establishes its Coosa Pines mill, in Alabama.
1954
Bowater establishes its first North American mill in Calhoun (Tennessee).
1956
Bowater purchases the Mersey paper mill in Liverpool (Nova Scotia).
1959
Bowater starts up a kraft pulp mill in Catawba (South Carolina).
1961
Price acquires the Anglo Newfoundland Development (AND) Company, which owns the Grand Falls (Newfoundland) and Chandler (Quebec) mills.
1965
Abitibi Power and Paper is renamed Abitibi Paper Company.
1965
Cox Newsprint starts up its newsprint mill in Augusta (Georgia).
1966
Consolidated Paper merges with Bathurst Paper to form Consolidated Bathurst.
1968
Abitibi acquires the Augusta newsprint mill, in Georgia.
1974
Abitibi buys Price but operates under separate names until 1979, when it assumes the name Abitibi-Price.
1977
Donohue builds the Saint-Félicien kraft pulp mill, in Quebec.
1977
Donohue builds the Girardville and Saint-Thomas (Quebec) sawmills.
1981
Consolidated Bathurst buys the former Bowater facility in Ellesmere Port (Chester), England.
1981
Donohue builds the La Doré sawmill, in Quebec.
1982
International Paper sells Canadian International Paper, which becomes CIP.
1982
Donohue builds the Amos newsprint mill, in Quebec.
1983
Ontario Paper is renamed Quebec and Ontario Paper Company.
1986
The Jonesville (South Carolina) chip mill is built by Bowater to supply the Catawba paper mill.
1988
Dononue acquires Groupe Gérard Saucier Limitée and, with it, sawmills in Comtois and Senneterre (Quebec).
1988
Canadian International Paper (CIP) merges with Great Lakes to become Canadian Pacific Forest Products (CPFP).
1989
Canadian Pacific Forest Products establishes Ponderay Newsprint Company in partnership with several publishers, in Usk (Washington).
1989
Newsprint South opens a newsprint mill in Grenada (Mississippi).
1989
Stone Container acquires Consolidated Bathurst, creating Stone-Consolidated.
1993
Coopérative forestière du Haut-Saint-Maurice begins operations of the Produits forestiers La Tuque Inc. sawmill, located north of La Tuque, in Quebec.
1993
Canadian Pacific divests itself of Canadian Pacific Forest Products, which becomes Avenor.
1993
The Quebec and Ontario Paper Company shortens its name to QUNO.
1995
Stone-Consolidated begins operations of a sawmill south of La Tuque, in Quebec.
1995
Donohue acquires QUNO, including the Baie-Comeau (Quebec) and Thorold (Ontario) paper mills and the Outardes (Quebec) sawmill.
1996
Stone-Consolidated acquires a majority interest in Produits forestiers La Tuque (Quebec).
1996
Halla Pulp & Paper starts up a newsprint mill in Mokpo, South Korea.
1996
Great Lakes Pulp & Fibre builds a recycled kraft pulp mill in Menominee (Michigan).
1996
Stone-Consolidated acquires Rainy River Forest Products.
1997
Donohue acquires Cauchon and, with it, both the Saint-Hilarion sawmill and Château-Richer wood products facility, in Quebec.
1997
Abitibi-Price merges with Stone-Consolidated to form Abitibi-Consolidated, becoming the world's largest newsprint and uncoated groundwood producer.
1998
Bowater acquires Avenor, including the Thunder Bay (Ontario), Gatineau (Quebec) and Ponderay (Washington) paper mills, as well as the Maniwaki (Quebec) sawmill.
1998
Donohue acquires two Texas mills, Lufkin and Sheldon, from Champion International.
1998
Abitibi-Consolidated purchases the Snowflake (Arizona) mill from Stone Container.
1998
Bowater acquires the Mokpo mill from Halla, in South Korea.
1998
Abitibi-Consolidated acquires a 1/3 interest in PanAsia Paper.
1999
Abitibi-Consolidated opens the Opitciwan (Quebec) sawmill as a joint venture with the local Indigenous community (Abitibi interest = 45%).
2000
Bowater acquires the Grenada newsprint mill, in Mississippi.
2000
Abitibi-Consolidated acquires Donohue, bringing in Quebec’s Amos, Baie-Comeau, Clermont and Saint-Félicien mills, as well as Ontario’s Thorold mill, alongside 17 sawmills.
2001
Bowater acquires Alliance Forest Products, including Alabama’s Coosa Pines and Quebec’s Dolbeau paper mills, as well as Quebec’s Mistassini and Saint-Félicien sawmills.
2003
Abitibi-Consolidated builds a remanufactured wood products facility in La Doré (Quebec).
2003
Abitibi-Consolidated starts up a new sawmill in Thunder Bay (Ontario).
2003
Abitibi-Consolidated and Louisiana-Pacific create the Abitibi-LP joint venture to build engineered wood products in Larouche and Saint-Prime (Quebec).
2006
SFK Pulp acquires Menominee (Michigan) recycled pulp mill.
2007
Abitibi-Consolidated merges with Bowater to become AbitibiBowater.
2008
Quebec’s two La Tuque sawmills are consolidated into a joint venture called Produits Forestiers Mauricie.
2008
AbitibiBowater restarts the shutdown Ignace sawmill, in Ontario.
2008
AbitibiBowater sells the Snowflake (Arizona) newsprint mill to meet approval from the Competition Bureau of both Canada and the United States.
2009
AbitibiBowater acquires the Talledega (Alabama) chip mill from American Chips Inc.
2009
AbitibiBowater enters creditor protection for twenty months.
2010
AbitibiBowater emerges from creditor protection.
2011
AbitibiBowater trades its woodyard lot on the closed Alabama River Newsprint mill with Georgia-Pacific, for the Jacksons Gap (Alabama) chip mill.
2011
AbitibiBowater changes its name to Resolute Forest Products.
2012
Resolute Forest Products acquires Fibrek (formerly SFK Pulp).
2014
Resolute builds a wood pellet plant at its Thunder Bay sawmill, in Ontario.
2015
Resolute builds the Atikokan sawmill and restarts the refurbished Ignace sawmill, in Ontario.
2015
Resolute enters the tissue market by acquiring Atlas Paper Holdings, Inc., with operations in Florida, and begins construction of a new tissue facility at its Calhoun pulp and paper mill, in Tennessee.
2016
Resolute acquires Tembec’s Senneterre−Lac-Clair sawmill, in Quebec.
2017
Resolute pulls out of South Korea with the permanent closure of its Mokpo newsprint mill.
2017
Resolute sells the Saint-Hilarion (Quebec) sawmill.
2017
Resolute acquires full ownership of Donohue Malbaie.
2018
Resolute sells the Catawba (South Carolina) paper and pulp mill, the Fairmont (West Virginia) pulp mill and the Jacksons Gap (Alabama) chip production facility.
2020
Resolute acquires three U.S. sawmills: Cross City (Florida), and Glenwood and El Dorado (Arkansas).
2020
Resolute celebrates 200 years of pioneering excellence on May 1, 2020.
2020
Resolute sells the Augusta (Georgia) and Thorold (Ontario) paper mills.
2020
Resolute acquires the Hagerstown (Maryland) tissue converting facility.
2022
Resolute sells the Tampa (Florida) recycling center.
2022
Resolute acquires Louisiana-Pacific's 50% equity interest in Resolute-LP Engineered Wood Partnership and becomes full owner of Larouche and Saint-Prime (Quebec) facilities.
2023
Resolute is acquired, on March 1, 2023, by the Paper Excellence Group, a global diversified manufacturer of pulp and specialty, printing, writing and packaging papers.
Resolute Roots: A Book on Our History
"Resolute Roots" follows the evolution of the company – and the pioneers who built it – through two world wars and numerous technological revolutions. Written by Martin Fairbank, a former company employee, the book tells the story of Resolute's family tree and celebrates the building of numerous facilities.
For more information on the deep roots and rich history of Resolute Forest Products and its predecessors, read brief excerpts from the book on The Resolute Blog. You can also purchase Martin's book on his website at
www.martinfairbank.com.