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Fort Howard Company Records, 1919 – 2009

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Fort Howard Company Records, 1919 – 2009 FORT HOWARD COMPANY RECORDS, 1919 – 2009 Abstract Records, product samples, photographs, video recordings, and artifacts of a Green Bay, Wisconsin paper manufacturer. Fort Howard was one of the nation’s largest producers of disposable paper products such as: toilet paper, paper toweling, napkins, placemats, and wipers. Documented are Fort Howard’s innovations in the use of recycled paper and other environmental issues, inventions and patents of paper making and paper folding machines, expansions, acquisitions, mergers, employee activities, and company philanthropy. Biographical information on the Cofrin family and other company leaders is also present. Presented by the Georgia Pacific Corporation (South Broadway Plant, Green Bay), 2001 Processed under the direction of Deb Anderson, Archivist, by Renee Ettinger, Jeanne Neidenbach Jean Wentz and Jeanine Mead (2001-2010). History The Fort Howard Company was founded in 1919 by Austin E. Cofrin, with backing by a handful of investors. Built on the west side of the Fox River in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the company takes its name from an 1800s military outpost located near the mouth of the Fox River. The company was dedicated to the mass manufacture of sanitary paper products (namely bath tissue, colored crepe, facial tissue, and paper toweling in the early days). Their marketing strategy of “elegant yet affordable” made Fort Howard’s products widely available to the majority of the population, including private, business, and commercial sectors. From the start, Fort Howard operated nearly self-sufficiently. It supplied many of its own needs that would normally have been be purchased or contracted through outside sources. They created their own power, they made some of their own chemicals, they maintained their own landfills, and they built and serviced their own machines. They had an in-house graphic design department that designed all artwork for their products and packaging. In the 1930s, even before the shortages and rationing of World War II or mass public recycling, Fort Howard began experimenting with utilizing recycled wastepaper for its products. It organized collections of old phone books, newspapers, and office wastepaper from publishers, businesses and government agencies. Within the next few decades, the company processed hundreds of thousands of tons of wastepaper. Due to its self-sufficiency and its greatly reduced cost for raw materials, Fort Howard began to dominate the world market for tissue products. The aggressive success of Fort Howard is due in large part to founder Austin E. Cofrin, who put on no airs and had the hard-work ethic of someone who had been working and supporting his family since the age of 13. He walked to the mill each day, even in bad weather, and he always knew what was going on with his workers and his machines. Not until 1960, when his health forced him to retire, did he surrender control. His son, John Paige Cofrin, was named president. Not until John’s death in 1974 did the company fall outside of Cofrin family control, when Paul Schierl was named president and CEO. Fort Howard Company Records 2 Fort Howard quickly became one of the largest employers in the Green Bay area. In 1971, common stock was offered for sale for the first time, making the company publicly-owned. This move precipitated the start of many expansions and acquisitions that would span the globe and the next three decades. In 1976, Fort Howard began construction of a second paper making and paper converting plant in Muskogee, Oklahoma and, in 1986, a third in Rincon, Georgia. In 1980, it acquired the Sterling Group in Manchester, England, another operation that utilized recycled paper for its products. The U.K. acquisition made it possible for Fort Howard to expand its market abroad. Also in 1980, Fort Howard acquired The Harmon Group, a wastepaper firm in New York. The Harmon Group supplied Fort Howard with much of its raw material for tissue production. Armed with ample suppliers of wastepaper, ample production facilities, and a wide share of the world’s tissue market, Fort Howard expanded its product line for the first time beyond tissue production. In 1983, it purchased Maryland Cup Corporation, which was then the country’s largest manufacturer of disposable (or edible) food use products, which included paper and plastic cups, drinking straws, plastic eating utensils, and ice cream cones. This acquisition further increased foreign markets, as Maryland Cup maintained manufacturing operations in the U.K., the Netherlands, Canada, and Japan. Another cup manufacturer, Lily Tulip, was acquired in 1986. In 1987, stock shareholders voted to change the name of the Fort Howard Company to the Fort Howard Corporation, unifying all aspects of operations at all locations under one umbrella. The Green Bay location was designated as the corporation’s world headquarters. The cup acquisitions, however, proved not to be as cost-effective or profitable as the paper-making business, largely due to the inability to use waste materials for production. A differing work ethic at those plants compared to Green Bay’s mill was also a factor, according to CEO Paul Schierl in Fort Howard: A Retrospect [published ca. 1985]. In 1988, Fort Howard and investment banker Morgan Stanley bought all public shares of stock, once again making the company privately-owned. The company decided to focus their resources on the tissue production side of the business. In 1989, it acquired Ecosource, an office wastepaper recovery facility in Green Bay, similar to their Harmon facility in New York. The cup operations were then sold in 1989. In 1994, Fort Howard opened a sales office in Monterrey, Mexico, from which they imported products from the Muskogee mill for the Mexican market. The company went from private to public again in 1995, when it offered 25 million shares of stock for public sale. In 1996, Fort Howard and CIMIC Holdings Ltd. (an international holding company) embarked on a joint venture in China, opening a tissue manufacturing mill in Shanghai. Perhaps the biggest change Fort Howard underwent was in 1997, when it merged with another Green Bay paper mill, James River. James River was originally known as Northern Paper Mills, where Austin E. Cofrin was working as a general superintendant in1918 before founding Fort Howard Company. After 78 years of manufacturing under the Fort Howard name and label, the newly-merged company called itself Fort James. Three years later, in 2000, Fort James was bought by another paper Fort Howard Company Records 3 manufacturer, Atlanta-based Georgia Pacific. Both Fort James and Georgia Pacific remained publicly- owned until Koch Industries, Inc. purchased all shares in 2005, making the company a privately-held subsidiary. It continues to operate under the Georgia Pacific name and management today (2010). Throughout these expansions, acquisitions, and mergers, Fort Howard’s leadership underwent changes as well. In 1984, Paul Schierl (president and CEO for the past decade) became Board Chairman and Don DeMeuse became president. In 1992, Fort Howard reorganized its management. Don DeMeuse became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kathleen Hempel became Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer, and Michael Riordan became President and Chief Operating Officer. When Don DeMeuse retired in 1996, Michael Riordan succeeded him as President and Chief Executive Officer. When Fort Howard and James River merged in 1997, James River CEO Miles Marsh became chairman and CEO, and Michael Riordan became president and chief operating officer of the newly- formed Fort James. Pete Correll was Chairman and CEO of Georgia Pacific at the time of the Fort James buyout in 2000. Fort Howard had always considered itself a leader in reducing its impact on the environment, even before environmental regulations introduced in the 1970s and the passing of the U.S. Clean Water Act. They re-captured and re-used their wastewater and any tissue fibers in it. They received FDA approval for substituting a safe alternative to ozone-depleting CFCs in their manufacturing process. They carefully monitored their emission control systems, and not only met governmental standards but often exceeded them. They had on-site landfills. Their wastewater sludge was utilized by Grantech, a Green Bay company that provided safe shipping containment for fertilizer and herbicide manufacturers. In 1990, Fort Howard won the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator’s Award for Recycling Leadership. In 1991, it received the National Recycling Coalition Award for Recycling Innovation, and the American Paper Institute’s Environmental and Energy Achievement Award. The company had a big voice in many municipalities’ now-standard mandatory recycling programs. The management and leaders of Fort Howard were largely responsible for the company’s favorable climate and its reputation as being a great place to work. Although they were demanding of very high standards in their workers, they also knew how to have fun. Tennis courts were a part of the mill property in the early years. They held three and six-mile runs. They sponsored employee bus trips to Milwaukee Brewer games. Throughout their history, they have had company teams or leagues for basketball, football, softball, archery, trapshooting, bowling, golf, and volleyball. They sponsored company picnics for workers and their families. Since 1989 they have sponsored United Way campaigns at the company. In the regions in which it operates, Fort Howard (and the Cofrin Family) was recognized as a leader in philanthropy. The Fort Howard Foundation has donated millions of dollars in scholarships, grants, and gifts to nonprofit and health organizations in the Green Bay, Savannah, and Muskogee areas. Some of the many Green Bay area recipients include the Curative Rehabilitation Center, NEW Community Clinic, Family Service Association, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, the University of Notre Dame, the YMCA, the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts, the University of Wisconsin- Fort Howard Company Records 4 Green Bay, the Hmong Community Center, Syble Hopp School, Paul’s Pantry, the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, and many more.
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