MacMillan Bloedel Limited
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
MacMillan Bloedel Limited, sometimes referred to as "MacBlo", was a forestry company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was formed through the merger of three smaller forestry companies in 1951 and 1959. Those were the Powell River Company, the Bloedel Stewart Welch Company, and the H.R. MacMillan Company. It was bought by Weyerhaeuser of Federal Way, Washington in 1999.
Contents |
[edit] Powell River Company
In 1908 two American entrepreneurs, Dr. Dwight Brooks and Michael Scanlon, created a newsprint mill Powell River north of Vancouver. The Powell River Company turned out the first roll of newsprint manufactured in B.C. in 1912. It soon became one of the world’s largest newsprint plants and today is credited with introducing the first self-dumping log barge to B.C.
[edit] Bloedel Stewart Welch Company
In 1911 Julius Bloedel, a Seattle lawyer, along with his two partners, John Stewart and Patrick Welch, began acquiring large blocks of Vancouver Island forests. Their Franklin River camp soon became one of the world’s largest logging operations. Here, in the 1930s, the Canadian industry saw its first steel spar and chainsaw. In 1938, Bloedel, Stewart and Welch became the first logging company in the province to plant seedlings in a logged-over area.
[edit] HR MacMillan Company
The last of the three pre-merger companies was the H.R. MacMillan Company, which was created by Harvey, or H.R. MacMillan, British Columbia’s first Chief Forester. MacMillan reportedly gained considerable experience in world lumbering during World War I. With his colleague Whitford Van Dusen, another forester, MacMillan incorporated a company in 1919 to sell B.C. lumber products to foreign markets. In 1924 they established a shipping company that would become one of the world’s biggest charter companies. Their acquisition of extensive forest lands laid the foundation for a program of intensive forest management.
[edit] Global Expansion
Beginning in the 1960s, MacMillan Bloedel expanded across North America as well as to Europe and the United Kingdom. At its peak, acquisitions and construction activities gave MB worldwide assets of more than $4 billion CAD.
[edit] Weyerhaeuser
In June 1999, forestry giant Weyerhaeuser of Seattle announced its intention to buy MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. of Canada for stock valued at about $2.45 billion USD. The merger once it completed, made Weyerhaeuser, which at that time was already the world's largest producer of softwood lumber and market pulp, a leader in packaging as well.
[edit] Kevin Annett Affair
MacMillan Bloedel has been accused of shady dealings by Kevin Annett, a Canadian minister and Native rights activist, regarding its involvement with the United Church of Canada and the residental schools program it was involved in. Annett claims that his life was threatened on numerous occasions by employees of MacMillan Bloedel, as well as Fred Bishop, former executive of MacMillan Bloedel as well as mayor of Port Alberni, British Columbia, on at least one occasion. Bishop told Annett that "Things can get out of hand really quick in this town. There are a lot of reputations to protect. So if you don't stop all this social justice stuff and just stick to being a minister, I can't be held responsible for what might happen to you."[1]
| Weyerhaeuser Co. |
|---|
|
Corporate Directors: Richard Haskayne | Robert Herbold | Martha Rivers Ingram | John Kieckhefer | Arnold Langbo | Don Mazankowski | Nicole Piasecki | Steven Rogel | Richard Sinkfield | D. Michael Steuert | James Sullivan | Charles Williamson |
|
Annual Revenue: $22.7 billion USD ( |
