CeCorr, Inc. history

In 1984, Georgia-Pacific acquired a linerboard mill, several corrugated container plants, and over 300,000 acres of forest from St Regis Corporation.

A.D. (Pete) Correll, who joined Georgia-Pacific's paper division in 1988 after being wooed from his position at the Mead Corporation, was elected president and chief operating officer.

By 1989, Great Northern Nekoosa was operating 55 paper mills and paperboard converting plants, 83 paper distribution centers, one plywood plant, and two sawmills.

All of these measures failed, however, and the purchase was completed in March 1990.

Despite its continuously healthy cash flow and record-breaking profits in its building products division, the company posted losses again in 1992.

Also divested in 1994 was its envelope manufacturing business (another Great Northern inheritance), which was sold to Sterling Group Inc. (which would later emerge as Mail-Well, Inc.). Proceeds from these sales went to further reduce the company's debt.

Moving quickly to counter the effects of the sliding paper prices, Correll, in May 1996, launched a three-year effort to reduce overhead costs by $400 million.

Based in Deerfield, Illinois, the company had been formed in August 1997 through the merger of James River Corporation of Virginia and Fort Howard Corporation.

Based in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, Unisource was a leading North American distributor of printing and imaging paper and supplies, with revenues for the fiscal year ending in September 1998 of $7.42 billion.

2000: Fort James Corporation is acquired for $7.7 billion in stock and cash plus the assumption of $3.3 billion in debt.

One other challenge facing Georgia-Pacific in the early 21st century was servicing its high debt load, which stood at $12.2 billion in early 2002.

Focused on expanding to different segments of the corrugated industry, Schwarz Partners purchased The Royal Group in 2007 and has continued to grow steadily.

Correll emphasized that a third-party study had shown that the company's total liabilities through 2011 were expected to amount to less than $1 billion.