| Willamette Industries |
1300 SW Fifth Ave.,
Suite 3800,
Portland,
OR
97201 |
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www.wii.com
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(503) 227-5581
Fax: (503) 273-5603
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Looking great on paper
The leading wood pulp product manufacturer in the U.S., Willamette Industries was founded in 1906 by Louis Gerlinger. In 1952, faced with a diminishing timber supply, Willamette made its first major purchase of land where new trees would be planted. Willamette began to diversify, manufacturing paper, wood pulp, and plywood, recycling wood chips, and sawdust, as well as starting plants to manufacture paper and cardboard. In 1996, the company completed the purchase of 1.1 million acres in the largest single purchase of timber land ever. Paper products now account for two-thirds of the company's annual sales. The company currently has 103 plants in 24 states, France, Ireland, and Mexico and owns 1.7 million acres of timberland.
Cutting down, going global
Like most of its competitors, the company has worked hard to improve efficiency and increase sales to counter the notorious fluctuations in paper prices. In January 1999, the company cut production and dismissed workers in Tennessee. That same month, the company reduced its debt by selling off 117,000 acres of timberlands. In April 1999, the company got out of the coated one-sided paper sector. In June 2000 the company closed a plywood plant in Oregon. At the same time it has been retrenching in some areas, however, the company has also moved to expand globally by purchasing Valhi's fiberboard plant in Clonmel, Ireland (1996) and acquiring MDF D'Aquitaine (France, 1998) and Darbo, S.A. (France, 1999). It has pledged $71 million to projects in Mexico and has started construction on a $9 million plant in Arizona which will be operational in 2001. This is in addition to an $85 million facility opening in South Carolina in 2001. Willamette, like most heavy manufacturing companies has come under fire from environmental groups opposing the opening of these new plants, but save for some pollution fines, the company has been largely unaffected by the tree-huggers.
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Willamette Industries has a decentralized hiring process and does not post entry-level openings on a national basis. Applicants should send a resume to the central headquarters, but they may also inquire at individual Willamette facilities.
Willamette asks new hires "to pay their dues by taking on immediate responsibilities" without the promise of immediate promotion. "Low employee turnover" and a "slow, conservative process of corporate engineering" keep Willamette on a "slow but steady pace." Managers, however, enjoy "significant autonomy within each plant," a policy that employees say "builds trust and fosters accountability throughout the company."
Human Resources
Paper;Cardboard;Plywood;Chipboard
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