James River Corporation was an American pulp and paper company based in Richmond, Virginia,^[2] once the largest paper manufacturer in the world.^[2]

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James River Corporation

Industry	Pulp and paper
Founded	1969; 55 years ago (1969)
Defunct	1997; 27 years ago (1997)
Fate	Merged with Fort Howard Paper Company
Successor	Fort James Corporation
Headquarters	Richmond, Virginia , U.S.
Key people	Miles Marsh, CEO[1]
Revenue	$5.7 billion[1] (1996)
Net income	$157 million[1] (1996)
Number of employees	23,000[1]

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The company was founded in 1969 as the James River Paper Company by Brenton Halsey and Robert Williams, with the purchase of Ethyl Corporation's Specialty Papers Division.^[2] Halsey and Williams were both former employees of Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company; the city of Richmond lies along the James River.

The company changed its name to the James River Corporation in 1973,^[2] and it acquired the Brown Company subsidiary of Gulf and Western Industries in 1980 and the Dixie/Northern division of American Can Company in 1982.^[3]

In 1986, James River acquired the fine paper mill assets of Crown Zellerbach, headquartered in San Francisco, and became the largest paper manufacturer in the world.^[2] The brown paper division of CZ was not in the deal and became Gaylord Container Corporation. Crown Zellerbach had been the target of a hostile takeover by Sir James Goldsmith.^[4][5]

James River began producing 100 percent recycled paper products in 1991 at its mill in Green Bay, Wisconsin.^[3] Some of the products included Recycled Northern Bath Tissue, Recycled Brawn Towels, and Recycled Northern Napkins. Also that year, the company sold twenty-two paper mills to Specialty Coatings Group.^[6]

In 1997, the company merged with the Fort Howard Paper Company of Green Bay, forming the Fort James Corporation.^[2][7][8] At the time of their merger, James River was one of the largest paper manufacturers, with 60 manufacturing facilities in North America and Europe.^[1] Three years later in 2000, Fort James was acquired by Georgia-Pacific, based in Atlanta.^[9][10]

In 1998, Halsey and Williams, the company's founders, were both inducted into the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame.^[11][12]

The historical records of the James River Corporation are housed at the Virginia Historical Society.^[2]