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Alliance Forest Products Inc.

One of the largest lumber producers in Eastern Canada and a significant producer of newsprint and groundwood printing papers in North America, Alliance Forest Products Inc. was formed only recently, in May 1994.

However, the many roots of Alliance's holdings are each found individually in their own geographic areas, with the earliest beginnings found in Donnacona, Québec, where newsprint began to be manufactured in 1914 by Donnacona Paper Co. Dolbeau saw the beginning of its paper manufacturing industry in 1920, with a daily output of 250 tonnes. To better conserve aquatic ecosystems, the Dolbeau mill took the innovative step of discontinuing log running on waterways as early as 1973, and instead began trucking the logs.

Alliance's current operations are the result of dynamic family businesses such as the Laberge and Murdock families, who started the Saint-Félicien (1950) and the Mistassini (1974) sawmills. In the Témiscouata region, Messrs. Beaupré, Durette and Guérette built or purchased sawmills in image_1_small.jpg (7091 bytes)Rivière Bleue (1942), and in Dégelis (1970), with a wood-preserving plant added in Dégelis in 1992. In New Brunswick, the Couturier family developed the sawmill industry in the town of Baker Brook. In the Lower St. Lawrence region, Fernand Bois inaugurated a sawmill in Lac-des-Aigles in 1970. In 1983, in partnership with local businessmen, Bois also launched Scierie Mitis in Price, Québec.

In 1994, the newly-formed Alliance Forest Products purchased operations from Domtar Inc., including cutting rights on some 12,000 square kilometres of forest land in the Lac Saint-Jean region of Québec. Since then, the enterprise has continued to add to its holdings. Its acquisitions include mills and plants in Québec and New Brunswick, a 49 per cent interest in Scierie C.F.G. in the Lac Saint-Jean region of Québec, Coosa Pines operations in Childersburg, Alabama, and Scierie Castonguay in Saint-Félicien, Quebec.

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