Tembec Industries Inc., known as Tembec, was a

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company in

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, founded by Frank Dottori. In 2011, Tembec had approximately 3000 employees,"Tembec's U.S. subsidiary to liquidate four years after closing Louisiana mill"
Ross Marowits, ''

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'', 25 April 2011 with locations in Canada,

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, and

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. Tembec's operating divisions included Forest Products, Pulp, Paper & Paperboard, and Chemicals.

History

Tembec was founded in 1973 by Frank Dottori in the town of Témiscaming,

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

, following efforts by former employees and Temiscaming residents to save their jobs and save their town's economy. They organized to create a company through an unprecedented relationship among entrepreneurs, unionized employees, the community and several levels of government. In 1973, the newly-founded company purchased the shuttered mill and Tembec was founded. A documentary covering the efforts of workers to form Tembec and reopen the mill, ''Témiskaming, Quebec'', was created by

Martin Duckworth Martin Duckworth (born March 8, 1933) is a Canadian documentary director and cinematographer who was on staff at the National Film Board from 1963 to 1970 and has continued to work with them as a freelance filmmaker. He was cinematographer on mor ...

and released by the National Film Board in 1975. In May 2017, it was announced that Tembec had agreed to a takeover offer by

Rayonier Advanced Materials Rayonier Advanced Materials is an American chemical company specializing in cellulose-based products. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, it produces more than 25 grades of high-purity performance fibers for products ranging from food, cosmeti ...

for CAD $320 million. In July, Rayonier's offer was raised to CAD $475 million. The deal closed in November. On 8 January 2020, the company was fined $250,000 for the 25 May 2018 death of a worker in Chapleau, to which it had pled guilty. The accident had occurred six days prior to when, according to court proceedings, "Rayonier acquired the mill from Tembec Industries Inc., which operated the mill under the name Ryam Lumber, on May 31, 2018."

Operations

Tembec's Forest Products Group comprised 31 manufacturing operations producing softwood lumber, engineered wood products, and specialty wood products. The Pulp, Paper & Paperboard Group consisted of 9 pulp manufacturing plants, 5 paper manufacturing plants and 1 paperboard plant. The Chemicals group produced resins,

ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a ...

lignin Lignin is a class of complex organic polymers that form key structural materials in the support tissues of most plants. Lignins are particularly important in the formation of cell walls, especially in wood and bark, because they lend rigidity a ...

from the pulping discharge in five of its pulping plants.

In popular culture

The town gained national attention and its efforts to save itself were chronicled in the documentary, ''A Town that Wouldn’t Die.''

References

{{Authority control Companies based in Montreal Pulp and paper companies of Canada Companies formerly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange