Crown Zellerbach

Crown Zellerbach was an American pulp and paper conglomerate based in San Francisco, California, purchased in a hostile takeover in 1985.

The company invented folded paper towels, molded pulp egg cartons, and the window envelope.

[3] It expanded steadily throughout the 1930s and substantially during the second world war when European paper manufacturers no longer exported to the United States.

It eventually started expanding through acquisitions of the Canadian Western Lumber Company and St. Helens Pulp and Paper.

In late 1984, Crown Zellerbach became the focus of a hostile takeover by British financier Sir James Goldsmith, who gained control of the company in July 1985 and became its chairman.

In December 1985, Goldsmith agreed to sell the remainder of Crown Zellerbach with majority of the pulp and paper business to the James River Corporation.