Rayonier Incorporated

Product Details

Historical Context

Rayonier was founded in 1926 as the Rainier Pulp and Paper Company in Shelton, Washington, with an office in San Francisco, California. Its name was inspired by Mount Rainier in Washington state. Its first mill opened the next year in Shelton and Port Angeles, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. The mill used Tsuga heterophylla (western hemlock) trees to create a premium bleached paper pulp.

In 1931, Rainier Pulp and Paper began working with the DuPont chemical company to produce hemlock pulp for the manufacture of rayon. Two additional pulp mills were constructed and began operation in the state of Washington.

Rainier Pulp and Paper changed its name to Rayonier, a portmanteau of the words rayon and Rainier, in 1937, when it became a publicly traded company. The following year, the company acquired timber stands in the southeastern United States, and began construction of a Fernandina Beach, Florida, pulp mill, which began production in 1939.

In 1944, the company moved its offices to New York City. As World War II ended, Rayonier began making large land purchases in the Pacific Northwest. The Rayonier Foundation was created in 1952 to provide assistance to charitable, civic and education organizations in the communities where Rayonier did business.

Rayonier opened international sales offices in Europe and Asia during 1954. That same year, another pulp mill in the southeast was constructed at Jesup, Georgia. High demand prompted the facility to double its capacity by 1957.

ITT purchased the company in 1968 and the name changed to ITT Rayonier.

The Jesup mill grew larger in 1974, becoming the largest pulp mill on earth.

Company headquarters were moved again in 1978; this time to Stamford, Connecticut.

Diplomatic relations with China were restored in 1979. The following year, Rayonier received orders for pulp and logs. It took almost five years to receive permission to open an office in Beijing in 1985.

A log-trading office was opened in New Zealand during 1988. The New Zealand government sold Rayonier 250,000 acres of timberland in 1992.

The company was spun off from ITT in 1994 with the company name reverting to Rayonier and shares again traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Rayonier purchased 969,000 acres of timberland in Florida, Georgia and Alabama in 1999, then relocated the corporate offices to Jacksonville, Florida, to be closer to company employees and properties.

Rayonier converted to a real estate investment trust (REIT) on January 1, 2004.

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