Arjo Wiggins
Encyclopedia
Arjo Wiggins is a leading producer of paper products. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...

 and used to be a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index
FTSE 100 Index
The FTSE 100 Index, also called FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the footsie , is a share index of the 100 most highly capitalised UK companies listed on the London Stock Exchange....

 but is now owned by Worms & Cie
Worms & Cie
Worms & Cie is a French pulp and paper company, the 17th largest in the world in ....

.

History

The Company's origins go back to 1761 when Buckland Mill in Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

 in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 commenced operations.

Meanwhile in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, in the middle of the 20th century there were four competing paper mills that manufactured sophisticated paper products with high added value, especially security papers (banknotes, passports, etc.). A joint merger plan was drawn up in 1954 and led to the formation of the first French paper-manufacturing group: ARJOMARI. The name of the group came from the first two letters of the names of the paper mills participating in the merger: Arches, Johannot, Marais, Rives.

In 1890 Buckland Mill was bought by Wiggins Teape a business formed by Edward Wiggins and Henry Teape when they incorporated their paper milling business some 40 years earlier.

In 1970 the Company was acquired by BAT Industries
British American Tobacco
British American Tobacco p.l.c. is a global tobacco company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s second largest quoted tobacco company by global market share , with a leading position in more than 50 countries and a presence in more than 180 countries...

 who went on to acquire Appleton Papers of the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1978. The business expanded rapidly in the 1980s as it exploited the market in carbonless paper. In 1989 the UK and US paper businesses were demerged from BAT Industries and integrated to form Wiggins Teape Appleton. In 1991 it merged with Arjomari-Prioux of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 to form Arjo Wiggins Appleton. Its distribution business was demerged in 2000 as Antalis.

It was acquired by Worms & Cie
Worms & Cie
Worms & Cie is a French pulp and paper company, the 17th largest in the world in ....

in 2000.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK