| JANUARY | American Pad & Paper was now the parent of AMPAD and William-House Regency. |
| FEBRUARY | Fraser Paper, Cross Pointe Paper Corp. and Thorold Specialty Papers merged to form one of the largest producers of specialized paper products in North America. |
| MARCH | The merger of IP and Federal Paper Board became official. |
| APRIL | Union Camp acquired Alling and Cory, Rochester, NY-based distributor of business communications & printing papers for $88 million. |
| Repap Enterprises agreed to buy Orenda Forest Products. | |
| Mail Well signed a letter of intent to acquire Quality Park Products, an envelope manufacturer specializing in office products. | |
| MAY | Fox River signed a letter of intent to acquire Simpson Paper’s text & cover paper business, including two paper-making mills in Ripon, CA and Vicksburg, MI. |
| Gould Paper acquired Diamond paper Co., Sterling, VA, distributor of copy & computer paper. | |
| Crown Vantage/Curtis Fine Papers acquired Text Paper Tomorrow (TPT), service where paper merchants can order broken carton, and renamed it The Curtis Advantage. | |
| JUNE | Alco Standard split its two operating units into independent companies when it spun-off Unisource Worldwide, as a separate, publicly-owned company. |
| Niagara Envelope Co. agreed to sell the company to American Pad & Paper Co., Dallas, TX. | |
| U.K. Bunzl, London, acquired Jedco Paper, paper distributor to Baltimore and Pennsylvania. | |
| Bradner Central, Chicago, opened Eagle Converting. | |
| JULY | North American Paper Co., Berkeley, IL, acquired OK Papers, Franklin Park, large distributor of industrial paper & packaging. |
| Unisource Worldwide reported seven acquisitions in the latest quarter. | |
| Bunzl acquired two paper & plastics disposable businesses in Canada and a disposables distributor in Ireland. | |
| AUGUST | Mail Well, Inc. said its Supremex Inc. Canada to acquire Pac National Group Products. |
| SEPTEMBER | James River completed the sale of its flexible packaging group to Printpak Inc., Atlanta. |
| Specialty Paperboard signed purchase & sale agreements for Custom Papers Group (once part of James River) and Arcon Coating Mills. | |
| OCTOBER | Alco’s Unisource Worldwide acquired the Norel Group, specializing in packaging supplies and machinery and warehouse controls software. |
| Unisource completed 41 acquisitions in 1996 with annualized revenues over $850 million. | |
| New Oji Paper and Honshu Paper merged on October 1. The new company, Oji Paper Co. inherits Japan’s largest production capacity in paper & paperboard and becomes the world’s third largest paper manufacturer. | |
| NOVEMBER | Boise Cascade completed the sales of its coated publication papers business to Mead. |
| Bowater completed the sale of Star Forms to CST Office Products. | |
| DECEMBER | Specialty Paperboard completed the acquisition of Custom Papers Group and Arcon Coating Mills. |
| Gould Paper’s subsidiary Weiss/McNair acquired Ramacher manufacturing, an agricultural equipment firm from FMC Corp. | |
| Avenor, Inc., Montreal, announced December 18, that it will acquire Repap Enterprises, North America’s No. 2 coated paper producer. | |