Timeline: A look back at the history of the Androscoggin Mill

After 57 years, the Androscoggin paper mill will close in 2023. The mill was built by International Paper in 1965, but the town of Jay has been making paper in several mills since 1888.

Here’s a brief history of the mill over the last five decades.

1965

International Paper, then the largest paper company in the world, builds the Androscoggin Mill in 1965. At peak, 1,500 people worked there.

1987

Roughly 1,200 workers leave their jobs, part of a historic 16-month strike.

The front page of the Lewiston Journal on June 16, 1987.

2006

IP sells the mill to CMP Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of Verso Paper Holdings LLC. At the time, the Androscoggin Mill employed 1,000 people.

2015

Verso lays off 300 people and files for bankruptcy the next year.

The front page of the Sun Journal, Aug. 21, 2015.

2017

Verso lays off 190 employees and idles the No. 3 machine.

2018

New investments of $17 million upgrade and restart the No. 3 machine, creating 120 new jobs. At the time of the announcement, the company employed 400 people.

February 2020

Pixelle Specialty Solutions, based in Pennsylvania, buys the Jay mill from Verso. Pixelle becomes the largest specialty paper producer in North America. At the time of purchase, the mill had roughly 500 employees.

April 2020

A wood pulp digester ruptured, causing a massive explosion that destroyed the mill’s pulp machines and ultimately resulted in a decision by ownership not to rebuild the digesters and to shut down one of its paper machines. Between April and October that year, 177 workers were laid off.