Peter Dixon and Son
of Spring Grove Paper Mills, Oughtibridge, Sheffield
of West Marsh Mills, Grimsby
1870 Company established.
1909 Incorporated as a limited company.
1914 Manufacturers of paper for newspaper printing. [1]
1926 - December. It was announced Peter Dixon and Son purchased water power rights with a capacity of 20,000 to 30,000 hP together with a large area of forest and farm lands, in Northern Finland to form a Finnish company for the purpose of converting the energy and material into pulp for their English mills. Messrs. Dixon stated that their first intention was to erect a pulp factory near their paper mill at Grimsby but inability to arrange favourable terms with the railway company.[2]
1960 Introduced Dixonpak, the first cast polythene film in Britain made on a commercial scale
1962 Acquired land at Louth, Lincs for a new plant making Dixonpak cast polythene film; would move the production of this material to Louth from the existing plant at Taplow[3]
1966 With Inveresk, Wiggins Teape, and Smith and Nephew, set up British Tissues through Associated Tissues, to provide a British source of tissues to compete with the American imports[4]
1966 The Group included separate divisions for Bronco toilet paper, and Duffin Containers[5]
1967 Peter Dixon and Son (Packaging) Ltd was incorporated
1969 Claimed to be the 3rd largest manufacturer of newsprint in the UK; set up new vertical paper-making machine at its Grimsby mill[6]
1973 Packaging continued to be profitable but paper making was losing money[7]
1973 Peter Dixon and Son and Inveresk sold their shares in British Tissues to Finnish companies.
The company then sold off all its assets, turning itself into a "cash shell". First it closed the Grimsby mill, and sold its profitable packaging operation to Mardon Packaging (Securities); then it sold its Finnish pulp operation to a Finnish company, and also sold its share in British Tissues.
1974 Acquired by Bowater Corporation[8]
See also