Yazoo Mills History

Yazoo Mills, Inc. was founded as a yarn and textile mill in Yazoo City, Mississippi in 1902. Even though the company has evolved through many changes since those early beginnings, it has always retained the name Yazoo Mills, derived from its original location in Yazoo City.

Around 1928, the company moved from Yazoo City to Brooklyn, New York and eventually settled in Hanover, Pennsylvania in 1936. The Lion and Lioness trademark was registered in 1936 and has been used ever since to represent Yazoo’s strength and reliability.

The Lion and Lioness trademark was registered in 1936 and has been used ever since to represent Yazoo’s strength and reliability.

Throughout the early years, Yazoo manufactured mattress cord and florist’s thread for funeral wreaths. After the move to Hanover in 1936, production shifted to balls of kite twine and parcel post twines. During the war, Yazoo produced rope handles for ammunition boxes. In the sixties, the market for string and twines declined and the future looked bleak. The company had also been producing its own cores for kite twine. In 1969, management decided to phase out the twine operations and concentrate entirely on the manufacturing of paper cores to sell to different industries.

Since 1969 and the change of product line to paper tubes and cores, Yazoo has undergone several major expansions.

 In 1981, the company moved from Hanover and built a new plant in New Oxford, PA. The plant was expanded in 1984 and expanded again in 1995, in which 30,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space was added to the facility. Again in 1999 and 2000, two additions totaling 20,000 square feet were completed for additional machinery and finished products. Most recently in 2007, Yazoo completed another phase of growth. A modern concrete façade was added to the front of the building along with an expansion to the offices and parking areas. In addition to enlarging the lobby, the existing offices were upgraded, remodeled, and now total 7600 square feet. With the purchase of adjoining properties, the complex encompasses 9 acres. In 2009, Yazoo Mills expanded its New Oxford location for the 7th time. The facility now totals a 150,000 square
feet.