In January 1997, RockTenn consummated the largest acquisition in its history, purchasing Waldorf Corporation for $239 million in cash and the assumption of $170 million in debt. Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, Waldorf operated six folding carton plants and three paperboard mills in Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina and Wisconsin; the firm had revenues of $377 million during 1996. The acquisition propelled RockTenn into the number two position among producers of folding cartons in North America and also made the company the leading manufacturer of recycled paperboard in the United States. RockTenn followed up with two smaller deals in mid-1997, adding Wright City, Missouri-based Rite Paper Products, Inc., a producer of laminated recycled paperboard products primarily for the furniture industry, and the Davey Company, a manufacturer of high-density recycled paperboard mainly used in book covers and binders that operated mills in Aurora, Illinois; and Jersey City, New Jersey. Also in 1997, RockTenn and Sonoco Products Company created a fiber partition joint venture called RTS Packaging, LLC, with RockTenn holding a 65 percent stake and Sonoco the remaining 35 percent. The venture combined RockTenn's eight partition plants with the seven that had been owned by Sonoco.