American Forest & Paper Association Releases June 2020 Packaging Papers Monthly Report

2021 Highlights: *Net Sales were $7,156 million versus $6,560 million in the prior year. *Net Organic Sales increased approximately 2% in the fourth quarter and full year versus the prior year periods. *Net Income was $204 million versus $167 million in the prior year. *Executing approximately $850 million in recognized pricing actions in 2021 and 2022 to address commodity input cost inflation. *Commissioning the world's lowest-cost and highest-quality coated recycled paperboard production capabilities at the Kalamazoo, Michigan campus. *Completed AR Packaging and Americraft acquisitions, significantly expanding geographies, markets and the product portfolio. Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE:GPK), (the "Company" or "Graphic Packaging"), a leading provider of sustainable packaging solutions to food, beverage, foodservice, and other consumer products companies, today reported Net Income for fourth quarter 2021 of $39 million, or $0.13 per share, based on 309 million weighted average diluted shares. This compares to fourth quarter 2020 Net Income of $64 million, or $0.24 per share, based on 270 million weighted average diluted shares.

Huhtamaki, a key global provider of sustainable packaging solutions, is launching Futuro, the first 100% plastic free egg carton for cooked colored eggs, across markets in Europe. This innovation is especially relevant to the German market, where hard-boiled eggs or “Bunte Eier” remain a popular snack and an addition to lunch or dinner, with more than 80 million packs sold yearly. Hard-boiled eggs are currently regularly packed and sold in plastic packaging for sale in supermarkets. “This is a step forward in helping our customers meet their sustainability targets and drive a circular economy. By simply switching to our fiber based Futuro cartons, Germany could eliminate almost 2,400 metric tons of plastic from packaging for eggs yearly”, says Hilbrand van Dijk, Sales & Marketing Manager at Huhtamaki.

Graphic Packaging Holding Company announced it will permanently decommission the K3 coated recycled paperboard (CRB) machine in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The K3 machine is one of three CRB machines at the Kalamazoo facility and is the company's longest-running machine. K3 ceased operation on July 1 and today's announcement reflects the decision to permanently shut down the 125,000-tons per annum machine. Removing higher-cost, less efficient production capacity is part of Graphic Packaging's CRB optimization plan first announced in 2019 alongside the transformational investment in a new, state-of-the-art K2 CRB machine. Permanently decommissioning the older machine is the company's next step of network optimization. With K2 reaching expected quality, cost improvement and volume commitments ahead of schedule, the permanent decommissioning of K3 supports more efficient resource use and margin enhancement goals for the CRB network, while continuing to service increased customer demand for high quality coated recycled paperboard.