Total U.S. Packaging Papers & Specialty Packaging Shipments Decreased Two Percent in February 2022

Finnish food and beverage company Paulig is testing UPM BioVerno naphtha, made from tall oil, as a raw material for its packaging. The first test batch with Paulig Café New York has been successfully packed and released to market. UPM BioVerno is produced from tall oil, a residue of pulp making, in the UPM Lappeenranta Biorefinery. In the new laminate tested over the half of the material used in the Paulig coffee packs is tall oil-based. “We are committed to replacing fossil-based raw materials with renewable ones. Paulig’s initiative to use our wood-based UPM BioVerno as a raw material in the laminates of their coffee packs is a further step towards creating more circular and sustainable packaging,” says Panu Routasalo, Vice President of UPM Biofuels.

Silgan Holdings Inc. announced that it has completed its acquisition of Weener Plastics Holdings B.V., a leading producer of differentiated dispensing solutions for personal care, food and healthcare products. Weener operates a global network of 19 facilities predominantly in Europe and the Americas, with approximately 4,000 employees and proprietary manufacturing technologies including significant clean room capabilities. The Company funded the purchase price for this acquisition and related costs and expenses through term and revolving loan borrowings under its senior secured credit facility, including a €700 million incremental term loan. Silgan expects to realize operational cost synergies related to the acquisition of approximately €20 million within 18 months. The transaction is expected to be slightly accretive to adjusted earnings per share in 2024, with approximately 10% accretion once fully integrated and with synergies achieved. Silgan is a leading supplier of sustainable rigid packaging solutions for the world's essential consumer goods products with annual net sales of approximately $6.0 billion in 2023. Silgan operates 124 manufacturing facilities in North and South America, Europe and Asia.

Georgia-Pacific is making a significant investment of more than $20 million at its plant in Lebanon, Tennessee. Its existing corrugator will be replaced with a new one to provide the plant with more throughput and provide customers with a better-quality product. “This is as much an investment in our current and future customers as it is in our Lebanon operations,” said Rob Streeter, Georgia-Pacific’s area general manager. “This new technologically advanced corrugator will give us the ability to supply the independent and integrated box and display customers throughout the mid-South, with upgraded offerings such as two-sided high-quality print, including Georgia-Pacific’s Hummingbird® digital print, on a variety of fluting options for the converted board.” The project will be conducted in phases through 2023 while the existing corrugator continues to operate. The planned startup of the new unit will be sometime in the first half of 2024.