Graphic Packaging set to close Ohio CRB facility

As part of an ongoing effort to optimize its recycled paperboard production, Graphic Packaging International (GPI) revealed last week the official close date for its Middletown, Ohio, coated recycled paperboard (CRB) manufacturing facility.

The Atlanta-based packaging company intends to shutter the site this spring, estimating the closure to happen on or about June 1, in anticipation of the startup of its $1 billion CRB mill in Waco, Texas.

The Middletown closure will affect approximately 130 employees.

"I want to thank the Middletown team, which has played an important role in the growth and success of Graphic Packaging,” GPI President and CEO Michael Doss says. “We are working closely with affected employees to provide employment placement assistance and support.”

GPI has followed through on plans to remove “higher-cost, less efficient” production capacity for several years.

In October 2023, GPI permanently decommissioned its K3 CRB machine at its mill in Kalamazoo, Michigan—one of three CRB machines at the Kalamazoo mill and the company’s longest-running machine, producing 125,000 tons of CRB per year.

The shutdown in Kalamazoo came after GPI installed its K2 machine at the site, which produces about 500,000 tons of CRB per year and was designed to be “the largest and lowest-cost producer of CRB in North America.”

GPI’s current CRB network now includes mills in Kalamazoo and East Angus, Quebec. In May 2023, the company announced its intention to close its CRB mill in Tama, Iowa, as well as the Middletown and East Angus sites, as it prepares to bring the Waco mill online.

The company’s optimized mill network will include the Kalamazoo and Waco recycled mills as well as virgin paperboard mills in Louisiana, Texas and Georgia.

The Waco facility is expected to produce about 1,500 tons per day of CRB with startup targeted for the fourth quarter of this year. The site will employ a similar system to the one used at its mill in Kalamazoo, and GPI will utilize three paper machines between its Kalamazoo and Waco sites to produce a combined 4,500 tons per day of CRB.

According to GPI, the Middletown closure advances its strategy to build competitive advantage in paperboard manufacturing while driving environmental improvements including water and energy efficiency.

"Graphic Packaging's investments in innovation and execution capabilities have made us the global leader in sustainable consumer packaging," Doss says.

"Our investments in Kalamazoo and Waco are a critical part of the value we deliver to our customers, allowing us to produce the highest quality, most economically advantaged paperboard available in North America. With Waco moving quickly toward completion and transition inventory in place, this is the right time to further simplify our paperboard manufacturing footprint."