Greif To Exit CRB Market With Georgia Mill Closure
Metsä (CONT’D FROM PAGE 64)
“We definitely see a long-term potential in the Ameri- cas,” she said. “We have strong team on the ground based in the Connecticut office serving our American customers. We see potential especially from the end-use segment point of view in food, in food service and pharma end uses. We want to engage even more with the brand owners, en- suring that we help them to design the most sustainable, cost-efficient, and best packaging solutions for enabling them to win also for the local consumers.” The company also introduced a profit improvement program as a way to control and measure fiscal goals. “We have a target to reach 200 million euro EBITDA im- provement run rate annualized by end of 2027,” Anssi Tam- milehto, CFO. “The improvement program was launched in the middle of 2025 and we’ve seen very good progress so far. After Q1, we were able to report 100 million euro. We strive to be more agile to optimize our footprint through the whole supply chain all the way to the end customers.” Naturally, in today’s packaging market, every producer must think of how e-commerce will shape its future goals. “E-commerce increases the need for strong, lightweight packaging and visually high-quality packaging. The pack- aging (and unpacking) becomes part of the brand experi- ence. For us, e-commerce is less about the volume alone and more about the higher value applications where per- formance and sustainability and brand impact all matter.”
Delaware, Ohio based Greif has announced it will exit the coated recycled paperboard (CRB) market with the closure of its Sweetwater paperboard mill in Austell, Georgia. With operations expected to cease by the end of this year, the closure will affect approximately 90 employees and remove about 120,000 tons of annual production capacity. Greif said it will provide severance benefits, ca- reer-transition resources and other support to employees affected by the closure. The Sweetwater mill produces coated recycled paper- board, uncoated recycled paperboard (URB), and gypsum facing and backing paper grades. The facility became part of Greif through its 2019 acquisition of Caraustar Indus- tries. According to Greif, the mill’s operating configuration, limited integration within the company’s network and cost position prevented it from achieving a sustainable com- petitive position. The decision is part of Greif’s strategy to concentrate resources on businesses and assets where the company holds a leading market position and sees a clear path to long-term value creation. Greif is working with affected URB customers to sup- port an orderly transition and plans to continue serving them through its broader North American mill network.
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66 September 28, 2026
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