Fort James Acquisition Catapults GPC to Top of Folding Carton Heap
Graphic Packaging Corp.'s acquisition of the folding carton business of Fort James Corp. was formally completed last week, pumping Graphic's annual revenues up to approximately $1.2 billion. As a result, GPC, of Golden, CO, becomes the largest folding carton producer in the United States, with 24 facilities in North America and a combined workforce of 5,000 employees.
GPC's customer list reads like a "who's who" of food product manufacturers throughout the United States and Canada. They include: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Colgate-Palmolive, Coors Brewing Co., Eastman Kodak, General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg's, Kraft Foods, Perseco, Pepperidge Farm, Philip Morris, Pillsbury, Procter & Gamble, Ralston Purina, Unilever and Vlasic Foods International.
"Our decision to focus on what we do best, folding cartons, has led us to joining together two of the most respected and technically capable companies in the carton industry — Fort James packaging and Graphic Packaging Corp.," boasts Jeffrey H. Coors, president and CEO of Graphic Packaging Corp.
At the end of July, GPC announced it would sell its flexible packaging division to Sonoco Products Co. (see related article). That sale now enables Graphic Packaging to concentrate on the research, development and manufacture of folding cartons.
$830 Million Price Tag
The acquisition of the Fort James packaging operations was completed by ACX Technologies Inc., the parent of Graphic Packaging Corp., for $830 million in cash. The purchase includes an extensive list of proprietary products and distinctive technologies, combined with 12 Fort James plants and a paper mill in Kalamazoo, MI, which produces 330,000 tons of coated recycled board annually.
The acquisition provides GPC with additional markets in the food industry that include cereal, dairy, meat and microwave packages, as well as an entry for GPC in the pharmaceutical industry. Printing capabilities for GPC now include gravure, web lithography, web flexography, offset printing and sheet-fed printing.
Approximately 2,600 employees from the Fort James acquisition will join GPC's 2,400 folding carton employees.
Two Primary Divisions
As a result of the acquisition, Graphic Packaging Corp. now has two primary operating divisions: the Performance Packaging Division, which incorporates GPC's multi-patented processes such as Composipac and ComposiGard, and the Universal Packaging Division, which services high-volume customers in the dried food and frozen food markets.
The president of the Performance Packaging Division is Donald W. Sturdivant, 39, who joins GPC from Fort James where he served as president of its packaging business. Sturdivant's industry background includes sales, plant and production management positions with Fort James as well as with Jefferson Smurfit, Somerville Packaging and Packaging Corporation of America.
John D. Pfeifle, 50, continues as president of the Universal Packaging Division. Pfeifle joined GPC in early 1998 upon the acquisition of Universal Packaging Corp. by Graphic Packaging Corp. He has served in the packaging industry since 1971.
David A. Tolley has been named president of the newly created Sales, Marketing and Product Development Division, which will support both the Performance Packaging and the Universal Packaging Divisions. Tolley, who currently chairs the Packaging Committee of the Soap and Detergent Association, joined Graphic Packaging Corp. in 1990.
Continuing as president of GPC's General Carton Division is John S. Waring III. Waring began his packaging career in 1965 with Westvaco Corp.
Other appointments include:
R. Wayne Mullican, senior vice president of sales for GPC.
Dwight H. Kennedy, vice president and general manager of Continuous Improvement and Specialty Business.
David Briere, director of recycled paperboard at GPC's mill in Kalamazoo.
Jim Brown, plant manager in Charlotte, NC.
Ed Stachowski, plant manager in Malvern, PA.
Sturdivant, Pfeifle, Tolley, Waring and Kennedy report to David W. Scheible, COO for GPC. Scheible joined Graphic Packaging in early 1999 following 14 years in senior management with Avery Dennison Corp. He was promoted to his current position with Graphic Packaging Corporation in June 1999.
Reporting to Jeffrey Coors are Gail Constancio, CFO; Mary Dymond, vice president of Human Resources; and Scheible.
New Manufacturing Facility
In line with the company's growth, Graphic Packaging Corp. is constructing a 300,000-sq-ft facility in Golden that will house the company's corporate headquarters as well as a state-of-the-art printed folding carton manufacturing facility. The facility will be operational in December 1999.
In 1998, Graphic Packaging Corp. achieved its tenth consecutive year for record sales, which reached $623.9 million. Revenues for the Fort James packaging operations in 1998 were $590 million.
For more information: Graphic Packaging Corp., 14062 Denver West Parkway, Suite 250, Golden, CO 80401, Tel: 800-677-2886, Fax: 303-273-2935.
Edited by Bill Noone