Berry Global Group, Inc. announced its second investment for 2021 in the wipes segment to support the long-term consumer behavior shift towards infection prevention, amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. The investment, located in Europe, will increase Berry’s production footprint in support of its global customers, with total investments reaching over $110 million in nonwoven materials for products such as hard surface disinfectant wipes. Prior to the demand surge of 2020, the European impregnated wet wipes segment, for home cleaning and disinfecting, was growing at the rate of five percent in the 2014 to 2019 time frame. COVID-19 has increased heightened focus on sanitation and personal hygiene for infection prevention, suggesting permanent consumer trends away from the chore of cleaning to a health and safety priority. “We strategically partner with many of the world’s leading brands with wipe materials, ensuring our investments align with demand for today and for the future. The reliability of our capacity and scale are paramount to our customer support and the trusted relationships we desire to maintain,” said Curt Begle, President of Berry’s Health, Hygiene, and Specialties Division.

Governor Laura Kelly joined officials from Pratt Industries as they opened their new state-of-the-art advanced manufacturing corrugated box plant in Park City. The plant represents a $200 million investment that will create 58 new high-paying, quality jobs in Sedgwick County over the next five years. The almost 1 million-square-foot Park City facility will accommodate increased production capacity, employ 300 full-time “green collar” manufacturing jobs, and increase its presence in the greater Wichita area. The company will continue its recycling operations at the existing Wichita facility and use the new plant for manufacturing operations.

Graphic Packaging Holding Company reported Net Income for second quarter 2021 of $38 million. This compares to second quarter 2020 Net Income of $52 million. Michael Doss, the Company's President and CEO said, "Strong demand continued across our markets in the second quarter as consumer preferences are driving conversions to our fiber-based packaging solutions. Increased consumer mobility and consumption outside of the home resulted in higher sales in our Foodservice markets up 22% year over year, while Food, Beverage and Consumer markets continued to show healthy growth of 4%. Our teams worked tirelessly to meet customer demand, and we swiftly implemented pricing actions to offset rising commodity input costs which impacted our results in the quarter. We expect to generate significantly higher Adjusted EBITDA in the second half of 2021 driven by price-cost recovery from the successful execution of approximately $400 million of implemented and recognized pricing actions, and continued momentum from organic sales growth and strong productivity. As we address the near-term inflationary headwinds, we remain unwavering in our commitment to introduce new and innovative packaging solutions across global markets supportive of the move to a more circular economy." Net Sales increased 8% to $1,737 million in the second quarter of 2021, compared to $1,611 million in the prior year period.