Sonopress Launches ‘Eco Record’

Sonoco announced Monday that it had reached an agreement to sell ThermoSafe, its temperature-assured packaging business, to private equity firm Arsenal Capital Partners for up to $725 million. The purchase price consists of $650 million on a cash-free and debt-free basis payable at closing, and an additional consideration of up to $75 million if the business meets certain performance targets for calendar year 2025. Sonoco’s long-anticipated divestiture comes amid nearly two years of change for the company. It announced plans to sell ThermoSafe in June 2024, at the same time it announced plans to acquire Switzerland-based metal packaging company Eviosys from KPS Capital Partners. That $3.8 billion deal closed in December 2024, and the ThermoSafe sale is a way to offset the cost.

The packaging EPR landscape is rapidly changing in the U.S., so we have provided some updates here on new states with EPR laws, timelines as we know them today, and challenges producers have encountered. Given that the implementation of EPR laws is evolving so quickly, it is difficult to keep this blog post up to date with the latest. See the “Keeping Up with EPR News” section below for a list of websites that are regularly updated. Key Takeaways *Packaging EPR requires producers (usually brands) to pay fees based on the amount of type of packaging they sell into the state. *Seven U.S. states have passed packaging EPR laws. *The Circular Action Alliance (CAA) is the Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) assigned thus far to manage these EPR programs and collect fees. *Producers were required to report their 2024 packaging data for Oregon by March 31, 2025. The next deadline is for Colorado reporting, due July 31, 2025. *Companies should be conducting EPR reporting now and working to reduce and improve their packaging now to reduce fees.

International Paper announced that it completed the previously disclosed sale of its Brazilian corrugated packaging business to Klabin S.A. The business has three containerboard mills and four box plants. The company will continue to run its papers business and forestry operations in Brazil.