Evergreen Packaging® unveiled Sentinel™ Barrier Cupstock, a new retail packaging offering in the company’s Sentinel™ line of fiber-based products. Sentinel™ Barrier Cupstock is designed as a sustainable alternative to existing foil-lined paper cups and polypropylene cups. Potential end uses for Sentinel Barrier Cupstock include barrier cups to hold cereal, cookies, candy and other snacks. “As demand for sustainable packaging continues to rise, we’re committed to innovating our product lines to introduce new, cost-effective options to the food service and retail packaging industries,” said Chris Johns, Vice President of Paperboard Sales at Evergreen Packaging. “Our new Sentinel™ Barrier Cupstock leverages our deep barrier technology expertise to provide customers with a high performance, sustainable packaging option for the retail food cup market.” Click Read More below for additional detail.

Combining two packaging giants headquartered across an ocean results in a lot of learning for leadership. That’s the case for Laurent Sellier, CEO of Smurfit Westrock North America, following Ireland-based Smurfit Kappa’s acquisition of Atlanta-based Westrock in July 2024.  You’ve been doing quite a few North American facility tours this year. Is that typical or is this a heightened engagement post-acquisition? It’s probably a combination of both. I’m a basic boxmaker by origin. I’m one of those guys grown as general manager of mills, and so I’m not a great fan of PowerPoint presentations in an office. I don’t understand it. I get bored. That is really not my stuff. My stuff is to go in a plant, shake hands, go around the machines, talk to operators, talk to supervisors. Get a feel for what’s happening there, and see all the things that you usually never see when you’re off an office. One of the facilities you visited this summer is the new box plant in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, which legacy leadership called a “superplant.” How are things going with the plans for a network of superplants?  I think “super” is actually an understatement. I think it’s more like a megaplant. It beats anything in terms of dimensions: the breadth of it, the scale of it, the power behind it. It’s the biggest lineup of machines I’ve ever seen in any place, and it’s a fabulous facility.

Sonoco-Alcore S.a.r.l. announces that due to the continued escalation in the cost of European energy it will raise prices by €70 per tonne on all recycled paperboard grades sold in the Company’s EMEA regions effective for shipments made on or after the 1st September 2022. “In light of the significant increases seen across the recent energy markets, the uncertainty facing the forthcoming winter period and the resultant impact on our supply costs we have no choice but to raise prices accordingly,” said Phil Woolley, Vice President – Paper Europe. “We will continue to monitor the situation closely and will take every action necessary to maintain supplies to our customers. We cannot however rule out further increases or surcharges being required at this stage.”