Dive Brief:
- Cascades is ending its work in the honeycomb paperboard and partition packaging product sectors and closing three plants — one in York, Pennsylvania, and two in Quebec — which will affect a total of 114 employees.
- The plants serve “niche markets that are no longer aligned with the company's long-term growth plans,” according to a Thursday announcement.
- Fellow Quebec-based company LM Packaging, which produces honeycomb paperboard, agreed to acquire certain assets from Cascades’ Berthierville, Quebec, honeycomb packaging plant for $9 million.
Dive Insight:
Cascades chose to exit the two niche packaging markets and is “committed to optimizing its operating platform and business activities by focusing on its strategic markets as a partner of choice for its customers,” according to the announcement. The company says it will work to support employees who are leaving, including with job search assistance, and it encourages employees to apply for positions at other Cascades locations.
The honeycomb packaging plant in Berthierville that LM agreed to buy assets from was slated for immediate closure upon the news release Thursday, affecting 52 employees. The changes do not affect the adjacent Cascades Sonoco – Berthierville plant.
A honeycomb packaging manufacturing facility in York, Pennsylvania, will close by Feb. 19, affecting 37 employees. Declines in regional customer demand “no longer ensured profitability” there, according to Cascades.
And the cardboard partition facility in Saint-Césaire, Quebec, will end operations by April 17, impacting 25 employees. That plant's profitability has taken a hit in recent years because of ongoing decreasing demand, Cascades said, combined with reduced competitiveness due to the facility’s geographic distance from its main customers.
“Focusing Cascades’ assets on its strategic markets is essential to achieving our optimization and profitability improvement objectives,” said President and CEO Hugues Simon in a statement.
These actions come on the heels of Cascades’ announcement last week that it plans to sell its corrugated packaging plant in Richmond, British Columbia, to Crown Paper Group for $65.5 million.
Simon provided a statement last week about the Richmond plant sale that cited a commitment to optimizing operations and reducing debt, similar to the rationale for this week’s actions. In addition, that deal will be mutually beneficial for both parties, according to Cascades’ news release, considering the plant offered limited integration and synergy potential for Cascades but aligns with Crown's current footprint and potential for regional expansion.
This year’s transitions continue a string of changes for Cascades.
During a February 2025 earnings call, executives discussed a new two-year strategic plan to strengthen culture and drive profitability, align operational and commercial structure, and deploy capital to prioritize debt reduction. That included selling unused or redundant assets.
In July 2025, the company announced it would close a containerboard mill in Niagara Falls, New York, by September, and weeks later on an earnings call executives disclosed that the closure would be accelerated and occur in August.
Then in October, the company announced it would sell operations at its lone manufacturing site for flexible plastic packaging and films to Houston-based Five Star Holdings for $31 million. At deal close, Five Star agreed to retain all 45 employees. Cascades maintained ownership of the Ontario real estate and entered a supply agreement with Five Star to provide flexible film that Cascades’ tissue and packaging sectors require. As with other exits, Simon said in a statement that this would support the company’s optimization and reduce debt.
Tariffs and other macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties have negatively impacted business, Cascades executives have repeatedly said on earnings calls. The company will report its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings on Feb. 26.
Meanwhile, this week Cascades announced a $70 per ton price increase for containerboard to take effect March 2, following late January announcements for the same level of increase from Packaging Corporation of America and International Paper to take effect March 1. Simultaneously, Cascades announced another $25 per ton price increase for corrugating medium, after announcing in December a $50 per ton increase on medium to take effect in January.
