Dive Brief:
- Ohio-based Greif plans to close its Sweetwater paperboard mill in Austell, Georgia, by year’s end, in turn exiting the coated recycled paperboard market entirely. The closure will remove approximately 120,000 tons of annual production capacity.
- According to a notice filed with the state Monday, 95 employees will be affected. The company says it will provide severance benefits and other resources. The first and second dates of separation are listed as Nov. 16 and March 24.
- This development is part of Greif’s “broader strategy to focus its resources on businesses and assets where the company has a leading market position,” the company said in a news release.
Dive Insight:
The site — which makes CRB and uncoated recycled paperboard, as well as gypsum facing and backing paper grades — dates back to Greif’s 2019 acquisition of Austell-based Caraustar Industries. But the mill has proven to have “limited integration” within Greif’s network and failed to be competitive, the company said. Greif aims to continue serving affected URB customers through the company’s broader North American mill network.
“We are making deliberate choices about where we compete and where we invest,” said Gaylord Benner, senior vice president and general manager, sustainable fiber solutions, in a statement Wednesday.
“Closing Sweetwater will strengthen the overall performance of our mill network, while our investments in our URB network will direct capital toward assets that are well positioned to serve our customers and support profitable growth,” Benner added.
Greif has been trimming its footprint for some time as it works toward cutting $120 million in costs by the end of fiscal year 2027. It announced the three-year optimization plan in December 2024, which included cutting 10% of its professional workforce and restructuring business units. Executives said that structure would allow for greater integration and coordination across business units, such as to encourage cross-selling of different product lines.
Last year, the company shut down a paperboard machine in Austell, impacting around 70 employees. Also last year, Greif ended West Coast coated paperboard production when it closed a Los Angeles mill, affecting some 72 employees. That facility also produced both CRB and URB, and the company said at the time the closure decision was due to increased costs and limited integration opportunities.
Greif has also meaningfully changed its fiber footprint through M&A, last year selling its containerboard business to Packaging Corporation of America for $1.8 billion and divesting its timberlands to Molpus Woodlands Group for $462 million.
Greif CEO Ole Rosgaard has frequently discussed the company strategy to only remain in markets where it can excel and be profitable. “We want to be number one or number two in everything we do,” he told Packaging Dive during an interview in 2025, and noted sometimes closures or divestitures make the most business sense.
Greif is among the companies that in June announced a second round of URB price hikes this year. Rosgaard said during an April earnings call that the first URB price increase was to partially offset cost inflation, and he expected the company to start feeling positive effects in July. He also said North American demand for tube and core, which are converted URB products, was soft but improving. The company had implemented URB price increases the past couple years as well.
Greif’s CRB exit comes as other fiber packaging companies also have also made strategic decisions to reshuffle their fiber offerings and in some cases leave certain markets.
In February, Cascades said it would close three plants as it ended work in the honeycomb paperboard and partition packaging product sectors, which it called “niche markets that are no longer aligned with the company's long-term growth plans.” In June 2025, International Paper said amid a series of facility closure announcements that it would get out of molded fiber.
In June, Graphic Packaging International announced it was re-entering the URB market, which analysts predicted could put pressure on Greif and Sonoco, the two largest North American producers. Certain analysts also suggested that GPI, which is considered a leader in the CRB market, might have made the move due to lagging demand for CRB and other grades.
