Suzano Completes Acquisition of Pine Bluff Paper Mill and Waynesville Extrusion Facility

The Pine Bluff mill produces liquid packaging board and cupstock used to make beverage cartons, paper cups and other fiber-based food and beverage packaging.

Oct 1, 2024 - Suzano today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Pactiv Evergreen's Pine Bluff, Arkansas, paper mill and Waynesville, North Carolina, extrusion facility.

The purchase price was US$110 million in cash, subject to customary adjustments for closing amounts such as working capital.

The Pine Bluff mill produces liquid packaging board and cupstock used to make beverage cartons, paper cups and other fiber-based food and beverage packaging. The Waynesville facility provides incremental extrusion capacity for the board produced at Pine Bluff.

The companies also agreed to enter into a long-term supply arrangement pursuant to which Suzano would use Pine Bluff and Waynesville to supply liquid packaging board to Pactiv Evergreen's converting business.

The acquired assets add approximately 420,000 metric tonnes per year of integrated paperboard to Suzano's production capacity and marks its entrance into the consumer and food service packaging segments in North America.

"We aim to scale our operations to meet the growing global demand for paper-based packaging," said Fabio Almeida, Executive Vice President of Paper and Packaging at Suzano and CEO of Suzano Packaging US. "Our successful track record of asset integration gives us confidence that we will be able to enhance operational efficiency, production scale, and safety standards at these units, opening up new opportunities for the employees and positively impacting the local communities of Pine Bluff and Waynesville."

Michael King, President and CEO of Pactiv Evergreen, stated, "The closing of this transaction marks an important milestone as we focus on our core North American converting operations. I want to thank the employees at Pine Bluff and Waynesville for their years of dedication and commitment to Pactiv Evergreen and to our customers. In addition to facilitating our transition to a capital light business model, we expect the transaction to improve our profitability and cash flows and strengthen our balance sheet."

SOURCE: Suzano and Pactiv Evergreen