Sonoco Products Co. plans July 12 to buy De Pere, Wis.-based U.S. Paper Mills Corp., a manufacturer of lightweight paperboard for cores of toilet paper and paper towel rolls. With nearly $70 million in annual sales and 220 workers, U.S. Paper Mills is a family-owned business with plants in De Pere and Menasha, Wis.; Oakdale, Minn.; and Jacksonville, Ill. Its mills would add 170,000 tons of capacity to current Sonoco production, which totals up to 1.6 million tons of paperboard a year.

Minneapolis-based flex-pack converter Kapak Corp. and GIPSA, Guadalajara, Mexico, form a new company called GIPAK to produce pouches for the Latin American market. As a U.S. producer of preformed pouches, Kapak had been investigating partnership alternatives to extend its manufacturing capabilities to other countries. GIPSA is a vertically integrated converter with 28 years of converting experience in Mexico. GIPAK will manufacture a variety of pouch structures including standup, preformed, retort and spouted pouches with fitments.

International Paper Co., Stamford, Conn., is cutting 3,000 jobs—about 10 percent of its salaried U.S. workforce—and restructuring several of its businesses during the next year, according to the "Virginian-Pilot" newspaper. IP, which acquired Champion International Co. last year, says the changes will cut costs and focus resources on paper, packaging and forest products.

Westvaco Corp. acquires from Mayr-Melnhof Karton AG its 50 percent interest in Wall MM Gravure Krakow, a joint venture between Alfred Wall AG and Mayr-Melnhof that owns and operates a consumer packaging plant in Krakow, Poland.

Norwalk, Conn.-based Mafcote Inc., supplier of coated paper products, packaging and folding cartons, creates a new affiliate, Miami Wabash Paper. The new company combines the operations of two previously separate companies, Miami Valley Paper and Wabash Coated Papers. The move allows the converter to concentrate on its core business of premium cover and text stocks, pressure-sensitive face stocks, coated tag and ink jet papers.

Georgia-Pacific, Atlanta, and Gulf States Paper Corp., Tuscaloosa, Ala., agree May 22 to dissolve their joint venture to sell SBS paperboard. In place since May 1997, the JV included paperboard produced at G-P's Crossett, Ark., mill and Gulf States' Demopolis, Ala., mill. The deal ends Dec. 30, 2001. As part of its recent acquisition of Fort James Corp., G-P now produces coated and uncoated bleached board at its facility in Naheola, Ala.