Pasadena, CA-based p-s material converter Avery Dennison completes its acquisition May 17 of Jackstädt GmbH. Purchase price for the Wuppertal, Germany-based converter of p-s materials was approximately $295 million, including assumption of debt. Integration of Jackstädt operations into Avery's businesses will begin immediately, the company says. AD's p-s materials headquarters in Europe will move to Jackstadt's site in Wuppertal. Senior management of the European roll materials business, while Avery's administrative, IT, R&D and other support functions will remain at their current facilities in Leiden, The Netherlands.

Rock-Tenn Co. says May 15 that it will close its laminating facility in Vineland, NJ by June 30. Production from the Vineland plant will move to other Rock-Tenn facilities, increasing the overall operating efficiencies of the company's Laminated Paperboard Products Division, it says.

Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Corp. says May 7 it will split in two and sell stock in a new company centered on packaging and consumer products. The move allows the company to concentrate on its consumer brands, such as Dixie cups, Brawny paper towels, Mardi Gras napkins and Quilted Northern tissue. The initial public stock offering, expected this summer, would help Georgia-Pacific pay down debts of more than $12 billion. Ever since its $11 billion takeover of Fort James in 2000, Georgia-Pacific has been angling its way into more American homes. Fort James is itself the product of a 1997 merger between James River Corp. and Green Bay-based Fort Howard Corp. The new consumer-products and packaging company, to be named later, will be led by A.D. "Pete" Correll, chairman and chief executive officer of Georgia-Pacific.

Melbourne, Australia-based Amcor agrees April 24 to acquire Tobepal SA, the flexible-packaging and extrusion operations of the Tobepal Group of Spain, for an undisclosed sum. Tobepal S.A. operates three plants in Spain, one at Burgos and two at Logrono, with combined sales of about $64.5 million. The three plants are said to be an excellent strategic fit with Amcor Flexibles Europe's existing operations and results in AFE having approximately 25 percent market share in Spain.

Paperboard Industries Intl. Inc., (Toronto, Ont.) changes its name to come under the banner of parent company Cascades Inc. It will now be known as Cascades Boxboard Group Inc. A similar change is occurring in all of Cascades's wholly-owned subsidiaries. Cascades is a leader in North America and Europe in the conversion of coated boxboard for folding cartons and micro-flute packaging. The company has an annual production capacity of 850,000 metric tons of boxboard and has seven boxboard mills on two continents.

Mitsubishi Polyester Film LLC says April 18 that it will convert one of its existing PET-film lines in Greer, SC, into the production of PET shrink film. The changeover is expected to be complete by the end of 2002 and will enable the Greer plant to produce 5,000 tons of PET shrink film a year. Statistics show growth in the shrink-film market over the past few years of as much as 15 percent annually. Industry experts believe the lack of production capacity of shrink films has restricted even this high rate of growth in the market.