• Carton market continues healthy expansion: Growth in folding-carton shipments has remained positive now for 14 months, according to the Alexandria, VA-based Paperboard Packaging Council. March 2004 alone saw 4.5 percent growth in shipments, when measured in dollars, and a 3.6 percent rise in tonnage.
• Deal grows IP's box biz: Stamford, CT-based International Paper agrees April 21 to acquire Box USA Holdings, Inc., a corrugated packaging converter headquartered in Northbrook, IL. The buy is consistent with IP's strategy to grow its three core businesses of paper, packaging and forest products. IP will unite Box USA's 23 packaging plants with its existing network of 48 industrial packaging facilities. Box USA owns one containerboard mill and has partial ownership of another.
• Corrugated Acquisition No. 2: Montreal-based Norampac, Inc., acquires the shares of Johnson Corrugated Products, an independent converter in Thompson, CT. The investment will allow Norampac to increase its integration and North American presence, the company says. The Thompson facility has an annual capacity of more than 750 million sq ft. Norampac, which owns eight containerboard mills and 25 corrugated plants in Canada, the US and France, is a joint venture between Canada's Domtar, Inc., and Cascades, Inc.
• Sealing a foil deal: Alcoa completes the sale of its Russellville, AR, and St. Louis, MO, foil facilities (Alumax Foils) to JW Aluminum. Alumax manufactures aluminum foil as a primary substrate for converters to further process into packaging, industrial tapes and insulation. In December 2003, JW Aluminum became a member of Wellspring Capital Management LLC. The sale is part of Alcoa's divestiture program. Proceeds will be used to pay down debt, Alcoa says.
• What's in a name? Englewood, CO-based converter and printer Mail-Well, Inc., gives itself a new name and corporate identity. Effective May 17, it will officially become Cenveo™ (pronounced senn-VAY-oh), representing a streamlined reorganization. Mail-Well provides a variety of e-services, envelopes, offset and digital printing as well as printed office products.
• Joint venture to the core: Sonoco-Alcore is the new JV formed by Finland's Ahlstrom Corp. and Sonoco, Hartsville, SC, to make paper-based cores, tubes and coreboard in Europe. Sonoco-Alcore has net sales of approximately $360 million. By combining Ahlstrom's presence in the Nordic markets with Sonoco's position in central and southern Europe, the JV will be able to further improve its ability to serve customers, the companies say.

Gallus Ferd. Rüesch AG, the St. Gallen, Switzerland-based flexographic press manufacturer, win top honors in the Flexographic Technical Assn.'s 2004 Environmental Excellence competition. Southern Graphic Systems, Philadelphia, received an honorable mention in the fourth annual contest.

Gallus was recognized for its Corporate Environmental Program, which has helped the supplier continuously cut energy consumption and associated costs.

"Gallus presented us with a very well-executed plan for addressing environmental and energy issues both in the plant and in the equipment it was selling to the industry," says Fred Shapiro, a consultant based in Silver Spring, MD, and a retired FTA Board Member and Hall of Famer. "A key issue regarding compliance with regulations has always been the role of the supplier of the materials. If good environmental management started with the manufacturer of the presses in the design of its equipment, we could look to improved compliance on the part of the printers. Gallus provided this assurance in its programs and in the results of its own in-house efforts."