Graphic Packaging streamlines label business

Graphic Packaging International, a subsidiary of Graphic Packaging Holding Company, plans to streamline its label business in the United States by closing the label manufacturing facility located in St Charles, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, early in 2009.

The St Charles label facility provides ‘cut and stack’ paper labels to the food and healthcare industries. Label production will continue through year-end to fulfill customer orders and support the peak demand in the third and fourth quarters. The company plans to move business from the St Charles site during the first quarter of 2009.

‘This is another strong step under our integration plan to optimize our manufacturing footprint and achieve the announced operating synergies of $90 million by 2010,’ said David W. Scheible, president and chief executive. ‘We believe this decision strengthens our ability to support growing regional markets from our most efficiently run label facilities, and will continue our aggressive earnings improvement in spite of the challenging operating environment.’