Caraustar’s Mill Group is comprised of 15 paperboard mills and five specialty converting facilities that process recycled paper into a wide variety of 100 percent recycled paperboard products for industrial and consumer use.

The Mill Group total production of 1.0 million tons of recycled paperboard in 2000 makes Caraustar the industry leader with approximately 16 percent of total market share. We continue to be the number one overall supplier of recycled boxboard in the U.S. and one of the top three suppliers to the recycled folding carton and other specialty markets. We are the number two supplier of paperboard for the tube, core and composite container market and are also the largest independent supplier of gypsum wallboard facing paper in North America.

Overall, Caraustar services four primary end-use markets with 20 percent of our volume going into wallboard facing papers, 24 percent into tubes and cores, 22 percent into other specialty products and 34 percent into folding cartons. Excellent grade flexibility at our mills provides the ability to manufacture paperboard for at least two of the four primary markets at each mill, ensuring full product market support and maximum capacity utilization. The ability to manufacture recycled paperboard and service these four primary industry markets differentiates Caraustar from its competitors.

The gypsum facing paper mills experienced a significant addition with the July 2000 startup of Premier Boxboard Limited (PBL). This joint venture with Temple-Inland Inc. completed a 14-month, $82 million conversion project that utilizes high-speed, multi-ply Fourdrinier technology to create a new generation, lightweight paperboard product for the gypsum wallboard industry. This lightweight product is a key component to the success of our customers’ new high speed gypsum wallboard manufacturing plants. The combination of the PBL mill with the Sweetwater and Buffalo mills gives us the unique ability to supply the full range of traditional, specialty, and new technology facing papers to the gypsum wallboard industry.

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