Consumer Packaging
Smurfit-Stone is one of North America’s leading suppliers of folding cartons, the largest producer of clay-coated recycled boxboard, and the industry’s largest producer and marketer of bag packaging products, including multiwall, consumer and specialty bags. SSCC operates one tube plant and a bag packaging equipment facility to support bag packaging customers. In addition, SSCC’s flexible packaging business produces plastic film bags and rollstock for use in wraps, labels, lids and specialty pouches.
SSCC’s packaging products are designed to create consumer appeal through high quality graphics, innovative materials and user friendly designs. The company’s packaging products safely and effectively ship a variety of industrial and consumer products. SSCC’s consumer packaging business also includes printed paper, foil and DI-NA-CAL® heat-transfer labels. SSCC is a leader in high quality lithographic preprinted corrugated packaging under the trademark Lithoflute™.
Smurfit-Stone offers an extensive and unique range of support services, including full-service design (structural and graphics), engineering services, electronic data interchange capability, e-procurement, research and development, technical and graphic centers, and contract packaging services to meet both promotional and production needs.
FOLDING CARTON AND BOXBOARD MILL OPERATIONS
Folding Cartons: SSCC offers a full range of carton styles with high impact graphic capabilities, appropriate for nearly all carton end uses. The company meets customer needs for high quality and short-cycle order management with a combination of leading-edge production equipment, digital prepress, e-business customer interfaces and a commitment to customer service. The customer base consists of consumer goods producers in packaged foods, beverages, fast food, soap, paper, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
Folding cartons protect customers’ products while providing point-of-purchase advertising. SSCC’s folding carton plants offer extensive converting capabilities, including sheet and web lithography; rotogravure and flexographic printing; laminating; and a full range of finishing capabilities.
Boxboard: The company’s clay-coated recycled boxboard mills produce the broadest range of recycled grades in the industry, including clay-coated newsback, kraftback and whiteback; as well as waxable and laminated grades. The company also offers value-added laminated films, holograms and multiple board and extruded products. SSCC’s folding carton facilities consume nearly two-thirds of the company’s boxboard output. All of SSCC’s boxboard is made from 100 percent recycled fiber.
Lithoflute™: SSCC offers a wide range of litho-laminate miniflute capabilities through its folding carton plant infrastructure. Lithoflute™ is available in B-, E-, F-, or N-flutes. Value-added capabilities include embossing, tear-tape, foil stamping, ultra-violet coating, decorative films and foil laminations, handles and window film applications. Key end-use market segments include food, beverage, household products, sporting goods, small appliances, small electronics and point-of-purchase displays.
Folding carton and boxboard mill operations located in the United States include:
- 17 folding carton plants
- 4 clay-coated recycled boxboard mills
| UNITS (THOUSAND TONS) | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
| Folding Cartons and Boxboard Mills | |||
| Folding Cartons Shipped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 517 | 514 | 504 |
| Coated Recycled Boxboard Produced . . . . . . . . . . | 560 | 577 | 582 |
BAG PACKAGING OPERATIONS
Multiwall Bag Packaging: SSCC’s bag packaging is specifically designed to safely and effectively package, protect and ship a wide range of industrial and commercial products, including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, building products, concrete, food, fertilizer and salt.
Multiwall bag packaging can be customized with easy-open features, handles and resealable closures. A variety of styles, liners, treatments and coatings can be incorporated into bags to solve particular packaging challenges. In addition, the company has developed and patented many innovative multiwall bag styles that have solved specific packaging challenges.
Consumer Bag Packaging: SSCC is the industry’s leading manufacturer of small consumer bags for food and other retail products, including pet food and litter, cookies, flour, baking mixes and microwave popcorn. The company’s outstanding graphics capabilities inspire customer creativity and enhance the shelf presence and marketability of products.
Specialty Bag Packaging: These bags include a variety of specialty packaging products to fit specific needs: environmental bags, such as YardMaster®, used for lawn and yard waste; trash compactor bags, such as KitchenMaster®; and industrial wraps used for wrapping roofing shingles.
Packaging Equipment and Systems: An integral part of SSCC’s bag packaging operations, this business offers a complete line of bag packaging equipment and systems that complement our multiwall and bulk bags. These include placing, filling, weighing, closing and sealing equipment. These machines package more than one thousand different commodities. Other equipment includes bag conveyors, bag flatteners, checkweighers and bag palletizers. The patented Ultrasonic Sealer seals multiwall valve bags. The company’s bag packaging equipment group in Salt Lake City, Utah, provides engineers and technicians to help customers develop a complete packaging system.
Bag packaging operations located in the United States include:
- 11 bag plants (which includes a technical and graphics center)
- 1 bag packaging equipment plant
| 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | |
| Bag Packaging | |||
| Multiwall Bags Shipped (million bags) . . . . . . . . . . | 1,157 | 1,156 | 1,162 |
| Kraft Paper Produced (thousand tons) . . . . . . . . . | 259 | 293 | 283 |
LABEL, COATING AND LAMINATING, FLEXIBLE PACKAGING AND OTHER OPERATIONS
Labels: SSCC’s label products include printed paper, foil, and DI-NA-CAL® heat-transfer labels for a wide range of industrial and consumer applications. DI-NA-CAL® is a proprietary labeling system that applies high-speed heat-transfer labels to plastic containers. Smurfit-Stone’s DI-NA-CAL® label group also provides application equipment and technical support. Other unique and creative products include specialized laminations of film, foil and paper.
SSCC’s litho label group uses state-of-the-art equipment that maximizes cost efficiencies, while also accommodating customized orders. SSCC produces paper-based cut and stack labels on both small- and large-format presses. In addition, Smurfit-Stone offers full-service prepress capabilities.
Flexible Packaging: Smurfit-Stone manufactures a complete line of plain and printed polyethylene bags, sheeting and tubing in a variety of colors with custom treatments for specific applications. SSCC is an industry leader in packaging hard-to-hold products, condiments for fast food, pharmaceutical/healthcare technologies, flexo film printing, and servicing multi-design and multi-structure accounts.
Based in Portage, Indiana, SSCC’s contract packaging operations provide promotional packaging and contract manufacturing for a variety of industries.
Label, coating and laminating, flexible packaging and other operations in North America include:
- 4 label plants
- 2 lamination plants
- 5 flexible packaging plants
- 1 tube plant
- 1 contract packaging facility and multiple related on-site operations
SERVICES
The consumer packaging operations’ innovation center, located in Carol Stream, Illinois, serves as a focal point for packaging innovation and supports the company’s product development efforts. The center serves as a creative venue for brainstorming and collaborating with customers on innovative packaging ideas, as well as an internal resource center for new product innovation champions, business development, and research and development teams. Smurfit-Stone’s innovation team uses a collaborative process with outside alliances, the various business units within Smurfit-Stone, and a close working relationship with customers and prospects to bring the best ideas forward and provide top line revenue growth. The innovation center exemplifies Smurfit-Stone’s commitment to providing its customers with the most innovative packaging products in the marketplace.
SSCC’s technical and graphics center, located at the Cantonment, Florida, multiwall bag packaging plant, offers customers a one-stop shop for unsurpassed technical and graphics expertise. The center provides customers with product development, package design and a host of other services to create the ideal package.