MM Group to close PM3 at Kwidzyn mill in Poland

Hood Container Corporation announced that it has acquired the corrugated packaging business of Walker, MI based Kentwood Packaging Inc. The transaction includes all of Kentwood’s design, manufacturing, assembly, and fulfillment operations in Walker, including its membership in Great Lakes Wax Coatings, LLC. Jack Skoog and Tom Boluyt, co-owners of Kentwood Packaging Corporation, stated, “We have built this business successfully over the last 30 years by creating a customer-centric business model. Our focus has been to partner and collaborate with our employees, customers, and suppliers. We are extremely excited to be joining a family-owned company in Hood, whose values and culture truly mirror ours. We will be a stronger partner for our customers with the benefits of Hood’s national footprint and their ability to offer vertical supply chain integration.” Jack Skoog will continue his leadership role in this market as General Manager and Tom Boluyt after 41 years at KPC will be enjoying his retirement. Tom commented, “We have incredible employees and customers at KPC, and I have enjoyed working with them over all these years. I think they will benefit from being part of Hood Container.” Jack added, “I expect a seamless transition and look forward to a successful future with Hood Container.”

Net sales for the second quarter of 2017 were $1,021.8 million, an increase of $147.2 million, or 16.8 percent, as compared to $874.6 million in 2016. This increase was the result of the acquisition of Dispensing Systems in April 2017 and higher net sales across all of the businesses. Income from operations for the second quarter of 2017 was $75.2 million, an increase of $7.5 million, or 11.1 percent, as compared to $67.7 million for the second quarter of 2016, while operating margin decreased to 7.4 percent from 7.7 percent for the same periods. The increase in income from operations was the result of the net benefit from the acquisition of Dispensing Systems and higher income from operations in each of the businesses. The decrease in operating margin was due primarily to the negative impact from the purchase accounting write-up of inventory of Dispensing Systems and acquisition related costs in the quarter. Rationalization charges were $3.0 million and $5.0 million in the second quarters of 2017 and 2016, respectively. Click Read More below for additional details.

Solenis, a leading global producer of specialty chemicals, has opened two new international centers of excellence to help drive more sustainable solutions for the consumer paper packaging industry. One center is virtual, allowing customers to participate remotely in lab experiments, while the other center is in a new facility in Mönchengladbach, Germany. Both centers are designed to simulate and test customer processes, treatment programs and paper/paperboard properties to optimize performance, efficiency and costs while focusing on sustainability. Meanwhile, the newly opened Mönchengladbach center includes application and testing equipment such as Rapid-Köthen and dynamic sheet formers, a lotion paper coater, different types of refiners and more. Solenis plans to add a hot air sealing device as well. The center also offers repulping and recycling capabilities in combination with contaminant control assessments for barrier coating performance testing.