GREEN BAY — Green Bay Packaging Inc. on Wednesday announced a multi-year investment to modernize its 59-year-old pulp and containerboard mill about 40 miles northwest of Little Rock, Arkansas.
The company in a media release said the “substantial investment” will enhance infrastructure at the Kraft mill in Morrilton, Arkansas, on the banks of the Arkansas River, and improve the sustainability of Green Bay Packaging’s operations in the state.
“To uphold our commitment to innovation and excellence, we recognize the importance of investing in future technology,” said Matt Szymanski, vice president of mill operations, in a media release. “These investments only happen because of our hard-working and loyal workforce and a supportive community in Morrilton, Arkansas.”
Green Bay Packaging’s Morrilton, Arkansas, paper mill.
Provided by Green Bay Packaging
The company declined to provide details on how much it will spend on the expansion. Arkansas is the latest in a series of expansions and upgrades the company has undertaken since 2018 when it announced plans to build a new paper mill in Green Bay at a cost in excess of $500 million.
Here’s what we know about the expansion plans and Green Bay Packaging’s recent investments in the Green Bay area and beyond.
New boilers will cut greenhouse gas emissions
The modernization effort will upgrade the mill’s existing recovery boiler and biomass boiler infrastructure. Green Bay Packaging also plans to install an electric turbine generator which will substantially reduce the mill’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Green Bay Packaging will purchase another 300 acres in Arkansas
The modernization and expansion efforts also will see the company acquire another 300 acres of land near the paper mill. The company also owns more than 250,000 acres of forest land in Arkansas.
The company, as part of the modernization, plans to purchase another 300 acres of land near the mill to accommodate future expansions.
Green Bay Packaging’s new paper mill on Quincy Street in Green Bay on Feb. 17, 2022.
Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Will this investment create new jobs at the Arkansas mill?
The Arkansas mill currently employs 412 people. Green Bay Packaging declined to say whether the investments would create any new jobs.
But the company said the investment “reflects the company’s ongoing dedication and commitment to our workforce and Arkansas,” said Bryan Hollenbach, Green Bay Packaging’s executive vice president.
“By updating the facility and investing in new technologies, GBP aims to foster innovation while ensuring a sustainable operation for years,” Hollenbach said in the media release. “We will be working closely with the state of Arkansas to make this happen.”
George Kress in 1965 said the Arkansas mill would strengthen its Green Bay operations
George Kress, then-chairman of Green Bay Packaging, on Jan. 12, 1965, announced the company would build a multimillion dollar pulp and paper mill near Morrilton, according to that day’s Green Bay Press-Gazette. George Kress said the site was chosen for its proximity to two national forests to supply southern pine, access to Interstate 40 and strong local labor supply.
The company didn’t disclose the cost at the time, but Kraft paper mills built at the time have cost up to $20 million, the Press-Gazette reported.
Kress said the mill would not take work away from Green Bay operations, but augment it.
“In fact, our operation (in Green Bay) will be strengthened and the southern mill will more than likely stimulate its further growth,” Kress said in the Press-Gazette.
Packaging also expanded, invested in Arizona, Wisconsin operations
Investments at the Arkansas paper mill continues the company’s recent wave of large-scale investments to modernize its operations at several of its 40 facilities spread across 16 states.
- Green Bay Packaging invested more than $500 million to construct a new paper mill, the first in the state in decades. The company completed construction of the mill in early 2021 and it was up and running by spring. The mill in 2022 set a new standard for net-zero water use for a paper mill.
- The company in 2022 and 2023 built a 600,000-square-foot “super plant” in Fort Worth, Texas, that tripled the size of its previous corrugator plant.
- The company has also expanded and upgraded its facilities and operations in Ashwaubenon in recent years.
- And in August 2024, the company purchased 80 acres in Casa Grande, Arizona, where it plans to build a new box factory in the future.
Contact business reporter Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or jbollier@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffBollier.