Business News

Graphic Packaging Completes Divestiture of Two Coated-Recycled Board Mills

Thursday 18. September 2008 - Department of Justice Approves Sale to an Affiliate of Sun Capital Partners

Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE: GPK), announced today that it has completed the divestiture of two coated-recycled board (CRB) mills with the approval of the U.S. Department of Justice pursuant to the Consent Decree governing the combination of Graphic Packaging International, Inc. and Altivity Packaging, LLC in March 2008. As announced previously, the Company is selling the CRB mills, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in Wabash, Indiana, to an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, Inc. known as PaperWorks Industries, Inc.

“We are pleased that the divestiture has been approved by the Department of Justice and we will remain focused on producing paperboard as part of our core business. By completing these sales quickly, we may continue to move forward aggressively to achieve our announced synergy target of $90 million by 2010, two years ahead of plan,” said David W. Scheible, president and chief executive officer, Graphic Packaging.

Graphic Packaging is a leading manufacturer of paperboard, with an annual capacity of approximately 855,000 tons of coated-recycled board and approximately 1.3 million tons of coated unbleached kraft paperboard.