Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd., Toronto, Ont., Canada, this week officially announced the creation of a new joint venture sheet feeder located in Carol Stream, Ill., USA (a suburb of Chicago). The new JV, BlackHawk Corrugated, will be co-owned and operated by Atlantic and its JV partner StandFast Packaging of Addison, Ill. Atlantic’s investment in BlackHawk will exceed $40 million and create in excess of 100 new jobs in the region. BlackHawk is expected to be fully operational by late 2015.

 

"As a privately held company with a strong balance sheet and a history of successfully green fielding our own paper mills and corrugated plants in Canada, Atlantic is prepared to move quickly and offer new JV opportunities to independent box plants across several U.S. regions that will create multiple profit centers for our partners and a clear path to full vertical integration that the traditional sheet feeder models simply cannot support," said Dave Boles, president at Atlantic. "We are not just looking for sheet supply contracts, but are also seeking to build true partnerships that will thrive and grow with us in the U.S. markets."

 

Given the rapid consolidation trends currently occurring in the U.S. and Canadian corrugated packaging markets, Atlantic’s expansion into several competitive U.S. markets is a critical part of its long-term growth strategy. Chicago is the first of several JV initiatives that Atlantic is currently in the process of developing across the Midwest and Northeastern regions of the U.S.