According to a report by The Sturgis Journal, Sturgis, Mich., USA, Graydon Fox, chairman of Lakeland Paper Corp., (Sturgis, Mich.) and Russell Carter, president of Atlantic Packaging (Marietta, Ga.), announced this past Wednesday that Atlantic Packaging has bought the operating assets of Lakeland Paper.

Lakeland Paper’s equipment and employees, located at 506 Prairie St., in Sturgis, will be moved across town to Atlantic Packaging’s facility on North Centerville Road. The move will take place over the next several months. The combined plant will initially employ about 90 people and allow for the expansion of the operation in the future, according to Fox.

Lakeland Paper was founded in April 1972 by six employees of Rockford Paperboard Co. At the time, Rockford owned the folding carton plant in Sturgis, which is now Americraft Carton. Over the past 43 years, Lakeland Paper has grown to where it now supplies sheeted paperboard to paper merchants and packaging plants throughout the Midwest.

Atlantic Packaging is a 70-year-old family-owned business. It operates the same type of business in the southeastern U.S. as Lakeland Paper does in the Midwest. In 2014, Atlantic acquired the paperboard converting operations of International Paper. This included the International Paper plant in Sturgis.

 

As Atlantic expands its business out of the Sturgis operation, it will continue to stress high quality and service to the marketplace, Fox said.

No financial information on the transaction was made available.