Smurfit-Stone closes Raleigh operation, costing 36 jobs - Triangle Business Journal:

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Smurfit-Stone, which has dual headquarters in Chicago andCrevd Coeur, Mo., filed for bankruptcy protection in The Raleigh facility, which made corrugate cardboard packaging, operated out of leased spac e at 3801 Tarheel Drive. Production in Raleigh stopped onAprilp 23, says company spokesman Mike The closure resulted in the layoffs of five salarieds and 31 hourly employees. “We have othe r facilities in North Carolina,” Mullin says. “That work has been moveed to other facilities.” The other North Carolina operations arein Shelby, Winston-Salem and The Raleigh closure is one of five announceds during the second Mullin said.
The compang also has closed a facilityin Lexington, resultingv in layoffs for 78 workers. Mullin says the companyh continues to employ about 370 in North The company stated in its 2008 annual reporyt and its most recent quarterlyg report that it is making changes to adjust to marketr demand and improve profitability changes that mean closing some facilitiesw and layingoff workers. According to the annual as of Dec. 31, the company employed approximatel 21,300 at 162 Smurfit-Stone reported a 2008 loss of $2.8 billioj on revenue of more than $7 billion.
In lettere to suppliers and customers, Chairmanm and CEO Patrick Moore and President and COO Stevenb Klinger said the bankruptcy filing was promptex by economic conditions and the frozencredit markets. Time are tough for many companies in the paper andpackaging industry. Virginia-based MeadWestvaco said in February that it would curtaio plans to expandat ’sd Centennial Campus, choosing instead to open a facility in In a conference call to discuss firstf quarter financial results, MeadWestvaco CEO John Luke said he expects cuts in overheadf and facility closures to save $125 millio n by the end of 2009; the company is aiminbg for savings of more than $250 milliomn by 2010.
Professor Stephen Kelley, head of the Wood and Paperr Science Departmentat NCSU, says that whilee many paper companies are feeling not all segments of the paper industryg are feeling the same Newsprint is down, but tissue products and medical products, such as scrubsz and wraps, are experiencing an increase in Packaging demand is down, in part because the economic downturn has put a crimpp in consumer spending and, thus, product “If people aren’t buying stuff, then you don’t need packaging to put stufc in,” he says. Kelley says that in the long run, papert and packaging opportunities exisrfor companies.
He points to efforta to develop “advanced packaging,” such as boxeas incorporated with radio frequency identification tagsfor tracking. He also says changesx will be driven by large corporations thatconsumer packaging. , for example, is lookingf for ways to reduce packaging wastee andimprove recycling. Those efforta could drive packagingindustry developments, Kelley