Two more CEOs, one from the US and one from Europe, were added to the Fastmarkets North America and International Containerboard Conference (ICC) event for this month in Chicago. About 350-400 attendees are registered for the event.
The conference is on Oct. 28-30 at the Westin Chicago River North hotel.
M2S CEO Paul Charapata and RDM Group CEO Michele Bianchi are both speaking in the North America CEO/Leaders panel discussion about industry issues on the morning of Oct. 30.
M2S Group recently completed the acquisition of Iconex Label, a leading provider of variable information labels for ecommerce and shipping, foodservice, grocery and retail, pharmacy, and other end-use markets, from Atlas Holdings.
Completing 10 acquisitions in 18 years, M2S Group is now a leading material science company comprised of four business units including Nekoosa, Iconex, Decorative Films, and Appvion.
M2S Group is owned by Wynnchurch Capital Partners based in Rosemont, IL. Wynnchurch has more than $9 billion of regulatory assets under management and supports a broad portfolio of companies with a combined revenue of more than $9 billion.
In all, market contacts said that M2S is highly positioned in the growing label business in the US, especially including e-commerce activity.
Bianchi started in 2016 as CEO of RDM Group, a recycled cartonboard producer in Italy, France, The Netherlands, and in the Iberian Peninsula. Bianchi started his career in packaging with SCA, which was acquired in 2012 by DS Smith. Bianchi for 15 years was in several Sr management positions, including eight years of international experience, prior to joining RDM Group.
Top NA CEO last year Doss on panel. With Charapata and Bianchi on the North American panel are Graphic Packaging CEO Mike Doss and Iconex chmn Craig Gunckel. Graphic Packaging is the first or second largest boxboard company in North America and operates a large converting business in boxboard in Europe as well. Doss was selected by analysts as the North American CEO of the Year in 2023. Gunckel was named to the board of M2S Group after the recent acquisition and remains as the CEO of the Iconex receipt solutions business that is owned by Atlas Holdings.
The moderator for the CEO panel on Oct. 30 will be long-time industry Wall Street analyst George Staphos of BofA Securities. Staphos has been moderator of CEO panels at the Fastmarkets and RISI events for over 10 years.
The day before the North American CEO/Leaders panel will be the CEO/Leaders panel on Oct. 29 on containerboard. This panel will kick off the conference after opening remarks.
The ICC panel leaders are Charles Malo, the president and COO of Cascades Containerboard Packaging; Luis Gerardo Gonzales, the CEO of Mexico’s CartoMicro, the largest or one of the largest independent boxmakers in Mexico; Markus Gartner, the Mondi Corrugated Packaging CEO; and Steve Henry, the president of Paper and Packaging for Paper Excellence Group.
Both Malo and Henry at their companies started up new 100% recycled containerboard machines in 2023. Henry’s company started its machine in Kingsport, TN, and Cascades started one in Ashland, VA. Both machines were converted, with Kingport from uncoated freesheet paper and Ashland from newsprint, to recycled containerboard.
Mondi was the first to try to acquire DS Smith, before International Paper (IP) jumped in with an offer. DS Smith shareholders approved the deal with IP last week. Last week, Mondi announced an agreement to acquire western Europe’s Schumacher Packaging for an enterprise value of Euro 634 million, or about $693 million.
Mexico is the No. 1 destination for US unbleached kraft linerboard exports, with shipments up by 4.3% so far this year through August. Mexico in 2023 became the No. 1 exporter of all goods to the US, replacing China.
The containerboard market in North America and Mexico, and globally is in a slow rebound since second quarter this year from a steep fall in demand from mid-2022 through early 2024 due to destocking along the supply chain. Linerboard prices increased twice in the first seven months of 2024 in North America and Europe.
Southern to be honored as top NA CEO. And the North American 2024 CEO of the Year, as chosen by industry analysts, will be honored on Oct. 29. Louisiana Pacific’s (LP) Brad Southern won the top honor for 2024 and for the second time in the last six years. Analysts credited him as a pure leader and one who in the last year has transformed LP’s building products business.
In addition to the CEOs, the conference features industry hot button topics about M&As, e-commerce, Artificial Intelligence, sustainability, and shipping. And Fastmarkets’ analysts and economists will present their two-year reports on the global economy, containerboard in North America and Latin America, boxboard, market pulp, and recovered paper.
The conference comes just as the second of two large M&As were close to completion. IP and DS Smith shareholders approved their deal last week. IP is acquiring DS Smith for $7.6 billion.
Active M&A environment. Just in the last year, four multicontinental deals involving paper producers were announced and one was completed, with Smurfit Kappa acquiring WestRock for $11 billion to create Smurfit Westrock, in one of the largest ever deals in industry history. The largest pulp and paper and forest industry M&A was the 2005 $13.2 billion Koch Industries acquisition of Georgia-Pacific (GP). The Koch/GP deal was $21 billion when including GP debt.
Along with the Smurfit Westrock and IP/DS Smith deals, Sofidel of Italy in a nearly $1.06 billion deal by yearend plans to acquire the Clearwater Paper tissue business in the US and Sonoco is to acquire European food cans and packaging manufacturer Eviosys for $3.9 billion from KPS Capital Partners. And Mondi last week announced the near $700 million potential containerboard/corrugated acquisition in western Europe.
Smurfit Westrock CEO Tony Smurfit will not deliver a headlining presentation at the event this year because of the company’s first earnings report as Smurfit Westrock will be released during the conference.
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