WestRock has entered into agreements to acquire substantially all of the assets of Plymouth Packaging, Inc, a corrugated packaging company that derives approximately 70% of its sales from its ‘Box on Demand’ systems and corrugated fanfold and 30% from traditional corrugated packaging.
Plymouth’s ‘Box on Demand’ systems are located on the customer’s site and use fanfold corrugated to produce custom, on-demand corrugated packaging that is accurately sized for any product type according to the customer’s specifications.
Approximately 40% of the ‘Box on Demand’ systems’ sales are to e-commerce customers, with the remaining customers serving building products, furniture and other markets. Plymouth currently supplies more than 100 customers with proprietary machines, manufactured by Panotec. As part of the transaction, WestRock will acquire Plymouth’s equity interest in Panotec and Plymouth’s exclusive right to distribute Panotec’s equipment in the United States and Canada.
The acquisition of Plymouth will further integrate the company’s containerboard system. WestRock currently provides one-third of the nearly 60,000 tons of containerboard used by Plymouth annually and intends to fully integrate these tons after the transaction closes. WestRock expects additional containerboard integration opportunities as the company serves this growing on-demand packaging market.
Plymouth was founded in 1991 by Paul Magnell and is currently owned by the Magnell family. Greg Magnell is currently the president of the company and will continue in his leadership role following the closing of the transaction. The transaction includes Plymouth’s fanfold corrugated facilities in Battle Creek, Michigan; Ft. Worth, Texas; and Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania; and all of the company-owned ‘Box on Demand’ machines located in customers’ facilities.
