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May 2013 | $10www.canadianpackaging.com

In thIs Issue: Flexible Packaging • Metal detection • Filling & caPPing

You saY potato… Page 26

oN tHE RoaD aGaINatlantic packaging set to shake up the corrugated

industry with pioneering product innovationStory on page 10

David Boles,President

Irving Granovsky, Chairman,

Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd.

BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITORPHOTOS BY COLE GARSIDE

Second chances are something of a rare com-modity in the cutthroat competitive corru-gated packaging markets these days, but for

a newly-restarted corrugating mill just outside Toronto in Whitby, Ont., sweet dreams are made of a welcome second lease on life.

Owned by the Toronto-headquartered paper packaging products group Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd., the former newsprint manufac-turing facility—idled in 2010 due to free-falling newsprint prices and excess industry capacity—is currently in the process of completing a massive, multimillion-dollar plant upgrade aiming to pos-ition the facility as the home production venue for what may be one of the more innovative new products developed by North American corru-gated producers in recent times.

All geared-up and ready-to-go for spring deliv-ery to customers in both Canada and northern

U.S., the patented new SmartCorr paper made at the Whitby plant’s fully-rebuilt papermaking machine will underpin the 68-year-old com-pany’s most ambitious and far-reaching foray into the U.S. export markets to date this spring, according to the company’s presi-dent David Boles.

Coming Up“They know we are coming, and they all know that we really mean business,” asserts Boles, a high-energy Montreal native with a booming voice and imposing physical presence well-befit-ting a former univer-sity football player.

“This new SmartCorr

will be a game-changer in the North American cor-rugated industry,” Boles told Canadian Packagingon a recent visit to the company’s corporate head-quarters in east-end Toronto, about a half-hour drive from the Whitby plant.

“We have made a major, multimillion-dollar cap-ital investment in the Whitby facility to produce this product, and you cannot recoup that kind of investment without expanding your market reach.

“What has enabled Atlantic Packaging to grow through all these years is the way the company has always approached the business with a long-term thinking mindset, and it is no secret that the real long-term growth opportunities for our company nowadays are definitely in the U.S.,” says Boles.

“Of course, we would not going through all the cost and effort of finding new markets if we did not believe we have the right product to sell into those markets,” Boles acknowledges.

Strong Belief“But we strongly believe that the SmartCorr paper is exactly the kind of product that those markets will show great demand for—particularly among the CPG (consumer packaged goods) manufactur-ing industries,” Boles says. “Quite simply, this is not the kind of product they can get anywhere else.

“We are the only ones to make what I would dare call a truly revolutionary product—at least in the context of a rather stagnant corrugating indus-try that has so far not really delivered the sort of breakthrough technological innovation that its customers have been demanding in recent years.”States Boles: “SmartCorr is the first true light-weight recycled paper available in North America—offering customers sustainability and strength characteristics unlike anything available in the market today.

“The make-up and equipment traditionally employed in a newsprint mill makes it an ideal site for the production of lightweight recycled paper production, with some upgrades and altera-tions of course,” says Boles, adding the SmartCorrpaper will offer a broad range of performance attributes—from high-impact color printability to advanced micro-f luting design

COVER STORY

10 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM CANADIAN PACKAGING • MAY 2013

THE PAPER

TRAILCanadian corrugated packaging stalwart taking its act on the high road with innovative new products

and recharged production capabilities

Atlantic Packaging Products chairman Irving Granovsky (left) and president David Boles pose outside of the company’s Toronto headquarters in front of a freshly-repainted trailer destined for many U.S.-bound deliveries of the newly-launched SmartCorr range of packaging papers produced at the company’s papermaking plant in Whitby, Ont.

A long-time supplier to the Canadian beer industry, Atlantic Packaging Products has vastly expanded and diversi� ed its product portfolio over the years, today offering a compre-hensive selection of high-quality corrugated and � exible packaging solutions that include merchandising displays, pizza boxes and retail-ready packaging for consumer electronics and appliances. (See pictures on following pages)

capabilities—while consuming between 20 and 30 per cent less fiber in the manufacturing process than conventional liner papers.

Made from 100-percent recycled OCC (old cor-rugated container) fibers, the SmartCorr liner papers boast unique construction and design properties that will help deliver “higher performance” in terms of strength, product protection and package integrity to enable CPG manufacturing customers achieve substantial and meaningful reduction in the overall packaging footprint of their products, the company insists.

“Not only will this SmartCorr paper help CPGs improve the sustainability profile of their packaging as demanded by most major North American retail-ers, but it will also provide additional value by virtue of enabling a higher packaging performance,” asserts Atlantic Packaging chairman Irving Granovsky, who joined his father’s company back in 1957 upon graduating as a mechanical engineer from the University of Toronto.

Adding ValueAdds Boles: “Major retailers like Walmart are constantly pressuring the packaging industry as a whole to reduce pack-aging and to utilize materials that are more sustainable.

“That’s a major market trend that has been progressing for years,” he points out, “but unfortu-nately this is the one key area where the North American corrugated industry has not pro-duced any significant advancements.

“But SmartCorr is going to change all that!”

Boles relates that the new product has already attracted enough inter-est from prospective U.S. clients to justify the comprehensive, top-to-bottom “transformatory

rebuild” of the plant’s original paper machine that will eventually reach daily production capacity of 1,100 tonnes of paper.

A long-time industry trailblazer in implementing ‘Lean Manufacturing’ practices throughout all of its operations, Atlantic Packaging is “very well-positioned” to make a big impact in the U.S. mar-kets—for now extending to about a 550-mile radius from the Whitby plant—thanks to its competitive internal cost structure and the SmartCorr brand’s clear performance advantages, according to Boles.

High Stakes“The fact that we are entering the U.S. markets at a time of a high Canadian dollar that is virtually

on par with U.S. currency is a testament to our confidence in this unique product,” Boles ref lects.

“We have realized for some time that for Canadian manufacturers of any product, not just packaging, being competitive nowadays means being competitive on a North American basis and not hiding

behind a low Canadian dollar, which frankly I don’t see dropping to low levels any time soon.”

According to Boles and Granovsky, operating as a vertically-integrated corrugated business—main-taining full control of the entire supply chain from fiber collection to its own f leet of tractor-trailers—enables the company to keep its operating costs in line through continuos improvement in all aspects of its operations, while in turn generating the

necessary funds to reinvest back into cutting-edge R&D (research-and-development) to pioneer innovative new products like the SmartCorr papers.“The vertically-inte-

grated model not only enables us to be in full control of our own des-tiny,” Boles remarks, “but also to provide a full ‘one-stop-shop’ destination for our customers, to take care of all their packaging needs.“Our customers really

appreciate us giving them the peace of mind they need to focus

on their core business at hand.”

Employing about 1,500 people across Ontario and Quebec, Atlantic Packaging currently oper-ates four corrugated plants—in addition to its Toronto-based Add Ink decorative and display packaging business and several boxmaking facili-ties owned jointly with its St-Laurent, Que.-headquartered sister company Mitchel-Lincoln Packaging Ltd.

Boles relates that Atlantic has already secured partnership agreements with a number of reputable U.S.-based distributors and logistics services provid-ers to ensure smooth and reliable shipment deliv-eries of SmartCorr products to all the U.S. accounts.

Says Boles: “We are big enough to be very resource-ful when necessary, but we are also small enough to be very nimble when we have to be in order to act very quickly to satisfy our customers’ requests.

“No customer is too big or to small for us to pro-vide them with the best customer service in the industry,” he states, “and you never really satisfy your customer by merely being a ‘me too’ company.”

Adds Granovsky: “We have always been ahead of the curve in terms of providing top customer service.

MAY 2013 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 11

COVER STORY

“ Not only will this SmartCorr paper help CPGs improve the sustainability pro� le of their packaging as demanded by most major North American retailers, but it will also provide additional value by virtue of enabling a higher packaging performance.”— Irving Granovsky, Chairman,

Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd.

“ No customer is too big or to small for us to provide them with the best customer service in the industry, and you never really satisfy your customer by merely being a ‘me too’ company.”— David Boles, President,

Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd.

constantly pressuring the packaging industry as a whole to reduce pack-aging and to utilize materials that are more sustainable.

“That’s a major market trend that has been progressing for years,” he points out, “but unfortu-nately this is the one key area where the North American corrugated industry has not pro-duced any significant advancements.

“But SmartCorr is going to change all that!”

Boles relates that the new product has already attracted enough inter-est from prospective U.S. clients to justify the comprehensive, top-to-bottom “transformatory

a vertically-integrated corrugated business—main-taining full control of the entire supply chain from fiber collection to its own f leet of tractor-trailers—enables the company to keep its operating costs in line through continuos improvement in all aspects of its operations, while in turn generating the

necessary funds to reinvest back into cutting-edge R&D (research-and-development) to pioneer innovative new products like the SmartCorr papers.“The vertically-inte-

grated model not only enables us to be in full control of our own des-tiny,” Boles remarks, “but also to provide a full ‘one-stop-shop’ destination for our customers, to take care of all their packaging needs.“Our customers really

appreciate us giving them the peace of mind they need to focus

on their core business at hand.”

COVER STORY

12 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM CANADIAN PACKAGING • MAY 2013

“We are proud to have maintained a virtually f lawless record in terms of on-time deliveries,” he points out, “while also building up the required capabilities to serve all of our customers’ unique needs and requirements.

“One of their biggest requirements right now is to improve the environmental footprint of their product packaging while also improving its per-formance, which is exactly where our introduction of SmartCorr and reopening of the Whitby plant fit in,” Granovsky explains.

“At a time when other corrugated producers

are downsizing their operations and pro-duction to stay af loat, we are proud to be creating dozens of new jobs at the Whitby facility, while also really put-ting our name on the map as a major player in the North American cor-rugated industry,” adds Boles, cred-iting the company’s highly-energetic,

Forever Young: Atlantic Packaging Timelines1945 Co-founders Abraham Granovsky and his son Phil Granovsky start

up Atlantic Packaging Products Limited in small Toronto facility to manufacture paper bags.

1957 Irving Granovsky, Abraham’s other son, joins the company on a full-time basis after graduating with a diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto.

1960 Atlantic Packaging takes the � rst step towards vertical integration, while commencing production of corrugated containers—initially for internal use and soon after expanding it for sale to other companies.

1963 Atlantic Packaging moves to larger premises in the Toronto’s east-end suburb of Scarborough at 111 Progress Avenue, which remains the company’s corporate headquarters to this day. The move enables Atlantic to install its � rst corrugator to produce containerboard—eliminating the need to purchase paper from outside suppliers.

1967 With limited access to paper from outside sources, Atlantic Packaging pioneers the use of 100-percent recycled containerboard in North America by commissioning the construction of its � rst paper mill paper mill for manufacturing exclusively with recycled paper � bers. This leadership in environmental stewardship proves to be a big success, with numerous North American paper mills following suit over the next 40 years.

1972 In order to service a growing manufacturing base in the west end of Toronto, Atlantic Packaging opens up their second corrugated plant in Mississauga, Ont. Meanwhile, the mill at 111 Progress Avenue is doubled in size to boost production volumes in order to keep up with growing customer demand for its 100-percent recycled paper products.

1977 Atlantic Packaging acquires the Paper & Distribution Division of leading Canadian paper product manufacturer Domtar Inc. Originally operating under the name Domkraft, the business becomes the forerunner of today’s Flexible Packaging Group unit of Atlantic Packaging.

1978 Atlantic Packaging expands its manufacturing base outside of Toronto, by opening up a new corrugated plant in Ingersoll, Ont., about 100 miles west of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) region.

1982 Atlantic Packaging reaches a new milestone with installation of a 100-percent recycled � bers tissue mill and a bathroom tissue/paper towel converting plant in the east-end Toronto suburb of Agincourt, operating as the Consumer Products Group of Atlantic Packaging. Looking to expand its Corrugated Group, Atlantic Packaging also acquires nearby competitors Hallmark Containers and Brock Containers—establishing itself as the premier corrugated supplier in the GTA region.

1984 All of the recent acquisitions are formally amalgamated into Atlantic Packaging Products Limited.

1985 With growing demand for high-end graphics, Atlantic forms a new company called Color Pak and installing state-of the-art equipment to position the new business as “outside-the-box” printing specialists.

1990 Atlantic starts up its second 100-percent recycled tissue mill east of Toronto in Whitby, Ont., while expanding its original tissue/towel converting facility.

1991 The Whitby facility commissions Atlantic’s � rst newsprint mill—the � rst mill in Canada to produce 100-percent recycled newsprint—forming the basis for the Atlantic Newsprint Company.

1996 The Flexible Packaging Group expands operations by installing state-of-the-art bag converting equipment at a new facility in Scarborough.

1997 The Corrugated Group continues to grow by opening up its fourth converting facility in Scarborough—making Atlantic Packaging the only company to start up a new corrugated plant in the Toronto area since 1978.

2000 Atlantic rede� nes the role of the traditional paper distributor with formation of the Supply Chain Management Group unit, using strategically-located facilities throughout Ontario to help Atlantic’s customers with logisics solutions such as inventory management, product sourcing, and third-party supply services.

2001 To keep pace with growing North American demand for its products, the Consumer Products Group expands its converting facility in Agincourt with newer converting equipment and state-of-the-art robotics.

2002 In order to be able to supply their corrugated customers with a comprehensive product offering, Atlantic purchases the decorative display division from Chesapeake Packaging to form a new subsidiary called Add Ink, specializing in supplying high-end graphic packaging and displays, as well as providing co-packing services.

2003 The Corrugated Group opens up its � fth corrugated plant northwest of Toronto in Brampton, Ont., which becomes a de facto model for all future modern corrugated facilities.

2006 Atlantic Packaging forms a strategic partnership with its Quebec-based sister company Mitchel-Lincoln and starts up the � rst 100-recycled containerboard mill to open in Canada in over 30 years. Operating under the New Forest Paper Mills corporate banner, the new mill in east-end Toronto creates a signi� cant number of new jobs and employment opportunities in an otherwise ailing North America paper industry.

2007 Atlantic Packaging sells the Consumer Products Division to a prominent Canadian forest products group.

2010 Atlantic Packaging announces the closure of its Newsprint Division.

2013 Still guided under the leadership of Irving Granovsky, the Atlantic Group of Companies retools and reopens its former newsprint facility in Whitby to manufacture the new SmartCorr range of 100-percent recycled, lightweight high-performance packaging papers, commencing shipments to North American customers in the spring of 2013.

Atlantic Packaging also manufactures a range of high-quality industrial plastic � lms and overwraps.

MAY 2013 13

COVER STORY

well-trained and dedicated work-

force for nurturing a real culture of innovation and continu-ous improvements throughout all of its daily operations.

“Packaging innovation is our man-tra: it is behind everything we do for our customers on a daily basis,” sums up Boles.

Daily Challenge“We constantly challenge every member of the Atlantic team to find new ways to bring innovation to the forefront of what we do—whether it’s in the materials we manufacture, the way we design the packaging, or in the way we approach the many new challenges our customers face in today’s global markets.

“Innovation is the backbone of Atlantic Packaging,” Boles concludes,

“and it will continue to be so for the foresee-able future.”

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After being idled for over two years, the former Atlantic Packaging newsprint mill in Whitby has been completely overhauled and modernized to enable high-volume production of the new lightweight Smart-Corr range of packaging papers for both the U.S. and Canadian markets, with tar-geted production capacity of about 1,100 tonnes per day.

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