<B>Graphic Packaging International Closing Ohio Plant</B>

Graphic Packaging International Corporation plans to close its Perrysburg, Ohio folding carton plant in July as a further step in rationalizing its operations. Production, and equipment where appropriate, is planned to be moved to other plants within the company.

Severance and other exit costs for this plant, which was part of the August 1999 acquisition of the Fort James packaging operations, will be accounted for as a cost of the acquisition. As a result, these costs will be treated as an adjustment to goodwill and will be amortized over a 30-year period.

Acquiring the Fort James operations doubled Graphic Packaging's plants and doubled revenues. The company, as part of its optimization program, has been moving production within the newly combined organization to achieve the most cost-effective fit, while closing less efficient facilities.

The closure of the Perrysburg facility -- and the previously announced closures of the Saratoga Springs, New York and Boulder, Colorado operations -- is expected to reduce plant overhead and to improve efficiencies in the second half of the year.