Cascades acquires Caraustar Mill

Cascades Inc. has entered into an agreement with Caraustar Industries, Inc. to acquire the assets of Caraustar's coated recycled board mill in Sprague, Ct., for a total purchase price of $ 14.5 million. Closure of this transaction is subject to the approval of the environmental authorities of the State of Connecticut. The parties anticipate these formalities will be completed within a month.

The Sprague mill has an annual production capacity of close to 180,000 short tons that represents an estimated 7 percent of the North American coated recycled boxboard manufacturing capacity.

Concurrently with the signature of the purchase agreement the parties also signed a five year board supply agreement pursuant to which Cascades will supply annually 30,000 short tons of coated recycled board to Caraustar's folding carton plants.

Commenting on the transaction, Alain Lemaire, president and CEO of Cascades Inc. stated: "This transaction represents a further step towards our stated goal of improving the performance of our Boxboard Group. As was the case with previous transactions realized by this group, this acquisition will allow us to increase productivity at all of our board mills while improving profitability thru an improved product and customer mix. Moreover this acquisition will enable us to move our board manufacturing closer to our customer base while increasing our presence in the United States thereby further reducing our exposure to fluctuations in the exchange rate."