Production begins at $114M Kruger packaging plant

Kruger Packaging, a 100-percent-recycled containerboard and packaging producer headquartered in Canada, has announced production has started at its $114 million box plant in Elizabethtown, Kentucky—the company’s first U.S. box plant.

Construction on the more than 400,000-square-foot facility was completed in late September and production began about a month later.

“The transformation is simply stunning,” facility General Manager John Keith says. “In less than one year, what once was an undeveloped plot of land is now home to the most advanced, cutting-edge manufacturing facility in North America. All of us on the Kruger team are ready to hit the ground running and help deliver sustainable packaging solutions for Kentucky businesses big and small.”

The project first was announced in May 2021 and becomes the company’s fifth packaging plant, which includes a linerboard mill in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, packaging plants in LaSalle, Quebec, and Brampton, Ontario, and a containerboard mill in Montreal.

The Elizabethtown site is expected to produce approximately 2.4 billion square feet of 100-percent-recycled corrugated boxes annually, and includes a highly-automated corrugator and four converting lines.

As the start-up phase continues, the fourth converting line is expected to begin running in November and Kruger says the official opening is slated for spring 2023.