Smurfit-Stone Celebrates LA Plant Opening

Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. has flipped the switch on its new Cerritos facility near Los Angeles, which the company calls “one of the most modern corrugated container manufacturing facilities in the industry.”

The U.S.-based company has invested $42 million to retrofit an existing facility with all new equipment. The plant employs approximately 123 people.

“The Cerritos plant represents our vision to build a world-class manufacturing organization, supporting our customers’ needs through high-performing, highly accountable people; sophisticated equipment; and standardized, repeatable processes,” says Smurfit-Stone president and chief operating officer Steve Klinger. “We are committed to Cerritos and to serving our customers in the Southern California market.”

The Cerritos plant will serve Southern California customers including companies in the beverage, consumer goods, medical, food and produce, garment and distribution businesses.

The newly-outfitted facility can produce as much as 2.3 billion square feet of corrugated board per year and an average of 350 boxes each minute.

The company’s overall recycling operations handled 7 million tons of secondary commodities in 2007, including 6.8 million tons of recovered paper, making Smurfit-Stone one of the world’s largest paper recyclers. Some 41 percent of the recovered paper was used as raw material in the company’s containerboard manufacturing operations.

To celebrate the Cerritos plant opening and to highlight its commitment to sustainability, Smurfit-Stone announced the donation of 1,000 seedlings to support urban forestry in California.  Smurfit-Stone’s customers and employees, as well as Cerritos Mayor Jim Edwards, joined in a grand opening celebration in early October.