'Ladies' Night at Smurfit

Published: January 28, 2002, By Claudia Hine, Senior Editor

WESTMONT, IL, USA—Smurfit-Stone Container’s "Customer 1 Packaging Center" (C1PC) was the site of a program/plant tour held by the Chicago Chapter of Women in Packaging (WIP) on January 23.

Organized both by WIP and Cristen Bolan, managing editor of Boxboard Containers International (BCI, sister publication to PFFC), the event highlighted Smurft's C1PC. Beth O’Connor, general manager of Smurfit-Stone Container’s sheet plant, Naperville, IL, was a featured speaker, along with Yolanda Simonsis, associate publisher/editor of Paper, Film & Foil Converter.

The C1PC is a marketing technical center that provides sales support for the company’s Corrugated Container Division, which boasts 150 plants and $6 billion in sales. The C1PC supports the division with two laboratories, one for package performance and one for physical properties testing. The design department houses structural as well as graphic designers, and customers can call on the services of a group of packaging consultants, too.

Attendees were split into two manageable groups as Clete Thompson, marketing communications manager, and Sue Daniels, project technician, led the tours through the C1PC facility, which features a cross-section of packaging designs and point-of-purchase display concepts. A Plan-O-Gram room imitates the mass merchandisers’ store ambiance, complete with retail shelving and store lighting.

Back in the training room, attendees heard Beth O’Connor’s presentation on her rise through the ranks of Smurfit-Stone to the management position she currently holds in the 90,000-sq-ft Naperville sheet plant. O’Connor reports 2001 sales at the plant were $8.5 million.

Attendees left the C1PC for dinner at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen in Westmont where Yolanda Simonsis recalled her start in the converting industry and rise to PFFC’s associate publisher/editor position.

Headquartered in Chicago, Smurfit-Stone Container is a leading integrated manufacturer of paper and paper-based packaging, including containerboard, corrugated containers, multiwall bags, and clay-coated recycled boxboard. The company produces solid bleached sulfate, folding cartons, paper tubes and cores, and labels, and is reported to be one of the world’s largest paper recyclers.

For more information about the Smufit Stone Container company and its products, visit smurfit.com.