“Super” is an adjective that gets thrown around casually in modern society, but Smurfit Westrock's leadership believes it’s a suitable label for its year-old, large-scale corrugated box manufacturing plant in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
It was the first facility that top management colloquially called a “superplant” during a groundbreaking in June 2024 under WestRock, which months later became Smurfit Westrock. Now the box plant is among an elite few in the company’s network that bear the descriptor. Such hubs are designed to serve key regions of high demand and volume, in lieu of having multiple nearby plants. For instance, SW closed a legacy plant in nearby North Chicago, Illinois, around the time the superplant opened.
So what specific qualities define a superplant? The designation signifies scale, a high level of advanced automation and the capability to meet all of a complex market's corrugated needs.
The $136 million, 595,000-square-foot Wisconsin facility produces approximately 3 billion square feet of corrugated boxes annually, “which is about three times a typical corrugated box plant today,” said Don Sparaco, Smurfit Westrock president of corrugated packaging for North America. The plant was completed in April 2025, and production began the following month; product lines include pre-print, white top, recycled board, kraft, high performance liners, wet strength and food packaging. Up to 200 people now work there.
