BusinessTN

Over the past couple years, Kiwi billionaire Graeme Hart has acquired several large chunks of the packaging industry—the drink-carton packaging industry in particular.

In June, New Zealand's answer to Richard Branson solidified his place as the second-biggest drink-carton manufacturer in the world when he purchased Canton, N.C.-based Blue Ridge Paper Products. Milk cartons must do a billionaire good considering that Hart spent $338 million on Blue Ridge largely, industry experts say, for its dairy packaging products. The Blue Ridge deal, along with the $500-million beverage unit of Memphis-based International Paper Hart bought in December, has made him a conspicuous presence in the United States' $90 billion packaging industry.

In late August, Memphis' packaging industry bona fides got even beefier when news broke that Hart was moving Blue Ridge's headquarters to the Bluff City. The move merges Blue Ridge with Pine Bluff, Ark.'s Evergreen Packaging—which Hart bought from IP—and runs them both from its new Poplar Avenue office. (Hart has quite the appetite for IP companies—last year, he dropped $3.3 billion for Carter Holt Harvey, the majority of which was owned by North America's biggest paper maker.)

None of the companies involved with the Blue Ridge deal would comment on the relocation, but internal memos leaked to the Asheville Citizen-Times state the company's CEO and CFO will not be sending Christmas cards from a tony Germantown address this year.

The company's employee-owners bought Blue Ridge in 1999 and following the sale to Hart, United Steelworkers International President Leo Gerard said, "as a result of the acquisition ... the company's employee-owners are receiving nearly $30 million of cash in their Employee Stock Ownership Plan accounts."

That breaks down to approximately $20,000 for an employee who has been with Blue Ridge since 1999.

In October, USW officials said the relocation would have little impact on the 1,300 hourly wage earners in North Carolina. "[I'm] unaware of any direct impact on the hourly workforce, other than the inconvenience of the loss of direct communication caused by the relocation," says local USW director Stan Johnson. "This should not diminish the impact on those affected by the move. It is significant to them." Recently, Hart bought 98% of Swiss-based SIG, the second-largest packaging company in the world behind Sweden's Tetra Laval, which commands an 80% share of the international market. Analyst speculation is swirling about where Hart's thirst to become the world's biggest drink-carton manufacturer will lead next, and what, if any, effect that thirst will have on Memphis or possibly IP.

For now, the company is playing its cards close to the carton.