Graphic Packaging International (Graphic Packaging), a global leader in sustainable consumer packaging, has announced the launch of its next-generation Boardio™ machinery technology, offering enhanced multi-footprint capability that transforms how brands and co-packers approach Boardio paperboard canister production.

Brands and co-packers face mounting pressure to respond quickly to shifting market demands while maximizing their equipment investments. When capital is committed to packaging machinery, that investment needs to work harder, deliver more, and provide the flexibility to adapt as consumer preferences evolve, and the new Boardio machine multi-footprint capability does just that.

Boardio is a recyclable, rigid paperboard canister that provides an alternative to plastic, glass, and metal containers. Made from up to 90% renewable materials, it can deliver a plastic reduction of more than 90% versus rigid containers. Alongside winning 20 global packaging awards since launch, Boardio has replaced more than 50 million rigid plastic containers in 2023 and 2024 alone. 

The Proven Boardio Platform, Now With Ultimate Flexibility

The new machine technology takes a proven platform and adds format flexibility through the addition of modules. The new multi-footprint capability enables Boardio production in multiple shapes — round, octagonal, triangular, and square — along with variable heights, widths, and barrier specifications, all from a single machine. Customers simply select modules based on the degree of flexibility they require.  

For co-packers managing diverse client portfolios or large brands seeking to differentiate product lines and serve both large families and smaller households, this technology represents a significant operational and commercial advantage. 

Johan Werme, head of sales for paperboard canister solutions at Graphic Packaging, said: “This new capability addresses a longstanding frustration customers have had with traditional packaging; rigid plastic and metal canisters typically lock brands into off-the-shelf formats unless they have the volumes to justify custom tooling. However, with Boardio’s new multi-footprint technology, we’re putting format control directly into the customer’s hands. That means shorter production runs across multiple configurations, the ability to iterate designs more frequently, and the transport and storage efficiency that comes from delivering canisters flat rather than pre-formed. It’s flexibility that scales with your business, not against it.” 

For co-packers and brands alike, the technology ensures that capital investments in Boardio machinery deliver sustained value as market conditions shift, product portfolios expand, and the demand for more circular, more functional, and more convenient packaging solutions continues to grow. 

The multi-footprint enhancement is now available as an option for new machine orders. 

ATLANTA, Nov. 4, 2026 – Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE: GPK), a global leader in sustainable consumer packaging, is providing North American nutraceutical brands access to a rigid plastic packaging alternative with the Boardio™ paperboard canister, now available via Combined Technologies, Inc. (CTI), an Indiana-based co-packing partner serving the health and wellness market.

With 26 years of packaging experience, CTI supports customers across North America from its Bristol, Indiana contract packaging plant. The company specializes in primary and secondary packaging for nutraceutical and other over-the-counter products, including gummies, vitamins, tablets and capsules, softgels, powders and other health-focused formats.

As consumer expectations and retailer sustainability goals continue to reshape the category, Graphic Packaging is partnering with CTI and other co-packers to facilitate access to alternatives to conventional plastic bottles and tubs. Boardio offers a practical, scalable option made primarily from paperboard, with tailored barrier options to  protect against oxygen and moisture.

“The health and wellness aisle is highly competitive, and many brands are looking for packaging that better reflects their values while helping them stand out,” said Jerry Thompson, President and Owner, CTI. “By offering Graphic Packaging’s Boardio solution, we can give our customers access to an alternative to rigid plastic that delivers the shelf appeal, product protection, operational efficiency, and economics they need.”

CTI offers Boardio packaging in a range of sizes and barrier levels, including high-barrier options for applications requiring enhanced protection.

For brands seeking shelf differentiation, Boardio also offers high-quality, vibrant, 360-degree print, helping move products away from the “sea of sameness” often seen in traditional nutraceutical bottles. Boardio delivers strong visual branding without the need for a separate label, giving customers more space to communicate and describe benefits, provide usage information and promote the brand. The format also offers a competitive cost profile, with many customer projects showing savings versus traditional plastic tubs or bottles.

“Our job is to help customers find packaging that works — not just from a sustainability perspective, but also in terms of product protection, cost, operational efficiency and retailing. With Boardio, we advise customers on materials, barriers and package formats needed to get a product successfully to market,” added Thompson.

Boardio can reduce plastic use by more than 90% versus rigid plastic cans, depending on the final packaging configuration. Its structure is designed for easy handling, stacking, opening, and reclosing, while available barrier options can help protect product quality for dry and sensitive applications such as supplements, vitamins, powders, gummies, and similar products.

About Graphic Packaging Holding Company

Graphic Packaging designs and produces consumer packaging made primarily from renewable or recycled materials. An industry leader in innovation, the Company is committed to reducing the environmental footprint of consumer packaging. Graphic Packaging operates a global network of design and manufacturing facilities serving the world’s most widely recognized brands in food, beverage, foodservice, household, and other consumer products. Learn more at www.graphicpkg.com.

Contact Information

Media: Comms@Graphicpkg.com

About Combined Technologies, Inc.
Founded in 2000, Combined Technologies, Inc. (CTI) is a contract packaging company specializing in primary and secondary packaging solutions for the nutraceutical, health and wellness, and consumer products industries. From its facility in Bristol, Indiana, CTI provides bottling, pouching, cartoning, Boardio packaging, display assembly and other packaging services for gummies, tablets, capsules, powders and related products.  CTI combines flexible manufacturing capabilities with rigorous quality and food safety programs, sustainable packaging capabilities and a service-oriented approach to help brands bring new products and packaging formats to market.

Contact Information

www.ctipack.com 

sales@ctipack.com

Most of us interact with packaging dozens of times a day. Yet every package represents a series of decisions about materials, manufacturing, design and what happens after use. 

Those decisions matter. Packaging helps protect items, reduce waste and keep the products people rely on moving through the systems that support everyday life. It also influences how natural resources are used, recovered and reused. 

So, what does “better” look like across the life of a package? 

Let’s follow the journey. 

Before a Package Reaches a Shelf, Where Does It Begin?

For many packages, the answer is a forest. 

Today, brands are increasingly expected to understand where wood fiber comes from. Responsible forestry is the backbone of the paper industry, driving sustainably managed forests, while ensuring a reliable supply of renewable fiber for future generations. 

Responsibly managed forests do much more than provide raw materials. They help support biodiversity, provide habitat for wildlife, store carbon and protect water resources, while contributing to the long-term vitality of communities connected to the forest products value chain.

What Is Sustainable Forest Management?

Many forests that supply fiber for paperboard packaging are actively managed through a cycle of planting, growing, harvesting and regeneration. 

Third-party certification systems such as SFI®, FSC® (FSC-C106260), and PEFC (PEFC/29-31-224) support responsible sourcing through standards related to forest management, biodiversity and supply-chain traceability. Together with regulatory requirements aimed at preventing deforestation and forest degradation, these frameworks strengthen confidence in sourced fiber. 

Supporting those standards are forestry professionals who work with landowners and suppliers to conduct field inspections and verify responsible forestry practices. 

Better by the Numbers

99%

of Graphic Packaging’s purchased forest products qualified as sustainably sourced in 2025, based on third-party certification (SFI®, FSC® or PEFC). 

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55 miles

average distance wood travels from forest to Graphic Packaging’s wood-based paperboard mills, supporting local forestry jobs, small landowners and shorter hauling distances.

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What Happens Before a Package Becomes a Package? 

Before a package protects a product, manufacturers are working to make the most of every resource behind it. 

Making packaging efficiently requires continuous improvements across the use of: 

• Energy. Packaging manufacturers are working to increase the use of renewable energy and improve usage throughout their operations. Sometimes that means upgrading equipment. Sometimes it’s recovering heat and steam that would otherwise be lost. 
• Materials. Rather than viewing waste as the inevitable by-product of manufacturing, a circular approach seeks to maximize the value of materials at every stage. This can include designing packages to use less material, recycling paperboard scrap back into production, repurposing manufacturing by-products, and using residual tree materials as renewable fuel to help power operations. 
• Water. Water helps carry fiber, generate steam and cool equipment. As a result, mills continuously look for opportunities to reuse water, improve efficiency and reduce the need for freshwater withdrawals where possible.   

Before manufacturers can improve operational efficiency, they must have an environment where people can work safely. 

“Safety and sustainability are both about taking responsibility for the long-term health of our people, our operations and our business. They rely on many of the same skills: identifying risks, solving problems and continuously looking for ways to improve.” 

— Jim Cline, Vice President, Health, Environmental, Safety, Security and Sustainability, Graphic Packaging

Better by the Numbers

66%

of energy used in Graphic Packaging’s paperboard operations came from renewable sources in 2025. 

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66%

of waste generated across Graphic Packaging’s global operations was diverted from landfills and incinerators in 2025. 

What Makes a Package Better?  

The choices made during design can influence a package’s journey long after it leaves the shelf. 

A package must do more than hold a product. It needs to protect what’s inside, work efficiently in manufacturing and distribution environments, meet retailer requirements, support brand goals, create a positive consumer experience and help keep materials in use longer.

Graphic Packaging’s Better by Design methodology helps evaluate decisions through three interconnected lenses: circularity, functionality and convenience.

Packaging design is also being influenced by a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape. Around the world, new requirements related to recyclability, material use and producer responsibility are changing how packaging is designed and evaluated.

Packaging manufacturers, brands, retailers, recyclers, industry organizations and policymakers all play a role in shaping the next generation of packaging solutions.

“Some of the most important packaging innovations emerge through collaboration. Advancing circularity requires input from across the global value chain, from brands and packaging manufacturers to recyclers, industry organizations and policymakers. Each helps shape what is both possible and practical but also ambitious to advance towards a circular economy.” 

— Elodie Bugnicourt, Sustainability Director International, Graphic Packaging

What Happens After a Package is Used?

A package’s story doesn’t necessarily end when it’s empty.

Once a package has served its purpose, what happens next depends on much more than the package itself. Collection systems, recycling infrastructure, consumer participation, end-market demand and package design all influence whether materials can be recovered and used again.

Packaging suppliers are incorporating design-for-recycling principles, testing packaging in real-world sorting and recycling systems and exploring alternatives to formats that are difficult to recycle. Industry organizations, recyclers and manufacturers also work together to help shape the standards and guidelines that influence how packaging is designed and evaluated for recycling.

When collection, sorting and recycling systems work effectively, today’s package can contribute to tomorrow’s paper-based products. In that way, the end of one package’s lifecycle can become the beginning of another, helping valuable fiber remain in use longer and creating another opportunity to make packaging better.

Better by the Numbers

96%

of products sold in 2025 were designed to be recyclable where collection and recycling systems exist. 

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5 to 7

times that fiber can typically be recovered and recycled into new paper-based products before reaching the end of its useful life.

Source: Graphic Packaging International’s 2025 Impact Report

SFI marks are registered marks owned by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc.