International Paper has announced plans to construct a new $225 million sustainable packaging facility in Brandon, Rankin County, Mississippi — a board-approved greenfield investment that the Memphis-headquartered company says will modernize its corrugated packaging footprint across the Mid-South region. Construction is expected to begin in June 2026, with the facility targeting an operational start in Q4 2027. [](#source-1)
A Strategic Replacement, Not Just an Expansion
The new facility, planned for an 80-acre site in Brandon, will span 468,000 square feet — roughly the size of eight football fields — and will be located less than 10 miles from International Paper’s existing Richland (Jackson) box plant. Rather than a net-new operation, the Brandon plant is designed to replace that aging Richland facility, with employees expected to transition to the new location when it opens. [](#source-2)
This distinction matters. The investment is part of International Paper’s broader strategy to consolidate and modernize its box plant network, swapping older infrastructure for facilities equipped with current-generation safety systems and manufacturing technology. As a company that lists itself among the world’s leading producers of sustainable packaging — with more than 65,000 employees operating across 30 countries — IP has made greenfield box plant construction a recurring capital priority. A parallel $260 million facility is simultaneously under construction in Waterloo, Iowa, with operations targeted for Q4 2026. [](#source-3)
“This investment supports our strategy to optimize our box plant system and focus capital where it drives the greatest return,” said Keith Townsend, Group Vice President and General Manager of IP North America Packaging Solutions East. “By modernizing our footprint in Mississippi, we are strengthening our service model and ability to provide customers with the highest quality sustainable packaging solutions.”
What the Mid-South Gets
For Rankin County and the broader Mississippi economy, the announcement carries weight beyond the capital number. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves welcomed the investment publicly at the time of announcement.
“This is another big win for Mississippi. International Paper’s $225 million investment in Rankin County is more proof that Mississippi’s momentum is real,” said Governor Reeves. “We’re seeing historic levels of capital investment because companies know Mississippi is a state where businesses can succeed.”
While International Paper has not disclosed a specific net-new job creation number for the Brandon facility — unlike the Iowa plant, which is expected to add approximately 65 new local hires on top of existing workforce transitions — the Mississippi project still represents a major economic commitment to the state. The transition of workers from the Richland plant to a modern, better-equipped facility can itself be a meaningful workforce development outcome: newer machinery, safer conditions, and more efficient operations generally translate to higher-value employment in the long run. [](#source-4)
Corrugated Packaging and the Modernization Imperative
The timing of this investment reflects broader dynamics in the corrugated packaging sector. Demand for sustainable, fiber-based packaging has continued to grow as consumer goods companies respond to regulatory and retail pressure to eliminate single-use plastics. At the same time, aging manufacturing infrastructure — box plants built in previous decades — increasingly struggles to meet the precision and volume requirements of major e-commerce and consumer goods customers.
International Paper’s response has been to replace rather than retrofit. The company’s pattern of greenfield investment, visible in both the Mississippi and Iowa announcements, reflects a capital strategy that prioritizes long-term cost position and competitive reliability over incremental upgrades to legacy assets. For customers in the Mid-South, this means access to a facility designed from the ground up for current and near-future packaging specifications. For IP shareholders, the $225 million outlay is framed as a returns-focused allocation — capital “where it drives the greatest return,” as Townsend put it.
Understanding this investment also benefits from context around the broader industry landscape. Stories like the economic ripple effects of mill closures and IP’s ongoing consolidation in the Rio Grande Valley illustrate the company’s active approach to reshaping its North American footprint — not through contraction alone, but through a deliberate cycle of closing older operations and building new ones. The former International Paper plant in Orange, Texas provides another data point: when IP vacates a site, significant redevelopment can follow. What happens to the Richland plant after the Brandon facility opens will be worth watching. [](#source-5)
Looking Ahead
Construction is set to begin in June 2026 on the Brandon site. If the timeline holds, the facility will be operational before the close of 2027 — a roughly 18-month build from groundbreaking to production. For a 468,000-square-foot greenfield structure housing heavy industrial equipment, that schedule is aggressive but consistent with the timelines seen at comparable IP facilities.
The broader question is whether this investment marks the beginning of additional greenfield activity in the US South, or whether the Mississippi and Iowa projects represent a defined capital cycle that will taper once these two facilities come online. International Paper has not announced further greenfield projects at this time, but the company’s stated strategy of optimizing its box plant system suggests continued scrutiny of underperforming legacy sites across its North American network.
