Dunapack Packaging invests €12.1 million in automated corrugated board warehouse in Austria

A 1.2 million m² WIP buffer in Strasswalchen shows why Prinzhorn is investing in production flow while Dunapack expands its corrugated packaging footprint in Germany

Dunapack Packaging has opened a fully automated high-bay warehouse for semi-finished corrugated board at its Strasswalchen plant in Salzburg, Austria, following an investment of €12.1 million — approximately $14.1 million. The facility can store approximately 1.2 million m² of corrugated board, equivalent to around 170 football fields.

“With the WIP warehouse in Strasswalchen, we are strengthening our performance and investing specifically in future security. Modern technologies help us ensure quality, make processes more sustainable and further increase value for our customers.” — Gerald Prinzhorn, CEO of Prinzhorn Group

The material stored there is not finished packaging and not containerboard paper. It is work in progress — semi-finished corrugated board moving between production and converting operations.

That distinction is central to the story.

Dunapack is investing more than €12 million in the part of production where corrugated board can quietly lose value: internal movement, intermediate storage, quality protection and availability for converting.

The investment also arrives at a strategically important moment. Only weeks earlier, Dunapack agreed to acquire Stora Enso’s German corrugated packaging operations, a business with approximately 350 employees and around €74 million in 2025 sales — approximately $86.1 million.

Taken together, the two moves show a clear direction: Dunapack is strengthening production control in Austria while expanding its corrugated packaging footprint in Germany.

For corrugated board producers, this is the key question: why would a major packaging group invest €12.1 million in the movement and storage of semi-finished board rather than announce another headline production machine?

Because in modern corrugated packaging production, margin depends not only on how fast board is produced, but also on how safely, accurately and quickly it moves through the factory.

What Dunapack opened in Strasswalchen

The new warehouse was officially opened in May 2026 in the presence of Tanja Kreer, Mayor of Strasswalchen; Gerald Prinzhorn, CEO of Prinzhorn Group; Max Hölbl, Managing Director and Chairman of Dunapack Packaging; Horst Santner, Managing Director of Dunapack Packaging Strasswalchen; and project partners.

When Dunapack announced the automation project in March 2025, the planned investment was €11.5 million. At the opening, the completed investment was stated at €12.1 million.

The distinction is essential: this project does not represent a newly announced corrugator or an additional annual output figure.

It represents investment in the internal production system that connects corrugated board manufacturing with subsequent converting and delivery.

Why WIP storage matters in corrugated packaging

Semi-finished corrugated board is a valuable but sensitive product. Large stacks must be moved between stages without crushing edges, disturbing alignment or creating damage that later affects converting quality.

Poor internal flow can create hidden losses:

• unnecessary forklift movements;
• damaged stacks and additional waste;
• congestion between corrugating and converting;
• slow retrieval of the correct board formats;
• weaker response during production peaks;
• delivery delays for customers.

An automated WIP warehouse is intended to reduce those risks by creating a controlled buffer between production stages. It allows the plant to store, track and retrieve board more consistently when different machines, formats and customer orders operate at different rhythms.

Dunapack has not published before-and-after figures for waste reduction, lead-time improvement, OEE or investment payback. Without those baseline figures, it would be wrong to calculate a return on investment from outside the company.

What is public is the industrial objective: more flexible production, more reliable supply, reduced manual handling, stronger quality protection and faster reaction to customer requirements.

The technology behind the warehouse

The new Strasswalchen warehouse occupies 55 × 20 metres and is organised across nine levels.

During the construction phase, Hörmann Intralogistics disclosed key technical elements of the system:

The throughput figures provide useful context.

An outbound capability of up to 65 load units per hour means the system was designed not simply for static storage, but for rapid supply of board from the buffer back into downstream production. In practical terms, the warehouse must support converting operations without allowing material retrieval to become the next bottleneck.

The 3,000 kg stack weight is equally important. The challenge is not only speed: it is automated handling of large, sensitive corrugated board stacks without damage before they become finished packaging.

A comparable European example: automated WIP storage is becoming industrial infrastructure

There is no publicly available benchmark showing the average level of WIP automation across European corrugated packaging plants.

But there are comparable examples showing that leading producers increasingly treat automated board storage as part of the production architecture.

In a supplier case involving Soenen Golfkarton in Belgium, MINDA described two automated high-bay warehouses designed to hold approximately 5 million m² of corrugated board available for conversion at any time. The supplier explained that these warehouses separate corrugator production from converting operations and form the backbone of plant intralogistics.

The Dunapack warehouse is smaller in disclosed storage capacity — 1.2 million m² rather than approximately 5 million m² — but the industrial logic is comparable: create a controlled WIP buffer so production and converting can operate with greater independence and reliability.

This does not prove a specific return for Dunapack.

It does show that automated corrugated board storage is no longer a marginal logistics concept. For large and complex plants, it is becoming part of the production system itself.

Strasswalchen: investment in an established Austrian packaging plant

The warehouse has been installed at Dunapack Packaging’s Strasswalchen operation, managed through Mosburger GmbH.

Dunapack Packaging Austria operates in Strasswalchen and Vienna and traces its industrial history back to 1886. The Strasswalchen site marked approximately 50 years of operation in 2024.

This matters because Dunapack is not testing the concept in a new or experimental location. It is investing in automation at a long-established corrugated packaging plant serving an existing market.

For customers, that can mean more reliable fulfilment and faster reaction to demand changes.

For competitors, it raises the benchmark for internal production control and service reliability.

Dunapack and Prinzhorn: the integrated system behind the project

Dunapack Packaging is the corrugated packaging division of Austria’s family-owned Prinzhorn Group.

According to official company communication, Dunapack Packaging operates 24 plants in 12 countries and employs approximately 5,900 people. The company manufactures corrugated packaging mainly from recycled paper and has a substantial position across Central and Eastern Europe.

Prinzhorn Group reports more than 10,000 employees in 16 countries and annual turnover of approximately €2.4 billion — around $2.79 billion using the ECB reference rate applied in this article.

Its industrial model is organised through three connected divisions:

Hamburger Recycling — collection and trading of recovered material;
Hamburger Containerboard — production of corrugated case material;
Dunapack Packaging — manufacture of corrugated packaging solutions.

The Strasswalchen plant itself is a corrugated packaging operation, not a paper mill.

But it is part of a group that connects recycled fibre, containerboard and packaging conversion. Adding automated WIP logistics strengthens another link in that system: the movement of board inside the plant before finished packaging reaches the customer.

For independent producers, this is an important competitive reality. They are not only competing with a packaging plant; they may be competing with a wider industrial system built around material supply, converting capacity, logistics control and customer service.

Germany changes the strategic scale

On 21 April 2026, Prinzhorn Group announced that Dunapack Packaging had entered into an agreement to acquire Stora Enso’s German corrugated packaging operations, including Gaster Wellpappe, Wellpappe Sausenheim and PTI, together with production facilities in Southwestern Germany.

The operations employ approximately 350 people and generated turnover of around €74 million in 2025. The transaction value was not disclosed, and completion is subject to merger clearance, with closing expected during 2026.

Gerald Prinzhorn stated that the transaction is intended to expand Dunapack’s geographic footprint and strengthen paper integration within the group.

Where the economic value may be created

The return from the Strasswalchen warehouse will depend on operational results that Dunapack has not yet disclosed publicly.

However, the areas where financial value may be created are clear.

Board protection

Damage to semi-finished corrugated board before converting can become waste, downtime, delayed orders or customer complaints. Automated handling is intended to reduce avoidable movement and preserve board quality.

Production coordination

The warehouse acts as a buffer between production and converting. If it reduces congestion and supplies the correct formats more reliably, the plant may use existing equipment more effectively.

Customer response

Dunapack has linked the investment to shorter reaction times and greater supply security. In corrugated packaging, reliability can protect customer relationships and support value beyond price competition.

Peak management

Automated storage gives a plant more control when order volumes rise or production sequences become more complex. This is particularly relevant for customers requiring multiple formats, tighter delivery windows or customised packaging.

Integration advantage

Inside Prinzhorn Group, the project strengthens a system already linked to recycled fibre, containerboard and regional corrugated packaging production. The value may come not from the warehouse alone, but from how it supports the wider network.

What independent corrugated packaging producers should learn

Not every producer requires a warehouse of this scale, and Dunapack has not provided public data allowing other plants to copy its investment calculation.

But the project presents a practical question for every corrugated packaging manufacturer:

Where is usable productivity being lost inside the plant?

For some producers, the bottleneck may be corrugator capacity or converting equipment.

For others, it may be internal logistics:

• damaged stacks before converting;
• excessive forklift movements;
• poor visibility of WIP;
• congestion around converting lines;
• slow response to urgent orders;
• inconsistent delivery reliability.

Smaller producers cannot always match an integrated group through scale. They can still compete through specialised packaging, shorter decision chains, local service, technical expertise, urgent work and selective investment where payback is clear.

But the service benchmark is rising.

As automated plants improve reliability and response time, customers may begin to expect the same standard from suppliers of all sizes.

What to watch next

The new warehouse is now open, but its most important evidence will come from operating results.

The market should watch whether Dunapack later reports:

• reductions in board damage or waste;
• shorter customer lead times;
• improved delivery reliability;
• better performance during production peaks;
• additional investment in converting or production capacity around the new automated flow.

A second point to watch is Germany.

If the Stora Enso transaction receives approval and closes in 2026, the industry should follow how Dunapack integrates the acquired German operations into Prinzhorn’s paper and corrugated packaging system.

About Dunapack Packaging

Dunapack Packaging is the corrugated packaging division of Austria’s family-owned Prinzhorn Group. It manufactures corrugated packaging mainly from recycled paper and operates 24 plants in 12 countries, employing approximately 5,900 people.

About Dunapack Packaging Austria / Mosburger

Dunapack Packaging Austria, operating through Mosburger GmbH, has production sites in Strasswalchen and Vienna and traces its industrial history back to 1886. It manufactures corrugated packaging for Austrian and international customers.

Conclusion

Dunapack’s new automated high-bay warehouse in Strasswalchen represents an investment of €12.1 million / approximately $14.1 million in the movement, protection and availability of semi-finished corrugated board.

Its capacity of 1.2 million m² is not new annual corrugator output. It is an investment in internal production flow — the stage where board quality, plant flexibility and customer response can either be protected or lost.

Combined with the planned acquisition of German corrugated packaging operations generating approximately €74 million in annual sales, the strategic direction is visible:

Dunapack is strengthening both operational control in Austria and geographic reach in Germany, inside a Prinzhorn system connecting containerboard, corrugated packaging and increasingly automated logistics.

For corrugated board producers, the lesson is practical: a modern plant is not judged only by how much board it can produce, but by how reliably it can move that board through converting and into the hands of the customer.

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