Dunapack Packaging Invests €12.1 Million in Automated Corrugated Board Warehouse in Austria

Dunapack Packaging Invests €12.1 Million in Automated Corrugated Board Warehouse in Austria

As the global corrugated packaging sector undergoes a wave of massive consolidation and restructuring, Dunapack Packaging, a division of the Austrian-based Prinzhorn Group, is signaling where the industry's next critical battleground lies: internal logistics. In late May 2026, the company officially commissioned a fully automated, €12.1 million high-bay warehouse for semi-finished goods (WIP) at its Strasswalchen site in Austria. This strategic investment highlights a broader shift in the market, proving that modern corrugated board producers are prioritizing production flow as heavily as raw manufacturing capacity.

The Technical Blueprint: 1.2 Million Square Meters of WIP Buffer

Taking 33 months from its groundbreaking in early 2025 to its official launch in May 2026, the new automated storage facility is a feat of modern engineering. The structure creates an automated storage capacity for approximately 1.2 million square meters of corrugated board—the equivalent of 170 football pitches.

Key technical specifications of the new facility include:

• Dimensions and Scale: 55 meters long, 20 meters wide, distributed across nine structural levels.
• Storage Capacity: Space for approximately 1.2 million square meters of corrugated board.
• Technology Partners: Advanced high-bay and conveyor technology supplied by Hörmann Logistics, with handling solutions from Van den Bos.

Operating without manual intervention, the facility utilizes intelligent stacker cranes and state-of-the-art operating software to ensure rapid storage and retrieval. According to Horst Santner, Managing Director of Dunapack Packaging Strasswalchen, the warehouse relies on energy-saving technologies and stringent fire protection systems, dramatically increasing both workplace safety and overall site efficiency.

Solving the Hidden Speed Problem in Packaging Plants

Over the 2024–2025 period, the corrugated industry witnessed a recurring operational bottleneck. While companies invested heavily in advanced corrugators capable of producing board at breakneck speeds, the subsequent converting lines (die-cutters, flexo folder gluers) often struggled to keep up during production peaks. The result was the industry's hidden speed problem: plants were suffocating under their own semi-finished inventory.

By implementing a massive Work in Progress (WIP) buffer, Dunapack is addressing this fundamental flaw. A 1.2 million m² buffer allows the Strasswalchen plant to completely decouple the corrugator's continuous output from the variable demands of the converting lines. For customers, this translates to greater supply security, significantly shorter response times, and consistently high product quality, as individual requirements can now be implemented with extreme flexibility.

Strategic Expansion: Coupling Flow with Footprint

The €12.1 million investment in Austria does not exist in a vacuum. It represents the internal modernization pillar of Prinzhorn Group's aggressive wider European strategy. While optimizing material flow in its home market, Dunapack has concurrently expanded its physical footprint, notably making an entry into Europe's largest market by acquiring Stora Enso's corrugated packaging plants in Germany.

This dual approach—maximizing the throughput of existing facilities via WIP automation while aggressively acquiring new capacity—sets Dunapack apart in a fiercely competitive 2026 landscape. As heavyweights like Smurfit Westrock pour €600 million into the French market and International Paper reshapes the DS Smith network across Europe, regional leaders like Dunapack are proving that agility and internal logistics are just as vital as sheer scale.

Sustainability and the Path Forward

Beyond operational metrics, the Strasswalchen warehouse serves as a crucial component of Dunapack's sustainability goals. CEO Gerald Prinzhorn emphasized that modern technologies secure quality while making processes more sustainable. The automated facility minimizes board damage, reducing waste, relies on energy-efficient drives, and aligns seamlessly with the company's commitments to the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) for decarbonization.

Ultimately, Dunapack Packaging's high-bay warehouse is far more than a storage unit. It is a highly sophisticated operational engine designed to absorb volatility, protect margins, and guarantee delivery in an era where the speed of material flow dictates market leadership.