Graphic Packaging International doesn’t just produce packaging—it shapes how everyday products are delivered, displayed, and experienced. The company’s innovations include the now-ubiquitous fridge pack, a staple in beverage aisles, and KeelClips, a paper-based alternative to plastic can rings that’s helping major brands rethink sustainability at scale.
With more than 3,000 patents and operations spanning the Americas, EMEA, and the Pacific Rim, GPI has long applied precision engineering to physical materials. Now, it’s doing the same with its data, systems, and business processes.
When GPI acquired a new business unit at the end of 2019, it inherited more than new assets. The deal left the company managing two separate SAP environments, disconnected processes, and no consolidated view of its financials. Rather than launch a full-scale ERP overhaul, GPI’s finance leadership opted for a more focused move: implementing SAP Central Finance (CFIN).
“The finance organization was more ready for a transformation than the rest of the business,” said Rick Malone, Vice President of Information Technology at GPI, who has led enterprise systems and SAP strategy for over two decades.
The project advanced with clear priorities: replace Hyperion with SAP Group Reporting via SAP CFIN, standardize global processes, and create a shared financial backbone the enterprise could build on.
That decision proved pivotal. What began as a focused reporting initiative laid the foundation for broader enterprise transformation. GPI deployed SAP CFIN as its strategic entry point into S/4HANA, allowing the company to gain financial visibility and process standardization without disrupting core ERP systems.
Using SAP’s System Landscape Transformation (SLT) tool, GPI unified financial data from multiple SAP ECC systems into a real-time financial layer. SAP Group Reporting replaced Hyperion as the global consolidation tool. SAP’s Central Payments and Receivables Management enabled shared services and established the basis for scalable growth globally.
These early wins helped formalize the next stage of transformation under Cornerstone Phase 1. The initiative expanded GPI’s S/4HANA environment and transitioned core financial systems and shared services onto a modern, integrated platform.
Vision and Execution
The Central Finance initiative aligned with GPI’s broader transformation agenda. In late 2019, the company introduced Vision 2025, a strategic framework that focuses on customer and market priorities, environmental sustainability, financial returns, and employee culture. Targets included $10 billion in revenue, 80–90% paperboard integration, EPS above $2, and 10–12% ROIC.
By the end of 2023, GPI had grown to $9.6 billion in revenue, with margins in the 18–19% range. That progress led directly to the launch of Vision 2030, which introduced four new pillars: Innovation, Culture, Planet, and Results.
Execution was driven by a finance-led structure. With direct sponsorship from the Chief Accounting Officer and the Senior VP of FP&A, GPI staffed its process team with business-unit finance leaders. These included senior accounting managers, AR and AP leads, and controllers from mill and converting operations. Rather than relying on technical SMEs, the team drew from leaders in credit, consolidation, and cash applications.
“A key enabler of that project was having those senior finance people that are known, not just in the finance and accounting organization, but throughout the business. It lends a lot of credibility to the project,” noted Malone.
Change management was built into the project from the outset. With initial support from Accenture and later an internal team, GPI created a formal change program. A network of embedded “change agents” trained to answer questions, resolve issues, and support local adoption.
“A lot of people think it’s just training, but that’s just a piece of it,” he emphasized while discussing change management. “It’s a lot more than training. It’s communication. It’s getting out in front of people. It’s getting stakeholder buy-in.”
Oversight included monthly reviews with the CEO and executive team. Initially an IT-focused meeting, the forum evolved into an enterprise platform for business performance reviews, embedding executive sponsorship and business alignment.
Still, the transformation came with risks, notably when key consulting resources departed mid-project. As Malone explained, the team sometimes had to “start from ground zero again,” underscoring the importance of continuity planning.
A Multi-Pronged Approach to Scaling
GPI’s finance-led execution model became the template for achieving those results at scale. Under the Cornerstone program, GPI launched a coordinated set of initiatives aimed at standardizing systems, consolidating processes, and modernizing operations across its global footprint.
- In Europe, Project Aurora aimed to retire 24 legacy ERP systems and consolidate operations onto a unified platform. One example was Radius EPS, a packaging-specific ERP. GPI partnered with Insight and used the Magnitude integration suite to replicate data from Radius into SAP Cfin.
- In North America, Project Accord will retire 11 legacy ERP systems, aiming to consolidate roughly 90% of revenue under the SAP platform.
Other efforts tackled key functional domains. SMARTMills used IoT and predictive analytics to improve asset visibility and shop floor performance. OneGPI, a company-wide planning initiative, brought sales and operations data into tighter alignment. The PACG project introduced centralized pricing governance and margin analytics.
Ultimately, the transformation delivered the business performance gains GPI set out to achieve.
“It is the business process performance that they’re looking for, and they’re getting it,” explained Malone. “We’ve got integration into SAP from a configure price quote project for our order entry that stops revenue leakage, integration into SAP from our machines so that operators aren’t doing that, and we’re getting real-time performance that’s driving OEE.”
RISE, BTP, and Cloud Strategy
GPI’s long-term technology roadmap centers on system modernization without sacrificing business continuity. Legacy ECC systems on Solaris and AIX are being replatformed to Azure. The company is also moving its SAP MDG deployment to RISE with SAP—what Malone described as GPI’s “toe in the water” with cloud ERP.
“We haven’t been early adopters... don’t quite know that we wanted to be on the leading edge of that,” he noted.
SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is emerging as a strategic focus. GPI is exploring BTP as a modular environment for custom logic previously embedded in ECC, which would preserve business-specific functionality while enabling a clean core strategy. These efforts support both modernization and long-term scalability.
“We’re evaluating what’s the best way to do that in the next couple of years,” he said. “I think we’ve got folks excited with SAP with BTP now and moving some stuff there.”
Cloud adoption remains a central pillar of the 2026–2028 planning horizon. However, GPI continues to approach it as a business-led initiative rather than a technical migration, extending the same disciplined, cross-functional playbook that defined its earlier phases.
With foundational SAP projects in place, GPI is now scaling its transformation model across Europe with Project Aurora. The company initially planned to execute Project Aurora at European sites on an as-needed basis but encountered operational challenges tied to cross-border variation and localizations.
“We got really good at SAP implementations,” said Malone. “But Europe added a whole new layer of complexity.”
GPI shifted to a country-first approach. After initial rollouts in the UK, France, and Spain, it prioritized full implementation across the UK, where VAT reporting and system templates had already been standardized. This sequencing accelerates adoption and reduces rework.
The process teams and change agent networks first developed in finance now serve as the template for regional transformation. What began as a financial unification initiative now informs how GPI integrates acquisitions, enables shared services, and standardizes operations.
Innovation at GPI increasingly relies on digital enablement. The company is exploring how AI can accelerate product development and improve operations, from using computer vision tools to monitoring shop floor safety to leveraging Microsoft Copilot for design reuse and document automation.
For Malone, the opportunity to keep refining this model is “the fun part,” a chance to help others branch into new roles, tackle fresh challenges, and bring lasting improvements to how the business operates.
As GPI enters its next phase of long-range planning, the focus isn’t just on what to modernize next. It’s on how to scale a transformation model that is cross-functional, business-led, and grounded in the systems that make growth manageable.