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WestRock Co. – ‘10-K’ for 9/30/22

On:  Friday, 11/18/22, at 4:08pm ET   ·   For:  9/30/22   ·   Accession #:  950170-22-25444   ·   File #:  1-38736

Previous ‘10-K’:  ‘10-K’ on 11/19/21 for 9/30/21   ·   Next & Latest:  ‘10-K’ on 11/17/23 for 9/30/23   ·   32 References:   By:  WestRock Co. – Next & Latest ‘10-K’ on 11/17/23 for 9/30/23 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘8-K’ on 11/2/22 for 10/27/22 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘8-K’ on 10/6/22 for 9/30/22 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘8-K’ on 8/24/22 for 8/18/22 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘8-K’ on 7/11/22 for 7/7/22 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘8-K’ on 3/11/22 for 3/9/22 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘DEF 14A’ on 12/13/21 for 1/28/22 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘10-Q’ on 5/7/21 for 3/31/21 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘10-Q’ on 2/5/21 for 12/31/20 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘10-K’ on 11/23/20 for 9/30/20 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘8-K’ on / for 6/3/20 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘10-K’ on 11/18/19 for 9/30/19 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘10-Q’ on 8/2/19 for 6/30/19 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘8-K’ on 5/20/19 for 5/16/19 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘10-Q’ on 5/3/19 for 3/31/19 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘8-K’ on 12/10/18 for 12/7/18 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘8-K’ on / for 12/3/18 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘10-K’ on 11/16/18 for 9/30/18 To:  WestRock Co. – ‘8-K’ on 11/5/18 for 11/2/18 To:  WRKCo Inc. – ‘8-K’ on / for 3/6/18 To:  WRKCo Inc. – ‘DEF 14A’ on 12/19/17 for 2/2/18 To:  WRKCo Inc. – ‘8-K’ on / for 8/24/17 To:  WRKCo Inc. – ‘10-K’ on 11/25/16 for 9/30/16 To:  WRKCo Inc. – ‘10-Q’ on 8/9/16 for 6/30/16 To:  WRKCo Inc. – ‘10-Q’ on 5/10/16 for 3/31/16 To:  WRKCo Inc. – ‘10-K’ on 11/27/15 for 9/30/15 To:  Meadwestvaco Corp. – ‘8-K’ on 10/29/13 for 10/28/13 To:  Meadwestvaco Corp. – ‘8-K’ on 4/25/13 for 4/22/13 To:  Rock-Tenn Co. – ‘10-Q’ on 8/2/12 for 6/30/12 To:  Meadwestvaco Corp. – ‘10-K’ on 2/24/09 for 12/31/08 To:  Rock-Tenn Co. – ‘10-Q’ on 2/1/08 for 12/31/07 To:  Rock-Tenn Co. – ‘10-Q’ on 2/9/06 for 12/31/05 

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  As Of               Filer                 Filing    For·On·As Docs:Size             Issuer                      Filing Agent

11/18/22  WestRock Co.                      10-K        9/30/22  145:44M                                    Donnelley … Solutions/FA

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM  i 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended  i September 30,  i 2022 / 

OR

For the transition period from to

Commission file number  i 001-38736

 i WESTROCK COMPANY

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code: ( i 770)  i 448-2193

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.  i Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐  i No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.  i Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).  i Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.  i ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No  i ☒

The aggregate market value of the common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of March 31, 2022 (based on the closing price per share as reported on the New York Stock Exchange on such date), was approximately $ i 12,163 million.

As of November 4, 2022, the registrant had  i 254,463,987 shares of Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share, outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

WESTROCK COMPANY

INDEX TO FORM 10-K

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PART I

Item 1. BUSINESS

Unless the context otherwise requires, “we”, “us”, “our”, “WestRock” and “the Company” refer to the business of WestRock Company, its wholly-owned subsidiaries and its partially-owned consolidated subsidiaries.

General

WestRock is a multinational provider of sustainable fiber-based paper and packaging solutions. We partner with our customers to provide differentiated, sustainable paper and packaging solutions that help our customers win in the marketplace. Our team members support customers around the world from our operating and business locations in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Effective October 1, 2021, we reorganized our segment reporting to four reportable segments: Corrugated Packaging, Consumer Packaging, Global Paper and Distribution. We reorganized our reportable segments due to changes in our organizational structure and how our chief operating decision maker (“CODM”) makes key operating decisions, allocates resources and assesses the performance of our business. Prior period amounts have been recast throughout the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, as applicable, to conform to the new segment structure. These changes did not impact our consolidated financial statements. See “Note 7. Segment Information” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.

Products

We are one of the largest integrated producers of linerboard, white-top linerboard and corrugating medium (“containerboard”) in North America, and we serve primarily corrugated packaging markets. We believe we are the largest producer of kraft paper and saturating kraft in North America. We are one of the largest producers of paperboard in North America, and we operate both integrated virgin and recycled fiber mills. Our mill system manufactures for the benefit of each reportable segment that ultimately sells the associated paper and packaging products to our external customers. Additionally, our recycling operations are conducted as a procurement function, focusing on the procurement of low cost, high quality recycled fiber for our mill system. See “Item 2. Properties” for additional information on our annual production capacity and types of containerboard and paperboard we manufacture, and Item 1. “Business — Sales and Marketing” for additional information on our vertical integration.

Corrugated Packaging Segment

Our Corrugated Packaging segment consists of our integrated corrugated converting operations and generates its revenues primarily from the sale of corrugated containers and other corrugated products including displays. Our integrated corrugated packaging system manufactures primarily containerboard, corrugated sheets, corrugated packaging and preprinted linerboard for sale to consumer and industrial products manufacturers and corrugated box manufacturers. We produce a full range of high-quality corrugated containers designed to protect, ship, store, promote and display products made to our customers’ specifications. We convert corrugated sheets into corrugated products ranging from one-color protective cartons to graphically brilliant point-of-purchase packaging. Our corrugated container plants serve local customers and regional and large national accounts. Corrugated packaging is used to provide protective packaging for shipment and distribution of food, paper, health and beauty, and other household, consumer, commercial and industrial products. Corrugated packaging may also be graphically enhanced for retail sale, particularly in club store locations. We provide customers with innovative packaging solutions to help them promote and sell their products. We provide structural and graphic design, engineering services and custom, proprietary and standard automated packaging machines, offering customers turn-key installation, automation, line integration and packaging solutions. We offer a machinery solution that creates pouches that replace single-use plastics, including bubble mailers. To make corrugated sheet stock, we feed linerboard and corrugating medium into a corrugator that flutes the medium to specified sizes, glues the linerboard and fluted medium together, and slits and cuts the resulting corrugated paperboard into sheets to customer specifications.

We design, manufacture and, in certain cases, pack temporary displays for sale to consumer products companies and retailers. These displays are used as marketing tools to support new product introductions and specific product promotions in mass merchandising stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, home improvement

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stores and other retail locations. We also design, manufacture and, in some cases, pre-assemble permanent displays for these customers. We make temporary displays primarily from corrugated paperboard. Unlike temporary displays, permanent displays are restocked with our customers’ product; therefore, they are constructed primarily from metal, plastic, wood and other durable materials. We manufacture and distribute point of sale material utilizing litho, screen and digital printing technologies. We manufacture lithographic laminated packaging for sale to our customers that require packaging with high quality graphics and strength characteristics.

Sales of corrugated packaging products to external customers accounted for 42.3%, 43.2% and 42.9% of our net sales in fiscal 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively. See “Note 7. Segment Information” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, as well as Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”, for additional information.

Consumer Packaging Segment

Our Consumer Packaging segment consists of our integrated consumer converting operations and generates its revenues primarily from the sale of consumer packaging products such as folding cartons, interior partitions, inserts and labels. We are one of the largest manufacturers of folding cartons in North America. We believe we are the largest manufacturer of solid fiber partitions in North America measured by net sales. Our folding cartons are used to package items such as food, paper, beverages, dairy products, tobacco, confectionery, health and beauty and other household consumer, commercial and industrial products, primarily for retail sale. Our folding cartons are also used by our customers to attract consumer attention at the point-of-sale. We manufacture express mail packages for the overnight courier industry, provide inserts and labels, as well as rigid packaging and other printed packaging products, such as transaction cards (e.g., credit, debit, etc.), brochures, product literature, marketing materials (such as booklets, folders, inserts, cover sheets and slipcases) and grower tags and plant stakes for the horticultural market. For the global healthcare market, we manufacture paperboard packaging for over-the-counter and prescription drugs. Our customers generally use our inserts and labels to provide customer product information either inside a secondary package (e.g., a folding carton) or affixed to the outside of a primary package (e.g., a bottle). Folding cartons typically protect customers’ products during shipment and distribution, and employ graphics to promote them at retail. We manufacture folding cartons from recycled and virgin paperboard, laminated paperboard and various substrates with specialty characteristics, such as grease masking and microwaveability. We print, coat, die-cut and glue the cartons to customer specifications and ship finished cartons to customers for assembling, filling and sealing. We employ a broad range of offset, flexographic, gravure, backside printing, coating and finishing technologies, as well as iridescent, holographic, textured and dimensional effects to provide differentiated packaging products, and support our customers with new package development, innovation and design services and package testing services. We manufacture and sell our solid fiber and corrugated partitions and die-cut paperboard components principally to glass container manufacturers, producers of beer, food, wine, spirits, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, and the automotive industry.

Sales of consumer packaging products to external customers accounted for 23.2%, 23.5% and 23.7% of our net sales in fiscal 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively. See “Note 7. Segment Information” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, as well as Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”, for additional information.

Global Paper Segment

Our Global Paper segment consists of our commercial paper operations and generates its revenues primarily from the sale of containerboard, paperboard and specialty grades to external customers, and we serve primarily corrugated packaging, folding carton, food service, liquid packaging, tobacco and commercial print markets. We sell our products globally to customers who value our scale, wide range of products, and service. Sales of global paper products to external customers accounted for 27.9%, 26.6% and 27.0% of our net sales in fiscal 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively. See “Note 7. Segment Information” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, as well as Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”, for additional information.

Distribution Segment

Our Distribution segment consists of our distribution and display assembly operations and generates its revenues primarily from the distribution of packaging products and assembly of display products. We distribute

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corrugated packaging materials and other specialty packaging products, including stretch film, void fill, carton sealing tape and other specialty tapes, through our network of warehouses and distribution facilities. We also provide contract packing services, such as multi-product promotional packing and product manipulation, such as multipacks and onpacks. Sales in our Distribution segment to external customers accounted for 6.6%, 6.7% and 6.3% of our net sales in fiscal 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively. See “Note 7. Segment Information” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, as well as Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”, for additional information.

Land and Development Segment

During fiscal 2020, we completed the monetization of the various real estate holdings that we owned that were concentrated in the Charleston, SC region. Sales in our Land and Development segment to external customers accounted for 0.1% of our net sales in fiscal 2020. Following completion of the monetization of these assets, we ceased reporting the results of the Land and Development segment as a separate segment. See “Note 7. Segment Information” for additional information.

Seasonality

While our businesses are not materially impacted by seasonality, there is some variability in demand that occurs from quarter to quarter, with net sales in the first quarter of each fiscal year typically being the lowest. As such, we disclose net sales, Adjusted EBITDA (as hereinafter defined) and shipment data by segment by quarter in Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”. Generally, we expect more of our earnings and cash flows to be generated in the second half of the fiscal year than in the first half of the fiscal year due to these variations and other factors, including the timing of scheduled mill maintenance outages.

Raw Materials

The primary raw materials used by our mill operations are recycled fiber at our recycled containerboard and paperboard mills and virgin fiber from hardwoods and softwoods at our virgin containerboard and paperboard mills. Certain of our virgin containerboard is manufactured with some recycled fiber content. Our overall fiber sourcing for all of our mills is approximately 65% virgin and 35% recycled. See “Item 2. Properties” for additional information. Recycled fiber prices and virgin fiber prices can fluctuate significantly. Recycled fiber and virgin fiber costs increased significantly in fiscal 2022 compared to fiscal 2021.

Containerboard and paperboard are the primary raw materials used by our converting operations. Our converting operations use many different grades of containerboard and paperboard. We supply substantially all of our converting operations' needs for containerboard and paperboard from our own mills and through the use of trade swaps with other manufacturers. These arrangements allow us to optimize our mill system and reduce freight costs. Because there are other suppliers that produce the necessary grades of containerboard and paperboard used in our converting operations, we believe we would be able to source significant replacement quantities from other suppliers in the event that we incur production disruptions for recycled or virgin containerboard and paperboard. See Item 1A. “Risk Factors — We May Face Increased Costs For, or Inadequate Availability of, Raw Materials, Energy and Transportation”.

Energy

Energy is one of the most significant costs of our mill operations. The cost of natural gas, coal, oil, electricity and wood by-products (biomass) at times has fluctuated significantly. In our coated and uncoated recycled paperboard mills, we use primarily natural gas and electricity to generate steam used in the paper making process. In our integrated kraft paper mills, we use natural gas, biomass, fuel oil and some coal to generate steam used in the pulping and paper making processes and to generate some or all of the electricity used on site. We primarily use electricity and natural gas to operate our converting facilities. We generally purchase these products from suppliers at market or tariff rates. Energy costs increased significantly in fiscal 2022 compared to fiscal 2021. See Item 1. “Business — Governmental Regulation — Environmental” for additional information. See also Item 1A. “Risk Factors — We May Face Increased Costs For, or Inadequate Availability of, Raw Materials, Energy and Transportation”. See also Item 7A. “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk —

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“Energy” and “Derivative Instruments / Forward Contracts” for additional information regarding our energy consumption.

Transportation

Inbound and outbound freight is a significant cost for us. Factors that influence our freight expense are distance between our shipping and delivery locations, distance from our facilities to our customers and suppliers, mode of transportation (rail, truck, intermodal and ocean) and freight rates, which are influenced by supply and demand and fuel costs. We experienced higher freight costs and some distribution delays in both fiscal 2022 and 2021. The principal markets for our products are in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. See Item 1A. “Risk Factors — We May Face Increased Costs For, or Inadequate Availability of, Raw Materials, Energy and Transportation”.

Sales and Marketing

None of our external customers individually accounted for more than 10% of our consolidated net sales in fiscal 2022. We generally manufacture our products pursuant to our customers’ orders. We believe that we have good relationships with our customers. See Item 1A. “Risk Factors — We Depend on Certain Large Customers”.

As a result of our vertical integration, our mills’ sales volumes may be directly impacted by changes in demand for our packaging products. During fiscal 2022, approximately two-thirds of our coated natural kraft tons shipped, approximately three-fifths of our coated recycled paperboard tons shipped and approximately one-fifth of our bleached paperboard tons shipped were delivered to our converting operations, primarily to manufacture folding cartons, and approximately four-fifths of our containerboard tons shipped, including trade swaps and buy/sell transactions, were delivered to our converting operations to manufacture corrugated products. The mill owned by our Seven Hills Paperboard LLC (“Seven Hills”) joint venture in Lynchburg, VA manufactures gypsum paperboard liner for sale to our joint venture partner. Under the terms of our Seven Hills joint venture arrangement, our joint venture partner is required to purchase all of the qualifying gypsum paperboard liner produced by Seven Hills. Excluding the production from Seven Hills and from our Aurora, IL mill, which is converted into book covers and other products, approximately one-third of our specialty recycled paperboard tons shipped in fiscal 2022 were delivered to our converting operations, primarily to manufacture interior partitions. We have the ability to move our internal sourcing among certain of our mills to optimize the efficiency of our operations. We believe that our ability to leverage our full portfolio of differentiated solutions and capabilities enables us to set ourselves apart from our competitors.

We market our products primarily through our own sales force. We also market a number of our products through independent sales representatives and independent distributors. We generally pay our sales personnel a combination of base salary, commissions and annual bonus. We pay our independent sales representatives on a commission basis. Orders from our customers generally do not have significant lead times. We discuss foreign net sales to unaffiliated customers and other non-U.S. operations’ financial and other segment information in “Note 7. Segment Information” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

Competition

We operate in a competitive global marketplace and compete with many large, well established and highly competitive manufacturers and service providers. Our business is affected by a range of macroeconomic conditions, including industry capacity changes, global competition, economic conditions in the United States (“U.S.”) and abroad, as well as fluctuations in currency exchange rates.

The industries in which we operate are highly competitive, and no single company dominates any of those industries. Our containerboard and paperboard operations compete with integrated and non-integrated national and regional companies operating primarily in North America, and to a limited extent, manufacturers outside of North America. Our competitors include large and small, vertically integrated companies and numerous smaller non-integrated companies. In the corrugated packaging and folding carton markets, we compete with a significant number of national, regional and local packaging suppliers in North America and abroad. In the solid fiber interior packaging, promotional point-of-purchase display and converted paperboard products markets, we primarily compete with a smaller number of national, regional and local companies offering highly specialized products.

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Since all of our businesses operate in highly competitive industry segments, we regularly discuss sales opportunities for new business or for renewal of existing business with customers. Our packaging products compete with packaging made from other materials, including plastics. The primary competitive factors we face include price, design, product innovation, quality, service and sustainability, with varying emphasis on these factors depending on the product line and customer preferences. Our machinery solutions represent one example of how we compete by providing differentiated solutions that create value for our customers. We believe that we compete effectively with respect to each of these factors and we obtain feedback on our performance with periodic customer surveys, among other means.

The industries in which we operate have undergone consolidation. Within the packaging products industry, larger customers, with an expanded geographic presence, have tended to seek suppliers that can, because of their broad geographic presence, efficiently and economically supply all or a range of their packaging needs. In addition, our customers continue to demand higher quality products meeting stricter quality control requirements. Increasing demand for more sustainable products is also impacting our industry. See Item 1. “Business — Sustainability” for additional information.

See Item 1A. “Risk Factors — We Face Intense Competition” and “Risk Factors — We Have Been, And May Be In the Future, Adversely Affected by Factors That Are Beyond Our Control, Such as U.S. and Worldwide Economic and Financial Market Conditions, and Social and Political Change”.

Governmental Regulation

Health and Safety

Our business involves the use of heavy equipment, machinery and chemicals and requires the performance of activities that create safety exposures. The health and safety of our team members is our most important responsibility, and our goal is to create a 100% safe work environment for our team members. Our safety strategy focuses on People, Process, Prevention and Performance. We seek to reduce exposures and eliminate life changing events through engagement, execution of targeted, results-driven activities, and implementation of systems that promote continuous improvement. Our commitment to safety is reinforced by our use of the WestRock Safety Excellence Management System, a robust safety program and training curriculum.

We are subject to a broad range of foreign, federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to occupational health and safety, and our safety program includes measures required for compliance. We have incurred, and will continue to incur, capital expenditures to meet our health and safety compliance requirements, as well as to continually improve our safety systems. We believe that future compliance with occupational health and safety laws and regulations will not have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.

The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (“COVID”) has affected our operational and financial performance to varying degrees. The extent of the effects of future public health crises, including a resurgence of COVID, or related containment measures and government responses are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted.

Certain governmental authorities in locations where we do business have established asbestos standards for the workplace. Although we do not use asbestos in manufacturing our products, asbestos containing material (“ACM”) is present in some of the facilities we own or lease. For those facilities where ACM is present and ACM is subject to regulation, we have established procedures for properly managing it.

Environmental

Environmental compliance requirements are a significant factor affecting our business. Our manufacturing processes involve discharges to water, air emissions, water intake and waste handling and disposal activities. These processes are subject to numerous federal, state, local and international environmental laws and regulations, as well as the requirements of environmental permits and similar authorizations issued by various governmental authorities.

We estimate that we will invest approximately $36 million for capital expenditures during fiscal 2023 in connection with matters relating to environmental compliance. It is possible that our capital expenditure assumptions

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and project completion dates may change, and our projections are subject to change due to items such as the finalization of ongoing engineering projects or changes in environmental laws and regulations.

See “Note 17. Commitments and Contingencies — Environmental” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information. See Item 1A. “Risk Factors — We Are Subject to a Wide Variety of Laws, Regulations and Other Requirements That are Subject to Change and May Impose Substantial Compliance Costs”.

Sustainability

At WestRock, we say sustainability is in every fiber of our company. Our vision, Imagining and Delivering on the Promise of a Sustainable Future, is represented by three pillars:

Our recycling operations bring the process full circle by collecting recovered fiber that is used by our own paper mills and by others to produce new paper products. We have a long history of recycling and are one of the largest recyclers in the paper industry.

All of our North American virgin fiber sourcing regions are certified to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI®) Fiber Sourcing standard. Our forestland in Brazil is certified to the Brazilian Forest Certification Programme (CERFLOR®), the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC®) and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®). To provide traceability for the virgin fiber used in our operations, we have certified more than 95 percent of our wholly owned, fiber-based manufacturing facilities to three, internationally recognized chain-of-custody standards: SFI®, PEFC® and FSC®.

Climate Change

Sustainability and innovation are fundamental to our vision to become the world’s best paper and packaging company, and we are working to improve the carbon footprint of our manufacturing operations by setting targets to reduce greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions and developing projects to become more energy efficient. Our integrated kraft paper mills, our most energy-intensive manufacturing facilities, currently burn renewable biomass to generate more than 60 percent of their energy needs. Most of these facilities also self-generate the steam and electricity needed for their manufacturing processes using efficient combined heat and power or “cogeneration” systems. During fiscal 2022, our recycling operations helped to divert approximately seven million tons of paper and packaging that might otherwise go into landfills where it might otherwise degrade and release GHGs. Our fiber procurement activities create economic incentives for landowners and family tree farmers to maintain their holdings as working forests that sequester carbon and provide many other environmental benefits, including protection for fresh water supplies and habitats for diverse species of plants and animals.

Governance

Board-level oversight of climate and other sustainability matters resides with the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the board of directors, and six members of the board of directors have sustainability experience.

In addition to Board-level oversight, we augmented our management-level oversight of sustainability matters during fiscal 2022. WestRock’s executive leadership team has responsibility for establishing our sustainability strategy, including with respect to climate-related issues. In fiscal 2022, we hired a new Senior Vice President of Strategy and Sustainability who reports to our President, Global Paper and is responsible for providing guidance on our sustainability strategy and driving implementation of our sustainability strategy throughout the organization in collaboration with other executives. Our Vice President, Sustainability, manages day-to-day implementation of this strategy. In addition to our sustainability executives, we have established cross-functional groups within the organization to provide input on our sustainability strategy, develop plans to achieve our sustainability targets and embed our sustainability goals into our operations. These groups include representatives from our product stewardship, environmental, innovation, engineering, manufacturing, finance, legal and communication groups.

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Targets and Metrics

In 2015, we established a goal to reduce our Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions per ton of production by 20% from a 2015 baseline by 2025. As of our September 30, 2021 reporting, we achieved a reduction of 15% of GHG per ton of production and an absolute reduction of 22% from our baseline. We have accomplished GHG reductions in our business primarily by displacing coal with natural gas and investing in new biomass boilers.

In 2021, we increased the ambition of our GHG emissions-reduction efforts by setting a science-based target ("SBT") for GHG emissions reduction. Our SBT involves reducing absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 27.5% by 2030 from a 2019 baseline year. The SBT also includes a reduction in absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services, fuel and energy activities, upstream and downstream transportation and distribution, and end-of-life treatment of sold products by 27.5% within the same timeframe. We validated the SBT with the Science-Based Targets Initiative and announced our target in the first half of 2022.

Strategy

We expect our SBT to guide our work as we plan, invest in, organize, and develop projects to reduce our GHG emissions. Our current strategy to achieve our SBT includes projects to displace fossil fuels, improve energy efficiency, use virtual power purchase agreements, and re-evaluate our renewable energy credits ("RECs") strategy. We expect to invest more than $160 million through 2030 to achieve our SBT, although this estimate is subject to change for a variety of reasons, including the timing of project completion. We plan to regularly review our SBT strategy to consider the impacts of developing carbon reduction technologies, optimize the mix of carbon reduction projects to achieve our targets, and assess opportunities to achieve our SBT more quickly.

We also have embedded carbon considerations into our capital planning processes. Our capital request form includes a tool that provides project developers, reviewers, and approvers with information on whether their proposed initiative will add to or reduce carbon from the affected facility. The tool also can be used to assess potential project impacts on water intake and solid waste generation. This process is designed to increase awareness of GHG emissions and other environmental impacts within the organization and to provide us with information to use in optimizing our SBT and sustainability strategies.

Opportunities and Risks

Climate change presents certain opportunities and risks for our business.

With respect to opportunities, for example, we produce renewable energy and generate RECs at our integrated kraft mills. We have sold RECs in the past and may sell them in the future. The RECs we generate are flexible, market-based tools that support the renewable energy market. As part of our SBT strategy work, we plan to consider whether modifying our use of RECs may help us advance our progress against this target. Our recycling activities also may present the opportunity to generate offsets that could be used to meet climate-related obligations for ourselves or others.

Our business has been and may continue to be impacted by changing customer preferences for products perceived to be sustainable due to their carbon footprint. We proactively engage in dialogue with customers that have expressed a desire to track or qualify their suppliers based on their carbon footprint. We do not believe that our product offerings and operations have been materially impacted by climate change to date, and we believe we are well positioned to meet customer requirements for fiber-based, recyclable products that may replace plastic and minimize product end-of-life GHG emissions.

Climate change also presents risks and uncertainties for us. With respect to physical risks, our physical assets and infrastructure, including our manufacturing operations, have been and may in future periods be impacted by severe weather-related events, such as hurricanes, tornados, other extreme storms, wildfires and floods, potentially resulting in items such as physical damage to our facilities and lost production. Unpredictable weather patterns also may result in supply chain disruptions and increased material costs, such as through impacts to virgin fiber supplies and prices, which may fluctuate during prolonged periods of heavy rain or drought or during tree disease or insect

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epidemics that may be caused by variations in climate conditions. On the other hand, changes in climate also could result in more accommodating weather patterns for greater periods of time in certain areas, which may create favorable fiber market conditions. We incorporate a review of meteorological forecast data into our fiber procurement decisions and strategies. To the extent that severe weather-related risks materialize, and we are unprepared for them, we may incur unexpected costs, which could have a material effect on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock (as hereinafter defined) may be adversely impacted.

Responses to climate change may result in regulatory risks as new laws and regulations aimed at reducing GHG emissions come into effect. These rules and regulations could take the form of cap-and-trade, carbon taxes, or GHG reduction mandates for utilities that could increase the cost of purchased electricity. New climate rules and regulations also may result in higher fossil fuel prices or fuel efficiency standards that could increase transportation costs. Certain jurisdictions in which we have manufacturing facilities or other investments have already taken actions to address climate change. In the U.S., the EPA has issued the Clean Air Act permitting regulations applicable to certain facilities that emit GHG. The EPA also has promulgated a rule requiring certain industrial facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons or more of carbon dioxide equivalent per year to file an annual report of their emissions. While we have U.S. facilities subject to existing GHG permitting and reporting requirements, the impact of these requirements has not been material to date. In addition to these national efforts, some U.S. states in which we have manufacturing operations, including Washington, New York, and Virginia, are taking measures to reduce GHG emissions, such as requiring GHG emissions reporting or developing regional cap-and-trade programs.

Several of our international facilities are in countries that have already adopted GHG emissions trading or other regulatory programs. Other countries in which we conduct business, including China, European Union member states and India, have set GHG reduction targets in accordance with the agreement among over 170 countries that established a framework for reducing global GHG emissions (also known as the “Paris Agreement”), which became effective in November 2016 and which the United States formally rejoined in February 2021.

We have systems in place for tracking the GHG emissions from our energy-intensive facilities, and we monitor developments in climate related laws, regulations, and policies to assess the potential impact of such developments on our results of operations, financial condition, cash flows and disclosure obligations. Compliance with climate programs may require future expenditures to meet GHG emission reduction obligations. These obligations may include carbon taxes, the requirement to purchase GHG credits, or the need to acquire carbon offsets. Also, we may be required to make capital and other investments to displace traditional fossil fuels, such as fuel oil and coal, with lower carbon alternatives, such as biomass and natural gas.

Additional information regarding our GHG targets and strategy are available in our 2021 Sustainability Report, which we prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards Core Option. Our sustainability reports are available on our website at www.westrock.com/sustainability. The information contained in these sustainability reports is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K and should not be considered part of this or any other report that we file with or furnish to the SEC.

Patents and Other Intellectual Property

We hold a substantial number of foreign and domestic trademarks, trademark applications, trade names, patents, patent applications and licenses relating to our business, our products and our production processes. Our patent portfolio consists primarily of utility and design patents relating to our products and manufacturing operations. Our portfolio also includes exclusive rights to substantial proprietary packaging system technology in the U.S. and other licenses obtained from a third-party. Our brand name and logo, and certain of our products and services, are protected by domestic and foreign trademark rights. Our patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights, particularly those relating to our converting operations, are important to our operations as a whole. Our intellectual property has various expiration dates.

Human Capital

Overview

WestRock aims to recruit, develop, and retain diverse, best-in-class talent. To foster their and our success, we seek to create an environment where people can do their best work – a place where they can be their authentic

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selves, guided by our values. We strive to maximize the potential of our human capital resources by creating a respectful, rewarding, and inclusive work environment that enables our global team members to create products and services that further our mission to be the best paper and packaging company.

At September 30, 2022, we employed approximately 50,500 people, approximately 92% were in sales and operations, including manufacturing, distribution, product and services support; and approximately 8% were in general and administration, including groups such as finance, human resources, information technology, legal and supply chain. Approximately 78% were located in the U.S. and Canada and 22% were located in Europe, South America, Mexico and Asia Pacific. Of the approximately 50,500 employees, approximately 70% were hourly and 30% were salaried. Approximately 55% of our hourly employees in the U.S. and Canada are covered by collective bargaining agreements (“CBAs”), which typically have four to six-year terms. Approximately 32% of those employees covered under CBAs are operating under agreements that expire within one year and approximately 27% of those employees are working under expired contracts.

While we have experienced isolated work stoppages from time to time, we believe that working relationships with our employees are generally good. We are presently engaged with a labor dispute and resulting work stoppage at our Mahrt mill in Cottonton, AL. We have effectuated a contingency plan, and the mill is continuing to operate and produce paper for our customers.

In December 2019, the United Steelworkers Union (“USW”) ratified a master agreement that applies to substantially all of our U.S. facilities represented by the USW. The agreement has a four-year term and covers a number of specific items, including wages, medical coverage and certain other benefit programs, substance abuse testing, and safety. Individual facilities will continue to have local agreements for subjects not covered by the master agreement and those agreements will continue to have staggered terms. The master agreement permits us to apply its terms to USW employees who work at facilities we acquire during the term of the agreement. The master agreement covers approximately 62 of our U.S. operating locations and approximately 8,800 of our employees. While the terms of our CBAs vary, we believe the material terms of the agreements are customary for the industry, the type of facility, the classification of the employees and the geographic location covered.

See Item 1A. “Risk Factors — We May Be Adversely Impacted By Work Stoppages and Other Labor Relations Matters”.

Culture

WestRock’s culture is grounded in our values:

At the core of our employee listening systems is our bi-annual engagement survey, which is augmented with employee pulse checks after hire and promotion, and exit interviews/surveys. These pulse checks/surveys enable us to gather feedback directly from our workforce to inform our employee programs. In 2022, 77% of selected team members participated in the pulse survey and 86% of global team members participated in the 2021 engagement survey. The 2022 pulse survey showed a slight decrease in engagement when compared to the 2021 full engagement survey. The survey and pulse covered topics such as company strategy and direction, leadership, inclusion, safety, culture, pay and benefits, and learning and development. We use external benchmarks, including one specific to manufacturing companies, as points of comparison, and monitor how we perform against these benchmarks for many of the items we survey.

Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging

Our Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging objective is to be a company where each of us genuinely belongs, is respected and valued, and can do our best work.

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At September 30, 2022, 22% of our global workforce was comprised of women and 35% of our U.S. based workforce was comprised of people of color. Our board of directors includes four women (representing 33% of directors) and two people of color (representing 17% of directors). We have implemented a multi-year plan designed to increase our workforce diversity, advance inclusion, equity and belonging, accelerate the development and career movement of diverse talent and ensure diverse succession plans such that we continue to create future opportunities for all of our team members.

In fiscal 2021, the annual short-term incentive plan for our CEO and for the senior leadership team reporting to the CEO included an evaluation and measurement of progress in the metrics and programs that directly support diversity and inclusion, such as:

We expanded the application of the evaluation and measurement of our diversity and inclusion progress in our fiscal 2022 short-term incentive plan to include approximately 100 of our senior leaders.

In fiscal 2022, we also partnered with external experts and developed a learning experience focused on unconscious bias and provided tailored workshops to 62% of our hourly workforce and 81% of our salaried workforce. This experience is one example of how we are seeking to expand awareness and build the skill set and mindset to create a truly inclusive environment.

In collaboration with organizations such as the Executive Leadership Council, Calibr, Harvard Program for Women, Pathways and Signature, we are providing external development opportunities for our diverse talent. To connect and develop team members within WestRock, we support highly engaged resource groups for early in career, women, racial and ethnic minorities, military, people with different abilities, or who identify as LGBTQIA+, where team members can go for support, networking, and community-building.

WestRock conducts pay equity analyses annually in the U.S., Great Britain and France to help identify any unsupported distinctions in pay between team members of different races, gender and/or age, as permitted by local law. We make adjustments to base pay, where appropriate.

Safety and Wellness

We are committed to supporting our team members’ safety and well-being. We have an extensive safety program that is implemented at our sites and includes a focus on eliminating exposures, reducing recordable incidents, lost workdays and life changing events. With strong reporting capabilities we have demonstrated year-over year improvements, as well as favorable results compared to our industry. In fiscal 2022, we made significant progress in reducing life-changing events, while lost workdays and recordable incident rates slightly increased over the prior year. In addition, our safety results measured favorably compared to industry performance.

In fiscal 2022, we deployed broad human and organizational performance training in the U.S. and internationally focused on continuous safety improvement and the relationships that exist between systems, processes, equipment and people to drive better safety practices.

Talent Attraction, Retention and Development

The attraction, retention and development of exceptional team members is critical to our success. We accomplish this, in part, by seeking to develop the capabilities of our team members through our continuous learning, development and performance management programs. These programs include our safety, six sigma, supply chain, leadership, commercial and operational development programs.

We invest in our senior leadership through the Leadership Excellence, Elevate and Essentials programs; and we invest in our commercial teams through quarterly product training, best practice sharing, and development workshops that focus on the capabilities needed today and tomorrow to anticipate and meet our customers’ changing requirements.

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In fiscal 2022, we initiated the deployment of common equipment and reliability operations/technical training across our sites with a focus on our newest hires. We continue to invest in technical development curriculum with a focus on building the best technical, engineering, operational talent. We continue to leverage our online learning library, which has over 8,500 courses and 200 playlists by topic area or experience/skill set.

We sponsor early in career rotations and college hire programs that support our functions and local operations. We build partnerships with schools, universities and associations to promote future careers in manufacturing. During fiscal 2022, we also expanded our relationships with historically black colleges and universities, the National Association of Manufacturers and other partners and associations, and established a new multi-year scholarship and engagement program with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

Total Rewards

Our total rewards programs are designed to offer competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits and other programs to support employees’ growth, both personally and professionally, and the diverse needs and well-being of our employees worldwide. We believe the structure of our compensation and benefit programs provide the appropriate incentives to attract, retain and motivate our employees. We provide base pay that is competitive and that aligns with employee positions, skill levels, experience and geographic location. In addition to base pay, we seek to reward employees with annual incentive awards, recognition programs, and equity awards for employees at certain job levels.

Employee benefits packages may include: 401(k) plan, pension plan, core and supplemental life insurance, financial courses and advisors, employee assistance programs, tuition assistance, family planning and adoption assistance, medical and dental insurance, vision insurance, health savings accounts, health reimbursement and flexible spending accounts, well-being rewards programs, vacation pay, holiday pay, and parental and adoption leave.

Over the past two years, we enhanced certain of the Company’s benefits and practices to support the health and well-being of our employees through the challenges of the pandemic and significant supply chain disruptions caused by winter storms and natural disasters. In the fall of 2022, we announced the opportunity for part time work and benefits effective January 2023 for employees who work 20 hours or greater each week. We believe this added work and schedule flexibility will position us to better meet the needs of employees, customers, and manufacturing sites and leverage new sources of talent.

International Operations

Our operations outside the U.S. are conducted through subsidiaries located in Canada, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Europe, Middle East and Africa ("EMEA"). Sales attributable to non-U.S. operations were 18.3%, 18.3% and 17.5% of our net sales in fiscal 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively, some of which were transacted in U.S. dollars. See “Note 7. Segment Information” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information. See also Item 1A. “Risk Factors — We are Exposed to Risks Related to International Sales and Operations”.

Available Information

Our Internet address is www.westrock.com. Our Internet address is included herein as an inactive textual reference only. The information contained on our website, including our 2021 Sustainability Report, is not incorporated by reference herein and should not be considered part of this report. We file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements (and any amendments thereto) and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and we make available free of charge most of our SEC filings through our Internet website as soon as reasonably practicable after filing with the SEC. You may access these SEC filings via the hyperlink that we provide on our website to a third-party SEC filings website. We also make available on our website our board committee charters, as well as the corporate governance guidelines adopted by our board of directors, our Code of Conduct for employees, our Code of Conduct and Ethics for the Board of Directors and our Code of Ethical Conduct for Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and Senior Financial Officers. Any amendments to, or waiver from, any provision of these codes that are required to be disclosed will be posted on our website. We will also provide copies of these documents, without charge, at the written request of any stockholder of record. Requests for copies should be mailed to: WestRock Company, 1000 Abernathy Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30328, Attention: Corporate Secretary.

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Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this report that do not relate strictly to historical facts, including those related to sustainability or Environmental, Social or Governance (“ESG”) matters, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s current expectations, beliefs, plans or forecasts and use words such as “may”, “will”, “could”, “would”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “estimate”, “project”, “plan”, “believe”, “expect”, “target”, "prospects", “potential” and "forecast", or words of similar import or meaning or refer to future time periods. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, expectations, projections, goals, targets, forecasts, assumptions, risks and uncertainties. A forward-looking statement is not a guarantee of future performance, and actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statement.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, such as developments related to pricing cycles and volumes; economic, competitive and market conditions generally, including macroeconomic uncertainty, customer inventory rebalancing, the impact of inflation and increases in energy, raw materials, shipping, labor and capital equipment costs; reduced supply of raw materials, energy and transportation, including from supply chain disruptions and labor shortages; intense competition; results and impacts of acquisitions, including timing and operational and financial effects from the planned acquisition of Gondi, S.A. de C.V. (“Grupo Gondi”), and divestitures as well as risks related to our joint ventures; business disruptions, including from public health crises such as a resurgence of COVID, the occurrence of severe weather or a natural disaster or other unanticipated problems, such as labor difficulties, equipment failure or unscheduled maintenance and repair; failure to respond to changing customer preferences; the amount and timing of capital expenditures, including installation costs, project development and implementation costs, and costs related to resolving disputes with third parties with which we work to manage and implement capital projects; risks related to international sales and operations; the production of faulty or contaminated products; the loss of certain customers; adverse legal, reputational, operational and financial effects resulting from cyber incidents and the effectiveness of business continuity plans during a ransomware or other cyber incident; work stoppages and other labor relations difficulties; inability to attract, motivate, train and retain qualified personnel; risks associated with sustainability and climate change, including our ability to achieve ESG targets and goals on announced timelines or at all; our inability to successfully identify and make performance and productivity improvements and risks associated with completing strategic projects on the anticipated timelines and realizing anticipated financial or operational improvements on announced timelines or at all, including with respect to our business systems transformation; risks related to our indebtedness; the scope, costs, timing and impact of any restructuring of our operations and corporate and tax structure; our desire or ability to repurchase company stock; and the scope, timing and outcome of any litigation, claims or other proceedings or dispute resolutions and the impact of any such litigation (including with respect to the Brazil tax liability matter). Such risks and other factors that may impact forward-looking statements are discussed in Item 1A “Risk Factors”. The information contained herein speaks as of the date hereof, and the Company does not have or undertake any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law.

Item 1A. RISK FACTORS

We are subject to certain risks and events that have adversely affected and/or may in the future adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our common stock, par value $0.01 per share (“Common Stock”). In evaluating our business and any investment in our securities, you should consider the following risk factors and the other information presented in this report, as well as the other reports and registration statements we file from time to time with the SEC. The risks addressed below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks not currently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial could also adversely impact our business.

Industry Risks

We Are Subject to Pricing Cycles, Which Could Materially Adversely Affect Our Businesses

Our businesses have experienced, and are likely to continue experiencing, pricing cycles relating to industry capacity and general economic conditions. The length and magnitude of these cycles have varied over time and by

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product. Prices for our products are driven by many factors, including general economic conditions, demand for our products and competitive conditions in the industries in which we serve, and we have little influence over the timing and extent of price changes, which may be unpredictable and volatile. Where supply exceeds demand, prices for our products could decline, and our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock could be adversely affected. For example, we believe that the trading price of our Common Stock has been adversely affected in part due to concerns about the impact of macroeconomic conditions on pricing and demand and announcements by certain of our competitors of planned additional capacity in the North American containerboard market, as well as the subsequent implementation of certain of those plans and the impact it will have on future supply and demand dynamics and pricing.

Certain published indices (including those published by Pulp and Paper Week (“PPW”)) contribute to the setting of selling prices for some of our products. PPW is a limited survey that may not accurately reflect changes in market conditions for our products. Changes in how the indices in PPW are determined or maintained, or other indices are established or maintained, could adversely impact the selling prices for these products.

Our Earnings Are Highly Dependent on Volumes

Because our operations generally have high fixed operating costs, our earnings are highly dependent on volumes, which tend to fluctuate due to general economic conditions, supply and demand dynamics in the markets we serve, and due to company and customer specific issues. We are presently experiencing lower demand for certain products due to macroeconomic conditions and customer inventory rebalancing. These fluctuations at times lead to significant variability in our sales, results of operations, cash flow and financial condition, making it difficult to predict our financial results with any degree of certainty. This variability in performance due to fluctuations in volumes may also cause the trading price of our Common Stock to be adversely affected.

The COVID pandemic has affected our operational and financial performance to varying degrees. The extent of the effects of future public health crises, including a resurgence of COVID, or related containment measures and government responses, which result in reduced volumes are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted. Any failure to maintain volumes may materially adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock.

We May Face Increased Costs For, or Inadequate Availability of, Raw Materials, Energy and Transportation

We rely heavily on the use of certain raw materials, energy sources and third-party companies to transport our goods.

The costs of recycled fiber and virgin fiber, the principal externally sourced raw materials for our paper mills, are subject to pricing variability due to market and industry conditions. Demand for recycled fiber has fluctuated and may increase due to, among other factors, increased consumption of recycled fiber, including through additions of new recycled paper mill capacity, increasing demand for products packaged in packaging made with paper manufactured from 100% recycled fiber and the shift by manufacturers of virgin paperboard, tissue, newsprint and corrugated packaging to the production of products with some recycled fiber content. In fiscal 2022, we experienced periods of increased recycled fiber costs primarily due to market demand and availability, before seeing prices decline in the fourth quarter.

The market price of virgin fiber varies based on availability and source of virgin fiber, and the availability of virgin fiber may be impacted by, among other factors, wet weather conditions. In addition, costs for key chemicals used in our manufacturing operations fluctuate, which impacts our manufacturing costs. Certain published indices contribute to price setting for some of our raw materials and future changes in how these indices are established or maintained could adversely impact the pricing of these raw materials.

The cost of natural gas, which we use in many of our manufacturing operations, including many of our mills, and other energy costs (including energy generated by burning natural gas, fuel oil, biomass and coal) has at times fluctuated significantly. In fiscal 2022, the price of the natural gas consumed in our manufacturing operations increased significantly compared to the prior year period. Energy costs have increased, and in the future could continue to increase our operating costs and make our products less competitive compared to similar or alternative products offered by competitors.

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We distribute our products primarily by truck and rail, although we also distribute some of our products by cargo ship. The reduced availability of trucks, rail cars or cargo ships, including as a result of labor shortages in the transportation industry, could adversely impact our ability to distribute our products in a timely or cost-effective manner. We experienced higher freight costs and some distribution delays in both fiscal 2022 and 2021. High transportation costs could make our products less competitive compared to similar or alternative products offered by competitors.

Because our businesses operate in highly competitive industry segments, we may not be able to recoup past or future increases in the cost of raw materials, energy or transportation through price increases for our products. The failure to obtain raw materials, energy or transportation services at reasonable market prices (or the failure to pass on price increases to our customers) or a reduction in the availability of raw materials, energy or transportation services due to increased demand, significant changes in climate or weather conditions, or other factors could adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock.

We Face Intense Competition

We compete in industries that are highly competitive. Our competitors include large and small, vertically integrated companies and numerous smaller non-integrated companies. We generally compete with companies operating in North America, although we have operations spanning North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Factors affecting our ability to compete include the entry of new competitors into the markets we serve, increased competition from overseas producers, our competitors’ pricing strategies, the introduction by our competitors of new products, technologies and equipment, our ability to innovate and to anticipate and respond to changing customer preferences and our ability to maintain the cost-efficiency of our operations, including our facilities. In addition, changes within these industries, including the consolidation of our competitors and customers, may impact competitive dynamics. If our competitors are more successful than us with respect to any key competitive factor, our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock, could be adversely affected.

Our products also compete, to some extent, with various other packaging materials, including products made of paper, plastics, wood and various types of metal. Customer shifts away from containerboard and paperboard packaging to packaging made from other materials could adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock.

Operating Risks

We May Be Unsuccessful in Making and Integrating Mergers, Acquisitions and Investments, and Completing Divestitures

We have completed a number of mergers, acquisitions, investments and divestitures in the past and we may acquire, invest in or sell, or enter into transactions with additional companies, such as our planned acquisition of the remaining ownership interest in Grupo Gondi and the pending divestiture of our interior partition operations and three uncoated recycled paperboard mills. We may not be able to identify suitable targets or purchasers or successfully complete suitable transactions in the future, and completed transactions may not be successful. These transactions create risks, including, but not limited to, risks associated with:

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These transactions may not be successful and may adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock. Among the benefits we expect from potential, as well as completed, acquisitions and joint ventures are synergies, cost savings, growth opportunities or access to new markets (or a combination thereof), and in the case of divestitures, the realization of proceeds from the sale of businesses and assets to purchasers that place higher strategic value on these businesses and assets than we do. For acquisitions, our success in realizing these benefits and the timing of realizing them depend on the successful integration of the acquired businesses and operations with our business and operations. Even if we integrate these businesses and operations successfully, we may not realize the full benefits we expected within the anticipated timeframe, or at all, and the benefits may be offset by unanticipated costs or delays.

We May Incur Business Disruptions That Adversely Affect Our Businesses

Our businesses depend on continuous operation of our facilities to be efficient. The operations at our facilities have in the past and may in the future be interrupted or impaired by various operating risks, including, but not limited to, risks associated with:

For example, operations at several of our facilities located in the south and southeastern U.S. have been interrupted in recent years by hurricanes and severe winter weather, resulting in, among other things, lost mill production. In addition, COVID has impacted our operations and financial performance to varying degrees. The extent of the effects of future public health crises, including the impact of a resurgence of COVID, or other business disruptions, on our operational and financial performance in future periods will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted. During the COVID pandemic, we experienced, and may experience in the future, lower demand for certain of our products, supply chain and labor disruptions and higher

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costs. In addition, our production capabilities may be disrupted if we are unable to secure sufficient supplies of raw materials or if significant portions of our workforce are unable to work effectively as a result of a business disruption.

Business disruptions have impaired, and may in the future impair, our production capabilities and adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock.

We May Fail to Anticipate Trends That Would Enable Us to Offer Products That Respond to Changing Customer Preferences

Our success depends, in part, on our ability to offer differentiated solutions, and we must continually develop and introduce new products and services to keep pace with technological and regulatory developments and changing customer preferences. The services and products that we offer customers may not meet their needs as their business models evolve. Also, our customers may decide to decrease their use of our products, use alternative materials for their product packaging or forego the packaging of certain products entirely. Regulatory developments can also significantly alter the market for our products. For example, a move to electronic distribution of disclaimers and other paperless regimes could adversely impact our healthcare inserts and labels businesses. Similarly, certain states and local governments have adopted laws banning single-use paper bags or charging businesses or customers fees to use paper bags. These and similar developments could adversely impact demand for certain of our products.

Customer preferences for products and packaging formats are constantly changing based on, among other factors, cost, convenience, and health, environmental and social concerns and perceptions. For example, changing consumer dietary habits and preferences have slowed the sales growth for certain of the food and beverage products that we package. Also, there is an increasing focus among consumers to ensure that products delivered through e-commerce are packaged efficiently. In addition, customers are increasingly interested in the carbon footprint of our products. For instance, in 2019 Amazon began requiring all items sold through Amazon that are larger than a specified size to be designed and certified as ready-to-ship. Our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock, could be adversely affected if we fail to anticipate trends that would enable us to offer products that respond to changing customer preferences.

Our Capital Expenditures May Not Achieve the Desired Outcomes or May Be Achieved at a Higher Cost than Anticipated

We regularly make capital expenditures, and many of our capital projects are complex, costly and/or implemented over an extended period of time. Our capital expenditures for particular capital projects could be higher than we anticipated, we may experience unanticipated business disruptions or delays in completing the projects and/or we may not achieve the desired benefits from the capital projects, any of which could adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock. In addition, disputes between us and contractors who are involved with implementing capital projects could lead to time-consuming and costly litigation.

We Are Exposed to Risks Related to International Sales and Operations

We derived 18.3% of our net sales in fiscal 2022 from outside the U.S. through international operations, some of which were transacted in U.S. dollars. We expect net sales from international operations to increase in fiscal 2023 in connection with our acquisition of Grupo Gondi. In addition, certain of our domestic operations have sales to foreign customers. Our operating results and business prospects could be adversely affected by risks related to the countries outside the U.S. in which we have manufacturing facilities or sell our products. Countries are exposed to varying degrees of economic, political and social instability. In addition, economies and operating environments have been, and may continue to be, adversely impacted to varying degrees by COVID. We are exposed to risks of operating in various countries, including, but not limited to, risks associated with:

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We are also subject to taxation in the U.S. and numerous non-U.S. jurisdictions and have several ongoing audit examinations covering multiple years with various tax authorities. We base our tax returns on our interpretation of tax laws and regulations in effect; however, governing tax bodies have in the past and may in the future disagree with certain of our tax positions, which could result in a higher tax liability. For instance, we are challenging claims by the Brazil Federal Revenue Department that we underpaid tax, penalties and interest associated with a claim that a subsidiary of MeadWestvaco Corporation (the predecessor of WestRock MWV, LLC) had reduced its tax liability related to the goodwill generated by the 2002 merger of two of its Brazilian subsidiaries. See Item 8 – “Financial Statements and Supplemental Data — Note 17. Commitments and Contingencies — Brazil Tax Liability” for additional information.

Any one or more of these risks could adversely affect our international operations and our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock.

We Cannot Operate Our Joint Ventures Solely For Our Benefit, Which Subjects Us to Risks

We have invested in joint ventures and may form additional joint ventures in the future. Our participation in joint ventures is subject to risks, including, but not limited to, risks associated with:

We May Produce Faulty or Contaminated Products Due to Failures in Quality Control Measures and Systems

Our failure to produce products that meet safety and quality standards could result in adverse effects on consumer health, litigation exposure, loss of market share and adverse reputational and financial impacts, among other potential consequences, and we may incur substantial costs in taking appropriate corrective action (up to and including recalling products from end consumers) and reimbursing customers and/or end consumers for losses that they suffer as a result of these failures. Our actions or omissions with respect to product safety and quality could lead to regulatory investigations, enforcement actions and/or prosecutions, and result in adverse publicity, which may damage our reputation. Any of these results could adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock.

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We provide representations in certain of our contracts that our products are produced in accordance with customer specifications. If the product contained in packaging manufactured by us is faulty or contaminated, the manufacturer of the product may allege that the packaging we provided caused the fault or contamination, even if the packaging complies with contractual specifications. If our packaging fails to function properly or to preserve the integrity of its contents, we could face liability from our customers and third parties for bodily injury or other damages. These liabilities could adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock.

We Are Subject to Cyber-Security Risks, Including Related to Customer, Employee, Vendor or Other Company Data

We use information technologies to securely manage operations and various business functions. We rely on various technologies, some of which are managed by third parties, to process, transmit and store electronic information. In addition, we facilitate a variety of business processes and activities, including reporting on our business and interacting with customers, vendors and employees. We also collect and store data, including proprietary business information, and may have access to confidential or personal information that is subject to privacy and security laws, regulations and customer-imposed controls. Our systems are subject to recurring attempts by third parties to access information, manipulate data or disrupt our operations. Despite our security design and controls, and those of our third-party providers, we have in the past experienced, and may in the future become subject to, system damage, disruptions or shutdowns. These incidents may be due to any number of causes, including cyber-attacks, data breaches, employee error or malfeasance, such as ransomware and data theft by common hackers, criminal groups or nation-state organizations or social activist organizations (which efforts may increase as a result of geopolitical events and political unrest around the world), power outages, telecommunication or utility failures, systems failures, service provider failures, natural disasters or other catastrophic events. Misuse of internal applications, theft of intellectual property, trade secrets or other corporate assets, and inappropriate disclosure of confidential information could result from such incidents.

In January 2021, we detected a ransomware attack impacting certain of our systems (the “Ransomware Incident”). In response, we proactively shut-down a number of our systems, which impacted certain of our operations, including our ability to produce and ship paper and packaging. Due to these actions, our mill system production was approximately 115,000 tons lower than planned for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 and we estimated the pre-tax income impact of the lost sales and operational disruption of this incident, as well as ransomware recovery costs, at approximately $80 million. In response to the Ransomware Incident, we accelerated information technology investments that we had previously planned to make in future periods in order to further strengthen our information security and technology infrastructure. As a result, we have incurred and expect to continue to incur, significant costs as we enhance our data security and take further steps to prevent unauthorized access to, or manipulation of, our systems and data. Despite these efforts, similar incidents may occur in the future. In particular, the Ransomware Incident may embolden individuals or groups to target our systems. Additionally, while we have insurance coverage in place to address various cyber risks, this insurance coverage is subject to a deductible and may not be sufficient to cover all losses or types of claims that may arise in connection with such incidents.

The cyber-security-related vulnerabilities that we face may also remain undetected for an extended period of time. We may face other challenges and risks during our integration of acquired businesses and operations as we upgrade and standardize our information technology systems. We maintain contingency plans and processes to prevent or mitigate the impact of these events; however, these events could result in operational disruptions like those we suffered in connection with the Ransomware Incident or the misappropriation of sensitive data, and depending on their nature and scope, could lead to the compromise of confidential information, improper use of our systems and networks, manipulation and destruction of data, defective products, production downtimes, operational disruptions and exposure to liability. Such disruptions or misappropriations and the resulting repercussions, including reputational damage and legal claims or proceedings, may adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock.

We May Be Adversely Impacted By Work Stoppages and Other Labor Relations Matters

A significant number of our union employees are governed by CBAs. Expired contracts are in the process of renegotiation and others expire within one year. We may not be able to successfully negotiate new union contracts without work stoppages or labor difficulties or renegotiate them on favorable terms. We have experienced isolated

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work stoppages from time to time. We are presently engaged with a labor dispute and resulting work stoppage at our Mahrt mill in Cottonton, AL. We have effectuated a contingency plan, and the mill is continuing to operate and produce paper for our customers. If we experience any extended interruption of operations at any of our facilities as a result of strikes or other work stoppages or if we are unable to successfully renegotiate the terms of any of these agreements, our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock, could be adversely affected. In addition, our businesses rely on vendors, suppliers and other third parties that have union employees. Strikes or work stoppages affecting these vendors, suppliers and other third parties could adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock.

We Operate in a Challenging Market for Talent and May Not Attract, Motivate, Train and Retain Qualified Personnel, Including Key Personnel

Our success depends on our ability to attract, motivate, train and retain employees with the skills necessary to understand and adapt to the continuously developing needs of our customers. The increasing demand for qualified personnel makes it more difficult for us to attract and retain employees with requisite skill sets, particularly employees with specialized technical and trade experience. Changing demographics and labor work force trends also may result in a loss of knowledge and skills as more tenured and experienced workers retire. If we are unable to attract, motivate, train and retain qualified personnel, or if we experience excessive turnover, particularly among hourly workers, we may experience declining sales, manufacturing delays or other inefficiencies, increased recruiting, training and relocation costs and other difficulties, and our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock may be adversely impacted.

The market for both hourly workers and professional workers remained challenging in fiscal 2022. The market and labor environment for hourly workers is increasingly competitive and experiencing higher levels of labor unrest. In certain locations where we operate, the demand for labor continues to exceed the supply of labor, resulting in higher costs for employers. Despite our focused efforts to attract and retain employees, including by offering higher levels of compensation in certain instances and retention bonuses in select locations, we experienced attrition rates within our hourly workforce in fiscal 2022 that exceeded pre-2021 levels and we incurred higher operating costs at certain of our facilities in the form of higher levels of overtime pay due to shift requirements and staffing challenges.

The market for professional workers remains challenging. Many professional workers desire a fully remote work setting. We offer flexible working arrangements in the majority of instances; however, we may experience higher levels of attrition within our professional workforce if employees do not perceive the purpose and impact of their work to be rewarding or work-life balance to be satisfactory.

We rely on key executive and management personnel to manage our business efficiently and effectively. The loss of these employees, combined with a challenging market for attracting and retaining employees could adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock may be adversely impacted.

We Face Physical, Operational, Financial and Reputational Risks Associated with Climate Change

Our physical assets and infrastructure, including our manufacturing operations, have been and remain subject to risks from volatile and damaging weather patterns. For example, severe weather-related events, such as hurricanes, tornados, other extreme storms, wildfires, and floods, have resulted in and could in future periods result in lost production and/or physical damage to our facilities. Unpredictable weather patterns also may result in supply chain disruptions and increased material costs. The ability to harvest the virgin fiber used in our manufacturing operations may be limited, and prices for this raw material may fluctuate, during prolonged periods of heavy rain or drought or during tree disease or insect epidemics that may be caused by variations in climate conditions. Such events could also impact the premiums we pay for insurance. Other climate-related business risks that we face include risks related to the transition to a lower-carbon economy, such as increased prices for certain fuels, including natural gas; the introduction of a carbon tax or government mandates to reduce GHG emissions; and more stringent and/or complex environmental and other permitting requirements. To the extent that severe weather-related risks materialize, and we are unprepared for them, we may incur unexpected costs, which could have a material effect on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock may be adversely impacted.

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There has been an increased focus, including from investors, customers, the general public and U.S. and foreign governmental and nongovernmental authorities on climate change and GHG emissions. We have voluntarily established targets to reduce GHG emissions by 2030. For example, we have established a SBT to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 27.5% by 2030 from a 2019 baseline year. The SBT also includes a targeted reduction in absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services, fuel and energy activities, upstream and downstream transportation and distribution, and end-of-life treatment of sold products by 27.5% within the same timeframe. Meeting our SBT is expected to increase our capital expenditures and may increase our operational costs. The anticipated capital and operational costs to achieve our SBT could deviate materially from our initial estimates. Further, the achievement of our SBT is subject to various risks and uncertainties, some of which are outside our control.

We have also established and publicly disclosed other ESG targets and goals and other sustainability commitments that are subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties. If we are unable to meet these targets, goals or commitments on our projected timelines or at all, or if they are not perceived to be sufficiently robust, our reputation as well as our relationships with investors, customers and other stakeholders could be harmed, which could in turn adversely impact our business and results of operations. In addition, not all of our competitors may seek to establish climate or other ESG targets and goals, or at a comparable level to ours, which could result in our competitors achieving competitive advantages through lower supply chain or operating costs.

We May Not Be Able To Successfully Implement Our Strategic Transformation Initiatives, Including Our New Business Systems Transformation

We have undertaken several projects to enhance productivity and increase efficiency throughout our businesses, which may not be achieved on the anticipated timelines or at all. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, we launched a multi-year phased business systems transformation project. The investment will replace much of our existing disparate systems and transition them to a standardized enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) system on a cloud-based platform, as well as a suite of other complementing technologies, across our global organization. The new systems are intended to transform areas such as manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, quote to cash, financials and analytics, and position us to better leverage automation and process efficiency and enable productivity enhancements. An implementation of this scale is a major financial undertaking and will require substantial time and attention of management and key employees. We may not be able to successfully implement our ERP system without delays related to resource constraints or challenges with the critical design phases of the implementation, or we may experience unanticipated business disruptions and/or we may not achieve the desired benefits from the project. Project completion dates and anticipated costs may also change. Additionally, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting could be adversely affected if the new ERP is not successfully implemented. Any of these items could adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock.

Financial Risks

We Have Been, And May Be In the Future, Adversely Affected by Factors That Are Beyond Our Control, Such as U.S. and Worldwide Economic and Financial Market Conditions, and Social and Political Change

Our businesses have been, and may be, adversely affected by a number of factors that are beyond our control, including, but not limited to:

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For instance, we are presently experiencing lower demand for certain products due to macroeconomic conditions and customer inventory rebalancing. This circumstance may be exacerbated if these conditions lead to higher unemployment rates, lower family income, unfavorable currency exchange rates, lower corporate earnings, lower business investment and/or lower consumer spending. The global economy is also experiencing the highest levels of inflation in decades, and we are experiencing cost inflation across our business. Persistent inflation results in continued higher production and transportation costs, which we may not be able to recover through higher prices charged to our customers. These conditions and other macroeconomic uncertainties could result in higher operating and distribution costs driven by economic downtime, as we experienced in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022.

In addition, changes in trade policy, including renegotiating or potentially terminating, existing bilateral or multilateral agreements, as well as the imposition of tariffs, could impact demand for our products and the costs associated with certain of our capital investments. Macroeconomic challenges may also lead to changes in tax laws or tax rates that may have a material impact on our future cash taxes, effective tax rate or deferred tax assets and liabilities. For example, the Biden Administration has proposed significant changes to the U.S. tax laws, including an increase to the federal corporate tax rate, limiting deductions where certain conditions exist, and several proposals that would have the combined effect of increasing the U.S. taxation on profits earned outside the U.S. On August 16, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 ("Inflation Reduction Act") was signed into law, with tax provisions primarily focused on implementing a 15% minimum tax on global adjusted financial statement income and a 1% excise tax on share repurchases. While we are still evaluating the impact that the Inflation Reduction Act will have on our financial results, we do not believe the impact will be material.

We are not able to predict or control adverse changes in economic and financial market conditions, and adverse social and political change, and our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock could be adversely affected by these matters.

We Depend on Certain Large Customers

We have large customers, none of which individually accounted for more than 10% of our consolidated net sales in fiscal 2022. The loss of large customers could adversely affect our sales and, depending on the magnitude of the loss, our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock. In particular, because our businesses operate in highly competitive industry segments, we regularly bid for new business or for the renewal of existing business. The loss of business from our larger customers, or the renewal of business on less favorable terms, may adversely impact our financial results.

We Have Had Significant Levels of Indebtedness in the Past and May Incur Significant Levels of Indebtedness in the Future, Which Could Adversely Affect Our Financial Condition and Impair Our Ability to Operate Our Business

At September 30, 2022, we had $7.8 billion of debt outstanding compared to $8.2 billion at September 30, 2021. We expect to incur additional debt in connection with the acquisition of the remaining interest in Grupo Gondi. The level of our indebtedness has important consequences, including:

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Our credit facilities contain certain restrictive covenants, including a covenant to satisfy a debt to capitalization ratio. These restrictions may limit our flexibility to respond to changing market conditions and competitive pressures.

Credit Rating Downgrades Could Increase Our Borrowing Costs or Otherwise Adversely Affect Us

Some of our outstanding indebtedness has received credit ratings from rating agencies. Our credit ratings could change based on, among other things, our results of operations and financial condition. Credit ratings are subject to ongoing evaluation by credit rating agencies and may be lowered, suspended or withdrawn entirely by a rating agency or placed on a “watch list” for a possible downgrade or assigned a “negative outlook”. Actual or anticipated changes or downgrades in our credit ratings, including any announcement that our ratings are under review for a downgrade or have been assigned a negative outlook, could increase our borrowing costs, which could in turn adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock. If a downgrade were to occur or a negative outlook were to be assigned, it could impact our ability to access the capital markets to raise debt and/or increase the associated costs. In addition, while our credit ratings are important to us, we may take actions and otherwise operate our business in a manner that adversely affects our credit ratings.

We sell short-term receivables from certain customer trade accounts on a revolving basis. Any downgrade of the credit rating or deterioration of the financial condition of these customers may make it more costly or difficult for us to engage in these activities, which could adversely affect our cash flows and liquidity.

We Have a Significant Amount of Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets and a Write-Down Could Materially Adversely Impact Our Operating Results and Stockholders’ Equity

At September 30, 2022, the carrying value of our goodwill and intangible assets was $8.8 billion. We review the carrying value of our goodwill for impairment annually, or more frequently when impairment indicators exist. The impairment test requires us to analyze a number of factors and make estimates that require judgment. In fiscal 2022, each of our reporting units had fair values that exceeded their carrying values by more than 15%. Future changes in the cost of capital, expected cash flows, changes in our business strategy and external market conditions, among other factors, could require us to record an impairment charge for goodwill, which could lead to decreased assets and reduced net income. If a significant write down were required, the charge could have a material adverse effect on our operating results and stockholders’ equity and could impact the trading price of our Common Stock. In fiscal 2020, we recorded a pre-tax non-cash goodwill impairment of approximately $1.3 billion in our legacy Consumer Packaging reporting unit.

We May Incur Additional Restructuring Costs and May Not Realize Expected Benefits from Restructuring

We have previously restructured portions of our operations and likely will engage in future restructuring initiatives. For instance, during fiscal 2022, we recorded various impairments and other charges associated with our decision to permanently cease operations at our Panama City, FL mill and to permanently close the corrugated medium manufacturing operations at our St. Paul, MN mill. Because we are not able to predict or control market conditions, including changes in the supply and demand for our products, the loss of large customers, the selling prices for our products or our manufacturing costs, we may not be able to predict the appropriate time to undertake restructurings. The cash and non-cash costs associated with these activities vary depending on the type of facility impacted, with the non-cash cost of a mill closure generally being more significant than that of a converting facility due to the higher level of investment. Restructuring activities may divert the attention of management, disrupt our operations and fail to achieve the intended cost and operations benefits. In addition, significant judgment is required to estimate restructuring costs, and these estimates, and the assumptions underlying them, may change as additional information becomes available or facts or circumstances related to the restructuring initiative change.

We May Incur Withdrawal Liability and/or Increased Funding Requirements in Connection with Multiemployer Pension Plans

We participate in several multiemployer pension plans (“MEPP” or “MEPPs”). Our contributions to any particular MEPP may increase based on the declining funded status of a MEPP and legal requirements, such as

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those of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (“Pension Act”), which require substantially underfunded MEPPs to implement a funding improvement plan (“FIP”) or a rehabilitation plan (“RP”) to improve their funded status. The funded status of a MEPP may be impacted by, among other items, a shrinking contribution base as a result of the insolvency or withdrawal of other companies that currently contribute to these plans, the inability or failure of companies withdrawing from the plan to pay their withdrawal liability, low interest rates, changes in actuarial assumptions and/or lower than expected returns on pension fund assets.

We believe that certain of the MEPPs in which we participate or have participated, including the Pace Industry Union-Management Pension Fund (“PIUMPF”), have material unfunded vested benefits. We submitted formal notification to withdraw from MEPPs in the past and have recorded withdrawal liabilities, including an estimate of our portion of PIUMPF’s accumulated funding deficiency. We may withdraw from other MEPPs in the future. At September 30, 2022, we had $214.7 million of withdrawal liabilities, including liabilities associated with PIUMPF’s accumulated funding deficiency demands. In July 2021, PIUMPF filed suit against us in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia claiming the right to recover our pro rata share of the pension fund’s accumulated funding deficiency, along with interest, liquidated damages and attorney’s fees. The impact of increased contributions, future funding obligations or future withdrawal liabilities may adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock. See “Note 5. Retirement Plans — Multiemployer Plans” and “Note 17. Commitments and Contingencies — Litigation” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.

Legal and Regulatory Risks

We Are Subject to a Wide Variety of Laws, Regulations and Other Requirements That are Subject to Change and May Impose Substantial Compliance Costs

We are subject to a wide variety of federal, state, local and foreign laws, regulations and other requirements, including those relating to the environment, product safety, competition, corruption, occupational health and safety, labor and employment, data privacy, tax and health care. These laws, regulations and other requirements may change or be applied or interpreted in ways that will require us to modify our equipment and/or operations, subject us to enforcement risk, expose us to reputational harm or impose on or require us to incur additional costs, including substantial compliance costs, which may adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and the trading price of our Common Stock.

We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, significant capital, operating and other expenditures to comply with applicable environmental laws and regulations. Our environmental expenditures include those related to compliance with air and water permits and regulatory requirements, waste disposal and the cleanup of contaminated soil and groundwater, including situations where we have been identified as a potentially responsible party (“PRP”). Because environmental laws and regulations are constantly evolving, we will continue to incur costs to maintain compliance and our compliance costs could increase materially. Future compliance with existing and new laws and requirements has the potential to disrupt our business operations and may require significant expenditures, and our existing reserves for specific matters may not be adequate to cover future costs. In particular, our manufacturing operations consume significant amounts of energy, and we may in the future incur additional or increased capital, operating and other expenditures from changes due to new or increased climate-related and other environmental requirements. We could also incur substantial liabilities, including fines or sanctions, enforcement actions, natural resource damages claims, cleanup and closure costs, and third-party claims for property damage and personal injury under environmental and common laws.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 and local anti-bribery laws, including those in Brazil, China, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom (where we maintain operations directly or through a joint venture), prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to government officials for the purpose of influencing official decisions. Our internal control policies and procedures, or those of our vendors, may not adequately protect us from reckless or criminal acts committed or alleged to have been committed by our employees, agents or vendors. Any such violations could lead to civil or criminal monetary and non-monetary penalties and/or could damage our reputation.

We are subject to a number of labor and employment and occupational health and safety laws and regulations that could significantly increase our operating costs and reduce our operational flexibility. Additionally, changing privacy laws in the United States (where, among others, the California Consumer Privacy Act became effective in

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2020 and its successor, the California Privacy Rights Act, which will be effective January 1, 2023), Europe (where the General Data Protection Regulation became effective in 2018), Brazil (where the Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados became effective in 2020), China (where the Personal Information Protection Law became effective on November 1, 2021) and elsewhere have created new individual privacy rights, imposed increased obligations on companies handling personal data and increased potential exposure to fines and penalties.

Our Bylaws Contain an Exclusive Forum Provision That Could Limit Our Stockholders’ Ability To Choose Their Preferred Judicial Forum for Disputes With Us Or Our Directors, Officers Or Employees

For many years, our bylaws have provided that a state court in Delaware (or, if such a court does not have jurisdiction, the federal district court for the District of Delaware) is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty, any action asserting a claim against us or our directors, officers or employees arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws, or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This provision of the bylaws is not a waiver of, and does not relieve anyone of, duties to comply with, federal securities laws, including those specifying the exclusive jurisdiction of federal courts under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and concurrent jurisdiction of federal and state courts under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

This provision of the bylaws may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find this provision in our bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in any action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations, and the action may result in outcomes unfavorable to us, which could have a materially adverse impact on our reputation, our business operations, and our financial position or results of operations.

Item 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

There are no unresolved SEC staff comments.

Item 2. PROPERTIES

We operate locations in North America, including the majority of U.S. states, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. We lease our principal offices in Atlanta, GA. We believe that our existing production capacity is adequate to serve existing demand for our products and consider our plants and equipment to be in good condition.

Our corporate offices, significant regional offices and operating facilities (including our mills) as of September 30, 2022 are summarized below:

The tables that follow show our estimated annual production capacity in thousands of tons by mill at September 30, 2022, unless stated otherwise. The capacity reflects our current expectations, including assumptions such as product mix and basis weight. Our mill system production levels and operating rates may vary from year to year due to changes in market and other factors, including weather-related events. Our simple average mill system operating rates for the last three years averaged 91%. We own all of our mills. At September 30, 2022, we also own approximately 135,000 acres of forestlands in Brazil.

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Containerboard Mills - annual production capacity in thousands of tons

Paperboard Mills - annual production capacity in thousands of tons

The production at our Lynchburg, VA mill is gypsum paperboard liner and the paper machine at this mill is owned by our Seven Hills joint venture. Our overall fiber sourcing for all of our mills is approximately 65% virgin and 35% recycled.

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Item 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

We are a defendant in a number of lawsuits and claims arising out of the conduct of our business. See “Note 17. Commitments and Contingencies” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.

Item 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

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PART II: FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 5. MARKET FOR THE REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Common Stock

Our Common Stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the symbol “WRK”. As of November 4, 2022, there were approximately 5,783 stockholders of record of our Common Stock. The number of stockholders of record includes one single stockholder, Cede & Co., for all of the shares of our Common Stock held by our stockholders in individual brokerage accounts maintained at banks, brokers and institutions.

Dividends

In October 2022, our board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.275 per share, representing a $1.10 per share annualized dividend or an increase of 10%. In fiscal 2022, 2021 and 2020 we paid an annual dividend of $1.00 per share, $0.88 per share and $1.33 per share, respectively. In May 2020, we reduced our dividend given the uncertain market conditions driven by COVID, and we subsequently increased our dividend in May 2021 and October 2021.

Our goal has been to reduce debt and leverage and return capital to stockholders through a competitive annual dividend and share repurchases. Going forward, our capital allocation strategy includes a sustainable and growing dividend.

Stock Performance Graph

The graph below reflects the cumulative stockholder return on an investment of $100 on September 30, 2017, in our Common Stock (assuming the reinvestment of dividends) as of each fiscal year end through September 30, 2022, compared to the return on the same investment in the S&P 500 Index and our industry peer group. Our industry peer group consists of (i) companies in our industry and adjacent/similar industries, (ii) companies with which we compete for talent and/or (iii) companies with a similar revenue scope and scale of our organization(1).

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The information in the graph above is not deemed “filed” with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is not to be incorporated by reference in any of WestRock's filings under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, whether made before or after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, except to the extent that we specifically incorporate such information by reference.

Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans

See Part III, Item 12 of this Form 10-K and “Note 19. Stockholders’ Equity” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.

Stock Repurchase Plan

See “Note 19. Stockholders’ Equity” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.

Item 6. [RESERVED]

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Item 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

OVERVIEW

We are a multinational provider of sustainable fiber-based paper and packaging solutions. We partner with our customers to provide differentiated, sustainable paper and packaging solutions that help our customers win in the marketplace. Our team members support customers around the world from our operating and business locations in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Presentation

Effective October 1, 2021, we reorganized our segment reporting to four reportable segments: Corrugated Packaging, Consumer Packaging, Global Paper and Distribution. We reorganized our reportable segments due to changes in our organizational structure and how our CODM makes key operating decisions, allocates resources and assesses the performance of our business. Effective October 1, 2021, Adjusted EBITDA (as hereinafter defined) is our measure of segment profitability in accordance with ASC 280, “Segment Reporting” because it is used by our CODM to make decisions regarding allocation of resources and to assess segment performance. Prior period amounts have been recast to conform to the new segment structure. These changes did not impact our consolidated financial statements. See “Note 7. Segment Information” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.

During fiscal 2020, we completed the monetization of the various real estate holdings that we owned that were concentrated in the Charleston, SC region. Following completion of the monetization of these assets, we ceased reporting the results of the Land and Development segment as a separate segment.

Certain items are not allocated to our operating segments and, thus, the information that our CODM uses to make operating decisions and assess performance does not reflect such amounts. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as pre-tax earnings of a reportable segment before depreciation, depletion and amortization, and excludes the following items our CODM does not consider part of our segment performance: gain on sale of certain closed facilities, multiemployer pension withdrawal expense (income), mineral rights impairment, restructuring and other costs, goodwill impairment, non-allocated expenses, interest expense, net, loss on extinguishment of debt, other (expense) income, net, and other adjustments ("Adjusted EBITDA") — each as outlined in “Note 7. Segment Information” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

A detailed discussion of the fiscal 2022 year-over-year changes can be found below, as well as a detailed discussion of fiscal 2021 year-over-year changes due to the segment reorganization noted above.

Strategic Acquisitions and Other Portfolio Actions

We are committed to improving our return on invested capital as well as maximizing the performance of our assets. From time to time, we have completed acquisitions that have expanded our product and geographic scope, allowed us to increase our integration levels and impacted our comparative financials. We expect to continue to evaluate potential acquisitions in the future, although the size of individual acquisitions may vary. There were no significant acquisitions in the last three years. See also Item 1A. “Risk Factors — We May Be Unsuccessful in Making and Integrating Mergers, Acquisitions and Investments, and Completing Divestitures”.

On July 27, 2022, we announced our entry into an agreement to acquire the remaining 67.7% interest in Grupo Gondi. See “Note 3. Acquisitions and Investments” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for more information regarding the announcement.

In fiscal 2022, we completed the following portfolio actions: (i) we permanently ceased operations at our Panama City, FL mill, and (ii) we permanently closed the corrugated medium manufacturing operations at our St. Paul, MN mill. Both operations were expected to require significant capital investment to maintain and improve going forward, and the production of fluff pulp (at Panama City) was not a priority in our strategy to focus on higher value markets. Closing these operations allows us to redirect significant capital that would have been required to keep them competitive in the future to improve other key assets. In connection with these actions, we recorded various impairments and other charges, and we expect to record future restructuring charges, primarily associated

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with future carrying costs. See “Note 4. Restructuring and Other Costs” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.

In November 2022, we announced the planned sale of our interior partitions converting operations and three uncoated recycled paperboard mills (Chattanooga, TN, Eaton, IN, and Aurora, IL) in two transactions for a combined $380 million, subject to working capital adjustments. These divestitures align with our commitment to optimize our portfolio and focus our strategy on key end markets. See “Note 22. Subsequent Events” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.

Business Systems Transformation

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, we launched a multi-year phased business systems transformation project. The investment will replace much of our existing disparate systems and transition them to a standardized ERP system on a cloud-based platform, as well as a suite of other complementing technologies, across approximately 90% of our footprint based on net sales.

The new systems are intended to transform areas such as manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, quote to cash, financials and analytics, and position us to better leverage automation and process efficiency and enable productivity enhancements. An implementation of this scale is a major financial undertaking and will require substantial time and attention of management and key employees. Project completion dates and anticipated costs may also change. As the systems are phased in, they will become a significant component of our internal control over financial reporting. See also Item 1A. “Risk Factors — We May Not Be Able To Successfully Implement Our Strategic Transformation Initiatives, Including Our New Business Systems Transformation”.

Due to the nature, scope and magnitude of this investment, management believes these incremental transformation costs are above the normal, recurring level of spending for information technology to support operations. These strategic investments are not expected to recur in the foreseeable future, and are not considered representative of our underlying operating performance. As such, management believes presenting these costs as an adjustment in the non-GAAP results provides additional information to investors about trends in our operations and is useful for period-over-period comparisons. This presentation also allows investors to view our underlying operating results in the same manner as they are viewed by management.

The expenses expected to be adjusted from Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders ("Net Income") are expensed as incurred during the implementation of software applications and other enabling technologies, and do not include deferred or capitalized costs, depreciation and/or amortization, and costs to support or maintain these software applications or systems once they are in productive use. During the investment period, the normal level of spend associated with non-transformative programs is expected to be maintained and these expenses will not be adjusted in our non-GAAP measures. The items adjusted from Net Income will also be adjusted in our presentation of Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Net sales of $21,256.5 million for fiscal 2022 increased $2,510.4 million, or 13.4%, compared to fiscal 2021 primarily due to higher selling price/mix that was partially offset by lower volumes and the unfavorable impact of foreign currency. In the second quarter of fiscal 2021, we experienced lost sales associated with the Ransomware Incident and winter weather events (the “Events”) and we estimate these Events decreased net sales by approximately $189.1 million.

Net income attributable to common stockholders of $944.6 million in fiscal 2022 increased 12.7%, compared to fiscal 2021. The impact of higher selling price/mix and ransomware recoveries was largely offset by increased cost inflation, higher operating costs and lower volumes. Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA of $3,459.4 million in fiscal 2022 increased $460.2 million, or 15.3%. A detailed review of our performance appears below under “Results of Operations”.

Earnings per diluted share was $3.61 in fiscal 2022 compared to $3.13 in fiscal 2021. Adjusted Earnings Per Diluted Share were $4.76 and $3.39 in fiscal 2022 and 2021, respectively. See the discussion and tables under "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below with respect to Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Earnings Per Diluted Share.

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We generated $2,020.4 million of net cash provided by operating activities in fiscal 2022, compared to $2,279.9 million in fiscal 2021. The decline was primarily due to $511.3 million of greater working capital usage compared to the prior year period that was partially offset by higher earnings excluding non-cash impairments primarily associated with restructuring activities. The greater working capital usage in fiscal 2022 was primarily due to actions taken in the prior year to preserve cash due to uncertainty during the COVID pandemic, such as the payment of certain bonuses and 401(k) match in stock in fiscal 2021, that were paid in cash in fiscal 2022, and the payment in fiscal 2022 of certain previously deferred payroll taxes that relate to relief offered under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) from prior years. See “WestRock Pandemic Action Plan” for more information. We invested $862.6 million in capital expenditures in fiscal 2022 while returning $259.5 million in dividends to our stockholders and repurchasing $600.0 million of Common Stock. We believe our strong balance sheet and cash flow provide us the flexibility to continue to invest to sustain and improve our operating performance. See “Liquidity and Capital Resources” for more information.

A detailed review of our fiscal 2022, 2021 and 2020 performance appears below under “Results of Operations”.

Expectations for the First Quarter of Fiscal 2023 and Fiscal 2023

In the first quarter of fiscal 2023, we expect a sequential decline in net sales and earnings from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, reflecting the normal seasonal sequential volume declines in many of our businesses and scheduled mill maintenance outages, resulting in approximately 150,000 tons of maintenance downtime, along with customer inventory rebalancing and macroeconomic uncertainty. We expect lower volume with four fewer shipping days during the first quarter of fiscal 2023, and one fewer shipping day than in the first quarter of fiscal 2022. We expect unfavorable non-cash pension expense of approximately $40 million driven by higher interest rates and market volatility and sequential natural gas and recycled fiber deflation, down approximately 20% and 70%, respectively. We also expect increased health insurance costs prior to the annual reset of employee deductibles. We further expect the continued flow through of previously published price increases and to continue balancing our supply with our customers’ demand. We plan to draw upon our $1.0 billion Delayed Draw Term Loan to acquire the remaining 67.7% interest in Grupo Gondi, and our results will include the corresponding increased interest expense.

In fiscal 2023, we expect our results to be significantly impacted by planned portfolio actions, non-cash pension expense and currency headwinds. We also expect our results to be negatively impacted by customer inventory rebalancing, primarily in our first fiscal quarter, and macroeconomic uncertainty as well as scheduled mill maintenance outages. We further expect the continued flow through of previously published price increases and to continue balancing our supply with our customers' demand. We expect the planned portfolio actions (Grupo Gondi and announced divestitures) to add an estimated net $85 million of Adjusted EBITDA. We expect unfavorable non-cash pension expense of approximately $160 million driven by higher interest rates and market volatility and an estimated $50 million unfavorable impact from foreign exchange rates. We expect approximately 465,000 tons of maintenance downtime compared to approximately 409,000 tons in fiscal 2022. We are also targeting over $250 million in net cost savings in fiscal 2023 related to execution on our transformation initiatives, including items such as increased mill and converting network efficiencies, indirect spend savings and selling, general and administrative ("SG&A") expense reductions. For additional information on our planned portfolio actions see “Note 3. Acquisitions and Investments” and “Note 22. Subsequent Events” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. For more information on our business systems transformation, see Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Business Systems Transformation”.

WestRock Pandemic Action Plan

In May 2020, given the uncertainties associated with the severity and duration of the pandemic, we announced, and began implementing, the WestRock Pandemic Action Plan. We focused and continue to focus on the protection, safety and well-being of our team members and continuing to match our supply with our customers’ demand. We modified the WestRock Pandemic Action Plan as the impact of COVID evolved. The actions that we took pursuant to the plan targeted approximately $1 billion in additional cash through the end of calendar 2021, which was available for use to reduce our outstanding indebtedness. In fiscal 2020, we achieved more than $350 million of the approximately $1 billion goal set forth in the WestRock Pandemic Action Plan, as modified. As of September 30, 2021, we had achieved more than $975 million of the approximately $1 billion goal and discontinued measurement.

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We committed to (i) reducing discretionary expenses, (ii) using Common Stock to make Company funded 401(k) match and annual contribution (i.e. up to 5% and 2.5%, respectively) from July 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021 (final period funded in October 2021), (iii) targeting a reduction of fiscal 2021 capital investments to a range of $800 million to $900 million, up from an initial range of $600 to $800 million (we invested $815.5 million in fiscal 2021), and (iv) resetting our quarterly dividend to $0.20 per share for an annual rate of $0.80 per share, which we did in May 2020. See “Liquidity and Capital Resources — Cash Flow Activity” for information regarding subsequent increases to our dividend.

In addition to the items addressed above, we (i) decreased the salaries of our senior executive team by up to 25% from May 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020 and decreased the retainer for members of our board of directors by 25% for the third and fourth calendar quarters of 2020, (ii) used Common Stock to pay our annual incentive for fiscal 2020 for nearly all participants and set the payout level at 50% of the target opportunity subject to a safety modifier, as well as for Company funded 401(k) match and our annual contribution as noted above, and (iii) postponed $116.5 million of employment taxes incurred through the end of calendar year 2020, pursuant to relief offered under the CARES Act. We also reduced fiscal 2020 capital investments to $978.1 million after targeting to reduce them by approximately $150 million to approximately $950 million. We paid the first 50% of employment taxes deferred under the CARES Act as required in December 2021 and expect to pay the remaining 50% by December 2022.

We began tracking the impact of costs associated with safety, cleaning and other items related to COVID in the third quarter of fiscal 2020 and discontinued doing so during fiscal 2022 due to their continuing nature at relatively consistent levels. We expect to continue to incur expenses for these items as needed in the future. During fiscal 2021, we recorded $38.4 million of expense related to COVID, including $22.0 million of relief payments to employees in the first quarter of fiscal 2021. The balance was for increased costs for safety, cleaning and other items related to COVID. During fiscal 2020, we provided one-time COVID recognition awards to our team members who work in manufacturing and operations and recognized expense of $31.6 million for those awards. During fiscal 2020, we also incurred an additional expense of $32.4 million for cleaning, safety supplies and equipment, screening resources and other items. We did not have any relief payments paid to employees in fiscal 2022.

RANSOMWARE INCIDENT

As previously disclosed, on January 23, 2021, we detected a ransomware incident impacting certain of our systems. Promptly upon our detection of this incident, we initiated response and containment protocols and our security teams, supplemented by leading cyber defense firms, worked to remediate this incident. We undertook extensive efforts to identify, contain and recover from this incident quickly and securely. Our teams worked to maintain our business operations and minimize the impact on our customers and team members. In our Form 10-Q for the second quarter fiscal 2021, we announced that all systems were back in service. All of our mills and converting locations began producing and shipping paper and packaging at pre-ransomware levels in March 2021 or earlier. For more information on the ransomware incident, including the financial impact, see “Note 1. Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — Ransomware Incident” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. See Item 1A. “Risk Factors — We are Subject to Cyber-Security Risks, Including Related to Customer, Employee, Vendor or Other Company Data”.

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RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following table summarizes our consolidated results for the three years ended September 30, 2022 (in millions):