Greif, Inc. (GEF): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

Greif, Inc. (GEF) has been a quiet giant in industrial packaging since its founding in $\mathbf{1877}$, but how does a company with a market cap of $\mathbf{\$ 2.88}$ billion in late 2025 continue to dominate the global supply chain, especially after strategic divestitures? You might not see their steel drums or intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) on a store shelf, but their products defintely underpin industries from chemicals to agriculture, driving an annual revenue of $\mathbf{\$ 4.29}$ billion for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025. We'll break down how this packaging leader generates that revenue, what its vision is-to be the best customer service company in the world-and what the recent sale of its containerboard business means for its $\mathbf{\$ 290}$ million to $\mathbf{\$ 300}$ million Adjusted Free Cash Flow guidance for continuing operations.

Greif, Inc. (GEF) History

You're looking for the bedrock of Greif, Inc.'s operation-the history that explains its current shape as a global industrial packaging leader. Honestly, this company's story is a masterclass in adaptation, moving from wooden barrels in the 19th century to complex polymer and fiber solutions today. It's a long game, and Greif has defintely played it well.

Greif, Inc.'s Founding Timeline

Year established

Greif, Inc. was established in 1877.

Original location

The company began as a cooperage shop, 'Vanderwyst and Greif,' in Cleveland, Ohio.

Founding team members

The initial partners were William Greif and Albert Vanderwyst, who focused on cooperage (barrel making) for the post-Civil War goods transportation market.

Initial capital/funding

The company was founded with a modest initial capital of $5,000.

Greif, Inc.'s Evolution Milestones

Greif, Inc.'s Transformative Moments

The company's trajectory has been shaped by a few massive, calculated bets-moves that fundamentally changed what Greif, Inc. is and how it makes money. It's a classic story of shedding the old to embrace the new, but on a massive scale. If you want to understand the current company, you must look at these inflection points.

• The Global Leap (2001): Buying Van Leer Industrial for $620 million was the single act that transformed Greif Bros. Corporation into the global Greif, Inc. This acquisition immediately doubled the size of the company and gave it a massive footprint across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, which is why it's a global leader today.
• The Paper Packaging Push (2019): The acquisition of Caraustar Industries for $1.8 billion was the largest deal in the company's history at the time. This move dramatically increased its presence in recycled paperboard and packaging, balancing the portfolio with a strong North American fiber business.
• The 2025 Portfolio Simplification: The recent strategic divestitures in fiscal year 2025 are a clear signal of the company's focus. The all-cash sale of the Containerboard Business for $1.8 billion, which closed in August 2025, was a major step to streamline the business and reduce debt. This, plus the sale of the Timberlands Business, allowed Greif to drastically reduce its adjusted net debt to $908.3 million as of September 30, 2025, for its continuing operations.

Here's the quick math on the core business: for the 11-month fiscal year 2025 (ending September 30, 2025), the continuing operations reported a net income of approximately $51.9 million, which translates to a diluted earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations of $0.28. [cite: 5, 2, 3, 5, 6 in previous steps] This recent performance, coupled with achieving approximately $50.0 million in cost optimization run-rate savings by the end of FY2025, shows a firm commitment to efficiency post-divestiture. You can read more about what this means for investors in Exploring Greif, Inc. (GEF) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Greif, Inc. (GEF) Ownership Structure

When you look at Greif, Inc., you see a company whose governance is a clear mix of professional institutional management and a significant stake held by the public and its own leadership, which is typical for a long-established industrial giant.

This structure means institutional investors-the big money-hold considerable sway, but the large retail and insider ownership ensures management's interests are defintely aligned with long-term shareholder value.

Greif, Inc.'s Current Status

Greif, Inc. is a publicly traded company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol GEF. This public status means its shares are readily available for trading, and the company must adhere to strict U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting and transparency rules.

The company operates a two-class stock structure, but the primary trading volume and institutional focus are on the Class A Common Stock (GEF), giving investors a direct, liquid way to own a piece of the global industrial packaging leader.

Greif, Inc.'s Ownership Breakdown

The ownership landscape as of the 2025 fiscal year shows a critical balance: institutional investors dominate, but the combined weight of retail and insider holdings is substantial, totaling over half the company.

For a deeper dive into who is investing and their motivations, check out Exploring Greif, Inc. (GEF) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Greif, Inc.'s Leadership

The company is steered by a seasoned executive team, with an average management tenure of around 3.6 years, which is a good sign of stability and deep industry knowledge. Their focus is on operational efficiency and sustainable growth, a strategy that has consistently delivered for the business.

The key players driving the company's strategy as of November 2025 include:

• Ole Rosgaard: President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He has been in the role since February 2022 and focuses on shaping culture and driving growth.
• Larry A. Hilsheimer: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He brings a strong background in finance and accounting, having joined Greif in May 2014.
• Kimberly Kellermann: Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer (COO). She oversees the global operational footprint.
• Timothy Bergwall: Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). He leads global sales, marketing, and sustainability efforts.
• Dennis Hoffman: Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary. He took over this critical legal and governance role in October 2025.

The Board of Directors, led by Chairman and Independent Lead Director Bruce Edwards, provides oversight, ensuring the executive team's decisions serve the diverse shareholder base. This dual leadership structure-CEO for execution, Chairman for governance-is a best practice in corporate governance.

Greif, Inc. (GEF) Mission and Values

Greif, Inc.'s identity goes beyond its role as a global industrial packaging leader; its mission centers on protecting customer products while prioritizing safety and financial returns, all driven by a vision to deliver world-class customer service.

This commitment, often called The Greif Way, is a defintely clear cultural blueprint that guides over 14,000 colleagues across more than 250 facilities in 37 countries, ensuring long-term value for all stakeholders.

Given Company's Core Purpose

The company's core purpose is to create packaging solutions for life's essentials, which means everything from bulk chemicals to food and beverage products. This focus on essential goods underpins their commitment to sustainability and operational excellence, which are not just buzzwords but measurable targets.

For example, a key 2025 goal is to divert 90 percent of waste from landfills globally at all legacy production facilities, demonstrating a concrete link between purpose and action. That's a huge operational lift.

Official mission statement

Greif, Inc.'s mission statement is a precise articulation of its three core responsibilities to customers, shareholders, and employees.

• Protect, preserve, and promote our customers' products.
• Optimize financial returns for shareholders.
• Operate safely for all colleagues.

Here's the quick math: optimizing financial returns means maintaining strong performance; for instance, the company reported net sales of $5.448 billion in fiscal year 2024, which directly supports this mission pillar.

Vision statement

The company's vision is simple and ambitious, focusing on market position through service quality, not just product volume.

• In industrial packaging, be the best performing customer service company in the world.

This pursuit of legendary customer service drives investments in innovation and sustainability, which is why Greif was named to America's Most Responsible Companies List for 2025. It's an external validation that their vision is translating into real-world impact. You can delve deeper into these principles by exploring Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Greif, Inc. (GEF).

Given Company slogan/tagline

The company uses a straightforward slogan that connects its tangible products to a higher-level societal function.

• Creating packaging solutions for life's essentials.

This tagline is a promise that Greif packages life's essentials-and creates lasting value for its colleagues, customers, and other stakeholders. Also, a commitment to ethical conduct is non-negotiable, with a 2025 goal to provide 100 percent of computer-enabled colleagues with online training on the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. That's how you build a culture of integrity.

Greif, Inc. (GEF) How It Works

Greif, Inc. operates as a global industrial packaging powerhouse, creating value by converting raw materials like steel, plastic resins, and fiber into specialized containers and providing comprehensive supply chain services for business-to-business (B2B) customers.

The company is strategically shifting its portfolio in 2025, divesting its lower-margin containerboard and timberland businesses for a combined value of approximately $2.26 billion to focus on its higher-margin, less cyclical core industrial packaging segments, especially polymers.

Greif, Inc.'s Product/Service Portfolio

Greif, Inc.'s Operational Framework

Greif's operational framework is built on its 'Build to Last' strategy, which focuses on disciplined execution, cost control, and a customer-centric approach across its global manufacturing footprint of over 45 countries.

Here's the quick math: Greif is targeting a low-end Adjusted EBITDA of $725 million for fiscal year 2025, driven by operational efficiencies and portfolio optimization. They are defintely focused on the margin lever.

• Strategic Portfolio Optimization: Divested the containerboard business for $1.8 billion and the Land Management business for about $460 million in 2025 to streamline the focus on core industrial packaging.
• Greif Business System 2.0: Uses Lean Six Sigma practices and a global logistics control tower to drive operational efficiencies, which helped achieve $20 million in run rate savings towards a 2025 commitment of $15 million to $25 million.
• Value-Over-Volume Discipline: Especially in the Durable Metal Solutions segment, the strategy prioritizes profitable sales and cash generation over simply maximizing volume, which has improved gross profit margins.
• Circular Solutions: Focuses on container life cycle management and reconditioning services, aligning with the 'Identify new responsible, circular solutions' Must Win Battle for 2025.

Greif, Inc.'s Strategic Advantages

The company's market success stems from a combination of its global scale, a strong commitment to sustainability, and a strategic pivot toward high-growth, high-margin polymer solutions.

For the full fiscal year 2025, Greif's total revenue is projected to be around $4.29 billion, demonstrating the scale of its global operations. You can get a deeper understanding of the investors driving this performance by Exploring Greif, Inc. (GEF) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

• Global Market Leadership: Operates a significant global footprint, providing a diverse product portfolio that mitigates risks from regional market volatility.
• Sustainability as a Differentiator: A 16-year track record of publishing a sustainability report, which is a clear business advantage and central to securing relationships with environmentally conscious customers.
• High-Margin Polymer Focus: The acquisition of Ipackchem and the divestitures of fiber/land assets sharpen the focus on the Customized Polymer Solutions segment, which saw Q2 2025 net sales of $329 million, a significant increase due to recent acquisitions.
• Operational Agility and Cost Control: Demonstrated by a robust gross profit of $319.5 million in Q2 2025 and a gross margin increase to 23.1%, reflecting strong command over raw material costs and production efficiencies.

Greif, Inc. (GEF) How It Makes Money

Greif, Inc. primarily makes money by manufacturing and selling industrial packaging products, which include steel, plastic, and fiber drums, as well as intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) and containerboard. The company's revenue engine is fueled by the essential, non-discretionary demand for packaging across diverse industrial sectors like chemicals, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals.

Greif, Inc.'s Revenue Breakdown

The company's Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) net sales, as of July 31, 2025, were approximately $5.99 billion. This revenue is generated across four main operating segments, with the two largest-Sustainable Fiber Solutions and Durable Metal Solutions-forming the core of the business model.

Here's the quick math on the TTM breakdown: Sustainable Fiber Solutions (SFS), which includes containerboard and paperboard, is the largest single segment at $2.11 billion. Durable Metal Solutions (DMS), covering steel drums and related products, accounts for $1.51 billion. The other significant segments are Customized Polymer Solutions (CPS) at $1.27 billion (21.2%) and Integrated Solutions at $312.6 million (5.2%), plus a remaining 13.1% from other revenue sources. You can see the business is still heavily dependent on industrial commodity cycles.

Business Economics

Greif's economic fundamentals center on managing the volatile input costs of steel, resin (plastic), and recovered fiber, and then passing those costs through to customers using a disciplined pricing strategy. The goal is to maintain a 'value-over-volume' focus, which means prioritizing margin protection over simply chasing market share at any cost.

• Raw Material Pass-Through: Pricing mechanisms, particularly in the fiber business, allow the company to recover increases in raw material costs, such as the $40 a ton containerboard price increase recognized by RISI in February 2025, which contributed to Q2 2025 results.
• Industrial End-Market Sensitivity: Sales volumes are tightly correlated with global industrial production, meaning softness in key sectors like bulk chemicals and metals, especially in North America and EMEA, directly pressures the Durable Metal Solutions segment.
• Strategic Growth Focus: The company is deliberately shifting focus toward more resilient, higher-margin end markets, including agrochemicals, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals, which drives the volume growth seen in the Customized Polymer Solutions segment.
• Cost Optimization: Structural cost improvements are a major driver of margin expansion. As of the third quarter of fiscal 2025, Greif had achieved $20 million in run rate savings toward its full-year commitment of $15 million to $25 million.

Greif, Inc.'s Financial Performance

The company's financial health in 2025 shows a strong focus on margin and cash flow generation, even as top-line volume remains challenged by a sluggish industrial economy. This is a classic sign of a well-managed cyclical business.

• Adjusted EBITDA Guidance: Greif is guiding for a strong full-year 2025 Adjusted EBITDA of at least $725 million, an increase from earlier guidance, reflecting better-than-expected price/cost performance.
• Cash Flow Strength: The revised midpoint for full-year 2025 Adjusted Free Cash Flow is $310 million, a significant increase that provides capital for debt reduction and dividends.
• Debt and Leverage: Total debt remains substantial at $2,840.2 million as of the end of Q1 2025, resulting in a leverage ratio of 3.63x. The planned divestiture of the Land Management business is a clear move to reduce this debt and improve financial flexibility.
• Profitability: Second quarter 2025 Adjusted Earnings Per Share (EPS) was $1.19, up significantly from $0.83 in the prior year quarter, demonstrating that cost discipline and pricing power are translating directly to the bottom line.

If you want to dig deeper into the balance sheet and liquidity, you need to check out Breaking Down Greif, Inc. (GEF) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors. Finance: review the Q4 2025 guidance for any further changes to the Adjusted Free Cash Flow target by the end of the month.

Greif, Inc. (GEF) Market Position & Future Outlook

Greif, Inc. is strategically repositioning itself as a more focused, high-margin industrial packaging leader following the divestment of its non-core businesses, including the containerboard segment. This shift is designed to improve operational agility and capitalize on growth in Customized Polymer Solutions, even as the broader industrial market faces near-term volume softness.

The company reported full-year 2025 revenue of approximately $4.29 billion, with a strategic focus on cost optimization that delivered $50 million in run-rate savings, exceeding initial targets.

Competitive Landscape

The global industrial packaging market, valued at approximately $70.99 billion in 2025, is highly fragmented, but Greif remains one of the top global players in the rigid industrial packaging segment, particularly for drums and Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBCs).

The top seven companies, including Greif, Mauser Packaging Solutions, and Schütz GmbH & Co. KGaA, collectively account for about 28% of the global market, indicating a highly competitive environment where scale and specialized product offerings are crucial.

Greif's market share of 4.78% by revenue (Q1 2025) reflects its position as a major player, but it is closely rivaled by Mauser Packaging Solutions, which generates comparable annual revenue, making the competition for global market leadership intense.

Opportunities & Challenges

The company's strategic moves, like the sale of its containerboard business for $1.8 billion and its land management business for $462 million, are funding debt reduction and focusing capital on higher-growth, higher-margin areas.

This is defintely a pivot toward a more agile, specialized model, which you can read more about here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Greif, Inc. (GEF).

Industry Position

Greif is a top-tier player in industrial packaging, particularly in the drum and IBC segments, leveraging its global manufacturing footprint across 35+ countries.

The company's commitment to vertical integration enhances cost competitiveness, which is a major advantage when raw material prices fluctuate.

• Focus capital allocation on polymer-based packaging for margin expansion.
• Target $80 million to $90 million in run-rate cost savings for fiscal year 2026.
• Maintain a strong balance sheet by using $2.3 billion in divestiture proceeds for debt reduction.

The company's strategy is clear: simplify the portfolio, cut costs aggressively, and grow the higher-value polymer and integrated solutions businesses. This positions Greif for improved profitability and resilience as the industrial economy slowly recovers.