Exhibit 99.1

Rock-Tenn Company Announces Closure of Kerman Folding Carton Facility

    NORCROSS, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2006--Rock-Tenn Company
(NYSE: RKT) announced today that it will close its Kerman, California
folding carton plant in the third quarter of fiscal 2006. Rock-Tenn
expects to transfer a substantial portion of the business from the
Kerman plant to its Greenville, Texas plant.
    Mike Kiepura, Executive Vice President - Folding Carton division,
stated, "The Kerman closure is the next step in attaining our
operating synergy target from the Gulf States paperboard and packaging
business acquisition. We relocated underutilized equipment acquired in
the acquisition to our Greenville, Texas plant, creating the
opportunity to consolidate these two locations. Greenville is the
larger of the two plants and is much closer to our bleached paperboard
mill acquired from Gulf States. We expect the Kerman closure to
generate approximately $2 million of annualized savings that will
contribute to the $30 million of synergies that we expect to realize
following our acquisition of Gulf States' paperboard and packaging
businesses."
    Rock-Tenn Company expects to incur cash operating and
restructuring costs of approximately $3 million, which will include
severance, facility lease and carrying costs net of sublease rentals
and equipment relocation costs, and to incur asset impairment costs of
approximately $2 million.

    Rock-Tenn Company provides a wide range of marketing and packaging
solutions to consumer products companies at low costs, with combined
pro forma net sales of $2.1 billion and operating locations in the
United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Chile. The Company is one
of North America's leading manufacturers of packaging products,
merchandising displays and bleached and recycled paperboard.

    Statements herein regarding, among others, expectations regarding
the transfer of current production from the closed facility; the
impact of the facility closure on the operations of other Company
facilities; restructuring costs, including cash expenditures;
operating costs and synergies constitute forward-looking statements
within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Such statements are
subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those contained in any
forward-looking statement. With respect to these statements, the
Company has made assumptions regarding, among other things, the
amounts of asset impairment, severance costs, relocation costs, and
other costs associated with the closure as well as capacity
utilization and production efficiencies. The forward-looking
statements are subject to certain risks including, among others, that
the foregoing assumptions will prove to be inaccurate. Such risks are
more particularly described in the Company's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including under the caption
"Business -- Forward-Looking Information" and "Risk Factors" in the
Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the most recently ended
fiscal year. Management believes its estimates are reasonable;
however, undue reliance should not be placed on such estimates, which
are based on current expectations. The information contained herein
speaks as of the date hereof and the Company does not undertake any
obligation to update such information as future events unfold.

    CONTACT: Rock-Tenn Company
             David Rees, 770-448-2193