Carrier for stacked articles

An article carrier containing a plurality of layers of stacked articles, comprising:

• a bottom panel upon which the lowermost of said layers of stacked articles rests;
• a top panel positioned above the uppermost of said layers of stacked articles;
• a pair of opposed side panels, integrally connected to an extending between said bottom panel and said top panel, said side panels enclosing two sides of said layers of stacked articles;
• a pair of opposed end panels extending between said bottom panel and said top panel substantially perpendicular to said side panels and connected to said bottom and top panels to thereby complete the enclosure of said layers of stacked articles;
• a separator sheet between adjacent layers of articles, the separator sheet being generally disposed in a primary plane generally parallel to said bottom and top panels;
• the articles in each layer having top and bottom ends contacting portions of the separator sheet, the articles in each layer being aligned in end-to-end relationship with the articles in the adjacent layer, the bottom ends of the articles adjacent the separator sheet being narrower than the top ends of the articles in the adjacent layer, said top ends of the articles being recessed;
• the portions of the separator sheet contacted by the bottom ends of articles being below the primary plane of the separator sheet, the bottom ends of the adjacent articles and the portions of the separator sheet below the primary plane of the separator sheet extending into the recess and wherein those portions of the separator sheet extending into the recesses include transverse panel portions connected to the separator sheet by a first fold line.