Process and apparatus for transporting stacks of blanks for producing (cigarette) packs. For the production of (cigarette) packs made of blanks (10) of thin cardboard, the blanks are delivered in the form of blank stacks (15), mainly in containers (cartons 16). Specially designed cassettes (32) are used for mechanically and mostly automatically conveying the blank stacks (15) to the packaging machines. The cassettes (32) are designed for holding the contents of a carton (16) of blank stacks (15). The cartons (16) are mechanically opened by a cutting unit (39) by way of cutting out a side wall (30). Special extraction units (59) pull out the blank stacks (15) through the open side of the carton and directly deposit these in an adjacent cassette (32). Centrally emptying the cartons (16) and mechanically transporting the blank stacks (15) by means of special inplant cassettes (32) result in a mechanized transport circuit for the packaging material.