Tabor City Expands Air Filtration Packaging Program With 77,000-Square-Foot Facility

"Our comparable net sales growth returned to 4% during the third quarter. In emerging markets comparable growth was 5% despite net sales still declining in India. At the end of the quarter our net sales in India started to grow again as the demand for flexible packaging began to recover from the impact of Goods and Services Tax (GST) implementation. Our profitability remained at a solid level but was affected by higher costs especially in the North America segment. In addition to costs related to major on-going investments the segment's distribution and resin costs were higher due to hurricane impact. The Foodservice Europe-Asia-Oceania segment's profitability held up well despite adverse product mix and the impact of weaker pound sterling on our UK business. The Flexible Packaging segment's net sales growth accelerated at the end of the quarter." Click Read More below for additional information.

Smurfit Kappa has launched an innovative and sustainable new pack which keeps frozen and chilled foods fresh throughout the supply chain. Made from a 100% paper-based combination of Hexacomb and corrugated, the Thermo Box keeps frozen food including fish at temperatures similar to expanded polystyrene (EPS) boxes. Smurfit Kappa was approached by Patani Global Food B.V., a global supplier of fresh and frozen foods including vegetables, meat and fish and non-food products for the catering industry. Patani Global Food B.V. ships goods from Amsterdam to worldwide locations including to the Antilles Islands in the Caribbean using EPS boxes. However, a rise in the amount of litter that was washing up on the idyllic beaches in the region had led to a future ban on plastic waste so the company wanted an alternative solution that would not harm the environment.

First Quarter Overview – Significant year-on-year improvement across all key metrics * Group underlying1 revenue growth of 7% year-on-year * Group EBITDA growth of 22% year-on-year to €340 million * EBITDA margin of 15.7%, significant year-on-year improvement * Increased ROCE of 16.1% * Improved net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.2x; medium-term target of 1.75x to 2.5x. Click Read More below for additional information.