Sonoco Reports Robust Financial Results for Q3 This Year

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Hartsville-headquartered global packaging major, Sonoco, announced financial results for the third quarter 2018 ending September 30.

The Q3 earnings per diluted share remained flat at $0.72 over the previous year. The base net income attributable to the company for Q3 was $0.86 per diluted share, in line with the earlier guidance of $0.82 to $0.88 per diluted share. The net sales surged higher by 3% from $1.32 billion in third quarter of 2017 to $1.36 billion in Q3 this year. The cash flow from operations was $451.5 million during the initial nine-month period in 2018, as compared with $281.1 million in Jan-Sep ’17.

The company had to temporarily shut operations at Hartsville, S.C mill following flooding from Hurricane Florence. The company’s several other operations in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina was temporarily idled. All the impacted mills are back to production, the company stated. The company produced a solid quarter, despite headwinds, said Rob Tiede, President and Chief Executive Officer, Sonoco.

The Consumer Packaging segment operating profit declined from $68.9 million in Q3 ’17 to $56.0 million in third quarter of 2018. The operating profit of Display and Packaging segment increased from $2.0 million to $3.7 million. There was a significant jump in operating profits of Paper and Industrial Converted Products segment from $43.7 million to $53.9 million. Meantime, the Protective segment operating profits declined by nearly 8% year-on-year to $10.4 million in Q3 ’18.