Sonoco Reports Outstanding Results for Second Quarter of 2018

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Hartsville-headquartered global packaging firm Sonoco has reported outstanding results for the second quarter of this year ending July 1. The company reported double-digit growth to top-line as well as bottom-line. Further, the company has upgraded the full-year 2018 guidance.

Sonoco’s earnings per diluted share more than doubled from $0.43 in Q2 2017 to $0.88 in second quarter of 2018. The base earnings for the quarter stood at $0.93 per diluted share as compared with $0.71 in 2017. This is significantly higher when matched with the earlier provided base earnings guidance of $0.83 to $0.89 per diluted share. The net quarterly sales surged higher by 10.1% from $1.24 billion in 2017 to $1.37 billion this year. The year-to-date cash flow in 2018 reported notable jump from $69.3 million in 2017 to $88.8 million.

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The company expects significant jump in base earnings for the third quarter of 2018. The base earnings are expected to be in the range of $0.82 to $0.88 per diluted share, as compared with $0.76 per diluted share during the third quarter of 2017. As a consequence of improved Q2 2018 earnings, the company has raised the full-year 2018 base earnings guidance from earlier $3.22 to $3.32 per diluted share to $3.27 to $3.37 per diluted share. The full-year operating cash flow guidance too has been raised to be in the range of $570 million to $590 million.

The sales by Consumer Packaging Segment increased 18.2% in comparison with the prior-year quarter to total $616 million. The Display and Packaging segment reported an operating loss of $0.6 million in the current quarter. The Paper and Industrial Converted Products segment sales increased marginally by 1.1%. Protective Solutions segment reported 24% jump in operating profits, despite slight decline in sales.

Rob Tiede, President and CEO, Sonoco stated that growth in diversified mix of global packaging businesses helped the company produce an outstanding quarter. The company had completed acquisition of Conitex Sonoco jpint venture during Q2 this year.