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Sonoco reports 3rd-quarter earnings of 72 cents per share

Staff Report //October 18, 2018//

Sonoco reports 3rd-quarter earnings of 72 cents per share

Staff Report //October 18, 2018//

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Hartsville-based global packaging company Sonoco reported earnings of 72 cents per share for the third quarter of 2018, the same earnings per diluted share as numbers from the same period in 2017.

Base net income for the third quarter was 86 cents per diluted share, compared to 76 cents for the third quarter of 2017. Third-quarter net sales were $1.36 billion, up 3% from $1.32 billion in 2017.

“Sonoco produced a solid quarter, despite the impacts of Hurricane Florence, accelerating inflation and sluggish consumer-served market demand,” Sonoco president and CEO Rob Tiede said in a news release.

Sonoco temporarily shut down paper mill operations in Hartsville because of flooding from the storm, which also temporarily halted operations at several recycling facilities, tube and core plans and other operations in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.

Mill operations in Hartsville lost approximately 22,300 tons of uncoated recycled paperboard and corrugated medium paper production, the company said, costing it around .04 cents per fully diluted share. Lost production and higher supply chain costs have continued into the fourth quarter, Sonoco said, and predicted the fourth-quarter impact to be .02 cents to .03 cents per diluted share.

All operations are now back in production.

Sonoco’s third-quarter 2018 GAAP earnings included after-tax restricting and asset impairment charges of $15 million related to exiting a packaging center contract, plant closures and non-base tax-related gains, the company said.

Sonoco’s cash flow from operations in the first nine months of 2018 was $451.5 million, compared with $281 million in the same period in 2017.

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