Sonoco sells off display division

Hartsville, South Carolina-based Sonoco says it has closed on the sale of its Display and Packaging business unit in the United States to Atlanta-based Hood Container Corp. for $80 million in cash.

Sonoco says its U.S. display and packaging business provides point-of-purchase display design, manufacturing and fulfillment and contract packaging services for more than 250 consumer product brands. The business unit operates eight manufacturing and fulfillment facilities and four sales and design centers and has approximately 450 employees.

“Our U.S. display and packaging business has been an industry pioneer with a legacy of providing innovative solutions for complex supply chain challenges,” says Howard Coker, Sonoco’s president and CEO. “However, Sonoco is focused on growing our core consumer and industrial packaging businesses around the world, and by divesting this business we expect to apply proceeds to further invest in ourselves while returning value to our shareholders.”

On the packaging side, Sonoco in the past two years has invested $83 million in a new recycled-content paperboard machine at its Hartsville mill site and spent $49 million to buy a French company that produces recyclable paperboard cans.

On the display busines unit sale the transaction, France-based Rothschild & Co., which has three U.S. offices, was financial advisor for Sonoco and Charleston, South Carolina-based Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd served as its legal advisor.