Acquisitions, price increases drive Sonoco earnings

Last week, Sonoco Products Co. reported third quarter 2025 earnings, revealing a significant boost in net sales thanks in large part to acquisition activity over the last 10 months.

The Hartsville, South Carolina-based packaging company posted $2.13 billion in net sales for the third quarter of this year, up 57 percent from the $1.36 billion in net sales in the same period last year. The increase was driven by sales from Sonoco’s newly added Metal Packaging Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business following its acquisition of Eviosys late last year.

The company also notes that sales benefitted from price increases implemented to offset the effects of inflation and tariffs and from the favorable impact of foreign exchange rates.

“I’m incredibly proud of our team’s strong operating performance in the third quarter as we achieved record top-line and bottom-line performance along with margin expansion despite challenging market conditions and higher-than-expected interest costs,” Sonoco President and CEO Howard Coker says.

Sonoco also boosted its operating profit by 91 percent, coming in at $195 million in this year’s third quarter compared with $102 million in last year’s third quarter, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and adjusted net income posted 37 percent and 29 percent increases, respectively.

“We generated $292 million in operating cash flow in the quarter which was up 80 percent over the prior year period due to solid improvement in working capital,” Sonoco Chief Financial Officcer Paul Joachimczyk says. “We expect further strong cash flow generation in the fourth quarter as the seasonal build of working capital reverses.”

Sales in Sonoco’s consumer segment were up to $1.4 billion compared with $622 million last year, driven by the Eviosys acquisition, while sales in its industrial segment were flat thanks to volume declines across the segment and the divestiture of two production facilities in China.

In anticipation of continued volume weakness in the third quarter from ongoing macroeconomic challenges, Sonoco is adjusting its full-year earnings guidance.

“To address these shortfalls, we are implementing targeted restructuring activities for operations and supporting functions to enable our businesses to better leverage our market capabilities and generate strong cash flow,” Joachimczyk says.

Some restructuring activities include the closure of a 25,000-ton-per-year uncoated recycled paperboard mill in Mexico City to balance its supply in North America.

“[That move] eliminates an older, higher-cost machine and allows us to better balance our North American mill network,” Coker said during the company’s earnings call Oct. 23. “We expect to continue to drive actions to meet our synergy targets and expect to further optimize our EMEA footprint to better serve our customers and to react to changing market conditions.

“We've taken 25,000 tons out, and it's a really smart thing to do just in and of itself, replacing a 25,000-ton machine. And here, we're sitting in South Carolina with a 180,000-ton machine with a different cost profile. So, we'll do what we have to do, what we've done traditionally as it relates to price cost management, but we're going to control those things that we can control.”

Sonoco’s full third-quarter 2025 earnings report can be found here.