DS Smith has issued a pre-close trading update in respect of the half year ending 31 October 2017. Volume growth has been consistently strong throughout the period, and across all its regions, driven by pan-European and e-commerce customers. As expected, the company says it is continuing to recover the increase in paper prices with packaging customers. Trading is in line with expectations in the half year with return on sales for the period broadly consistent with that reported for the full year to 30 April 2017, and ROACE in the upper end of the target range.
On 25th August 2017 DS Smith completed the acquisition of Interstate Resources Inc, based on the east coast of US. Trading in the period under ownership has been strong, in line with expectations at the time of acquisition. The integration process is proceeding well with excellent levels of enthusiasm and commitment from Interstate.
On 18th October 2017, the comany announced the acquisition of EcoPack and EcoPaper, in Romania, further enhancing its capability in this fast-growing region and providing support to its ‘performance packaging’ programme. The company expect this acquisition to complete in its third fiscal quarter.
Miles Roberts, Group Chief Executive, said, “We are pleased with the consistently strong organic progress of the business. Customers continue to demand high-quality, innovative packaging on a multi-national basis and we have the scale and expertise to serve them. We have also strengthened our business model further through selective acquisitions, in Europe and US, driven by customer demand. As such, we view the future with confidence.”
