Paper packaging group Mondi saw revenue climb 7% to €7.09 billion in 2017, with underlying operating profit rising 4% to €1.02 billion.
Revenues were up across all business areas, including packaging paper (+9%), fibre packaging (+7%), consumer packaging (+5%), and uncoated fine paper (+7%).
While volume growth in the group's paper business was limited due to capacity constraints, Mondi says that it saw good growth in fibre packaging, with corrugated packaging, in particular, experiencing like-for-like growth of around 6%.
As a result of this strong performance, the company has announced a special payout of 100 cents per share.
"I am pleased to report another successful year for Mondi," said group chief executive Peter Oswald.
"We benefited from good demand and higher average selling prices in most of our businesses, while our continuous drive for operational performance improvements mitigated the inflationary pressures on our cost base caused by the general economic recovery."
Strong Momentum
Mondi says that its business saw strong momentum in 2017, despite recent US dollar weakness coupled with strong emerging market currencies, such as the South African rand.
It added that higher selling prices and marginally higher volumes more than offset operating costs and ongoing challenging trading conditions.
Looking ahead, the packaging group says that expects continued growth in 2018, supporting by ongoing demand, with manageable pressure on the cost base across the company.
"We continue to make good progress in securing future growth and the ongoing cost competitiveness of our operations through delivery on our capital expenditure programme," said Oswald.
"Our outlook for the business is positive and we remain confident that our consistent and focused strategy, robust business model centred around our cost advantaged assets, and firm focus on driving performance will sustain our track record of delivering value accretive growth."
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
