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DS Smith ends financial year on a high
DS Smith issued a pre-close trading update on Monday for its financial year just ended on 30 April, reporting that its business continued to perform in line with its own expectations, with the industry and business trends consistent with its trading update in March.
The FTSE 100 company said volume growth remained "strong", with its focus on sustainable solutions and the accelerating e-commerce sector.
That, and continued growth in multinational customers, had resulted in further gains in the company's market share.
Recovery of increased paper prices, which had risen throughout the year, also continued as expected and the firm said its expected return on sales was to be in line with the prior year.
Volume growth in the US was described as "excellent", and the board said it was "very pleased" with the positive reaction from local and global customers.
The integration of Interstate was also progressing well, and DS Smith said it now expected synergies to reach an annualised rate of $35m by the end of the third full year of ownership - a further increase of $5m on its previous expectations - which the board said would be driven primarily by further anticipated global supply chain benefits.
DS Smith's acquisition of Ecopack and Ecopaper completed on 6 March, further building its European network, with the board said to be "pleased" with the initial progress made.
"We are very pleased with the performance in the year, in particular in the step-up in volumes that we have delivered, and in the successful integration, customer reaction and volume growth within Interstate," said group chief executive Miles Roberts.
"Our success is underpinned by our commitment to sustainable packaging that is innovative and adds value to our customers, throughout their global supply chains and also by a focus on our own global supply chain efficiency.
"This approach, together with momentum in our business and opportunities to further strengthen our customer offering, gives us confidence in the future."