Packaging group SIG jumps in sales

The Schaffhausen company achieved a 34.8 percent increase in sales of 2.78 billion euros in 2022. Adjusted for currency effects, this represents a 27.4 percent increase, which means the company has met its growth target of over 24 percent, according to a statement Tuesday.

Acquisitions made a decisive contribution to growth. Last year, SIG acquired two major companies, Scholle IPN and Evergreen Asia. Organically, that is, excluding acquisitions and currency effects, sales increased by 8.0 percent. According to the announcement, this was achieved thanks to a combination of volume increases and price increases.

The company was unable to fully maintain its profitability due to, among other things, acquisition costs and cost inflation. Adjusted EBITDA margin decreased from 27.7 percent to 23.5 percent. However, in absolute terms, operating profit increased and the final result was 286.8 million, 8 percent higher adjusted net profit. Shareholders will now receive a dividend of 0.47 CHF, after 0.45 CHF in the previous year.

For the current year 2023, the company is targeting exchange-adjusted growth of 20 to 22 percent. The acquisition of Scholle IPN and Evergreen Asia will have an additional impact as they will be consolidated for an additional five months and seven months respectively. Organic sales growth is expected to be 7 to 9 percent, the statement said. In terms of operating margin, management is targeting an improvement of 50 to 150 basis points, respectively. in the range of 24 to 25 percent.

Mid-term targets of 4 to 6 percent annual sales growth were also confirmed. The new factory in India, the construction of which was announced on Tuesday, should also contribute to this. It is scheduled to open towards the end of 2024 and will have a capacity of up to 4 billion packages per year at launch. According to the information obtained, the investment cost reaches 60 million Euros. (SDA)

Source :Blick