DS Smith gets year off to a good start

3rd Sep 2013 07:02

DS Smith, a company which supplies recycled packaging for consumer goods, has reported a positive start to the year, driven by a good performance across the group. Since the start of May, the group continued its strong delivery of synergies from the acquisition of SCA Packaging, and said the return on sales and return on average capital employed continued to improve as anticipated.Despite the challenging situation in Europe, the Packaging business performed in line with expectations, while corrugated volumes continued to improve, with growth in line with its medium term financial target of GDP +1%. Looking ahead, the group's overall outlook remained positive, although as it previously indicated there is an expected short term impact ahead of the pass through of input cost increases. Despite this, DS Smith said it expects "continued performance in line with the company's medium term financial targets and views the remainder of the year with confidence". Miles Roberts, Group Chief Executive, added: "The year has started well and in line with our plans. Increasing volume growth fully in line with our medium term targets reflects continued innovation driven market share gains and, together with the delivery of synergies from the SCA Packaging acquisition, underpins our confidence for the year. "Whilst the European market backdrop remains challenging, we are on track to make further significant progress this year and are excited about the growth opportunities for the group."NR