BWAY Corporation on track for further growth
The firm acquired Ropak Packaging, a North American producer of rigid, plastic shipping containers, for the consumer goods, food processing and dairy industries, from Linpac Group via a stock purchase.
BWAY Corporation was acquired by Platinum Equity for $1.24bn in October last year, with operational and merger and acquisitions initiatives outlined to strengthen the company.
The firm reported net sales for 2012 of $1.2bn for the period ending 30 September - equal to the prior year - and net sales for its fourth financial quarter (Q4) were $292m compared to $290m for the same quarter last year.
Net income for fiscal 2012 was $21.7m, compared to a net loss for fiscal 2011 of $132.6m which included a $124.6m Q4 goodwill impairment charge.
Q4 net income was $3.8m, compared to a loss of $128.7m in the same period in 2011, which included the charge associated with the goodwill impairment related to the plastic segment.
Metal Packaging boost
Fiscal 2012 sales for the metal packaging segment were $726.3m, compared to $693.6m last year, resulting from higher raw material-driven selling prices and the December 2010 acquisition of Phoenix Container. However, this performance was partially offset by a 1.6% decline in volume for the year.
Q4 volumes were 3.7% higher than last year, and combined with higher selling prices resulted in sales increasing from $173.7m for Q4 2011 to $182.7m for the same period in 2012.
Metal packaging segment earnings (excluding depreciation and amortization) were $148.5m compared to $130.7m for fiscal 2011. The increase resulted from cost reduction and productivity initiatives, and management of raw material cost change pass-through, partially offset by lower volumes during fiscal 2012.
Q4 earnings also benefited from higher volumes resulting in metal packaging segment earnings increasing from $32.1m for last year's Q4 to $37.1m this year.
Plastic Packaging sales down
Fiscal 2012 sales for the plastic packaging segment were $453.5m compared to $467.9m last year.
Excluding the sale of the company’s bottle business to Ring Container Technologies in March 2012, full year volume on the remaining products declined by 3.7% driven primarily by actions taken to reduce or eliminate lower margin accounts.
Q4 sales for those products were $109.3m compared to $116.3m for the same period last year. Excluding the bottle business sale, plastic segment volumes increased 1.9% for 2012 Q4.
Plastic packaging segment earnings (excluding depreciation and amortization) were $25.1m for fiscal 2012 compared to $20m last year, and $7.7m for Q4 compared to $5.9m for Q4 2011.
The increase in plastic packaging segment earnings resulted from actions to improve margins including, productivity improvement, changes in policies and practices with regard to passing through changes in resin prices, and actions related to lower margin accounts.
