How Novolex Is Building A Brain Trust To Educate Consumers And Achieve Our Sustainability Goals

Peter Oswald, Mondi Group chief executive, said: “Mondi delivered a robust performance in the first half of 2017, with revenue up 8%, underlying operating profit of €497 million and a return on capital employed of 18.7%, reflecting management’s ongoing value focus and the strength of our business model. Profitability was down on the comparable prior year period, mainly driven by a significantly lower forestry fair value gain in South Africa and the impact of mill maintenance shuts. We continue to drive growth through our capital investment programme. During the period, we commissioned the second phase of our major investment in the ongoing development of our world-class facility in Poland, while good progress is being made on the modernisation of our kraft paper facility in Czech Republic. The integration of acquisitions completed during 2016 and early 2017 is on track. These acquisitions enhance our geographic reach and product portfolio in Corrugated Packaging and Consumer Packaging. The market outlook remains broadly positive. We saw strong demand across Packaging Paper and Corrugated Packa ging in the first half and successfully implemented price increases across certain paper grades, the full effect of which is anticipated in the second half. The second half of the year will be impacted by planned maintenance shuts at a number of our mills and the usual seasonal downturn in Uncoated Fine Paper. While we continue to see some inflationary cost pressures, we remain confident of making progress in the year and continuing to deliver industry leading returns." Click Read More below for additional detail.

*Generated a record $883 million of operating cash flow and $600 million of Free Cash Flow in the full year of 2023 *Invested a record level of capital in the business for future growth and productivity *Achieved record results in Operating Profit and Adjusted EBITDA in flexible packaging and record net sales in rigid paper containers in the Consumer Packaging (“Consumer”) segment *Produced record Operating Profit margins and Adjusted EBITDA margins in Industrial Paper Packaging (“Industrial”) segment despite a low volume environment *Expanded the Company’s flexible packaging capabilities with the acquisition of Inapel Embalagens Ltda. in Brazil

A study released by R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company found the market’s most pressing challenges forced packaging decision makers to shift priorities and rethink operations, with 90% changing how their packaging is sourced. The Unpackaging Reality Report explores how converging disruptive issues like supply chain volatility, inflation, labor shortages, and increasing sustainability pressures have impacted the industry. Surveying 300 packaging decision makers in the U.S., RRD’s study found that material price hikes and supply shortages presented the biggest hurdles for the industry over the past year, with over half of respondents reporting they have been strongly impacted. These challenges, among others, forced organizations to reprioritize packaging materials (68%), budget (52%), packaging design and aesthetics (49%), and sustainability goals (45%). Despite the many challenges brought on by the pandemic and downstream issues, the report found that overall, the packaging industry proved resilient and continued to track toward a more sustainable and innovative future.