(Alliance News) - Mondi PLC on Thursday said it delivered a "robust performance" in the first quarter despite an expected decline in earnings, while its major projects in Eastern Europe are making good progress.
The Surrey, England-based paper and packaging firm reported underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of EUR353 million, down 8.3% from EUR385 million a year ago. This was in line with the company's expectations, however.
Ebitda was up 14% from EUR309 million in the fourth quarter of last year.
"We continue to invest in our business to capture growth opportunities; enhance our product offering, quality and service to customers; strengthen our cost competitiveness; and improve our environmental footprint. This ongoing investment enables us to grow in our packaging markets by leveraging structural growth drivers, including e-commerce and the transition to more sustainable packaging solutions," Mondi said.
Some of Mondi's major projects include a new 300,000 tonne per annum kraft top white machine at Ruzomberok in Slovakia and a converted speciality kraft paper machine at Steti in the Czech Republic, which were both commissioned in January.
Both projects are ramping up successfully and the high-quality products are being well-received by the company's customers, Mondi said.
Looking ahead, Mondi said: "We are seeing strong demand across our packaging markets, supported by the structural growth drivers of e-commerce and sustainability and are implementing price increases across all key product segments. We continue to benefit from the contribution of our capital investment programme and our relentless focus on continuous improvement, mitigating the impact of significant input cost pressures and currency headwinds."
Mondi said macroeconomic uncertainties remain, but it said the company is well placed to make progress in line with its own expectations.
Mondi shares were down 2.3% at ZAR385.81 each in Johannesburg on Thursday morning, and were down 3.0% at 1,928.50 pence in London.
By Greg Roxburgh; gregroxburgh@alliancenews.com
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