Net sales were down by 2.5% to $27.8m compared to the same period in 2013. Excluding prior year sales from divested businesses, Q1 net sales were up 1.7% to $17.5m.
The Georgia-based company is one of the largest producers of folding cartons and holds a strong market position in coated-unbleached kraft, coated-recycled boxboard multi-wall bag and specialty packaging.
“We had a solid quarter despite mother nature not co-operating,” said chief executive David Scheible. “Our key operating and financial metrics were trending positive, but the harsh winter weather significantly impacted board production, particularly at our two virgin mills in the southeast. Power supply interruptions from major storms forced us to take unplanned downtime at our Macon, Georgia mill in February and our West Monroe, Louisiana mill in March. The storms, in addition to lost production, resulted in higher energy, fiber and freight costs. The weather impact overall cost us almost $15m in EBITDA this quarter.
“The good news is that we didn’t experience a drop in demand from the weather. Beer demand remained healthy here in the US and overall carton demand in Europe was extremely strong in the first quarter. The positive demand signals in Europe are welcome and we also had a nice benefit this quarter from the restructuring we did in Europe last year. We are very excited about our growing footprint in Europe and expect the previously announced Benson Group acquisition to close in the second quarter.”
