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By the numbers: Q4 and full-year 2025
2025 total revenue: $9.6B
Up 5% year over year
2025 metal packaging revenue: $5.5B
Up 12% year over year
2025 glass packaging revenue: $4.1B
Down 3.1% year over year
2025 loss: $952M
Compared with a loss of $597M in 2024
- Results: Mark Porto, the new executive chair for Ardagh Group, touted Q4 adjusted earnings as “ahead of expectations” in both the metal packaging and glass packaging businesses. 2025 also brought a recapitalization agreement for Ardagh in November. “Since the completion of the restructuring, under new ownership, there have been significant changes to Ardagh Group's governance and executive structures,” he said in a statement. “We are in the process of detailing and resourcing our action plans.”
- Metal packaging: Shipments across the metal packaging business were up 3% in 2025, and North American beverage can shipment growth was 6% for the year. Demand in the fast-growing energy drinks segment boosted 2025 results — accounting for 16% of Ardagh’s North American sales last year — and offset drag from Brazil’s beer market, Ardagh Metal Packaging CEO Oliver Graham said on an earnings call Thursday. Sparkling water was also big at 11%. A 24% Q4 revenue bump in the Americas also reflected the company passing down higher input cost to customers, including the higher Midwest premium in North America, he said.
- Glass packaging: In North America, shipments declined 7% in 2025, including a 5% drop in Q4. This was expected, the company said, following downsizing. Between 2023 and 2025, the company reduced its North American facility count from 14 to nine, including closures in Texas and Washington in 2024 and in Illinois in 2025. Declines in beer — its largest glass end market in 2025, at 28% — were slightly offset in Q4 by some growth in spirits, which accounted for 19% of its portfolio. The company expects margin improvements going forward “from a smaller, better-invested and better-utilised footprint,” per a presentation.
- 2026 trends: Graham noted some initial hurdles in 2026 caused disruptions at Ardagh facilities and to customer shipments. These include a “challenging metal supply chain situation” as well as winter weather in January. Still, “Retail scanner data so far this year is encouraging for continued beverage can industry growth into 2026.” Graham called 2026 “a transition year, with a small volume decline before we expect to return to growth in 2027.”
- Outlook: For the full year, the company expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, debt and amortization between $750 million and $775 million. Metal packaging shipment growth is expected to be more modest in 2026, in part due to “some softness in North America following contract resets.”
