All financial information in Canadian dollars.

• Overview: Cascades’ fourth-quarter performance overall was in line with company expectations, with fourth-quarter sales dropping on softer seasonal demand, said CEO Hugues Simon during Thursday’s earnings call. “Notwithstanding this, our box shipments increased 1.5%, outperforming the industry's 2.4% decrease,” he said. Tissue business results fell short, with additional impacts from an unplanned power outage at a North Carolina facility that added $6 million in operating costs and required volumes to be moved to other plants. Cascades reduced its debt by $127 million in the fourth quarter and $200 million for the year, resulting in leverage decreasing to 3.3x from 3.6x. 
• Facility closures and divestitures: Earlier in February, Cascades announced that it sold its corrugated packaging plant in Richmond, British Columbia, to Crown Paper Group, and that it would close three plants as it exits the honeycomb and partition business segments. The $69 million in cash proceeds went toward debt repayment in Q1 2026, said CFO Allan Hogg. That helped Cascades achieve its target of $120 million in proceeds from the sale of redundant and non-core assets ahead the mid-2026 timeline. Simon noted Cascades now aims for an additional $100 million in proceeds this year from other divestitures; the company has identified the assets but did not disclose the locations during the call.
• Containerboard price volatility: Fastmarkets RISI released monthly containerboard pricing on Friday, showing prices dropped in February compared with January. “We were surprised by the $20 reduction. ... That’s not what we’re seeing in our order file,” Simon said, echoing a common sentiment across the industry. He explained that roughly two-thirds of Cascades’ corrugated sales volumes are via contract and one-third are not contracted. “When we look at the spring, we look at the inventory that we have, we're focused on implementing the $70 increase that we've announced in linerboard ... as well [as] in medium,” he said, referencing the March increases that Cascades and other producers recently announced.
• Tariffs: “This is an ever-moving” situation, Simon said of tariffs. In 2025, Cascades started to position itself to handle tariffs, including moving certain SKUs that were produced in Canada to the United States, he said. President Donald Trump’s threat to raise global tariffs to 15% shouldn’t affect Canada, Simon said, due to USMCA exemptions. But Cascades will continue to adjust as necessary in 2026. “Customers want to keep, in some cases, less inventory because they're unsure about the economy in the U.S. But we're looking at all alternatives to make sure that we minimize [impact], and that will include trading and swapping volumes,” he said.
• Outlook: Executives expect first-quarter results will be higher year over year, but lower sequentially, in part due to seasonality and severe weather effects in the U.S. in January. “We were impacted quite drastically by this cold front,” and it takes a while for shipments to return to normal, Simon said. Cascades anticipates adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of more than $600 million for the year, as well as $175 million in capital expenditures. 2026 is “going to bring its own share of interesting things, given what the geopolitical [situation] is doing,” Simon said.