By the numbers: Q3 2025
Net sales: $1.35B
Flat year over year
Food net sales: $910M
Up 1.3% year over year
Protective net sales: $442M
Down 1.2% year over year
Net earnings: $186M
Up from $89M in Q3 2024
- Overview: Sealed Air continues work on its business turnaround, including with new CFO Kristen Actis-Grande as part of its leadership team as of Q3. The substrate-agnostic packaging manufacturer touted positives in both its food and protective packaging businesses during a quarter marked by softer global growth, muted industrial production and U.S. consumers with strained purchasing power, said CEO Dustin Semach.
- Protective packaging: Semach stated there was a “positive inflection in Protective’s material volumes for the first time since 2021.” Asked whether Sealed Air is currently further assessing its portfolio, Semach said leaders are “heads down in our transformation.” It’s currently extrapolating some of the recent strategies it’s used to turn around the protective packaging business. “We are more intentionally making a rotation into retail and food service end markets by applying the transformation playbook we developed in protective to our food business,” he said.
- Food packaging: With consumer spending under pressure, trends include trading down to private label, a transition from more expensive fresh counter items to pre-packaged offerings, and a variety of pack formats, Semach said. Quick service restaurants are also leaning into value offerings. Sealed Air sees greater growth opportunities in diversifying its food business further in retail and food service, which could “smooth out the volatility that comes from our exposure to supply-side dynamics within industrial food processing and markets.” Sealed Air noted that its industrial volumes are being pressured by a decline in beef production, where return to growth is not expected until 2028.
- Outlook: Actis-Grande sees pricing and market pressures “accelerating in the fourth quarter,” resulting in lower-than-expected volumes in North America food. For one, Sealed Air is “monitoring the near-term implications of the U.S. government shutdown, specifically as it relates to funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” which could exacerbate trade-down patterns in food. As part of transformation efforts, the company continues to focus on supporting “market changes, new innovations and network asset optimization” and “will continue to upgrade talent,” Semach said. “We are planning to make all the necessary foundational changes by the end of this year so we can hit the ground running in 2026.”
- Guidance: Sealed Air tightened its 2025 financial guidance. Net sales are now expected to fall between $5.275 billion and $5.325 billion. The company previously forecast a range of $5.1 billion to $5.5 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization are projected between $1.12 billion and $1.14 billion. Free cash flow expectations are unchanged at $350 million to $450 million.
