Dive Brief:
- Sonoco is again restructuring its business units and bringing the entire global consumer packaging workforce under a single, integrated leadership structure. Ernest Haynes will be the president of global consumer packaging.
- In November, Sonoco restructured and named Haynes president of consumer packaging for the Americas and Sean Cairns president of consumer packaging for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. Cairns is leaving Sonoco after 17 years with the company and 30 years in the packaging industry.
- Haynes will report to CEO Howard Coker and will be responsible for Sonoco’s largest global business, overseeing operations in 25 countries covering 11,250 employees and $5.2 billion worth of annual sales.
Dive Insight:
The latest leadership shift comes after Sonoco executives spent much of this year declaring the company’s period of major changes over, following years of multiple restructuring activities.
“Our portfolio transformation is complete. And the most difficult part of our journey is behind us,” Coker said during the company’s investor day event in February. “What is different today is not just where we are, but how decisively we will run the business going forward.”
When Sonoco announced the two geographic segments and leaders in November, the company also combined its metal packaging and rigid paper containers businesses. Less than two years before that, the company had broken them out as two of its four core business segments, alongside industrial packaging and the thermoformed and flexibles unit.
Other portfolio changes also have ensued. The South Carolina-based company acquired Switzerland-based metal packaging company Eviosys for $3.8 billion in December 2024. Sonoco divested the flex-therm business to Toppan Holdings for $1.8 billion in April 2025. Sonoco divested its ThermoSafe temperature-assured packaging business to private equity investment firm Arsenal Capital Partners for a total purchase price of up to $725 million in November 2025.
As Sonoco has revamped its business segments, it has also changed its leadership team. That included bringing in Paul Joachimczyk as its new CFO in June 2025.
Haynes has been with Sonoco since 1997. During an interview with Packaging Dive in February, he addressed Sonoco’s transitions over the last five years and said they were largely finished — but also acknowledged room for further change. “When you think about a $7.5-plus billion company, nothing ever stays the same,” he said.
At that time, Haynes expressed enthusiasm about heading the Americas business that combined his previous regional leadership experience for both metal packaging and rigid paper containers. He also described the importance of creating a sense of stability for employees and customers during periods of change.
“I think my job has been to over-communicate the underpinnings of why we’ve made some of the changes we’ve made, to talk about the markets we serve, to focus on earning the right to serve our customers every single day,” he said.
In Tuesday’s announcement, Haynes said he expects the updated consumer packaging business structure will make operations simpler and more efficient.
