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By the numbers: Q3 2025
Net sales: $2.13B
Up 57.3% year over year
Consumer packaging net sales: $1.44B
Up 117.2% year over year
Industrial packaging net sales: $585M
Flat year over year
Net income: $123.1M
Up from $51.2M in Q3 2024
- Results: Sonoco touted “record top-line and bottom-line results” in the third quarter, bolstered by its metal packaging and industrial paper products businesses. Sonoco attributed its revenue increase to greater metal packaging sales following the December 2024 acquisition of Eviosys, as well as benefits from price increases it put in place to offset impacts of tariffs and inflation.
- Metal packaging: In the U.S., food can volumes rose 5%, while aerosols fell slightly year over year. Elsewhere, Sonoco’s metal packaging business in Europe and beyond has grown since acquiring Eviosys. Total food can units were up 3.5% year over year. The company is carrying out some “footprint rationalization,” but also diversifying beyond seasonal products like vegetables and investing in pet food and seafood opportunities in Eastern Europe in 2026, Sonoco noted in its earnings presentation.
- Eviosys deal: Sonoco is still working to realize $100 million in annual run rate synergies by the end of 2026. “Our team expects to further drive procurement synergies in 2026 after they were delayed in 2025 due to the late closing of the acquisition,” said Rodger Fuller, interim CEO of Sonoco Metal Packaging EMEA, the new unit name following the Eviosys deal, during a Thursday earnings call.
- Paper products: Globally, rigid paper container volumes remain soft. CEO Howard Coker noted promise in “reigniting growth in global stacked chips.” Sonoco continues to “launch new all paper cans and paper bottom cans for customers looking to substitute with less sustainable substrates,” he said. Around its mill network, Sonoco is operating “in the low 90s,” Coker said, but the company did recently close a 25,000 ton per year URB machine in Mexico City, “which eliminates an older higher cost machine and allows us to better balance our North American mill network,” he said.
- ThermoSafe sale: Sonoco announced in September it reached an agreement to sell ThermoSafe, its temperature-assured packaging business, to private equity firm Arsenal Capital Partners for up to $725 million. “The completion of the sale of ThermoSafe will substantially complete Sonoco's portfolio transformation from a large portfolio of diversified businesses into a stronger, more simplified structure with two core global business segments,” said Coker. The deal is expected to close in Q4. Sonoco says proceeds will help pay down debt, targeting a leverage ratio of approximately 3.4x at the end of 2025.
- Outlook: Sonoco lowered parts of its full-year guidance, in part citing “subdued market conditions” outside the U.S., explained CFO Paul Joachimczyk. Trends were negative in August, September and into the fourth quarter. “Looking ahead at the remainder of the year, our top priorities are to continue building momentum for growth and improving our competitive position by further reducing our cost structure,” Coker concluded, touting “new product and market launches planned in 2026 and beyond” in both the consumer and industrial businesses.
- Lower guidance: Sonoco now expects full-year adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization between $1.3 billion and $1.35 billion, tightening its previous range of $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion. Cash flows from operating activities are expected to fall between $700 million and $750 million, down from previous guidance of $800 million. It projects revenues between $7.8 billion and $7.9 billion. Sonoco also announced an investor day in New York on Feb. 17.
