Huhtamaki (Espoo / Finland; www.huhtamaki.com) has withdrawn its outlook for 2020 due to the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its global trading conditions and the takeaway packaging industry. The packaging producer said on 13 February 2020 that trading conditions were expected “to remain relatively stable during 2020.”

Huhtamaki now says quick-service restaurant visits and overall traffic have dropped amidst the pandemic. It noted the possibility that the declining demand for food-on-the-go packaging would be partly offset by the rising demand for food-on-the-shelf packaging, which constitutes over 50% of the group’s business.

The Finnish packaging manufacturer separately announced the completion of taking over full ownership of its Brazilian 50:50 joint venture Laminor, a producer of laminate tubes particularly for oral care applications – see Plasteurope.com of 09.01.2020. It will be integrated into Huhtamaki’s Flexible Packaging business segment from 1 April 2020. Laminor has approximately 130 employees and generated sales of EUR 25m in 2018. The Brazil-based company was set up in 2002 together with Bemis, which is now part of Amcor – see Plasteurope.com of 13.02.2019.

Huhtamaki also announced the board of directors has changed its proposal to the annual shareholders meeting regarding the use of the profit shown on the balance sheet and has proposed to its shareholders that no dividend payment would be decided by the annual shareholders meeting to be held on 29 April. On 13 February, the board proposed a dividend payment on 11 May 2020. Instead, the board is now proposing to the shareholders that they authorise a decision at a later stage on paying the dividend in one or several instalments.