Fourth-quarter tax benefits and restructuring savings at Sealed Air (Charlotte, North Carolina / USA; www.sealedair.com) helped offset currency headwinds and higher input costs, enabling the packaging maker to end its fiscal 2018 with a net income from continuing operations of USD 150m (EUR 132m) from the year-earlier USD 63m. Although last year’s net income was only USD 193m compared to the year-earlier USD 815m, the latter was flattered by gains from divesting Diversey – see Plasteurope.com of 19.02.2018.

Fourth-quarter net earnings from continuing operations soared to USD 199m from the year-earlier income of USD 25m and saved the company from incurring a full-year loss. The nine-month period in 2018 had already posted a net loss of USD 7.2m – see Plasteurope.com of 09.01.2019.

Sales of USD 4.7 bn climbed 6% year-on-year. On constant dollar terms, growth was led by Latin America at 17% and Asia-Pacific at 12%. North America and EMEA boosted sales respectively only by 6% and 3%, even though three fourths of group sales were generated between them.

Sales at the Food Care segment improved 6.8% last year to USD 2.9 bn. Those at Product Care jumped 10.8% to USD 1.83 bn.

Sealed Air launched cost cuts in 2016 and will widen them in 2019-2021 under its “Reinvent SEE” austerity programme, which includes combining the commercial management of two segments under one team led by Karl Deily. He will serve as chief commercial officer. The two segments, however, will continue reporting their financial results separately. Reinvent SEE – which is expected to yield annualised savings of USD 215-235m by the end of 2021 – and an ongoing restructuring programme are forecast to save around USD 70m in 2019 and also trigger costs of around USD 115m – see Plasteurope.com of 09.01.2019.

For its 2019 outlook, the company expects to report a 2% improvement in sales of USD 4.8 bn and an adjusted EBITDA gain of 4-6% at USD 925-945m.