Sales of SIG Holding (Neuhausen / Switzerland; www.sig.biz) rose 2% to EUR 1.2 bn in 2005 against 2004. After loss of EUR 14m in 2004, due to high goodwill write-downs, EBIT, at EUR 67m, was positive again. The holding said key factors in the turnaround were the implementation of restructuring measures, which led to savings of EUR 21m, and the reduction of corporate/services costs by nearly half to EUR 15m.

Group company SIG Combibloc (Linnich / Germany; www.combibloc.com), which manufactures cardboard composites, again accounted for the lion´s share of the sales, contributing EUR 1.1 bn (EUR 1.08 bn in 2004). However, EBIT fell to EUR 86m (EUR 111m). Despite cost reduction, the company was unable to absorb higher raw materials prices. Also, sales of Europe´s second largest player in the drink cartons market fell significantly, due to a poor performance in Germany, its most important market for juice cartons. Here, lower consumption of fruit juices and the effects of substitution of monolayer PET bottles for cardboard composites are blamed primarily.

The group´s technology division, SIG Beverages (www.sigbeverages.com), centred mainly on subsidiary SIG Corpoplast (Hamburg / Germany; www.sigcorpoplast.com), posted lower sales of EUR 125m, compared with EUR 133m a year earlier. By contrast, EBIT of the division, which supplies PET bottling equipment, was just back in the black at EUR 1m, following a EUR 94m loss in 2004 due to divestment-related write-downs (see Plasteurope.com Web of 07.04.2005).

Despite full order books following the Munich "drinktec" trade fair in autumn 2005, the beverages division was unable to make up the decline in sales from the first half year. Nevertheless, management believes the upsurge in orders after the fair reflects the success of its investment in the "future technologies of "SIG Asbofil" and "SIG Plasmax", as well as its "value added" bottling strategy.