DS Smith says trading improves despite rising costs

DS Smith said trading was continuing to strengthen due to high demand for its boxes despite significant cost increases.

The packaging company said it had excellent volume growth in the past four months and had made good progress in recovering higher production costs by raising prices.

Box volumes rose very strongly compared with a year earlier and the same period in 2019 as increased ecommerce and a shift away from plastic packaging supported demand, the FTSE 100 group said. Growth was especially strong in the US and southern Europe and with big consumer goods companies.

Transportation and energy costs rose sharply and prices for old corrugated cartons stayed high, pushing up the price of paper but strong demand meant DS Smith was able to increase its prices, the company said.

Miles Roberts, DS Smith's chief executive, said: "I am very pleased with the progress made during the financial year to date. We have continued to build on our strong customer relationships resulting in excellent volume growth and good progress towards recovering the significant increasing costs of production through higher prices. Consequently overall trading continues to strengthen in line with our expectations."