David S Smith Holdings has announced a 55% increase in pre-tax profits for the year to 29 April.
Pre-tax profits were up to 57.7m on turnover up 7% to 1.2bn.

Finance director David Buttfield said it was due to an increase in volume, rather than in selling price, which was generally offset by price rises for raw materials.

The results came days after South African group Mondi was linked with a bid for the group. One analyst said David S Smith had two different faces in wholesaling and paper and wasnt big enough in either to be a force. He said the good results werent reflected in the share price, which had fallen 2.2% to 159p as PrintWeek went to press.

David S Smiths corrugated packaging and corrugated case volumes grew by 8% and 7% respectively, while many of its plastic packaging businesses grew in excess of 10%. Office products sales rose 7%.

Buttfield said St Regis Paper Company had an excellent year due to strong paper markets, with a 9% increase in production and 11% decrease in costs. Kemsley mills record output of 517,000 tonnes was as a result of faster speeds, less downtime plus good demand.
However, speciality mills suffered pricing pressure from imports, which led to the closure of Silverton mill in August 1999 and Daniels mill in Gloucestershire in April.

l The group also announced the acquisition of US liquid packaging supplier Rapak for 16.7m ($25m), plus a further payment of up to 12m depending on the first three years profit.

Story by Fleur Priestley