DS Smith falls despite overall growth

The price of shares in FTSE 100 packaging specialist DS Smith (LON:SMDS) has dropped by 2.96% to 367.70p (as of 12:00 GMT) as the Northern European and North American arms contracted during the six months ended 31st October. Overall revenues were up by 4% due to growth in other regions and pre-tax profits rose by 30%.

CEO Miles Roberts commented: “Our leadership in e-commerce and sustainable packaging solutions has enabled us to perform well despite a difficult macro environment and volatility in paper pricing. The continued growth in margin and strong pricing discipline has been particularly pleasing as we deepen our relationships with FMCG customers and grow market share.

“We continue to capitalise on the strong long-term growth drivers of fibre-based packaging, with our industry-leading innovation driving differentiation in the market. Assuming current macro-economic conditions prevail, we anticipate an acceleration of volume growth in the second half of the year which, together with the resilience of our business model, supports our expectation of further growth in the year“.