As it prepares for its acquisition by Berry Plastics, Avintiv has posted net sales of $918.9 million for the first six months of 2015 – an increase of $146.5 million on the same period in 2014.
The primary driver of the increase related to the acquisition of Providência, which provided $121.3 million of incremental net sales during the current period.
Continued strong demand in the hygiene, wipes and technical specialities markets enabled North America to mitigate weather impacts in the construction markets and the closure of a manufacturing facility. Improvements in the hygiene markets and a recent manufacturing line upgrade helped provide incremental volume growth in South America. Softer volumes impacted the healthcare and technical speciality markets in the region. Volumes in Europe were down, primarily driven by lower sales into the hygiene and industrial markets. In addition, the volume reductions in Europe also reflected the consolidation of manufacturing facilities in Germany in connection with the exit of the European roofing business during 2014. In Asia, improvements were driven by higher hygiene sales volumes.
Gross profit for the six months ended June 30, 2015 was $210.9 million, a $49.9 million increase compared with the first six months 2014. The primary driver of the increase related to the contributions from Providência, which represented an incremental $30.3 million for the period. The acquisition of Dounor provided an additional $2.9 million since its acquisition date.
In addition, improved spreads as a result of favorable raw material trends during the period provided year-over-year improvements in North American and South America.
The company reported a net loss of $48.7 million for the six months of 2015 compared with a net loss of $29.1 million for the first six months of 2014.
“I am very pleased with our continued strength in our core markets and the integration of our strategic acquisitions,” said CEO J. Joel Hackney Jr. “We continued to witness strong progress with our strategic growth initiatives associated with closing the Dounor acquisition during the second quarter. We are clearly realising strong synergies across the segments as we are executing our global growth strategy. Berry Plastics’ announced acquisition of Avintiv is truly a testament to the strength of our business, our global scale, and our track record of growth and margin enhancement.”
