DS Smith Plc (“DS Smith”), the international supplier of recycled packaging for consumer goods and office products wholesaling business, announces its results for the six months to 31 October 2010.

Miles Roberts, Group Chief Executive, said:

“These results reflect the strong volume and revenue growth in the recycled packaging business, driven by our revised strategic focus on customer service, innovation, quality and reducing the environmental impact of our product. This focus has allowed us to recover the significant increases in the cost of our raw materials and energy, and maintain our margins despite the usual three to six month delay. On 1 September 2010 we completed the acquisition of Otor, a leading supplier of recycled corrugated packaging in France. Integration is proceeding well and post acquisition trading performance of this business has been ahead of our initial expectations.

The review of business strategy has confirmed the exciting growth potential from focusing our efforts on delivering retail-ready, recycled packaging which helps build sales and reduce costs for our FMCG customers. We have identified attractive opportunities within the UK and France and also see very significant potential in the faster growing FMCG markets in Central and Eastern Europe. Corrugated packaging has growth prospects ahead of GDP and outperforms other materials on ease of recycling.

Notwithstanding continued increases in input costs, trading in the second half to date is progressing well. We look forward to the remainder of the year with confidence, delivering in line with our expectations.”

For the full report please download the attachment below