Ahead of the Curve

But to what degree have recent consolidations actually paid dividends to the carton companies involved? "In mature markets," explains Van de Water, "there is less ability to capture profits with price. As a result, carton firms must focus on establishing cost-reduction measures to ensure a merger benefits the bottom line. A consolidation's challenge lies primarily in working through the transitional time frame, which can be lengthy. Extensive planning and review is typically necessary, coupled with managing sometimes thorny issues of integrating databases and rationalizing productive capacity, all while maintaining critically important customer focus, which in itself requires a continual review of internal processes," he comments.