Certain Uncertainty

Despite all the challenges, companies in the folding carton segment have been able to post some positive results. For the most part, these have occurred due to management actions taken to reduce costs and focus on core businesses—actions that are necessary during recessionary periods.

Graphic Packaging posted second quarter results that were 4.3 percent above 2Q10. “We posted a solid quarter despite a difficult operating environment in our key end-use markets,” said Scheible. “Our top line increased over 4 percent as we continued to recapture prior input inflation through higher pricing. At the same time, our earnings more than doubled as higher prices, strong operating performance, and improvements in our cost structure more than offset input cost inflation.”