Rexam reports strong year

Manufacturing News, Source : TheManufacturer.com
Published : 22 Feb 2006 11:00

Rexam, the global consumer packaging company and can maker, said today that it had maintained its record of operational efficiency by driving £35 million out of its cost base throughout the year using a continuous improvement framework provided by lean enterprise and six sigma. This helped to mitigate the impact of rising raw material prices.

During the year, Rexam grew sales from ongoing operations by eight per cent to £3.2 billion and reported a seven per cent increase in pre-tax profits to £307 million.

Commenting on the results, chairman Rolf Börjesson said: “In 2005 we improved results and maintained profit margins overall despite increasing input cost pressures in the second half, reporting good organic growth especially in beverage cans. We continued to generate strong efficiency savings, increase our presence in higher growth plastics and emerging markets and build further on our market leading positions by delivering innovative solutions to our customers.

“We are confident that our strategy for growth, both organically and by acquisition, is sound. Looking ahead, we are implementing price increases to offset the challenge of higher input costs and we will continue to deliver strong operational efficiencies. The integration of the recent acquisitions is progressing well and we anticipate that 2006 will be a year in which we will once again make further progress.”