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| 31 Jan 2009 12:16:15 pm |
 I.P. has rough quarter |
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International Paper announced their 4th quarter earnings Thursday. It is always difficult to gauge how their Foodservice Business is doing - for reasons previously discussed, but this quarter was more difficult than the norm. Very little info was released on their Consumer Packaging Group (of which Foodservice is a part) other than more costly write offs for their Shorewood (high-end consumer packaging) division and a seeming inability on the part of the Coated Paperboard’s mill system to keep price increases up with cost increases. This last part should have a dramatic turn around here in the 1st quarter as virtually all of these costs have been decreasing rapidly with little sign of board decreases to accompany them.
Bottom line.... the Group (Mills, Shorewood and Foodservice) lost $3MM for the quarter. |
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Category : Companies
| By : Mike |  Comments [68] |  Trackbacks [60] |
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| 28 Jan 2009 05:50:30 pm |
| Ouch! |
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Well Starbucks is out with their Q1 results and it is not at all pretty.
The most disturbing sign is their reported 10% decline in “same-store” sales. This is the most common measure of health for a store open at least one year. They attribute the decline to: “…lower volume of transactions and average value per transaction.”…. in other words, this particular metric has nothing to do with stores they have (or are in the process of) shut down. Starbucks reported on the period October through December 2008 (their 1st quarter).
Other notes of interest:
Will close an additional 300 stores (200 USA) in addition to what they had previously announced
Will further reduce both its new store openings in 2009 and their capital expenditures
Will further reduce employee headcount by as many as 6,000 (stores) plus 700 (staff)
They still made money and their cash position seems strong, so not likely they are going to fail (at least at this point)….. but watch those “same store sales” – critically important.
On a separate note, tomorrow International Paper announces their 4th quarter results, so we’ll take that opportunity to recap what we can of their Foodservice business, plus Pactiv and Solo’s recent results (which have been pretty darn good all things considered!).
MDA |
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Category : Companies
| By : Mike | Comments [87] | Trackbacks [0] |
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| 19 Jan 2009 10:47:07 am |
| Price DECREASES Announced |
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Today announced a 7% across-the-board decrease in their prices for Styrofoam cups and lids, with just a few minor exceptions.
They attribute this decision to the decline in raw material (oil and resin - I would presume) costs.
Wincup is likely the #2 player in Styrofoam cups (after Dart) and has had some significant internal financial issue in recent years. I candidly do not know if those issues have been resolved or not.
This follows a similar decrease announced by Dart, last Thursday.
As we have stated in the past, in the disposable foodservice industry it is rare to see price decreases announced, but this is a wacky time in our industry so very little surprises me anymore. |
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Category : Pricing
| By : Mike | Comments [71] | Trackbacks [0] |
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| 15 Jan 2009 03:11:36 pm |
| We're Back |
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Sorry for the extended absence..... and one of my New Year resolutions was to blog more regularly.....
Here is our newest DPI graphic. We are seeing really dramatic decreases in pulp and resin prices (plus of course oil), but so far nothing in terms of cost relief from manufacturers. The good news is there are no cost increases on the horizon that we are aware of.
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Category : Pricing
| By : Mike | Comments [46] | Trackbacks [2417] |
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| 05 Dec 2008 09:20:42 am |
| Solo Cup Announces Staff Reductions |
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Solo Cup announced Corporate Staff reductions earlier this morning. It is interesting as I had just been commenting to some folks on how it appeared they were really "beefing up" their marketing staff..... perhaps overly so (and I consider myself a marketing guy!) for a business that a short time ago was on its knees.
While certainly most unfortunate for those individuals affected, it should make Solo healthier in the long term and tells me good things about their CEO (willing to make tough, timely decisions). |
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Category : Companies
| By : Mike | Comments [81] | Trackbacks [400] |
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