Cascades Reports Sales of $1,134 million in the First Quarter of 2023
“We had a solid first quarter” – Mario Plourde, President and CEO
Cascades Inc. has reported its unaudited financial results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2023.
Q1 2023 HIGHLIGHTS
- Sales of $1,134 million (compared with $1,135 million in Q4 2022 and $1,038 million in Q1 2022)
- Operating loss of $(80) million (compared with $(20) million in Q4 2022 and $(4) million in Q1 2022)
Mario Plourde, President and CEO, commented: “We had a solid first quarter. All three businesses contributed to topline growth year-over-year, as benefits from higher selling prices and an advantageous exchange rate more than offset the impacts of a less favourable mix in Containerboard and lower volumes in Tissue Papers and Specialty Products.”
According to the executive, higher sales, notably in Tissue, and lower raw material costs in the packaging businesses drove higher consolidated profitability levels. Sequentially, sales were stable, with stronger volumes in all businesses counterbalancing the impacts of less favorable sales mixes in Containerboard and Tissue and lower selling prices in our packaging businesses.
“We announced an important repositioning of our Tissue Papers operational platform at the end of April. This decision, which was not taken lightly due to its impact on our work force, is the culmination of an in-depth evaluation of the long-term positioning, competitiveness and performance potential of our tissue operations following disappointing results in recent years. Market conditions in this business have changed significantly, and the closure of these underperforming assets will strengthen not only the operational performance of this business, but its financial and environmental performance as well,” the CEO commented.
Discussing near-term outlook, Plourde stated, “On a consolidated basis, we are expecting slightly lower results in the second quarter, with lower results in our packaging businesses to offset forecasted stronger results in our Tissue Papers business.”
“We expect results in our Tissue Papers segment to improve sequentially driven by the additional benefits from profitability initiatives, higher selling prices, lower raw material costs and stable demand,” he concludes.
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