October 17: Strong beverage can sales in Europe contributed to better-than-expected third-quarter results for canmaker Crown Holdings, announced yesterday.
Its sales of beverage cans in Europe were up by a fifth to $314m and segment income almost doubled to $60m.
Every sector except food cans showed significant improvement and lifted net sales in the quarter to $2.15 billion, up 7.6 percent.
Analysts had expected beverage can sales and margins in North America, where Crown has a 20 percent market share, to be higher. Sales grew 4 percent to $455m, but with tighter margins, segment income was up just 2 percent to $54m.
Food can manufacturing in Europe is Crown’s biggest sector, but – as expected because of poor weather denting demand from customers – sales were up just 0.5 percent to $577m with income flat at $55m. In North America, food can sales grew 1 percent to $260m.
Net profit after tax and expenses was $92m, up from $88m in the same quarter last year.
