Business News
Graham Packaging Announces First Quarter 2008 Results
Tuesday 13. May 2008 - Graham Packaging Holdings Company, parent company of Graham Packaging Company, L.P., today reported a 7.7 percent increase in net sales in the first quarter of 2008, as compared with the same quarter last year. The company reported an increase of 38.2 percent in operating income in the first quarter.
Net sales for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, were $669.4 million, an increase of $47.6 million over net sales of $621.8 million in the first quarter of 2007.
Operating income was $60 million, an increase of $16.6 million, over operating income of $43.4 million in the first quarter of 2007.
Sales were up 6.3 percent in North America, 15.4 percent in Europe, and 21.8 percent in South America. Sales in the food and beverage category were up 11.0 percent over the first quarter of last year. Sales in the automotive lubricants category also went up, by 27.9 percent, while sales in both household and personal care/specialty categories declined compared to the same period last year.
The overall increase in net sales was attributed primarily to an increase in resin costs passed through to customers and the positive impact of changes in exchange rates, offset slightly by lower volume and competition-induced price reductions. The number of container units the company sold in the first quarter decreased by 1 percent.
Overall, the company recorded net income of $3.8 million in the quarter ended March 31, 2008, compared to a net loss of $15.6 million in the same period last year.
Covenant compliance EBITDA* (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) totaled $449.7 million for the four quarters ended March 31, 2008, compared to $418.6 million for the four quarters ended March 31, 2007.
* Covenant compliance EBITDA is defined as EBITDA (earnings before
interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) further adjusted to
exclude non-recurring items, non-cash items and other adjustments
required in calculating covenant compliance under the Credit Agreement
and the Notes, as shown in the table below. Covenant compliance EBITDA
is not intended to represent cash flow from operations as defined by
generally accepted accounting principles and should not be used as an
alternative to net income as an indicator of operating performance or to
cash flow as a measure of liquidity. The company believes that the
inclusion of covenant compliance EBITDA is appropriate to provide
additional information to investors about the calculation of certain
financial covenants in the Credit Agreement and the Notes. Because not
all companies use identical calculations, these presentations of
covenant compliance EBITDA may not be comparable to other similarly
titled measures of other companies.