Sappi North America Delivers Exceptional Financial Performance in 2022
Sappi successfully diversified and transformed its business by making strategically sound investments
The Sappi group delivered historical financial performance in fiscal 2022. The group reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $1,339 million (18% of sales), up from $532 million (10% of sales) last year, while SNA reported EBITDA of $464 million (21% of sales), up from $209 million (12% of sales). SNA’s EBITDA improvement had a direct impact on return on net operating assets (RONOA), which increased from 8.1% to 28.1%. The RONOA growth demonstrates that we have successfully diversified and transformed our business by making strategically sound investments and then delivering returns on those investments.
SNA’s exceptional financial performance reflected the additive impact of both favorable market conditions and execution excellence throughout the organization. Margins expanded across all three of our business segments, driven by strong demand, successful mix management, continued price realization and well-managed operational performance. Together, these positives helped offset increasing inflationary pressures in all areas and the impacts of global supply chain disruptions.
Our packaging and specialities business continued to grow in fiscal 2022, driven by increasing demand for our paperboard and LusterCote products. Our asset flexibility allowed us to shift more production capacity toward the packaging papers business to meet this demand. Despite the continued decline in the overall graphic papers market, we remain steadfastly committed to our graphic papers business and to our customers who value print, and graphic papers remained a key profit contributor. Our pulp business benefited from record high selling prices and was also a key profit contributor.
Looking ahead to 2023
As we look to 2023 and beyond, we are confident we are well positioned for future prosperity and that our strong financial performance will continue. We remain relentlessly focused on commercial and operational excellence, maximizing the returns on the strategic investments we have already made, while simultaneously investing for the future in high-growth opportunities.
“Our record financial performance reflects the culmination of our business transformation of the past few years combined with both favorable market conditions and strong organizational execution,” says Annette Luchene, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. “It’s critical for SNA to maintain our strategic momentum and continue to execute our long-term plan while carefully managing rapidly changing business conditions. We remain always focused on delivering Sappi’s Thrive25 strategy and goals.”
