DEERFIELD, Ill., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Pregis Corporation, a leading international manufacturer, marketer, and supplier of protective packaging products and specialty packaging solutions, today announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2008.
The Company's net sales in the second quarter were $275.2 million, an increase of 13.9% over net sales of $241.5 million in the second quarter of 2007. Excluding the impact of favorable foreign currency translation and the revenues from two acquisitions made in the second half of 2007, the quarter's net sales increased 1.6% compared to the prior year quarter.
Gross profit margin, as a percent of net sales, was 21.4% in the second quarter of 2008, compared to 25.1% in the second quarter of 2007. The decline in gross margin is largely a result of significantly increased costs of resin, fuel and other raw materials in the 2008 period, which approximated $10 million of unfavorability compared to the second quarter of 2007. Resin costs for North America as measured by the CMAI index were 31% higher than costs in the first half of 2007.
Commenting on the Company's results for the second quarter, Mike
McDonnell, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Our results
continue to be negatively impacted by economic weakness in North America
and Europe as well as by escalating raw material and fuel costs. We
continue to aggressively raise selling prices to offset the cost increases.
While we have had some success in achieving price increases, they have not
been sufficient to offset the increased costs. As such, we have announced
additional selling price increases for the third quarter of over 20% for
North America and over 10% for the European market. In these times of
unprecedented raw material and fuel cost inflation, we are striving to
realize the full amount of the third quarter price increases with minimal
lag in order to restore our margins. In addition, we are committed to
further p
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