Segment Reporting

9 Months Ended

Sep. 28, 2014

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Segment Reporting

Segment Reporting

The Company reports its financial results in four reportable segments: Consumer Packaging, Display and Packaging, Paper and Industrial Converted Products, and Protective Solutions. Effective January 1, 2014, the Company began reporting Sonoco Alloyd, the Company’s retail packaging business and previously part of the Protective Solutions segment, as part of the Display and Packaging segment. This change reflects the evolving integration of these businesses, which enables them to better leverage the Company’s capabilities, products and services to provide complete solutions to our retail merchandising customers. Prior period results for the affected segments have been recast to reflect this change.

The Consumer Packaging segment includes the following products and services: round and shaped rigid containers and trays (both composite and thermoformed plastic); blow-molded plastic bottles and jars; extruded and injection-molded plastic products; printed flexible packaging; global brand artwork management; and metal and peelable membrane ends and closures.

The Display and Packaging segment includes the following products and services: designing, manufacturing, assembling, packing and distributing temporary, semipermanent and permanent point-of-purchase displays; supply chain management services, including contract packing, fulfillment and scalable service centers; retail packaging, including printed backer cards, thermoformed blisters and heat sealing equipment; and paper amenities, such as coasters and glass covers. 

The Paper and Industrial Converted Products segment includes the following products: paperboard tubes and cores; fiber-based construction tubes and forms; wooden, metal and composite wire and cable reels and spools; and recycled paperboard, linerboard, corrugating medium, recovered paper and material recycling services.

The Protective Solutions segment includes the following products: custom-engineered, paperboard-based and expanded foam protective packaging and components; and temperature-assured packaging.

The following table sets forth net sales, intersegment sales and operating profit for the Company’s reportable segments. “Segment operating profit” is defined as the segment’s portion of “Income before interest and income taxes” excluding restructuring charges, asset impairment charges, acquisition-related costs, and certain other items, if any, the exclusion of which the Company believes improves comparability and analysis of the financial performance of the business. General corporate expenses have been allocated as operating costs to each of the Company’s reportable segments.

SEGMENT FINANCIAL INFORMATION

	Three Months Ended						Nine Months Ended
	September 28, 2014			September 29, 2013			September 28, 2014			September 29, 2013
Net sales:
Consumer Packaging	$	479,609		$	473,332		$	1,418,200		$	1,411,645
Display and Packaging	178,435			167,960			493,972			470,051
Paper and Industrial Converted Products	480,741			467,847			1,426,367			1,395,271
Protective Solutions	124,789			118,610			358,041			356,251
Consolidated	$	1,263,574		$	1,227,749		$	3,696,580		$	3,633,218
Intersegment sales:
Consumer Packaging	$	1,008		$	978		$	2,916		$	3,783
Display and Packaging	385			445			1,165			1,619
Paper and Industrial Converted Products	25,824			26,320			78,822			74,792
Protective Solutions	366			621			1,752			2,021
Consolidated	$	27,583		$	28,364		$	84,655		$	82,215
Income before interest and income taxes:
Segment operating profit:
Consumer Packaging	$	49,769		$	49,025		$	140,783		$	138,731
Display and Packaging	7,227			7,763			20,098			17,337
Paper and Industrial Converted Products	48,996			37,722			125,289			104,717
Protective Solutions	10,277			11,029			25,204			32,129
Restructuring/Asset impairment charges	(5,908		)	(5,818		)	(11,571		)	(18,785		)
Other, net	888			563			(382		)	(391		)
Consolidated	$	111,249		$	100,284		$	299,421		$	273,738