DS Smith : Full Year Results 2023/24

Full Year Results 2023/24 - Robust Performance in a Challenging Environment

Today we announce our full year results to 30 April 2024.

Financial highlights

• Robust adjusted operating profit of £701m (FY2022/23: £861m), in line with management expectations, against a weak consumer demand environment and high inflation.
• Decline in like for like box volumes of 2%; improving momentum across the year with like for like growth of 2% in Q4 FY2023/24 vs Q4 FY2022/23.
• Strong customer relationships, innovation and high service levels, together with strong cost management, have partially offset downward pricing pressure.
• Lower free cashflow, reflecting our current capital expenditure programme and a working capital outflow, predominantly driven by commodity prices, has resulted in 2.1x net debt/EBITDA (FY2022/23: 1.3x). Underlying working capital metrics remain consistent with prior years.
• Ongoing capital and operational expenditure programmes to support our customers and improve productivity and environmental efficiency remain on track.
• Recommended all-share offer from International Paper to combine the businesses and create a truly international sustainable packaging solutions leader.

Non-financial highlights

• Replaced over 1 billion units of plastic since May 2020, ahead of schedule
• Further greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction - 5% in the year (19% compared to 2019)
• 9% reduction in accident frequency rate compared to last year

We are pleased to have delivered a robust performance, despite the challenging environment, driven by our focus on customers, quality, service and innovation together with the benefit from our self-help productivity initiatives. I am also very proud of the continued excellent progress in helping our customers' sustainability challenges and to have achieved our target of 1 billion units of plastic replaced with fibre-based alternatives 16 months ahead of schedule.

- Miles Roberts, Group Chief Executive

Webcast presentation

There will be a webcast audio presentation at 9:00am BST with the slides of the full year results, followed by a live Q&A, given by Miles Roberts, Group Chief Executive and Richard Pike, Group Finance Director.

To access the webcast, please register here. A copy of the slides presented will be available below shortly before the start of the presentation.

If you would like to ask a question at the end of the webcast, then you will need to dial into the associated conference call using the following details. Please dial in 15 minutes before the start of the webcast to allow for registration.

• Dial-in number (UK): [phone]
• Dial-in number (UK Toll Free): 0808 109 0700
• Password: DS Smith

The audio file will also be available on this page after the webcast.

Downloadable Files

• DS Smith Full Year Results 2023/24Download the PDF announcement