Sonoco’s ‘transformation is complete,’ CEO says. What’s next?

Packaging Dive reported the development on 2026-02-17. A three-year growth strategy is underway that prioritizes innovation, including artificial intelligence, executives explained during a Tuesday investor event.

The report places the news in a wider commercial context. “Our portfolio transformation is complete. And the most difficult part of our journey is behind us.” That’s the first message Sonoco CEO Howard Coker delivered during the company’s investor day event on Tuesday, which followed Sonoco’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings release Monday afternoon. “2025 was a good year, but we were setting the foundation for ‘26,” Coker said during the event,.

For the food sector, the practical implications extend beyond the immediate announcement. Sonoco’s full-year 2026 guidance projects net sales of $7.25 billion to $7.75 billion and operating cash flow of $700 million to $800 million. Executives focused on a few main themes at the event, with the company’s recent restructuring taking center stage. Here are the key takeaways. The development has implications for environmental targets, agricultural resilience.

Attention now turns to how companies, customers and regulators respond. In 2025, Sonoco reduced debt by approximately 40%, lowering its leverage ratio from 6.4x at the beginning of the year to 3x by year’s end. A significant part of that was due to the November divestiture of its ThermoSafe temperature-assured packaging business for $656 million in cash.