Portola Packaging, the US based bottle and closures manufacturer, has reported a fall in its 3Q sales to $53 million (€55,4m) compared to $57.6 million for the same quarter last year. The figure represents a drop of a of 8 per cent.
For the first nine months of fiscal year 2002, sales were $155.2 million compared to $159.5 million for the first nine months of fiscal year 2001, a decrease of 2.7 per cent. This indicates that Portola's sales have been dropping off more as the financial year has progressed.
However the company is remaining profitable, and managed to sustain an operating income of $5.2 million for the most recent quarter, compared to an operating income of $4.4 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2001, an increase of 18.2 per cent. The company said that this was down to restructuring charges during the previous financial year.
Portola Packaging is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of tamper evident plastic closures used in dairy, fruit juice, bottled water, sports drinks, institutional food products and other non-carbonated beverage products. The Company also produces a wide variety of plastic bottles for use in the dairy, water and juice industries, including five-gallon polycarbonate water bottles. In addition, the Company designs, manufactures and markets capping equipment for use in high speed bottling, filling and packaging production lines as well as manufactures and markets customized five-gallon water capping and filling systems.