Excluding items listed below, the Company had earnings before items of $42 million for the 1Q 2014 compared to earnings before items of $68 million for the 4Q 2013 and earnings before items of $33 million for the 1Q 2013.
Commenting on the 1Q results, John D. Williams, President and CEO, said, "Severe winter weather across much of the eastern part of North America negatively impacted some of our pulp and paper operations. In particular, our mills experienced greater than normal energy and fiber costs and reduced productivity. Nonetheless, we benefited from higher pulp and paper prices with the successful implementation of price increases."
Mr. Williams added, "The integration of Indas is progressing well and the business performed in line with our expectations in the 1Q. I am pleased with the progress made so far in our Personal Care division, despite some erosion of sales in our baby diaper business. We are well underway with our adult incontinence organic growth plan and our teams are moving fast in the deployment of new machinery to begin manufacturing product-for-sale by the end of the fourth quarter. We are bringing new production online to provide the capacity and the product mix required to better serve our targeted customers."
Domtar Corporation designs, manufactures, markets and distributes a wide variety of fiber-based products including communication papers, specialty and packaging papers and absorbent hygiene products.
