May 14, 2013. /Lesprom Network/. The Board of Directors of the Europac Group (Papeles y Cartones de Europa S.A.) has approved the accounts corresponding to the 1Q 2013, which record a 29% increase in consolidated EBITDA compared with the same period of the previous year in the context of a 9% rise in aggregate sales, as the company said in a press release received by Lesprom Network.

With aggregate sales growing by 9% on the same period of 2012, recurring EBITDA in the 1Q amounted to Euro 25.20 million

Consolidated EBITDA and EBIT were 29% and 65% higher than in the 1Q of the previous year, totalling Euro 23.28 million and Euro 11.05 million.

1Q EBIT amounted to Euro 11.05 million, 65% up on the 1Q 2012. Net profit in the 1Q 2013 amounted to Euro 4.19 million, ten times higher than that obtained in the same period of 2012.

Enrique Isidro, CEO of the Europac Group, indicated that "the results of the 1Q of the year are thanks to the effort made to improve the company's efficiency and productivity in an adverse environment, which has allowed the company to increase production and sales in all its business lines and offset the narrowing of margins in some of our activities and the extremely negative impact of the energy reform in Spain".

The CEO also highlighted that "the company continues to implement a drastic cost reduction and containment policy. All expenses which do not provide added value are being eliminated".

The Europac Group (Papeles y Cartones de Europa, SA) is an integrated operator with activities in all areas of the paper and packaging industry value chain, from end-to-end waste management and forestry operations for the procurement of the raw materials necessary for the production of recycled paper and kraftliner at the Group’s plants in Spain, France and Portugal, to the manufacture of cardboard sheets and boxes as end products.