Interim Management Statement

RPC Group

30th January 2014

Interim Management Statement

RPC Group, Europe's leading supplier of rigid plastic packaging, today issues its interim management statement for the period from 1 October 2013.

Trading performance

Overall activity levels for the Group ("continuing businesses") in the third quarter of the financial year 2013/14 were slightly ahead of the corresponding period of the previous year. The sales mix improvement towards higher added value products continued as anticipated.

The adjusted operating profit of the continuing businesses in the third quarter was ahead of last year resulting in the cumulative profit also being ahead of last year and in line with management expectations. Drivers for the improvement were increased activity levels, enhancement of the sales mix and cost efficiency measures. Polymer input prices remained relatively stable during the period.

The Group's financial position remains robust with satisfactory cash flow development in the third quarter and significant headroom under the Group's debt facilities.

Vision 2020 / Fitter for the Future

During the period Vision 2020 was launched based on a focused growth strategy. Good progress has been made on all three elements of this strategy:

· Organic growth: like-for-like growth was realised in the quarter and year-to-date;

· Selective consolidation in Europe: through the acquisitions of M&H Plastics and Helioplast, which both satisfied the key acquisition criteria previously outlined, consolidation was achieved in relevant product market segments whilst providing further opportunities for organic growth;

· Establish meaningful presence outside Europe: through the US subsidiary of M&H Plastics the Group has increased its presence in the key USA market with combined sales reaching circa $84m.

The synergies potential for both acquisitions has been verified and the initial stages of the integration of the businesses into the Bramlage-Wiko and Superfos clusters is going well.

The "Fitter for the Future" business optimisation programme is progressing to plan with a further redundant site in the UK sold during the period.

Pim Vervaat, RPC's Chief Executive said:

"The trading and financial performance in the period was encouraging and a number of new projects are being progressed which will lead to further organic growth. The acquired M&H Plastics and Helioplast businesses are a very good strategic fit with RPC and will help the Group to realise the focused growth strategy outlined in Vision 2020."