Its report card time for Sonoco Stock !!

GRADE D-

Sonoco officers and board of directors continue to snub their most valuable asset. THE SHAREHOLDER !!

The shareholder has lost 14% of their value in Sonoco Stock from January 1st 2007 to December 31st 2007. The story gets worse however. Since Dec 31 2007 till today, March 7, 2008, the share value has lost another 15.7%. To put this in terms of a salary for every 100,000.00 in salary being paid on Jan 1 2007 that figure should have declined to 72,500.00. 100,000 less 14%=86,000 less 15.7%=72,500.00.

Management has completely failed to support the share price. Rather than support it, the share price has collapsed. Many of management and officers own NO STOCK and if they do, it was given to them. That is sending a signal directly to Wall Street. If salaries had been slashed 27.5% in 14 months, you probably would not have many employees left. Guess what at this rate you will not have many shareholders left. As reported on the Sonoco Web Page institutions and mutual funds own 91.4% of Sonoco Stock. Insiders only own 2.3%!! These are tragic percentages!! Where did the small investor go? Out the door with the 27.5% decline, thats where.

In recent posts, I have given many ideas how to prop up and support the share price. I continue to talk about "name recognition". Guys, my dad taught me when I was 10 years old "you can have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, NO ONE WILL BUY IT. Guys, this is simple stuff. Why does Coke and Pepsi and Bud continue to advertise? NAME RECOGNITION!! I continue to hear the cop out "Our customers will not let us put our name on anything" Now that is totally ridiculous!! Sonoco needs a good lesson in "SELF ESTEEM". Sonoco needs to build up pride in the name so that the customers would be proud to have Sonoco's name displayed in every container and package.Through education Sonoco could have the customer upset if Sonoco's name was not on every package. Sonoco could have name recognition ads on TV showing off their products. All of a sudden, the small investor would begin coming back. Meaning, a demand for the stock and the stock rises. WOW, that has not happen lately.

Guys, you are smarter than this!! Many of you hold Harvard degrees. This is not hard stuff. I am not sure if the Board even understands that there is a problem. We need some NO VOTES!!

The military taught me one thing.. DO SOMETHING!! It does not matter if its right or wrong. JUST DO SOMETHING!! Communicate to the shareholders what you are doing and pray that Barclay's who owns over 11% of the stock does not start selling.

At the meeting, we will hear how strong the cash flows are and how strong the balance sheet is. I have a novel idea. Lets talk about how to get the stock price to go up.

Reminder: Please have your parents sign this report card and return tomorrow!!