Well said Jodi, I read this last year but didn't reply for legal reasons at the time, well said and you know they don't like to hear it. There is life after Sonoco and usually much better than the way employees are treated now. I started in the mid 70's and had over 30 years when I was tossed by a mid level moron who had a personal score to settle. The entire management staff below execs have no experience or foresight to recognize signals warning of upcoming changes in economic conditions, they do the knee jerk reaction like all fools and use spreadsheet accounting figures to reduce staff and overhead until the dollars match. There is no real plan to look at where you will need resources to acquire new business or retain share they try to figure all that out after reorganizing by numbers. Thenm they try and consolidate into the remaining plant but find it has the least experienced manufacturing staff and think they can teach 3 to 5 year workers to produce product like the 25 to 35 year veterans they lost closing the other locations. Regional Manufacturing Managers allow CSI numbers to be fudged and returned sales hidden so the plant management staff don't lose their bonus cheques while other plants reporting honsestly get scolded for their poor CSI score. They have to choose between covering up quality issues to get a bonus and report good CSI scores keeping execs happy or be honest report everything and fix the problem which means no bonus and less money for their family to live on. Choice is easy because upper management freak if the CSI is not good so obviously they aren't really interested in quality improvement, just ask what the gauge R&R is on the fancy tester that's full of ball bearings. The QA numbers on board are useless too, not all miils can produce grades equally and never will. The big plan for Sonoco in the future is China, acquiring the other company made them number #1 over there in URB and cores. I figure next expansion will be in India and get ready for emerging market to come. I think back in the 80's the top brass were younger and took more risk to grow the company and make their fortune, most of them had the same last name and majority of preferred stock. Twenty five years later they have their family fortune and now plod along making lower risk moves to protect what they have amassed, probably a good idea with all the degree holding chosen ones that enter daily reports to big brother watching every penny but haven't the insight or experience to grow business just keep cutting overhead costs to improve the bottom line, reducing board inventory in plants to the point they run out of paper and shut down so their customer has to use the competitor to supply them for a week until board arrives. I almost find it laughable reading press releases that sound like a snake oil salesman's promises.
Such is life in Hooterville.

Sell it and buy into Solar Energy stocks, First Solar, VNP-TSX and interesting possibilities for ZBB-A .