The Company is a South Carolina corporation founded in Hartsville, South Carolina,
in 1899 as the Southern Novelty Company. The name was subsequently changed to
Sonoco Products Company. Sonoco is a manufacturer of industrial and consumer
packaging products and a provider of packaging services, with 318 locations
in 33 countries.
Round composite cans, shaped rigid paperboard containers, fiber caulk/adhesive
tubes, aluminum, steel and peelable membrane easy-open closures for composite
and metal cans; plastic bottles, jars, jugs, cups and trays; printed flexible
packaging, rotogravure cylinder engraving, global brand management
Point-of-purchase displays; custom packaging; retail packaging, including printed
backer cards, thermoformed blisters and heat sealing equipment; fulfillment;
primary package filling; supply chain management; paperboard specialties
Recycled paperboard, chipboard, tubeboard, lightweight corestock, boxboard,
linerboard, corrugating medium, specialty grades; paperboard tubes and cores,
molded plugs, reels; collection, processing and recycling of old corrugated
containers, paper, plastics, metal, glass and other recyclable materials
Custom-engineered, paperboard-based and expanded foam protective packaging
and components; temperature-assured packaging.
Each of the Company’s operating units has its own sales staff, and maintains
direct sales relationships with its customers. For those customers that buy
from more than one business unit, the Company often assigns a single representative
or team of specialists to handle that customer’s needs. Some of the units
have service staff at the manufacturing facility that interact directly with
customers. The Paper and Industrial Converted Products segment also has a customer
service center located in Hartsville, South Carolina, which is the main contact
point between its North American business units and its customers. Divisional
sales personnel also provide sales management, marketing and product development
assistance as needed. Typically, product distribution is directly from the manufacturing
plant to the customer, but in some cases, product is warehoused in a mutually
advantageous location to be shipped to the customer as needed.