Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Sonoco's 2024 Investor Day. I am Lisa Weeks, the Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications, and I just want to thank everyone that joined us here live, as well as those joining us virtually. For today's discussion, we have prepared a presentation that we will review as part of our program. The presentation can be downloaded from the Investor Relations page on our website. Before we begin, I wanna provide a reminder that we will discuss a number of forward-looking statements based on current expectations, estimates, and projections. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Therefore, actual results may differ materially. Please take a moment to review the forward-looking statements on page 2 of the presentation.
Additionally, today's discussion includes the use of non-GAAP financial measures, which management believes provides useful information to investors about the company's financial condition and results of operations. Further information about the company's use of non-GAAP financial measures, including definitions as well as reconciliations to GAAP measures, is also available under the IR section of our website. I am happy to be joined by Howard Coker, President and CEO, Rob Dillard, our Chief Financial Officer, and Rodger Fuller, our Chief Operating Officer, who will be providing important updates on Sonoco's transformation progress and strategy. Additionally, we will be hearing updates from the long-range plans of our business leaders in our consumer and industrial segments. We will take a break at approximately 10:15 A.M. for 15 minutes, and then return for the final presenters and a Q&A session.
During Q&A, we will provide an opportunity for those here in the room to ask questions, and we will provide an opportunity for you to ask questions live for those here and those that are online. After the Q&A session is completed, for those of you that are here in person, please feel free to visit our business unit leaders at their immersion stations, positioned on either side of the room, to see and understand some of the innovative projects and technologies that are helping inform the future of Sonoco. Lunch will be available at 12:30 P.M., and you're all welcome to join us. With that, I am pleased and honored to turn the floor over to our CEO and President, Howard Coker.
Okay, well, thank you, Lisa, and good morning, and thank all of you for joining us today. Over the next few hours, we're excited to share our strategy, updates, and what's next for Sonoco. So let me start with the key takeaways you're gonna hear today. After 35 years with Sonoco, I had the great privilege of becoming President and CEO, February of 2020. Times were pretty turbulent back then, but while managing many global challenges, we set out on a transformation journey to improve the performance of this company. It's hard to believe that it's been over 2 years since our last Investor Day, but since that time, we have made great progress. We've built a stronger portfolio that delivers greater value, we've simplified the company and unified our global operating model, and we've improved financial results.
We did all of this while remaining disciplined with capital allocation and managing risk while maintaining a strong capital structure. I'm excited for you to hear from the team today as we share our plans and long-term financial targets that we believe will benefit all of our stakeholders. But first, I wanna take you all the way back to 1899, when Sonoco was founded on the principle that people build businesses by doing the right things. That guiding principle remains at the heart of Sonoco to this day. Our culture is unique, and our global teams are grounded in the core values of teamwork, service, respect, integrity, and of course, accountability. Through my 38 years with the company, our core values have underpinned our unique culture, which is safe, caring, and inclusive.
People at the heart of what has been a great history of innovation, global expansion, and growth as we celebrate our 125th anniversary this year. The company was founded in 1899 in Hartsville, South Carolina, where our global headquarters remain today. The founders invented a unique way to make paper from the indigenous pine trees and then found numerous applications for this brown paper. The company's first patent was in 1908 and was a paper cone made for yarn winding machines in the textile industry. Sonoco continues to innovate in paper technologies and invented the composite tubular containers, including Sonotubes, which were used to build shelters in wartime and are still used today in construction and other industries. The company expanded into new substrates and invented the Ultras eal Easy Open End as a safer way to access food products.
In the snacking world, Sonoco invented SmartSeal closures to keep our cookies and other food fresher, longer. And the innovation continues, as you'll hear from our business leaders today. A few years ago, we introduced our environmentally sustainable packaging line, and just this year, launched our patent-pending sealing technology to produce paperboard bottom cans. We're over 4,000 patents strong. About 500 of them have been issued since 2000 alone, and these innovations, along with strategic decisions, have taken Sonoco from a $1 billion company in 1987 to roughly $7 billion just this past year. It's been a great, great history over these past 125 years.
Through this time, our teams have been unified in our desire to protect the environment, while we invest in our people and communities and strive for transparency in our relationships throughout all levels of the organization. Since 1995, Sonoco's had a board committee dedicated to these matters, and I personally chair the company's Sustainability Council. I'm proud of our track record in these important areas, which you will hear more about later in the presentation. But the underpinning of everything we do is to serve our customers. Just a few of our great long-standing partnerships are listed here, and we are proud to serve the world's best, who believe in our ability to help drive value. In many of our relationships, we are the sole supplier on a global basis, and our customers trust in us.
We believe our mission is to fulfill the vision of our customers and make them successful, and we've been doing that every day for over 125 years. So what makes us a great Sonoco business? We believe there are five principles common to where our packaging adds the most value. The first two are advanced material science and high product functionality, which go hand in glove to meet the packaging demands from our customers. We believe we have some of the best R&D engineers in the world, that look at a tough problem and say, "We will figure this out." Also, we excel at managing continuous process manufacturing. Given our capabilities in 33 countries, we have the ability to serve large global customers, and we're willing to invest alongside them to serve their growing markets.
Finally, we wish to participate in markets where we have the right to win and take leadership positions. In summary, we utilize our great culture and guiding principles to win by serving our customers, operating well while innovating. But now, let's go back to 2020, when I took over the CEO role. We knew we had a lot of great assets to work with, and we set out to do more and build on our foundation to make the company even better. Our leadership team took stock of every business, surveyed the current and future landscape, and started identifying a number of priorities, and thus we began our multi-year transformation journey. The first step was to establish a foundation for change for both our portfolio and operating model.
Many of you have heard me speak frequently that over time, Sonoco had become a complicated business, and we felt that we couldn't scale without making some major changes. We had to make important decisions around how to evaluate more than 20 business units to determine their right role and fit in the portfolio. The rigorous framework to determine our integrated or core business was built around identifying where we had a true competitive advantage, where we consistently win, and where we add the most value to our customers. For those businesses where it was not clear, we called them diversified and reported them under the all other business segment. We put these businesses under one leader to assess and improve them while we determined their future role. With fewer core businesses, we had to determine what role center would provide in our overall operating model.
We needed to standardize procedures, processes to support the core in an efficient cost structure. At our last Investor Day in 2021, we had completed this initial framework design and shared with you plans to create our core businesses in consumer and industrial, and align our diversified and all other reporting segment. With that foundation set, we began step two in our journey: to focus the organization for the future. Back in our 2021 Investor Day, we talked about our four-step strategy to create more value for shareholders, and we have delivered. The first was to align the organization to the structure we had defined. We made those moves to fewer, larger businesses, and for those businesses that we knew were non-core, we immediately began making improvements, and in some cases, divestiture actions. Secondly, we had to focus the organization with a new operating model.
It's one thing to talk about realigning 20 business units, but quite another from a structural standpoint in a company with over 20,000 employees. To improve our operating performance in this new structure, we identified a number of self-help programs where we knew we could lower cost and improve margins and overall efficiencies. Thirdly, we made decisions to invest more capital for profitable growth. Within the core, we boosted our capital spending to capture greater productivity and growth that we knew existed in these businesses. And finally, we did all this while maintaining a strong balance sheet with a disciplined approach to capital allocation. Most specifically, we deemed almost 90% of our business to be core, knowing that we had opportunities to do more simplification even within these businesses.
We increased CapEx over $100 million per year over the prior 10-year period average, where our business leaders told us they could provide high returns for productivity and growth. We invested inorganically to strengthen our core in both consumer and industrial with the acquisitions of Skjern, RTS, and Inapel, which we just announced in December. We also created a new core platform in our metal packaging business. Sonoco has been in the metal business since the late 1950s by making closures for our rigid paper cans. Metal packaging aligns well with the common attributes of a great Sonoco business, and has been a valuable asset thus far in our portfolio. We did all this while refining and executing our operating strategy and self-help initiatives. Our strategy and execution over the last couple of years has driven increased profitability and higher cash flow.
We ended 2023 with adjusted EBITDA over $1 billion and generated over $1.6 billion of cumulative cash flow in the past 3 years alone. These results came from the dedication and hard work of our leadership teams around the globe and an aligned commitment to do more, to achieve better results, and we have delivered. So that brings us to where we are today. We recently reported our 2023 full year results, where we closed the year at $6.8 billion in sales and 15.7% in adjusted EBITDA margin. By segment, our consumer business is just over half of our revenues, with industrial roughly a third and all others representing roughly 12%. By substrate, we were 57% paper, 29% resin, 14% tin plate steel.
By region, 78% of our sales in North America and the balance in the rest of the world. 2023 was our second-best performance year in a challenging economy, only bettered by our 2022 results. So we, as we enter 2024, what's next for Sonoco? I will tell you, we're focused, ready, and excited about moving forward, and continuing our portfolio alignment remains a top priority. When we created our All Other collection of diversified businesses, I asked Sonoco veteran Jeff Tomaszewski to take over these businesses and run them like portfolio companies of a private equity firm. Our objective was not to put these businesses aside without attention, but to invest and make them better and improve profitability.
We gave these businesses capital, rationalized footprint, we realigned the way some of them were operated, and for those investments and efforts, Jeff and team generated over 400 basis points of EBITDA improvements between 2021 and 2023 alone. These are great businesses with great teams, and I couldn't be prouder of their results. While we're improving these businesses, we were also taking decisive actions across the portfolio. After the closure of the Protective Solutions sale from All Other, we will have received proceeds of about $200 million from the sale of core and non-core businesses since 2021. We also announced in our year-end call last week that as of January 1, 2024, we have returned $200 million in thermoforming sales from All Other to our core consumer segment.
With this transition, our All Other business has three remaining assets which are under strategic evaluation, and we believe we have up to $1 billion of potential value remaining in these assets. We will continue to operate these businesses well, and if appropriate, look at strategic sales timed for value over the next few years. We are very excited to announce the combination of our flexible business and thermoforming. We've taken five businesses that were run independently and now merged them under one leader and operating structure. In 2023, our flexible packaging sales were over $600 million, and our thermoforming business, two in consumer, two in All Other, were almost $700 million in sales. This new scaled platform of $1.3 billion is focused on niche markets, where we believe we have the right to win and the right to grow.
You will hear more details about this new platform as we go through our business updates today. This leaves us with four focused businesses that are a part of our core going forward. Three are in the consumer segment: rigid paper containers, our new FlexTherm packaging business, and metal packaging. The fourth is our industrial segment, which we have aligned to now run as one single global platform. I'll just re-emphasize that we intended to simplify and focus our portfolio, and we've done just that. Each are aligned to the strategic fit of the core, those attributes of a successful Sonoco business that I noted earlier. Each business has a clear investment thesis in our portfolio. Our rigid paper container business is our growth engine from strong secular tailwinds, and we'll invest to take advantage of these growth opportunities.
Our new FlexTherm business is part of a steady growth market with high potential for organic growth, which can be coupled with inorganic growth opportunities in a highly fragmented market. Our metal closures business or our metal business is stable, defensive, with steady cash flow and optionality as well for inorganic growth. And our legacy industrial business, which has been transformed over the last years, is a global leader that provides steady cash flow to the company. With this focused portfolio, we look forward to our next era. We are aligning our long-range plans to achieve our enterprise objectives of becoming a disciplined, growth-oriented company. Our business strategy builds on our core business portfolio strategy, and our operating model informs our execution playbook to further drive growth through business excellence, optimize costs through operational excellence, develop our talent through people excellence, and advance our sustainability initiatives.
And we do all this to continue to deliver results through financial excellence by expanding revenue, profits, and margins, and increasing cash flow. Through all this, we will manage risk and continue our dividend payout to increase shareholder returns into the future. So where are we going next from a financial perspective? We're building on our improved foundation and financial performance, and our goal is to deliver the following results in the next five years. We're targeting an Adjusted EBITDA of $1.5 billion with a high teens EBITDA margin, and we expect to generate cumulative operating cash flows of $4 billion-$5 billion. We also remain committed to a competitive and growing dividend. Sonoco is a great company.
All the work that we have done to date and all the work we will continue to do, positions us well to create more value into the future. I started our conversation with our guiding principle, that people build businesses. The Sonoco leadership team here today, as well as the thousands of Sonoco team members who are responsible for building this business and bringing us to where we are today, it is with confidence I can say we have the right team, we have the right experience to carry us into the future. I'm excited for you to hear from many of them today. I thank you for your attention, and we look forward to the rest of this morning, and I will now turn the floor over to Rodger Fuller, our Chief Operating Officer, who will provide updates on our evolving operating model. Rodger?
Thank you, Howard, and good morning. You know, I'm really excited today to be able to share with you an update on Sonoco's operating model to support our enterprise strategy. Here are the key takeaways from my discussion today. First, we're evolving our operating model in line with the transformation journey we started in 2020. We've delivered strong results in productivity and EBITDA margin improvements. We now have plans in place to achieve our operating model aligned with our 2028 goals, and we're deploying a balanced playbook to drive growth, optimize costs, develop our teams, and advance our sustainability commitments. For those of you who've followed Sonoco for some time, you'll recognize the work completed to date on simplifying our business structure to the four core units.
Following me today, each one of the business unit presidents will share with you how they've included all forms of productivity and capital improvements into their long-range plans to support their strategy to deliver organic growth and improved margins. This simplification has allowed our operating teams, our centers of excellence, and our support functions to greatly improve our focus, process, and standardization efforts. We're evolving our operating model with a continuous improvement mindset, and the transformation work we introduced in 2021 is touching all aspects of the company. If we reflect back to 2020, we had over 20 business units, which were run independently with 10 ERP systems. Shared services were focused only in the U.S. with decentralized centers of excellence.
Over the past several years, we've made great progress, and we organized the company into four core business units with regional PNLs and retired four ERP systems. We've moved towards regional shared services and centralized centers of excellence to support our core businesses. As we look to the future, we have the opportunity to further reduce our ERP system to into three fit for purpose that are best aligned to business applications. A major initiative in the future productivity within Sonoco is also to centralize our critical business functions into an offshore, low-cost, global shared service center. This is a multi-year effort to standardize critical non-manufacturing business processes within Sonoco into a global business system structure, which will add an additional significant productivity opportunity for 2025 and beyond.
We're also aligning our core centers of excellence with advanced digital and AI capabilities for improved performance, which will advance our commercial excellence, operational excellence, and automation efforts. The speed and progress of these activities are possible with our efforts to realign the portfolio into fewer, bigger businesses. Additionally, we made really good progress on all self-help initiatives and have already achieved the $180 million in the four self-help categories, but that was offset by lower volumes than projected. Despite a number of headwinds, we're averaging annual productivity in a range of $50-$60 million per year through 2023, a result of our strategic capital investment, structural transformation, footprint optimization, and purchasing productivity. Structural transformation efforts continue, and I'll comment more on these efforts and what we see as possible going forward.
Since 2018, we've expanded EBITDA margins by 100 basis points. We expect to further increase margins through fixed cost leverage, positive price costs through commercial excellence, productivity, and SG&A discipline as we're centralizing our most common business processes. Rob will be sharing more detail on margin expansion, expansion following the business unit presence. With a more streamlined operating model, we're executing our next era focused on growth through business excellence, cost management through operational excellence, our talent through people excellence, and sustainability focus on environmental excellence initiatives. Supporting all these excellence programs are three key strategic enablers. The first strategic enabler is business process standardization through our Global Business Services initiative to standardize shared services and harmonize our global technology system. The second is digital transformation.
We're prioritizing all areas of our business, from manufacturing to commercial programs, to make sure we're staying at the forefront of digital capabilities. Our CIO and the global team have a detailed and prioritized multi-year roadmap to ensure we're aligned with enabling technologies. And lastly, M&A integration excellence. We've made M&A integration a strategic priority within the company to ensure we align on key focus areas and integration speed to achieve synergy benefits. Our most recent integrations, from the RTS Packaging business to the Inapel flexible acquisition in Brazil, are benefiting from this standard way of work to help us achieve synergy targets faster than ever. For our four focus excellence pillars, I'll start with business excellence. A key element of growth for Sonoco is design innovation.
We focus on our customers' toughest challenges and build roadmaps with proprietary solutions to help them win in the marketplace. Our R&D centers of excellence are embedded in each of the business unit and linked to our center sustainability and technical excellence teams to bring the best thought leaders together to benefit our customers. As an example, in our Europe Consumer R&D Center, our Green Can Studio supports automation and package innovations for our global paper can business. Our customer partnerships, as Howard said, are very strong. Our leadership teams are accessible, and we have great lines of open communication to stay aligned with our joint business plans. We're willing to invest side by side with our customers to enable their visions and use, and use a closed-loop voice of the customer program to make sure we remain in alignment.
It may seem strange to have service, delivery, and quality under business excellence, but these service levels are part of the Sonoco DNA and ones we view critical to earn the right to serve our customers. We continually focus on enabling time to market and focus on yield through all areas of product's life cycle. Lastly, our commercial excellence programs are focused on ensuring that we have the sales models to target the right markets and customers that need our highly engineered products, and of course, that we get paid for the value we deliver. For efficiency, we're aligning around a global CRM to create seamless customer information sharing across our core business units. If we pivot to cost management, our operational excellence programs are centered around activities to generate productivity for Sonoco.
This spans from manufacturing improvement initiatives centered around Lean, Six Sigma, and footprint consolidations to our supply chain initiatives and our enhanced Global Business Services program. Our supply management group is improving our purchasing power through the use of digital transparency and AI-driven sourcing. This includes our rollout of an advanced transportation management system across Europe, similar to an earlier implementation in North America, that enables real-time tracking, enhanced freight board network optimization, and a more agile response to changing market dynamics. Our second initiative revolutionizes how we source indirect materials for our production sites. Fairm arkit, an innovative automated sourcing tool, harnesses the power of machine learning to replicate the decision-making processes of our human resource teams. It automates what has historically been manual bidding processes for non-strategic materials and services.
As the AI learns from each bid, as the AI learns from each bidding process, it becomes increasingly adept at awarding bids that align with our strategic goals, ensuring we're receiving the best value for our expenditures. While the initial phase of this project is to leverage the automated bidding features, our next phase is focused on leveraging the power of AI to manage high volumes of transactions without team member intervention. On the automation front, we're investing in partnerships with industry-leading automation suppliers to further optimize throughput and reduce labor costs in our operations.
In fact, we're investing almost $10 million in a new equipment manufacturing center in Hartsville, South Carolina, to build proprietary equipment to support growth and productivity across our business units, and recently acquired a part ownership in a leading automation and robotics integrator to support our efforts. So as a result of these operating and cost management initiatives, we're expecting cumulative productivity in the range of $300 million-$500 million from now to 2028. Organic capital investments, new digital capabilities, and our new business process standardization work through our GBS teams will add to our more traditional productivity efforts. Our success in achieving our self-help initiatives from 2021, with this, with the success in achieving our self-help initiatives from 2021, we're confident we can deliver this level of value.
As Howard mentioned earlier, people build businesses at Sonoco, and we're committed to programs that support our people, and that starts with a safety-first culture. This includes not only a world-class physical safety, but also psychological safety, which we emphasize through training and by leadership modeling the values of Sonoco. We're proud of our safety record and have implemented new programs with predictive modeling and employee empowerment to lead risk reduction programs through our Doing Safety Differently campaign. Closely linked to psychological safety are programs for employee engagement, such as our inclusivity focus, driven by a DEI council. Across the organization, we believe in employee feedback and development programs. We utilize Sonoco University, an online personalized technical and soft skills suite of training courses available to all 22,000 of our employees.
We believe if we do these things well, we will attract and retain talent through apprenticeships, mentoring, and other programs that help our employees navigate a rewarding career. Our fourth excellence program is enterprise sustainability. Within Sonoco, all of our businesses and center functions are united around our sustainability commitments to both circular economy and climate change impacts. Each business unit is aligned on sustainability objectives in support of Sonoco's corporate commitments. We're in tune with what's changing with our customers, and we're responding with programs to meet their objectives. On the circular economy front, we're focused on producing the most sustainable products across all substrates through comprehensive design and thought leadership on industry recycling. As you'll hear from our business leaders, sustainability is top of mind with our customers, and we have a number of case studies to share regarding success stories to meet their objectives.
On climate change, each of our plants has a strategy to reduce environmental impacts through rigorous analysis and assessments, working with our sustainability team. We have multiple programs across Sonoco globally focused on emissions reductions. These programs span from on-site power generation through solar installations, biogas programs, and LED lighting. We've signed a purchase power contract for clean energy programs equivalent to 9% of our total global energy usage. Within our plant networks, we're working on operational efficiency across our equipment suite to make sure that we're minimizing environmental impact in our operations, and we're delivering on our commitments to the targets we have set for lower energy and water usage. Importantly, we're delivering on our sustainability commitments and making excellent progress, as well as we continue to be positively recognized by various organizations for our progress in these three sustainability areas.
So in conclusion, you know, we're very excited about the progress we're making in all aspects of our operations strategy and the result that our team is delivering. We're committed to accelerating our efforts with strategic capital investments, automation, digital capabilities, as well as continuing the excellent progress we're making in commercial, supply chain, and operating excellence. We're confident we can deliver a higher level of bottom-line impact as we advance the organization's capability to scale these critical initiatives with our streamlined business structure and achieve our $300 million-$500 million cumulative productivity target. Now, I'm excited to hear from our business updates from our consumer and industrial leadership, and we'll kick discussions off with our, with the consumer segment, leading off with Sean Cairns, President of our Global Paper Can business. Sean?
Thanks, Rodger. Good morning, everybody. For the people in the room, I'm obviously from Europe. With... You can see the suit, and in my voice, I come from Liverpool in the U.K. Obviously speaking the Queen's English, if you know where Liverpool is. So look, I've got the privilege to be a member of Sonoco now for 15 years, and over that, for about 13 years of that, I've been running the European RPC business. In those early years, we saw significant growth through acquisitions and more recently, significant growth through organic growth. You've heard from Howard earlier that our strategy to simplify the business took place, and as a result, I've had the great honor to lead our RPC business, where we feel we've got an incredibly bright future.
I'm very excited to be here with you today and to talk about the exciting times and developments that are happening in RPC. From a big-picture perspective, if you look at the changing landscape of sustainability packaging, RPC products have emerged as a preferred substitute substrate for manufacturers worldwide. With our expertise in paper containers, Sonoco is proud to be the global leader in this field, and it's uniquely positioned to capitalize on long-term trends driving the industry forward. It's with our unwavering commitment to drive sales growth, expanding our time-tested strategy of optimize, grow, and what we'll call Sonoco RPC in the new. That will be, that's our strategy globally. This focused strategy is already helping us grow through innovation of products or processes, while remaining cost competitive to provide the very best solutions and the best value to our customers.
We continue to invest in technology and development, engineering and product design for innovative, sustainable packaging solutions that meet and expand our manufacturing capability to meet increasing demand. And you'll also see our innovation, working with our strategic suppliers to bring their very best innovation to the table and keep this industry moving forward while constantly looking, keeping an eye on the outside world. Giving our customers solutions before they even realize they need them is our goal, and we clearly have several examples where we've done just that. Being a trusted partner to our customers is key, and as the creators of packaging, that many times as the custodian of their brands, we take that responsibility incredibly seriously....
Our focus not only recruiting talent, but more importantly, developing it to work more collaboratively, ensures we deliver superior products and services to drive this positive change in the sustainable packaging industry. And I can honestly say, I'm incredibly privileged every day to be working with teams who believe in what Sonoco believes, and that is people build businesses by doing the right things. For our RPC, our product categories are categorized in three major markets, as you see on the screen: food and beverage, household products, and health and personal care. And many of you in the audience are familiar with some of the exceptional products and the renowned brands that we house within our packaging. I'm thrilled to share with you that we have achieved significant milestones through successful product launches in collaboration with leading food brands, particularly in the food and beverage market.
These milestones have not just only reinforced our position as a trusted partner, but helped solidify our commitment to providing innovative, cutting-edge, and sustainability solutions to our current and future customers, and ultimately, the consumer. I'm very pleased to say that the strategy of growth through operational excellence and innovation, RPC sales reached $1.5 billion globally in 2023, and we believe over the next five years, our growth will be in a high single-digit range. Beyond food and beverage, we're making significant progress in other sectors. This growth is driven by expanding our product offering into new markets, geographies, as well as introducing innovative products to our existing and new markets. Today, we've got 39 facilities in 13 countries, with about 60% of the sales in North America, but I can tell you that that will change in the future.
There's three macro trends that we believe are favorable for RPC growth. The first is sustainability. The truth is, we're all living in an unsustainable world, and where paper, where possible, from a packaging perspective, is clearly the preferred substrate for CPGs and other end consumers. There's a genuine willingness to invest in sustainable packaging. Sustainability is about reducing carbon footprint, enhancing corporate reputation, but it's more. Sustainability, in a sustainable world in the future, it's about circular economy to reduce, reuse, and recycle. In some cases, people no longer buy from brands that they think are damaging the planet. Consequently, our CPG customers are taking sustainability very seriously. They realize that consumers gravitate towards more sustainable products and are currently rejecting non-sustainable ones.
Packaging is a key plank of the sustainability strategy of customers, and that's the main reason that differentiating to sustainable packaging makes sense. Just to name it, just a few reasons why: regulatory compliance, winning on consumer demand for sustainable products, corporate reputation, competitive advantage, shelf standout, shareholder demands, e-commerce needs, and the list could go on. We win because we know how, we have the know-how in engineering, science, and sustainability to transition packaging to our RPC product. The second growth vehicle is innovation for our Sonoco, so for Sonoco to expand the new markets with new customers. Through our strong collaboration with customers, our team of technical, our development teams, and our engineering experts, have a combined unwavering focus on innovation, and that's instrumental, and it's keeping ahead of the competitive landscape.
The launch of Sonoco's patented GreenCan and Cosmos solutions, offering 90%-98% recycled fiber-based content, are great examples. These products meet, meet barrier requirements up to high barrier, demanding products such as coffee or cocoa powder, and they've gained positive market feedback and are contributing significantly to our revenue growth. And finally, international growth. Most recently, our strongest growth in volume has been in the emerging markets, as both our international and local customers are expanding their offering in these markets. And any of you spending time in these emerging markets can see the huge benefit that they have. But make no mistake, they want to have sustainable solutions. Sonoco has the ability to serve its customers through our global network of operations and we're willing to invest alongside our customers to make capital investments that, to meet this demand.
To give you some ideas of the opportunity of growth, right now, we have 39 sites in total. Of those 39 sites, 7 are currently being expanded, and there's 5 new sites being opened across all continents. In fact, we're targeting a growth of almost 45% increase in capacity from now until 2028. These expansions include the introduction of products to these markets, such as GreenCan and Cosmos patented technologies. Different regions of the world have different drivers of international growth, including categories, category growth, growth based on end user buying preferences, sustainability, and finally, packaging legislation. In North America, we're witnessing growth with existing products and a high level of interest in the new products that promote sustainability, as the U.S. is actually discovering what the need for more sustainable solutions in all the industries...
However, at this point, it is fair to say it's behind Europe and other regions of the world. However, that's not a bad thing 'cause we see that as an opportunity to lead the U.S. market through that change. It's fair to say that our commitment to sustainability is at the very core of our strategy, and we have the capability to design, manufacture our own product lines, ensuring quality and efficiency in our processes, while providing the customers with our own design, sealing machines, and components. We're expanding our reach by introducing existing products to new geographical locations and entering new markets with innovative products to compete with markets like rigid plastics or glass.
Research surely clearly shows that 57% of consumers prefer paper-based solutions, and we not only feel that it gives us a preference, it gives us a unique ability to grow faster in the market, and we have clear evidence of it. International expansion is a very important part of this growth story. There's no better way to explain sustainability trends than to actually provide a few real-world cases of studies from our customers. The first is Kellanova. In today's global market, it's crucial that we ensure that our business practices align with ethical standards, and for that means that the importance of doing the right thing, as Howard points out, people build businesses by doing the right things.
Especially considering the solid threat we're facing in European markets, such as increasing EPR fees impacting margins, evolving EU standards in 2030 on recyclability, and the policies putting at risk non-recycled packaging, and consumer trends shifting towards eco-consciousness. Everybody knows Sonoco and Kellanova has a long-standing commercial partnership, and it's gone on for multiple decades. In line with Kellanova's goal of using more recycled material, it was clear we had to future-proof this can. Not just any can, but one of the most... the world's most iconic cans globally. This is a pack hermetically sealed with a long shelf life, up to five times that you'd normally see in the traditional way of packing chips. A pack that's tamper-evident and reclosable for multi-uses.
To achieve this, Sonoco's engineering team developed a new paper bottom sealing unit, which was initially trialed within Kellanova's facility in Europe, and the challenge was incredibly demanding, as it's high speed, and Pringles is famous for freshness. That success of its testing led to the development and innovative closing technologies tailored for Kellanova's paper end sealing process. That unique equipment, developed by our own engineers, is now patented and operates at high speeds to seal in freshness, extending the shelf life of that pack. Together, Sonoco and Kellanova future-proofed the Pringles can for future generations, and any of you out there in the audience with families who love these snacks, we all know that's a great thing.
While Sonoco is known for its innovative packaging solution, what truly sets us apart is our technical ability to deliver consumer, customized consumer packaging solutions, and that is evidenced with this new paper-based Pringles can for Kellanova. It's the single biggest innovation that that pack has seen since the 1960s. Additionally, we're able to boost the fiber content of the packaging from 70% recycled paper to over 90%, reducing the carbon footprint by replacing the metal end with paper and making it easier to recycle for its end users. The design aligns with the circularity by design guidelines from the European Fiber-Based Packaging Value Chain and the 4ever green Alliance, while also maintaining freshness and flavor, which is Pringles is famous for. The second case we'll talk about is Chocolates Valor.
Every single sustainability journey that we have with a customer actually does come with challenges. We encountered a great opportunity with Chocolates Valor, with its cocoa powder for the Iberian region. It was the rapidly changing external environment was putting a great deal of pressure on Chocolates Valor's sustainability commitments to take all its packaging recyclable by 2030. However, our dedicated technical and development teams proactively worked to develop a tailored solution for our customer, including the development of packaging designs to help overcome the challenges and emerge stronger in the market. We're very proud that we're aligned with Chocolates Valor, and they chose Sonoco's Green Can solution with 95% paper content, with an integral paper lid made from recycled fiber, high barrier properties, which is widely recyclable across the Iberian region.
Our last case study is focused on an innovation that also allows a sustainability transition. The RPC strategic roadmap also includes the upcoming launch of a solution we call Cosmos. It's a revolutionary pack concept features a patent-pending degassing valve application of the membrane. This solution will position Sonoco Rigid Containers as a pioneer leader in the coffee market, especially designed for frothy products. This valued customer is dedicated in making a positive impact by reducing its plastics usage and increasing the incorporation of fiber in their packaging. The outcome of this project has been a significant learning curve for our technical and development teams... and we've successfully developed an innovative application for processes like instant caffè lattes, macchiatos, cappuccinos, or if you want it in Italian, cappuccini in plural.
Moreover, that customer transition from a fully plastic container to introducing a fully recycled-based can has resulted in an impressive 84% reduction in plastic. Replacing it with a can of up to 95% paper content, and this product will launch in quarter one, 2024. This is an incredibly exciting time for us and our customers as we continue to launch new products in new markets and position ourselves as industry innovators. I'm incredibly proud of our team's track record, showing consistent growth in the high single digits in recent times, and I anticipate this trend to continue in the upcoming years. We're committed to delivering growth along with the Sonoco enterprise strategy, and this exciting news is that this growth is not only profitable, with its EBITDA targets in the high teens, but it's also sustainable.
While it does require investment and capital to innovate and transform our RPC, the returns are highly rewarding and in line with Sonoco's high level returns on capital. Finally, I want to reiterate our commitment to excellence, sustainability, innovation. Sonoco Rigid Containers looks forward to a future of growth, collaboration, and shared success with our valued customers. And I'm incredibly proud of what the teams have done up to now, embracing our incredible past, but constantly adapting not only our offering, but our ability to do things differently. And quite frankly, we are becoming our own disruptors. People build businesses by doing the right things. Finally, I'd like to thank you for your time today, and with that, I'll hand over the floor to Ernest Haynes, who heads up our Sonoco Metal Packaging business. Thank you.
Thanks. Sean, thanks very much. Good morning. I'm Ernest Haynes, and I certainly wanna start by thanking each of you for the opportunity to talk about our forward strategy to grow Sonoco's newest core platform. Now, I've spent over 26 years with our company, making paper cans and closures within our consumer businesses and a few tubes and cores along the way in our industrial segment. But hang with me for the next 10 or 15 minutes, and let me tell you what we're about to do with metal packaging. Just 2 short years ago, Sonoco made its most significant acquisition to date in a consumer-facing business that specializes in tin plate steel aerosol and food cans.
To date, not only are we well ahead of the planned synergies, but we're also continuing to make significant strategic investments with our manufacturing network of operations and entirely focused on earning the right to serve our customers every single day. Let me first start by reminding you of why we fundamentally decided to enter the metal can marketplace. This business meets every measure of Sonoco's focus on value-added packaging formats that compete within stable sectors, driving very strong cash flows. It represented a clear strategic fit and only furthered our sustainable packaging offerings, immediately aligning us with foundational customers in the industry that we could grow with. Programmatic M&A is certainly a part of our DNA, and metal packaging advanced that strategy, but it also made us an immediate market leader in the industry.
With the streamlined footprint of 12 domestic operations in the U.S., our network of operations is steady and ready to respond to the ever-changing, rapid response times in a demanding supply chain need. We serve a stable sector, where growth with our foundational customers is critical and where an innovative mindset helps set us apart. That same innovative mindset is also the foundation of how we approach sourcing steel, which is the most critical substrate for our customer base. So what makes us different than any other can maker in that regard? Let me tell you what makes us different. We've established global relationships with multiple qualified steel mills in 3 regions, including North America, Europe, and Asia.
Our nimble procurement model is directly embedded within the business, allowing for real-time, quick decisions within our supply chain, led by a diverse group of folks with backgrounds in quality, engineering, and metallurgy. This is a unique advantage our customers enjoy and a difference-maker within the industry at large. And just in case you didn't already know, steel represents the single most recycled substrate, with over 75% of all steel ever produced still in use today. The barrier protection offered by our steel products is second to none, and we directly contribute to the reduction of food waste while providing the longest shelf life of any packaging format. Now, you are likely very familiar with our major product lines, but just a quick refresher on some of the iconic brands we serve, including Rust-Oleum spray paint cans, Reckitt's Lysol products, and Sherwin-Williams aerosol segment....
We also make cans for Red Gold tomatoes, Abbott's Ensure milk products, and Bush's Baked Beans that go as a great side item for all your meals. We also produce over 6 billion steel and aluminum components within the industry. Our metal ends not only serve the domestic marketplace, but are also sold internationally. Now, as you might imagine, the successful integration of Ball Metalpack into Sonoco was priority one. Since the date of acquisition, our integration drivers are well ahead of schedule, and we've delivered over $10 million in savings and have a clear path to deliver $20 million by 2025. We've optimized our organizational structures, onboarded Sonoco's legacy metal enclosures business, advanced our sourcing, freight, and logistics spend, and implemented standardized manufacturing technologies aimed at further driving out the cost to produce and serve.
Now, while our manufacturing network remains optimized to serve the needs of our existing customer base, we are entirely positioned for greater scale across multiple regions in the U.S. Our capital investments are centered on continuing to drive operational excellence, innovations within our aerosol marketplace, where we remain the only producer of both two-piece and three-piece aerosol cans, and accelerating our progress on automation and digital technologies. Our ability to scale and expand this business is frankly what excites me most about metal packaging. That started with establishing strong foundational relationships with our customers, understanding who we have the right to serve, and executing on innovation-related enablers that drive greater value within our established packaging formats. So you might be asking, how do we attain the greatest value contemplated in making this acquisition? That attainment mandates three things.
First, core growth by improving our share position with existing customers where we've already demonstrated capabilities. Secondly, investing in regions where we have geographical advantages to serve the market and the foresight that a long-range strategic partner brings to this industry. And thirdly, innovation within both our two-piece and three-piece aerosol offerings, where graphics, design, and cost are paramount to growth. Investing in ourselves is something you've often heard Howard refer to as a key part of our strategy to drive greater long-term earnings and operating profit. Nowhere do I believe that philosophy holds truer than our metal packaging business, where we've invested over $300 million, driving increased capacities to serve our customers, generated higher outputs across multiple can lines, lifting operational performance, and advancing automation technologies that improve our cost to produce.
Our customers count on our ability to collaborate and innovate to remain competitive within their served marketplace. Now, while cost to produce is a critical area of focus for can makers, both quality and service can never be displaced in importance. We believe in long-term partnerships with our customer base that drives value creation and better enables their ability to grow share. No greater example of those investments exist than our partnership with Bush's, where we are co-located on premise. This partnership has driven further expansion of our two-piece food can capabilities and allows for deep collaboration between our local plant leadership staffs that drives value on both sides. These types of partnerships set us apart, and we are certainly prepared to make further investments where there is a win-win.
Metal packaging is a great business with solid cash flows that we will continue to grow over the next 5 years, driving annualized revenue growth in the low single digits with opportunities for upside. We have targeted mid-teens EBITDA with a focused capital investment strategy, driving growth opportunities, operational improvements, and innovations within our product lines. Simply put, customers want packages that are easy to open, protect their contents, and can be recycled everywhere. Metal cans represents one of the best circular economy packages that fulfill their needs. The successful acquisition of metal packaging allowed us to create a new core business, providing customers with highly functional packages that are tailored to their specific needs while remaining cost-competitive. We've made strong investments in this business, driving competitive advantages with further investments to come.
Earning the right to serve our customers has been our mindset since day one of entering the metal packaging industry, and we intend to continue investing in that very same philosophy each and every day. Thank you for your time. Turn it over to Lisa.
Thank you, everyone, for your attention thus far. We are now gonna take a break, and we will begin again at 10:20 A.M. Okay, if I could have everyone. All right. Thank you, everyone. We are now returning from a break, and next up is Russell Grissett from our new FlexTherm Packaging business, and it will be followed by James Harrell in our Industrial Paper Packaging business. Rob will close us out, and then we're going to go directly into Q&A. So with that, I'm going to turn the floor over to Russell.
Thank you, Lisa. So good morning, everyone. My name is Russell Grissett, and I've been with Sonoco for over 30 years, where I've served in a variety of roles in sales, operations, and marketing, primarily in our consumer businesses, while also leading our ThermoSafe, Protective Solutions, and Flexible business units. I'm excited to share today details from our portfolio alignment to merge our Flexibles and Thermoforming businesses into one unit, which I'll lead for Sonoco. What you'll hear today is that Flexibles and Thermoforming are both part of a large, fragmented, and growing markets, and that we are highly selective in where we play, focused on areas where our customers value high functionality and where our supply chain expertise is valued by our customers. Merging these businesses creates a scaled platform for both organic and inorganic growth.
We are deploying the M&A playbook that Rodger shared earlier so that we can merge these businesses quickly to capitalize on growth opportunities in our niche markets. We believe that this combination will outgrow the category and deliver balanced financial returns over the planning cycle. To give you a little background, Sonoco has been in flexible packaging for over 30 years, and I've been running this business for the past 5 years. Back in 2021, Flexibles was designated as a core business, and we've made operational improvements, as well as growth and acquisition investments since then, including our most recent acquisition of Inapel in Brazil, which we recently announced. Our four thermoforming businesses historically ran independently, two in consumer and two in all other, and over the past 2 years, the leadership of these businesses have been laser-focused on optimizing markets, customers, and footprints.
To create this $1.3 billion platform, we merged five independently operated businesses into one focused organization, which furthers our strategy of fewer, bigger businesses. Our new combined platform has both go-to-market and financial advantages. First, the focused end markets that we currently participate in overlap by 50%, providing us deeper market insights into our core markets. However, our customer overlap is relatively small, at only 18%, which provides a great opportunity to cross-sell to customers that we know in markets that we understand. In fact, we currently have over $150 million in sales, where we provide the combination of the flexible lidding and the thermoformed tray to the same customer for the same application. From a financial model, we share manufacturing equipment and have the opportunity to leverage the scale associated with our new combined footprint.
From a supply chain standpoint, we will leverage our processes, systems, and sourcing to improve upon our innovation and go-to-market processes. With our larger business, we believe we can accelerate profitable growth through both organic investments and programmatic M&A. Our expectation is that we will see significant synergies associated with the benefits of the combined organization.... Our merged product lines are centered around six primary categories: snacks, such as cookies, health bars, nut products, and on-the-go snacks, just to name a few. For condiments, we are North America's largest provider of square condiments trays, where we supply the flexible membrane and the thermoform container, and we are known for supporting the innovative stand-up, resealable pouch for Daisy Sour Cream. For healthcare and prepared meals, we have a market-leading position, serving the biggest consumer names in the world.
For fresh produce, we offer a number of innovative solutions for fresh fruits and vegetables, while we see coffee and pet food as areas of continued investment and for growth. Today, we are well positioned with the strongest CPGs in the world, and we are building a robust innovation pipeline to meet their needs now and in the future. If you take a step back and take a look at our new organization, we have over three thousand employees in 25 facilities in six countries. Today, our revenue is primarily in the United States at about 74% of sales, and our largest end markets are in snacks at 27% and 13% each for prepared meals, condiments, and fresh produce.
We believe from $1.3 billion in sales, we can grow revenue mid-single digits over the next 5 years as we pursue our focused market niches that collectively provide a total addressable market of approximately $7.5 billion. The first driver is sustainability, which is top of mind for both our customers and our consumers. As a multi-substrate provider, we have a deep material science knowledge to help make existing products more sustainable. This is a topic I'll cover in more details in a few moments. The better-for-you category is being driven by trends related to more healthy, on-the-go snacking, where we have a strong market position and a focused strategy. Convenience is another trend that has influenced our customers and end consumers, as 72% feel that the package design influences purchasing decisions.
This is where we work to help enable our customers to deliver the right package with the right product at the right time. And finally, customization. CPGs continue to focus on differentiating their products on shelf for each use occasion, and we have continued to invest in our supply chain and short-run manufacturing capabilities to help enable their focus. Our customer intimacy, combined with our deep material science expertise in these areas, allow us the right to win and grow. Turning to sustainability, which is now front and center in almost every packaging design conversation and is a key area of focus for Sonoco and a growth driver for our business, where we really have four key areas of R&D and design priorities. When possible, we design our products out of a mono material substrate. Utilizing a single substrate inherently makes the product more easy to recycle.
We are also expanding our portfolio of flexible and semi-rigid packaging from all paper. This is an area that Sonoco brings extremely strong technical competency, given our 100+ years of experience as a manufacturer of paper. We are working to increase recycled content and have developed a full product line utilizing post-consumer regrind, and we continue to work with our customers in decreasing the overall weight of our packages. To emphasize the positive impact we can have, I wanted to share a few case study examples where Sonoco collaborated with a customer to deliver both innovation and a more sustainable solution. The first covers both better for you and sustainability. This customer's goal was to deliver on a more sustainable package that reduces waste and provides an improved customer experience.
The solution we came to is an award-winning design, where we developed a flexible, easy-open, reclose solution combined with our thermoform tray. You will recognize the ease, the easy-open feature as the same technology we use in other forms of packaging, such as cookies. The new combination decreased the amount of plastic while utilizing up to 70% of recycled material. It increased the shelf life by 3 days, which is a significant accomplishment for a refrigerated product, and it incorporated a better branding platform for shelf differentiation. Another great example, we worked with Nestlé on their Stouffer's brand to resolve a historical issue where black CPET trays were not being detected in today's municipal recycling centers. We removed the colorant so that the infrared technology would be able to properly identify the type of resin the package is being made of, thereby improving the package's recycling rate.
In doing so, we were able to utilize 30% recycled PET. This package was also recognized with a Dow Innovation Award. The last case study I'll share is a great example of partnering, where we worked with our customer, Pentel, to reimagine their blister pack. The customer wanted to differentiate their brand by going from a traditional blister, which contains both paper and plastics, and replacing it with an all-paper solution. We worked closely with Pentel to create a design that met all of their unique requirements. This commercial package is now available and is 100% recyclable. It has also been recognized with many awards, given the level of innovation. To summarize, these are great businesses that will be even stronger together.... These businesses will have growth focus, where we believe that over the next 5 years, we will drive annualized top-line sales in the mid-single digits.
We are targeting mid-teens EBITDA, and we are focusing our CapEx on both growth initiatives and efficiency improvements at a return rate for Sonoco that is higher than the corporate average. In closing, I just want to restate our excitement about the future of this new platform, and we are looking forward to many wins in support of our customers and Sonoco's overall strategy going forward. Thank you.
Thanks, Russell, and good morning. My name is James Harrell. I've been with Sonoco for 39 years and spent the last 28 of those years here in our industrial group. It's an honor to be able to share with you this morning our global industrial business. As you have already heard, people are the center of all we do, and this business is no different. This is Sonoco's oldest business, dating back to our start in 1899, and the industrial teams through the years have continued to reinvent, innovate, and grow this business, focused on superior value, service, and quality. Let me show you how this generation of leaders and teammates will continue this strong tradition. Let me start with key takeaways you'll hear today. First, we are a vertically integrated global leader in uncoated recycled paperboard, URB, and converted URB products.
Our strategy is to grow EBITDA and maintain high returns on capital by being value creators for our customers. Sustainability trends support stable and growing demand in our URB products, leveraging our R&D and technical leadership. Our current investment strategy focuses on safety, automation, operational excellence, commercial excellence, and digital factories to drive our productivity. This past year, we delivered revenue of $2.4 billion, where 71% was in North America, which includes Mexico, followed by 16% in Europe and 13% rest of world. We sell to manufacturers and our internal customers, who use our paper to make products for consumer staples, consumer durables, and industrial markets. We have some 160 facilities in 29 countries with over 9,000 employees.
In our global network today, we have 2.1 million tons of URB capacity in 22 paper mills operating 29 machines around the world. This is supported. The mills are supported by a network of over 100 converting operations. You heard Howard and Rodger speak earlier about simplifying the business for efficiency. Prior to 2021, our paper and converting business was organized as 7 different business units. We're, we now operate as an integrated global business with 5 regional GMs. This is allowing us to look at standardization of our operating and commercial systems, as well as leverage of our corporate functions.
We continue our network optimization efforts by expanding and leveraging operations to capture growth, consolidating operations for efficiency, and optimizing our internal supply chain, adhesives, fiber, paper, and converted products, allowing our chemists, scientists, product engineers, and process engineers to create value for both our customers and internal operations, looking at solutions end to end. Our M&A activity will be focused on growth and additive technology innovation. Most importantly, we have worked very hard to transform our business to improve profitability via three major efforts. First is operational excellence. In addition to network optimization, we have focused on shifting our product mix for higher profitability, including exiting the corrugated medium market business in 2022. Investments in larger projects, like Project Horizon, enable cost reductions by having fewer and more efficient mills and converting plants. The second is commercial excellence.
We have invested in state-of-the-art CRM systems and customer engagement processes to drive better customer and market insights... We have also realigned pricing models from legacy cost-based inputs and increased focus on value-based pricing and various delivery levels. These changes, along with some great acquisitions, have improved our Adjusted EBITDA dramatically. In 2009, our EBITDA margins were low double digits. They have been improving steadily, and even with the volume challenges of 2023, we have sustained our profitability profile at a much higher level and achieved record segment profitability in the mid to high teens. A great outcome achieved by a lot of hard work across the global industrial team. On the operational side, I just want to double-click on automation.
Through our internal capabilities and excellent supplier partnerships, we are making significant progress in our operations to optimize our cost structure and address workforce challenges, specifically in packaging. We are also standardizing and optimizing our shop floor automated data collection systems, driving better visibility to our operations and allowing better data, analytics, and decision-making across our business. Both initiatives are key foundational elements of our productivity goals. Now, stepping back into our business structure, we manufacture URB with 48% of our global capacity directed to external customers and 52% to our internal customers. External key markets include tissue and towel core stock, flooring paper, core board, and food packaging.
Internally, we sell our URB paper to our consumer division to make rigid paper cans and to our industrial division that makes a variety of products, including paper mill cores, textile cores and cones, film cores, protective posts, and with the acquisition of RTS, we now have a leadership position in solid partitions. Our third-party sales can be further broken down by end customer consumption. Consumer Staples is the largest end-market consumer of our third-party URB sales. In fact, we are a key supplier of the URB that is used for tissue and towel cores in the U.S. market, which is a very stable business for us. We maintain a tech service group focused on customers that use our URB for their internal core operations. On the consumer discretionary side, our URB is used to serve core board, roll packaging for the paper industry, edge board, and sheets.
We have a fantastic group of long-term customers, just a few of which are mentioned here. We have an equally great set of customers on the converted product side of the business. The table here represents converted products we make and a representative sample of how each might be used in a product or application that ultimately reaches the end consumer. For example, the core illustration is our high-performance cores that are used for winding sophisticated films in the battery and electronics markets. In fact, we sell our own paper mill cores and film cores to our paper mills and our flexibles division. On the post side, we have a proprietary design for a product in which consumer white goods can be stacked using high-performance posts, bases, and cross braces to prevent damage during storing and shipping.
With a drive to eliminate EPS and wood in packaging, we're seeing opportunities to bring our post solution to other markets, such as grills, lawnmowers, and generators. We are also in the process of transferring our SonoPost technology to Europe. I know we call ourselves an industrial business. However, as you've seen in the prior slides, over 65% of our URB and converted URB sales are driven by consumer end markets. As we look to the future, our overall business is more aligned with GDP growth trends. However, there are a few trends driving higher volume demand across our portfolio. As you've heard from the rest of the businesses this morning, sustainability also positively impacts our business. URB, by its nature, is made from recycled material and is recyclable.
The implication for our group as it relates to sustainability is making sure that we have aligned technology roadmaps with both our internal and external customers to meet market demands. We see the need for cores that are stronger and more dimensionally stable to support machines that grow larger and faster, such as the newest liner board generation of equipment, as well as higher value products that need our performance, high-performance films used in batteries and electronics, as well as man-made fibers. I believe Sonoco brings the strongest group of chemists, engineers, and tech service capabilities to help customers answer these challenges today and into the future. Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is a few case studies. First, as was presented earlier, we are expanding our proven SonoPost product line in North America into the European market.
Plastic foams are currently the main protective packaging platform for the European appliance market. Pending EU mandates provide a growth opportunity for Sonoco, and we have already installed manufacturing with room to grow. We believe that in the coming years, there is an incremental $500 million total addressable market opportunity for European appliances and related markets, which we have targeted $25 million-$50 million in our current strategy cycle. We currently have lines in production in 2 countries and continuing product tests and trials. Second is our patented solution we call T2. One challenge for many of our paper mill core customers is a problem called Chew out. Chew out occurs when the paper core cannot transmit enough winding torque and fails or collapses on itself in the manufacturing process, which causes more work stoppages and higher scrap rates during processing.
In this case, failure was occurring downstream from the paper mills in the corrugating operations, which are significant, which face significantly more starts and stops. Sonoco developed a patented technology, T2, by building a stronger core, which improves safety and in the manufacturing process for our customers, significantly reduces chew out. It's just another example of our chemists, paper makers, and product design engineers working together for a solution. Sonoco has also developed a tester, which allows customers to quantify the impact of the newly designed cores. With these great capabilities, a mindset of continuous improvement, and more efficient operations around the globe, we are on track to deliver financial results aligned to our long-range business plan. In our business over the next five years, we are targeting low single-digit growth and believe we can sustain our high teens adjusted EBITDA.
We will be focusing our CapEx mainly on continued efficiency in the business, but we will make growth investments, such as we are doing with SonoPost in Europe, when the returns justify the investment. We will continue to generate strong operating cash flow for the business and support our role in Sonoco's enterprise strategy. Now, in summary, we believe our vertically integrated capabilities, service, quality, and technical leadership support for our customers are unmatched. We are excited about the industrial business and believe there is more runway to improve and sustain our margins and cash flow into the future. We have continued to reinvent this business over the past 125 years. As you have seen in what I have shared today, we believe our capability to continue this performance is alive and stronger than ever.
Thank you for your time, and with that, I'll turn the floor over to Rob Dillard, our CFO.
Good job. Thanks, James. It's an exciting time at Sonoco. There's an incredible amount of energy and a great deal that's new, and yet we're all building on the foundation that was set over 125 years ago, that people build businesses by doing the right things. Each one of these business strategies you heard today is the next iteration of our teams building on this strong foundation. We take this commitment seriously. We've been true to our mission. We're true to our employees. We're committed to our customers. We reward our shareholders. An incredibly important part of this mission is to create enduring shareholder value. This is the focus of my presentation. In this presentation, I'll address the strength of our foundation and how we're driving to generate a next step in shareholder value.
The next era of value creation starts with the foundation you've heard so much about today. We have a powerful operating model that puts the customer at the center of everything we do. We have strong business positions based on our dedication to quality and service.... We provide stability through our investment-grade capital structure, and we're committed to rewarding our shareholders. What's next builds on this foundation. Now we are increasing our focus on profitable growth, unbound by our markets, by utilizing four key strategic levers. First, we're executing meaningful margin improvement plans. As Rodger discussed, we're focused on improving profitability through all means of productivity and operational excellence. These plans are working. We've increased adjusted EBITDA margins over 190 basis points since 2021, and we're intent on accelerating this trend. Next, you heard the exciting growth strategies from our core, four core businesses.
We're pushing forward and investing behind our businesses like never before. We're growing with our customers and innovating to solve their next sustainability and functionality challenges. We're funding these investments with a more sophisticated, dynamic capital allocation process. Our focus on profitable growth drives every capital decision. This focus also drives our portfolio strategy. We've built a differentiated M&A capability that we're deploying with discipline. We're actioning M&A to enhance capabilities, open new markets, and drive growth. We're also using M&A to transform the portfolio to further support our transformation journey. We will emerge from what's next as a more consumer-oriented growth company. We've already come a long way. As Howard said, in 2020, we set out to do more. We aligned the organization around our enduring mission and empowered the businesses to invest and grow.
We focused the organization on fewer, bigger businesses and an integrated operating model. We transformed to a more agile structure, and we leveraged our global capabilities, and we achieved record results. We grew net sales 29%, Adjusted EBITDA 35%, and adjusted EPS 38%. We rewarded our shareholders for partnering with us on this journey by raising the quarterly dividend by 19% since the beginning of 2020. We've paid dividends for over 98 years now. This commitment to yield and stability is a core component of our shareholder value model. The discipline of the shareholder value model is exemplified by our investment-grade capital structure. This provides incredible stability and a strong access to capital. We've increased liquidity and staggered our maturity ladder to further reduce risk and improve stability.
This discipline gives us the opportunity to fund what's next, and we've proven that we can invest and utilize the balance sheet as an asset. Twice now, we've executed strategic transactions and quickly achieved our target leverage. With our expected cash flow, we have the opportunity to invest and reduce leverage. We're poised for what's next. And investment is central to what's next. I'll keep going. An investment is central to what's next. As we invest in our strategies and drive new capabilities, we're positioned for a new phase of record profitability. We're targeting $1.5 billion of Adjusted EBITDA by 2028, with high teens Adjusted EBITDA margins. This target growth is expected to generate between $4 billion and $5 billion in cumulative operating cash flow in the next five years.
This cash flow creates the opportunity to drive further investment, as well as deleveraging and increased returns to shareholders. There are four key pillars to achieving these goals. First, as Rodger discussed, we're utilizing a comprehensive approach to improve margins. We've achieved meaningful success today and expect improved results with greater focus. Next, we're investing in growth strategies you heard today. These plans have been pressure-tested and are central to what's next. We're investing with more precision and better results than ever before. Our data-driven capital allocation model drives the right investment to the right projects. Through this and our programmatic M&A strategy, we will actively manage the portfolio to create more opportunities in the right markets. We're excited about this strategy, and we're focused on executing these four key pillars. We're committed to both growth and profitability and believe they're synergistic.
At the core of this improvement is our agile operating model. This model generated record productivity in 2023, and we expect it to be even more effective in the next phase. We achieved 15.7% Adjusted EBITDA margins in the first phase. In this next phase, we expect to achieve high-teens Adjusted EBITDA margins. The discipline to improve margins is critical to our business-specific growth plans. Each core business has a specific role and a unique focus, and each core business fulfills our value-added packaging principles and is important to our value proposition. Industrial Paper Packaging is a global leader in a critical industry. This business has reset profitability through commercial excellence and a reduction in fixed costs. From here, we expect the business to benefit from cyclical recovery and an increased focus on supply chain and capital efficiency....
Our rigid paper packaging business is our growth engine. We're investing in an ambitious plan to grow our customers based on emerging sustainability and substitution trends. We expect to generate high single-digit growth as we invest in innovation, sustainability, and global expansion. The flexibles and thermoforming combination creates another large, growth-oriented business in the core. We have strong plans to grow this business mid-single digits based on its ability to deliver both sustainability and high packaging functionality. Further, we expect to increase our focus on programmatic M&A, providing upside to organic growth. Last, the metal packaging business has been a great addition to the portfolio. It seamlessly added to the operating model with a focus on customer service and quality. It's a business with foundational stability, as well as meaningful opportunity to grow through innovation and strategic M&A.
The Ball Metalpack acquisition was just the beginning of Sonoco building yet another great business. We're being intentional about the role of each of these businesses, and each of them is focused on generating improved growth and returns. This will drive us to our target of $1.5 billion in Adjusted EBITDA by 2028. We're actioning these strategies through targeted investment, governed by a dynamic capital allocation model. Through this process, we allocate capital to our higher growth, higher returns businesses, while also maintaining flexibility to fund unique growth and productivity projects. We evaluate all projects based on numerous financial and strategic characteristics. We have a strategic focus on profitable growth in the core, but return on investment is paramount in this model, and investment on value-enhancing projects has increased meaningfully since 2020. With this context, funding the RPC growth plan is our first priority.
Then we'll be opportunistic as we drive growth in flexibles, thermoforming, and metals, while continuing to focus on efficiency and returns in the industrial business. All of the businesses are competing for capital as they drive organic growth and improve profitability. While profitable organic growth is core to our value-creating strategy, M&A is also a key strategic lever to drive shareholder value. We have a programmatic M&A strategy focused on accelerating growth and portfolio transformation. We are employing a wide aperture and a tight filter to ensure we capture all opportunities and give them extreme scrutiny. We evaluate each opportunity through four characteristics: strategic fit for alignment with our value-added packaging principles, scalability to ensure we drive meaningful impact, financial profile to achieve our return expectations, and culture fit to ensure seamless integration. We've proven that we drive differentiated value when we achieve these four characteristics.
From the Can Packaging acquisition that has more than doubled earnings and provided differentiated innovation, to the Graffo and Inapel acquisitions that solidified our leadership positions in Brazil, where we grow with our largest customers, to the Ball Metalpack acquisition, where we're driving meaningful value creation through a new level of quality and service for our customers. We'll continue to focus on adding to the metal packaging, flexibles, and thermoforming businesses, where we can create differentiated value for our customers. Part of focusing on fewer, bigger businesses was also making decisions about businesses that no longer fit. We have a great portfolio of businesses that individually have unique value propositions. Our intention is to further simplify the business and unlock value to redeploy in the core.
We have divested 6 meaningful assets since 2020, and we intend to continue this path with the opportunity to unlock up to $1 billion of value from divestitures. Our core is increasingly oriented to consumer markets. As we invest in these opportunities, we expect to reshape the portfolio with a focus on growth-oriented consumer markets. This trend is ongoing, and by 2028, we expect to be 75% consumer, increasing our opportunity to further invest and grow. This consumer-oriented portfolio transformation will drive our growth and profitability, leading to our adjusted EBITDA target of $1.5 billion and making our path to high teens adjusted EBITDA margins more readily achievable. Growth, higher margins, and improved capital returns will drive cash flow to new records and enable more investment. We expect to achieve $4 billion-$5 billion in cumulative operating cash flow to fund what's next.
By utilizing our dynamic capital allocation process, we expect to target the right returns on the right projects. We expect to remain disciplined and committed to our market-leading dividend and our investment-grade capital structure. To close, Howard started by outlining our ambitious plans to drive shareholder value through what's next. We've been on a transformation journey since 2020. We've made great progress and have the results to prove it. We've invested in the business through CapEx and M&A, and have proven that we can do more. We're being intentional about what's next and are focused on driving shareholder value. And through it all, we remain true to our founding principle: that people build businesses by doing the right things. Thank you. Time left to go.
... Thank you. We're now gonna move into our question and answer session. For those of you in the room that would like to ask a question, if you will raise your hand, we will bring a microphone to you. If you will, please just state your name and the firm that you're with, we would appreciate it. Secondarily, I'm gonna turn the call now over to our operator, who will give instructions for those who wish to ask a question for those that have joined online.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone, and we'll prompt you to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. I'll then hand the call back to Lisa. We have some questions on the line.
If you'd like to ask a question, please raise your hand. George Staphos.
Thanks very much. George Staphos, Bank of America. I'm gonna ask my question to start on FlexTherm. So, appreciate all the detail in the presentations, first of all, everybody. Aside from putting them together in the organizational chart, what should we take away as the most significant improvement to that business on a combined basis from putting them together, other than just having now, you know, two names in the, in the name of the business, Flexibles and Thermoforming, as opposed to two separate businesses? What's been the organic growth rate of those two businesses over the last several years, and why should we believe, as you do, that this is going to be, you know, a mid-single-digit grower on a going-forward basis? Thank you.
George, thanks. Mic's working okay? Good. You know, we have an immediate synergy number associated with just what you're saying. Hey, pulling two businesses together, you've got synergies related with just how you manage those businesses. But I think Russell did a great job in talking through the opportunities that we see going forward in terms of better aligning with the marketplace, in terms of the customers that we currently supply. Russell's example, what was the number? 18-
Eighteen percent.
18% of the customers we have today, we're selling a top and a bottom to. There's other potential opportunities for that going forward. In fact, if you look at the crossover, going back to Russell's slide that he shared, in terms of how many customers we actually touch on each side, that we have opportunities like that. So synergy starts at the top in terms of how we run the business. I think, in terms of the operational environment is somewhat similar as well, but more importantly is the customer side of things. In terms of opportunities to leverage and grow our position with current customers that exist in either of the two divisions. The second question is growth rates.
I don't have it at the top of mind in terms of what the individuals have been, but what I'll say, that is why we're doing it, is we think that whatever the current growth rates are on our flexible side, as well as our thermoformed side, we see more opportunity now to leverage that and increase the growth rates.
Thank you.
George, you have a follow-up?
No, I do not.
Okay. I have a question online, which I will read, and I'll put my glasses on. Okay, this is from Ghansham Panjabi of Baird, and he has several questions. The first is: Volume growth consistency has been a challenge for Sonoco on a multi-year basis, and the 2028 targets embed a much better trend line for volumes and one that is likely the aggregate growth rates of the industry. What is driving this confidence?
Well, again, as we went through the 4 core business units, their plans, the capital investments that we've been making along the way, certainly we've seen that from a productivity perspective. But if you look at the investments that we've made in support of new awards, new business, increased capacity, really across the portfolio, gives us that level of confidence. And particularly in the near term, as we're coming out of a, you know, pretty, pretty anemic environment over the last couple of years, that we'll see organic and, again, inorganic growth materialize as we continue to invest in support of our customers around the world.
Thank you all for the detail. Gabe Hajde, Wells Fargo. Slide 41, you gave us $300 million-$500 million of cumulative productivity through the planning period. Just curious, commercial productivity has been a pretty significant contributor, call it over the last three years. This seems to be more automation-focused, maybe a little bit more inwardly focused, less commercial. But any rough estimate in terms of the four buckets contributing to that? And then, also, maybe piggybacking off of Ghansham's question in terms of volumes. When we think about the operating leverage that you all get through the business, especially maybe on the industrial side, how volume contingent is that on the productivity side? Thank you.
Yeah, good question. If you remember back to the $180 million of self-help we talked about last time, it was divided up into four categories: commercial excellence, OpEx, structural transformation, and then supply chain, which is purchasing and logistics. If you look back, if you go back there, we've significantly overachieved in commercial excellence, to your point, and in supply chain from a purchasing and logistics standpoint. Structural transformation, we had $50 million there. We're about two-thirds of our way through that, and we've got significant upside now with the global business systems that we're gonna establish over the coming years. So, you know, for me, and then supply, the supply chain side, we've overachieved on that $30 million we had. So for me, it's really pretty evenly split when you go forward.
But what you'll see is an acceleration in manufacturing productivity. 'Cause to your point, the volume that we projected in 2020 through 2023 has been less than we projected, but we've still overachieved, and that's been outside manufacturing productivity. So operating leverage is important, so it is leveraged to that volume, and that's why we give you the scale of $300 million-$500 million. You know, we did $100 million of productivity last year. We've committed over $100 million of productivity in 2024. So if we get that operating leverage and volume, we're confident we can get the high end of that range. If we don't get all the volume we expect, then you, you know, you can take the range from there.
So yes, volume sensitive, but the manufacturing productivity going forward from investments in automation, digital capabilities, refurbishing our equipment across the board, is starting to really drive that manufacturing productivity, and that's what helped us in 2023 and will help us again in 2024. Is that?
Yeah.
Okay.
We now have a question from online, so I'll turn it over to the operator.
Most certainly. One moment for our first question. Our question will be coming from Mark Weintraub of Seaport. Your line is open, Mark.
Thank you. First question, if I could, as you combine flexibles and thermoforming, some of the thermoforming seems to have already been in the biz, in the consumer, and some of it was in the all other. Can you let us know how much was, of the sales and the EBITDA, was in all other, is now being transferred into the consumer using 2023?
Yeah, there was about $200 million of sales in all other, and the margin on that was high teens%.
Okay, so say $36 million or something in terms of EBITDA?
Yeah.
Is that fair?
Yeah, that's fair.
So you also talk about up to $1 billion of value from potential divestitures of the three businesses. Is it fair if I just back out the $36 million from the $128, which you reported in 2023, to guesstimate what the EBITDA contribution from that up to $1 billion of proceeds equates to? So, you know, order magnitude, $90 million. Or actually, yeah, $90 million.
The order of magnitude is, is directionally correct. You know, we also had the Protective business that we've just sold in that All Other segment. But order of magnitude, businesses that are under strategic valuation and that we expect to sell in the next two to three years is, you know, $50 million-$100 million of EBITDA.
Okay, super, very helpful. If I could, just one other. You talked about the $4 billion-$5 billion of cash flow through the 2028 time frame as well. How much of that will be going to CapEx, do you expect in that period? And then presumably, some you know, a substantial portion goes to dividends. And then, how much does that then leave potentially for excess cash flow where alternative uses could be considered?
Yeah, we think it's a pretty meaningful amount. I mean, we've increased the percentage of CapEx that we spend as a percentage of revenue and getting up to, you know, what we think is a comparable to our industry, such that we can drive growth, and that's really how we have been driving growth recently. You know, there was a question about flexibles growth, and the reason why flexibles is really growing now is because we actually really leaned in and made some really smart investments there. And so we're gonna continue to do things like that in the business. We don't think we have to increasingly, you know, make another step change in CapEx to get to that level of growth of, you know, mid- to high-single-digits in various businesses.
We would anticipate that, you know, 5% of sales or less is really the focus from here on out.
Okay, great. And so then we can just basically take that 5% of sales, the dividend, which presumably you'll continue to perhaps grow a little bit over time, and then the balance of those monies would be either for further debt paydown, share repurchase, or funding M&A. Is that a fair way to think of it?
Right. So about half.
Super. Thanks much.
Thanks, Mark.
... I would now like to turn the call back to Lisa Weeks.
I just had a question about your productivity target.
Speak louder, too.
We hear you.
So I just kind of piggybacking off of Mr. Hajde's question on productivity, and I guess in relation to the 2028 EBITDA target. So you're targeting $300-$500 productivity cumulative, and the bridge has you growing EBITDA, like, call it $430, $440.
Mm-hmm.
So like, to me, it seems like if you get the high end of the productivity number, you're already at $1.5 billion in 2028. So I guess the question for me is, you know, are there other bridge items we should think about? Is there vol mix included in the $300 million-$500 million? I know you mentioned there's some level of positive vol leverage that you're assuming in those numbers. And then, you know, if this math kind of makes sense, do you think there's upside to the $1.5 billion for 2028?
Yeah. Well, obviously, you've got, you've got inflation. You know, you've got inflation assumptions offsetting some level of that productivity. So if you remember the bridge that Rob showed building up to the 1.5, that's the bridge from the four core businesses to get you to that 1.5. So you've got productivity built into each one of those business units, offset by some level of inflation through that process, and then, and then offset by price cost. So you really just can't add the full productivity number to it, but you've got to go in and assume, the inflation offset to that, to that impact. Never.
Yeah, it's a good point. So when we think about a big component of offsetting inflation, which, you know, is anybody's guess at this component, but, you know, I think that putting a 2%+ target on it is a really reasonable number on a $5.5 billion COGS basis. So you can start to identify the bogey there for what you need to do just to offset inflation. We offset inflation, certainly with productivity. It's a big part of how we drive that. I'd say a good 30%-40% of the productivity number is really coming from procurement savings by, you know, getting different products in there and material substitution on those products to drive that inflation.
Another component of offsetting that inflation is price, and so we've been really deliberate at getting to a next level of commercial excellence and strategic pricing. We got $340 million of price costs in 2022. Last year was obviously a little bit more challenging. We're expecting this year to be, you know, equally as challenging as last year, if not more so. So price cost is also a component in that bridge. We think over the long run, that's a positive, and in the long run, you get productivity over inflation. And so those are two drivers for that in addition to the volume. So certainly, we set goals that we can, we can achieve and beat. And, you know, I think that $1.5 billion is no different.
Okay, I have another question from Ghansham Panjabi of Baird. The characterization of paper was 52% internal consumption versus 48% external. How will that shift by 2028, given the likely internalization of paper usage, given the RPC growth rates, etc.?
You know, that's pretty hard to predict. You know, we're really happy, you know, with, as James had shared, our trade customer base being predominantly consumer-oriented. The shift to internal consumption in a paper can is not the same level as you would have in a paper tube or core, but it will increase. But I don't know if it would be material enough to even have a conversation on at this point in time.
Yeah, I think with the full integration of the RTS business in 2024, we're pushing to that 55% or so.
Yeah.
So I could see it getting up to, you know, close to 60%, you know, through the, through the time period. But as Howard said, the amount of paper in a, in a paper can is not like a paper tube. But you will see it, it certainly will increase and continue to increase our integrated level.
Thank you. George Staphos, Bank of America. I wanted to push back a little bit on work, dig deeper into FlexTherm. Can we, again, putting the businesses together, can we talk a bit about what the net productivity you expect within that business will look like? Number one, related back to the argument about customer overlap, we were talking earlier. Many times over the years, we've seen companies put businesses together, talk about overlap, saying corrugated consumer, and that hasn't necessarily led to better growth, better margins. We know some of the companies out there that have talked about that. Why, from your discussions with your customers, do you think that that's actually going to help you in flexibles and thermoforming? Is it your technology? Is it your background? Is it customer relations? I know it's all of the above.
What are those things that are gonna drive better performance here with that combination, where we haven't necessarily seen it across other segments? And then last question... For Ernest, thanks for the presentation. You're talking about growing food cans, low single digits, except it's a market that's been declining. So help us understand, and other than one leading player, everyone else in that market has had churn. Why is Sonoco going to be different in that business and actually grow and actually have a business worth talking about positively in three and five years? Thank you, guys.
So George, and again, I'm talking about the number of customers that we share today. And when I say share, I'm back to talking about where the functionality of the package, it's a thermoform mixed with a flexible lid structure. And our being in a unique position to being in both sides, the rigid as well as the flexible side. More importantly, having the solutions that we have in our portfolio, and a great example is the one that Russell shared with you guys in terms of that open reclose feature that eliminated a solid thermoform closure system and gave a more value-added way to access the product. And then, of course, all the benefits that Russell shared in his slide that delivered, just from an environmental perspective, but the benefit to the consumer as well.
Shelf life, three days, that, that is huge in, in the fresh aisle. So to be able to take that and approach the market in a more aggressive fashion today, as opposed to really an inorganic way before, where you had thermoforming team saying: "Let me try to bring in my flex guys and see if we can't come up with a solution." Now, it is part of the entire sales cycle. So, that's where it's coming from. We're in just a very unique situation to be in both platforms with solutions in market that are leverageable in a much much larger, larger way.
If you talk to our customers in food service, George, and especially in medical, they're looking for a solution. In many cases today, they're buying both the thermoform package and the membrane together. So they're asking us for that solution. For me, especially in the medical side, but also in food service, there's the opportunity to leverage that together. As we talked before, you know, these four thermoforming businesses came through acquisitions. They were run somewhat separately, and integrated them together, as Howard said. You put the strength of those technology teams together with the great sales process we have in Flexibles. We can sell that solution. The customers are telling us we can sell that solution. Now, we'll have to prove it to you, but that's what we're hearing, especially in medical, especially in food service. They like the combination.
Think about portion control. Today, every dipping sauce container coming out of McDonald's, we make the thermoforming cup, and we make the membrane. It's a very small cost to them in overall, but very important to them, so they're looking for that solution focus.
Productivity then.
Yeah. So the productivity number I think you're looking for is, so there's three, there's really three steps to it, and I think that, you know, in addition to the commercial component that, you know, Rodger and Howard effectively kind of communicated, is one, there's an overhead savings. So the dissolution of the all other segment and the consolidation of thermoforming into Flexibles, that's a $10 million plus annual synergy savings. Second, as Rodger said, we bought these four thermoforming businesses through acquisitions over the years, and over the years, they were all run really as an orientation around their specific niche end market and not as one unified thermoforming business.
So there's a lot of synergies that can be driven by facility consolidation, technologies consolidation, things like putting tooling, you know, and we've already started doing this, having one, you know, unified tooling center of excellence as opposed to having each plant have their own. So there's a lot of like, nice operating synergies coming from unifying the thermoforming businesses. And then there's another layer, a third layer of synergies that's really driven by the operational consolidation with Flexibles. So having all of our resin buy or the majority of our resin buy under one roof, where we can then do the procurement in a really strategic way and the supply chain in a really strategic way, will drive another level of synergies as we further integrate the businesses.
Please, on the food can side, RPC line.
Sure. Thanks.
Hey, George, thanks for the question. I think it's pretty simple from my perspective. When we entered the business on the metal food can side two years ago, I think it starts with our belief in the customer base that we serve today and their ability to grow. Some of the trends we see with our customer base don't necessarily follow all of the macro trends you may see. So I'd say that first and foremost. Secondly, I'd say that our customer base has been really pleased with what I call a long-range strategic partner coming into this space, and I think that's a difference maker. I think our ability to grow share with that base is significant.
And thirdly, I'd say we've made some pretty significant investments in two-piece food technology, and as we can take better advantage of the geographies across the domestic U.S., I think we can continue to grow in that space relative to our confidence of low single digits upside.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, I have another question from Ghansham Panjabi: Given ambitions specific to your 2028 financial targets and in context of your stock price performance in recent years, why not allocate a disproportionate amount of available free cash flow towards share buybacks?
...Certainly, it's in the mix. We're gonna. But we look at all capital investment opportunities, and which will generate the greatest return from a long-term perspective to our shareholders. So it's certainly in the mix.
Okay, with that, I'll poll the room to see if we have any more questions here in the room and also online. If you would like to ask a question, please get into the queue, and we'll take your questions to close out our day. Okay, we have an online question that's gonna be texted to me, so give me just a moment. Okay, this question is from Mark Weintraub: "On the earnings call, you said, I believe, that your URB operating rates were in the mid-90s. Industry AF&PA data showed operating rates in the high 70s in Q4. Can you help us bridge the difference? Relatedly, how is Project Horizon impacting your competitive positioning, and are there more benefits to be realized?
Yeah, Mark, the numbers are for our North—I think you're talking about the North American URB system. We're actually about 91.5% for the fourth quarter capacity utilization, and we're projecting mid-90s% for Q1. Yes, that's higher than the industry, but this really comes down to two areas. Number one, we're integrating the 2/3 of the URB tons from the RTS Packaging acquisition that we did not have before. So we've integrated them as soon as we acquired the rest of that business, and we announced the shutdown of a mill in Washington, in the U.S. That somewhat reduces our capacity. What we're seeing through the first half of the quarter so far is we're right in line with that capacity utilization number. So for me, that's pretty... The numbers are the numbers, pretty straightforward.
Yes, it's higher than the industry, but it's a result of the moves that James and his teams have made to lead that business. So we're comfortable with that. If you look at our global system, we're thinking about 90%. The U.S., it'll be in the mid-90s. Project Horizon's been fantastic. You know, we said from the beginning it was gonna be one of the lowest cost, highest output URB machines in North America. It's played out exactly that way, as we expected. And again, with the announcement of us continuing what we started seven or eight years ago, is taking out our high-cost URB capacity in North America and investing in our best machines. And that's what we did with Project Horizon.
It's playing out just like we thought, and as James said, you know, we're using that, that capability, as well as service and quality, to win share in the tube and core market in the U.S. and Canada. So, so far, it's playing out exactly as we had planned.
Thank you all for your questions today. This now concludes the Sonoco 2024 Investor Day. Thank you so much for your time and attention, and if you have any follow-up, please don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you all, and have a wonderful day.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.