SONOCO TO BUILD ADDITIONAL TUBE AND CORE PLANT IN TURKEY

Hartsville, S.C. – Sonoco (NYSE: SON), the global packaging company, will build an additional paper-based tube and core facility in Gaziantep, Turkey, to serve the textile, film, papermill and general core markets, it was announced today by Ronald E. Holley, senior vice president.

The new plant is expected to commence operation prior to year-end 2004 as part of the previously announced new joint venture between Sonoco and Ahlstrom Corporation. The joint venture, to be known as Sonoco-Alcore S.a.r.l., is awaiting regulatory approval and is expected to be completed near the end of the second quarter. The new plant will employ between 14 and 18 employees. Sonoco currently operates a tube and core plant in Bursa, Turkey, which also serves the textile, film, papermill and general core markets. The Bursa plant, which is operating at capacity, employs approximately 100 personnel.

“Markets continue to develop in various areas of Turkey. Our existing Bursa plant serves the western part of Turkey. The new Gazientep plant will allow us to serve the South and East of Turkey and will strengthen our ability to serve the developing textile and film core markets in the Middle East,” said James A. Harrell, III, division vice president–Industrial Products and Paper-Europe.

“Our coreboard used for conversion into the paper-based tubes and cores at Bursa is currently provided by our papermill in Kilkis, Greece. This mill, however, has now exceeded its capacity. With the addition of the Gaziantep plant, additional coreboard will be supplied from our mills in central Europe,” explained Harrell. He also noted that the management team responsible for the two Turkish plants and the region they serve consists of Levent Guven, commercial development, and Adem Guranda, operations development.

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