Sonoco Products Company has brought its consumer packaging operations in the Americas and EMEA/APAC together under a single leadership structure, with Ernest Haynes appointed President, Global Consumer Packaging.

The move, announced on 4 August, hands Haynes responsibility for Sonoco’s largest global business, covering metal and paper cans, closures and components. The segment accounts for around $5.2bn in annual sales, 98 operations across 25 countries and 11,250 employees. He reports directly to president and chief executive Howard Coker.

Coker said the restructure was about aligning the business “around our products, our customers and our people”, adding that Haynes would “bring the best of our Americas and EMEA/APAC businesses together to leverage our technology, supply chain and research and development”.

Haynes joined Sonoco in 1997 and has spent nearly 30 years in operating and commercial roles across both the consumer and industrial sides of the company. He was most recently president of Sonoco’s Consumer, Americas business, and previously served as president of Metal Packaging North America following the group’s acquisition of Ball Metalpack in 2022. Between 2018 and 2021 he was division vice president and general manager of Rigid Paper Containers, North America, having earlier held a divisional operations role covering tubes and cores in the US and Canada.

He said the new structure “simplifies and improves the efficiency of our operating model”, and pointed to growth ambitions for the metal and paper can businesses. “I am passionate about fostering a culture of innovation and ensuring world-class manufacturing, quality and technical service for our brands worldwide,” he added.

The appointment comes as Sonoco continues to reshape a portfolio that has shifted decisively towards metal food cans and ends since the Ball Metalpack deal, alongside its longstanding rigid paper business.

Sonoco’s Industrial Paper Packaging segment will continue to be led by president James Harrell.

Separately, Sean Cairns, president of Sonoco EMEA/APAC, is leaving the company after 17 years with the business and 30 years in packaging. Coker thanked him for his leadership over the past two decades and wished him well.

Haynes is a graduate of the Wharton School’s Executive General Management Program and holds a degree in industrial engineering from Clemson University, where he sits on the university foundation board.