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Paper and packaging group Mondi has said it is taking pricing action to offset higher costs due to the Iran war amid ongoing tough trading that has seen it close factories and cut jobs across Europe.
The group – headquartered in Weybridge, Surrey – said 450 jobs were being axed this year after plans announced earlier this month to shut another three factories in Hungary, Poland and Germany.
It said the closures add to three recently announced across Turkey, Hungary and Germany as it takes “targeted actions to strengthen our competitive advantage” and looks to cut costs.
Mondi employs around 24,000 people across 100 production sites in over 30 countries, including a factory in Birmingham.
It said trading had remained “challenging” in the first quarter of 2026.
The FTSE 100 group is hiking prices to offset rising costs caused by the Middle East conflict and soaring oil and energy prices.
It said: “Across the business, we have however experienced increased energy, raw material and logistics costs. We are actively responding with pricing actions.
“While there is a customary lag, we expect the impact of these price increases to take full effect in the third quarter of this year.”
In a trading update, the firm reported a 27% year-on-year fall in underlying earnings to 212 million euro (£184 million), which was also down from 214 million euro (£186 million) in the previous three months.
Shares in the firm fell 5% in early trading on Friday.
Andrew King, chief executive of Mondi, said: “Despite the uncertain outlook, we continue to focus on what we can control – driving operational excellence, rigorous cost and margin discipline, optimising our production footprint and focused cashflow management.
“These actions underpin our confidence in our ability to navigate the current headwinds.”