Sonoco Products Company has announced Francesco Giannolo’s appointment to vice president and general manager of Sonoco Consumer Packaging, EMEA. He reports directly to Ernest Haynes, president of Sonoco’s Global Consumer Packaging segment.

Giannolo joined Sonoco in 2019 and prior to this new appointment was vice president of Commercial for Sonoco’s Consumer Packaging EMEA/APAC business. In 2022, Giannolo was appointed vice president and general manager of Sonoco’s Rigid Paper Containers business in EMEA and held other sales leadership roles.

“As we align our global Consumer Packaging businesses, it is critical that we have a strong, experienced leader in the EMEA region. Francesco is that leader,” said Ernest Haynes, president of Sonoco Global Consumer Packaging. “We look forward to even greater focus on innovation, productivity and customer service.”

A native of Naples, Italy, Giannolo has worked in the packaging industry for 23 years, beginning his career at Crown Packaging in 2004 where he was named plant manager. He then worked with Amcor as plant general manager in its medical division before joining its commercial excellence team where he served as senior director of commercial excellence for EMEA.

Giannolo holds a Master of Science in Environmental and Land Planning Engineering from the Federico II University of Naples.

“I am very pleased to take on this responsibility at an important moment for our Consumer Packaging business in EMEA. Our customers operate in increasingly complex markets, and I believe our new global organisation gives us an opportunity to support them even more effectively by combining our strong regional expertise with the broader capabilities of Sonoco globally. I look forward to working closely with Ernest and our teams to bring more of Sonoco’s capabilities to the market and create long term value across EMEA,” said Francesco Giannolo.

Earlier this month, Sonoco aligned its Global Consumer Packaging businesses under a single integrated leadership structure, led by Haynes. As president of Sonoco’s Global Consumer Packaging segment, Haynes is responsible for Sonoco’s largest global business with roughly $5.2 billion in annual sales, 98 operations in 25 countries and 11,250 employees serving some of the best-known consumer brands around the world.