Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors;
Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.

M. Jack Sanders, age 59, president and chief operating officer of the Company was elected to the Board of Directors of the Company, effective December 3, 2012. Also, Mr. Sanders will become president and chief executive officer of the Company, effective April 1, 2013, when Harris E. DeLoach, Jr., the current chief executive officer, retires as an active employee of the Company. Beginning April 1, 2013, Mr. DeLoach will remain on the Board of Directors as executive chairman. Officers of the Company serve at the pleasure of the Board of Directors.

Mr. Sanders joined Sonoco in 1987 as national sales and marketing manager, Wire and Cable Reels. In 1991, he was named general manager for Sonoco's Protective Packaging division and was promoted to division vice president and general manager of Protective Packaging in 1998. He was elected a corporate officer and named vice president, Industrial Products, North America in 2001. He was subsequently named vice president, Global Industrial Products in 2005, senior vice president in 2006 and executive vice president in 2008. Mr. Sanders also served as executive vice president, Global Consumer, from January 2010 to December 2010. Since then Mr. Sanders has served as president and chief operating officer of the Company.

The Company has not entered into any material contracts, plans or arrangements with Mr. Sanders, nor has it amended any such existing contracts, plans or arrangements. There are no family relationships between Mr. Sanders and any other executive officer or director of the Company, and there are no arrangements or understandings pursuant to which he has been appointed. There are no transactions between the Company and Mr. Sanders that would constitute related person transactions under Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K.

Item 8.01 Other Events.

Additional information regarding the foregoing, please see the Registrant's news release announcing that Mr. Sanders will become Chief Executive Officer and Mr. DeLoach will remain Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits.

(d) Exhibit 99 - Registrant's news release announcing that Mr. Sanders will become Chief Executive Officer and Mr. DeLoach will remain Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.

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