May 9, 2008 - Richmond, Va.--Specialty packaging company Chesapeake Corp. said Wednesday it swung to a first-quarter loss on a drop in paperboard packaging sales.

Chesapeake posted a loss of $8.8 million, or 45 cents per share, compared with a profit of $700,000, or 4 cents per share, for the same quarter in 2007.

The company posted a loss from continuing operations of $8.4 million, or 43 cents per share, compared with a profit from continuing operations of $900,000, or 5 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding one-time items, the company posted an adjusted loss from continuing operations of $8 million, or 41 cents per share, compared with an adjusted profit of $1.6 million, or 8 cents per share, for the first quarter of 2007.

Sales fell 7 percent to $252.9 million from $272 million in the prior-year quarter.

"We expected financial results for the first half of the year to be below those in 2007, and the first quarter was worse than expected," Andrew J. Kohut, the company's president and chief executive, said in a statement.

But he added that the company expects the second quarter to be better than the first, with results picking up steam in the second half of the year.

Net sales of paperboard packaging fell 16 percent on lower demand for both branded products and pharmaceutical and health care packaging, while sales of plastic packaging rose 4 percent, Chesapeake said.

Chesapeake shares fell 27 cents, or 7 percent, to $3.58 in morning trading.