SONOCO PRODUCTS CO 401(k): Empower, match 6% max
SONOCO RETIREMENT AND SAVINGS PLAN · SON · CIK 91767
Empower is the recordkeeper named on the Form 5500 filed for Sonoco Retirement & Savings Plan, the company that keeps the account records. Where to log in, and what the filing says.
Maximum employer match, as a share of pay
6%
SONOCO PRODUCTS CO matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay.
From the Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026 ↗, covering the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Page data last updated July 28, 2026, when the Form 5500 bulk data was last refreshed. Why filings lag
On this page: what the employer actually paid in · the formula, word for word · when the money becomes yours · who can join · who holds your account · what the plan reports to the DOL · how it compares · what to do next
What SONOCO PRODUCTS puts in, and what the plan costs
What SONOCO PRODUCTS put into the plan, per active participant
$4,481
SONOCO PRODUCTS CO put $4,481 into this plan for each of its 11,080 active participants in plan year 2024. This is the whole employer side of the plan: matching money, profit sharing, non-elective and safe-harbor contributions, and reallocated forfeitures. The Form 5500 does not separate them, so this is what the employer put in and not the match.
SONOCO PRODUCTS put in more per active participant than 63% of plans with 5,000+ participants in industrial and materials manufacturing. The middle plan in that group of 178 reported $3,585. Industrial and materials manufacturing comes from business code 322100, which SONOCO PRODUCTS entered on its own Form 5500. Sponsors pick that code themselves, so a code that does not describe what the employer does ranks the plan against the wrong companies.
What this figure cannot separate: how much SONOCO PRODUCTS pays, and how much it puts in
This is dollars, not a rate. A Form 5500 carries no payroll, so the figure reflects both how much the employer puts in and how much the employer pays: two plans running the same formula report different amounts when one pays better. Crossing the peer group with industry holds most of that difference still, and none of it disappears.
This is one plan year, not an average. A true-up, a plan merger or a one-off contribution moves a single year on its own.
Source: DOL Form 5500 for the plan year ended December 31, 2024, EIN 570248420, plan 026 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $4,481 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. SONOCO PRODUCTS CO also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $2,970 a year at a $49,500 salary, and the same filing states employer contributions made outside the match. That second figure is what the formula pays one worker on that salary, and not an amount either filing reports. The two figures cover different plan years and measure different things, so neither one is the other one corrected.
What SONOCO PRODUCTS puts in
$2,970
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Company matches non-union employee contributions 100% on the first 6% of the participant’s pre-tax and/or Roth contributions as a safe harbor matching contribution. All matching contributions are paid in cash or Company common stock, as elected by the Board, and invested in accordance with the participants’ chosen investment allocations. No employer contributions were made to the Plan in the form of Company stock during the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024. Any changes to the Company's matching contributions require the approval of its Board of Directors. For union participants, the Company's matching contributions are determined in accordance with collective bargaining agreements and in the U.S. are referred to as Collectively-Bargained Nonelective Employer Contributions ("CBNC").”
What you contribute to collect all of it
Contribute at least 6% of your pay to collect the full match.
That is $2,970 a year at a $49,500 salary, and it scales with your own.
Vesting score
100 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 48% of the 369 schedules we have scored.
It measures vesting speed and nothing else. It says nothing about the size of the match, what the plan charges, or the funds inside it.
Share of the employer's money that is the worker's at hire and at each of the first 6 anniversaries: 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“The majority of participants are vested immediately in both the participant-funded contributions and the Company’s matching contributions, plus actual earnings thereon. However, at certain union locations, participants vest in employer contributions after completing a minimum number of years of service as specified by the collective-bargaining agreement.”
The wait before the match starts and the year-end true-up appear above when the filing states them. Neither is part of the score, and a filing that is silent on one of them is not a plan without it.
What the plan costs, against plans of its size
88th percentile
$114.78 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 88% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is SONOCO PRODUCTS' 401(k) match formula?
SONOCO PRODUCTS' 401(k) employer match tops out at 6% of pay. One rate up to one limit is the commonest of the four shapes a match formula takes.
| Match formula | 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay |
|---|---|
| Maximum employer match | 6% of compensation |
| Paid in company stock | Yes |
| Other employer contribution | Collectively-Bargained Nonelective Employer Contributions (CBNC): for union participants, the Company's matching contributions are determined in accordance with collective bargaining agreements rather than the standard 100%-on-first-6% formula; specific CBNC rate not stated in the filing. |
At a $90,000 salary, contributing 6% ($5,400) earns the full employer match of $5,400 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company matches non-union employee contributions 100% on the first 6% of the participant’s pre-tax and/or Roth contributions as a safe harbor matching contribution. All matching contributions are paid in cash or Company common stock, as elected by the Board, and invested in accordance with the participants’ chosen investment allocations. No employer contributions were made to the Plan in the form of Company stock during the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024. Any changes to the Company's matching contributions require the approval of its Board of Directors. For union participants, the Company's matching contributions are determined in accordance with collective bargaining agreements and in the U.S. are referred to as Collectively-Bargained Nonelective Employer Contributions ("CBNC").”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is SONOCO PRODUCTS' 401(k) vesting schedule?
SONOCO PRODUCTS vests the employer match immediately: 100% is yours as soon as it is paid in. Nothing is forfeited when you leave, which is not true of the two schedules that vest over time.
| Employer match vesting | Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Accelerated vesting | Plan termination: the Company has the right under the Plan to discontinue its contributions at any time and to terminate the Plan, at which point the account balances of the participants will be fully vested. A partial plan termination occurred in 2025 (TFP sale to Toppan Inc.), requiring full vesting for affected participants; participants at certain union locations otherwise vest in employer contributions after completing a minimum number of years of service specified by the collective-bargaining agreement. |
Vesting, word for word
“The majority of participants are vested immediately in both the participant-funded contributions and the Company’s matching contributions, plus actual earnings thereon. However, at certain union locations, participants vest in employer contributions after completing a minimum number of years of service as specified by the collective-bargaining agreement.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join SONOCO PRODUCTS' 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
SONOCO PRODUCTS enrolls new hires automatically at 6% of pay, rising 1% a year to 10% of pay.
| Plan entry | Most of the Company's employees are eligible to participate with respect to Plan benefits upon completion of 30 days of service. |
|---|---|
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10% |
Eligibility, word for word
“Most of the Company’s employees are eligible to participate with respect to Plan benefits upon completion of 30 days of service. Certain groups of employees have different requirements as defined in the Plan documents.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“However, unless participants waive participation or make a positive election, they will generally be enrolled automatically in the Plan with a 6% before-tax contribution to begin 30 days after their eligibility date. Participants have the option to reinvest Sonoco Stock dividends within the Plan or to receive these dividends in cash. The participant can also invest funds in a Self-Managed Account once certain criteria are met. The contributions for certain union groups subject to collective bargaining agreements and for nonunion participants contributing less than 10% of their compensation earned was automatically increased by 1% per year until they reach 10% or until subsequently updated at the participant's discretion. For union participants, the auto enrollment provisions vary.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Empower, filed as “EMPOWER ANNUITY INSURANCE COMPANY”. That is the company paid to keep the account records: what is in an account, what went into it, and usually the site a participant signs in to. The trustee that holds the plan’s assets can be a different company, and this filing does not name it.
7,876 plans on file name Empower as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 7,813 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $165.72 per participant.
Participants log in at Empower ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Empower or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Empower |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper address | 8515 East Orchard Road, Greenwood Village, CO 80111 |
What does the SONOCO PRODUCTS plan report on Form 5500?
The SONOCO PRODUCTS plan reported $1.7B in assets and 15,344 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $1,663,698,617 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 15,344 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $114.78 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $114.78 per participant. The median across plans in industrial and materials manufacturing is $142.19, from the 5,709 of 6,008 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Sonoco Retirement & Savings Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does SONOCO PRODUCTS' 401(k) match compare?
SONOCO PRODUCTS CO's maximum 401(k) match of 6% of pay compares with a median of 4% across the 269 companies in our data with a computable formula.
Employers worth reading next
Of the six employers below, three file in industrial and materials manufacturing, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Empower.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Empower.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Vests immediately too, like SONOCO PRODUCTS.
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR. Every match fact on this page comes from it.
- Changed jobs? Find an old 401(k) ↗
The Department of Labor's Retirement Savings Lost & Found, a free government database.
- This year's IRS contribution limits ↗
The official deferral and catch-up limits every formula operates under.
Questions this filing answers
What is SONOCO PRODUCTS CO's 401(k) match?
Sonoco Products Co matches 100% of employee contributions up to 6% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the SONOCO PRODUCTS CO 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does SONOCO PRODUCTS CO's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10%.
Who is the recordkeeper for SONOCO PRODUCTS CO's 401(k)?
Empower is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Sonoco Retirement & Savings Plan for plan year 2024. That is the company paid to keep the account records: what is in an account, what went into it, and usually the site a participant signs in to.
Source
The match formula, the vesting schedule and the enrollment rules on this page were read from one document: the Form 11-K annual report that SONOCO PRODUCTS CO filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Each of those fields carries the filing sentence it was read from, expandable where the field appears. Nothing on this page was supplied by the employer to this site.
The plan assets, the participant counts, the plan-paid fees and the recordkeeper come from a different document, the plan’s DOL Form 5500 annual return, and the section that reports them links it. Comparisons with other employers are computed across the filings named in the section they appear in.
Read the filing on SEC EDGAR ↗
| Document | Form 11-K annual report |
|---|---|
| Filed with | US Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) |
| Filed by | SONOCO PRODUCTS CO |
| SEC CIK | 91767 |
| Accession number | 0000091767-26-000031 |
| Plan | SONOCO RETIREMENT AND SAVINGS PLAN |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 24, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with SONOCO PRODUCTS CO, with the Securities and Exchange Commission or with this plan’s recordkeeper, and publishes this page without their involvement. It republishes a public filing and says where it came from.
Cite this page
401(k) Monitor, “SONOCO PRODUCTS CO 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000091767-26-000031, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
