Our protective and specialty packaging segment also benefited from the advantage of our global reach and the differentiated value of our products. As a result, this segment achieved 8% growth in net sales  in 2003, or 3% growth excluding the positive effects of foreign currency translation. For the year, we continued to emphasize the differentiated value and performance of Sealed Air’s products for our customers’  businesses around the world. Improvements in price/mix were the most significant factors contributing to growth in the protective business, excluding currency effects. Despite these gains, persistent challenging economic conditions and higher petrochemical-based raw material costs for the year continued to affect the protective and specialty  packaging segment. These factors contributed to a 4.5% decrease in segment operating profit in 2003. However, Sealed Air’s constant focus on differentiated value and performance in the marketplace helped dampen the negative impact of higher raw material costs on the  business in 2003. A significant highlight of Sealed Air’s year in 2003 was the redemption in July of the Company’s Series A convertible preferred stock. We financed the redemption primarily through the private issuance of approximately $1.3 billion of senior notes and convertible senior notes. We raised these fixed rate funds when long-term interest rates were near their lowest point in the past forty years. This recapitalization  provides long-term value to our stockholders and our business  consistent with Sealed Air’s priorities and operating principles. It  contributes to our cash flow, as the net after-tax interest expense  on the new debt is less than the dividends that we would have paid  on the preferred stock. Earnings per common share in future years  will no longer be diluted by the potential conversion of the Series A …every region of our business delivered a positive contribution to growth even excluding the  currency effects. 2