Sonoco Products Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 1, 2024

There are 10 speakers on the call.

Operator

Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

Operator

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Lisa Weeks, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator, and thanks to everyone for joining us today for Sunoco's Q1 earnings call. Last evening, we issued a news release highlighting our financial performance for the Q1, and we prepared a presentation that we will reference during this call. The press release and presentation are available online under the Investor Relations section of our website at sunoco.com. As a reminder, during today's call, we will discuss a number of forward looking statements based on current expectations, estimates and projections. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties.

Speaker 1

Therefore, actual results may differ materially. Please take a moment to review the forward looking statements on Slide 2 of the presentation. Additionally, today's presentation includes the use of non GAAP financial measures, which management believes provides useful information to investors about the company's financial condition and results of operations. Further information about the company's use of non GAAP financial measures, including definitions as well as reconciliations to GAAP measures, is available under the Investor Relations section of our website. Joining me this morning are Howard Coker, President and CEO Rob Dillard, Chief Financial Officer and Roger Fuller, Chief Operating Officer.

Speaker 1

For today's call, we will have a prepared remarks section followed by a discussion of the results for the quarter and outlook for the Q2, followed by a Q and A. If you will turn to Slide 5 in our presentation, I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Howard Coker for business update.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Lisa, and thank all of you for joining us today. Let me kick off the discussion this morning with an update on our Q1 2024 overall financial performance. We executed well and delivered solid results in the quarter, which were in line with our expectations. Sales were $1,600,000,000 adjusted EBITDA was $245,000,000 and EBITDA margin of 15%. Our adjusted earnings per share were $1.12 which was above the midpoint of our guidance and operating cash flow was 166,000,000 dollars with strong working capital management.

Speaker 2

Productivity in the Q1 came in strong as well at $51,000,000 which is just an outstanding result from our team's focused execution and operating discipline. Our productivity results are from the value adding capital investments across our plant network, including automation, process improvements and energy cost reductions, all of which is underpinned by our portfolio simplification activities and strong expense management. So I do want to say thank you to our team for your hard work and commitment for our results

Speaker 3

this quarter.

Speaker 2

If you'll turn to Slide 6, this past February, we were happy to host our Investor Day 2024 in New York, share our strategy updates and what's next for Sunoco. Since I took over the CEO role in 2020, we've been on a transformation journey to improve the performance of the company and we are making progress. We've built a strong portfolio that delivers greater value, simplified the company and unified our global operating model to improve financial results while maintaining our disciplined capital structure. At our Investor Day, we provided our outlook over the next 5 years where we are targeting adjusted EBITDA of $1,500,000,000 with a high teens EBITDA margin. And we are expecting to generate cumulative operating cash flow of $4,000,000,000 to $5,000,000,000 all while we remain committed to growing our competitive dividend.

Speaker 2

Our next era net enterprise strategy is supported by our commitments to maintain a focused portfolio, align the appropriate capital to our businesses and invest in our people and sustainability while we operate with discipline. If you turn to Slide 7, we committed to keeping you updated on our progress along the way on our near term strategic priorities through 2025, which are centered on continued alignment of our portfolio and investments in our 4 core businesses. We'll continue to focus on investing and streamlining operations for these core businesses, while we resolve the all other group of businesses. If you turn to Slide 8, we made an important step toward the all other resolution with the completion of the Protective Solutions divestiture we deem this business to be non core and took the appropriate action to find the right owner. As we progress through additional portfolio activities, we'll keep you apprised of our progress, which is focused on strategic sales time for value.

Speaker 2

In parallel, we announced that as of January 1, 2024, we have taken 5 businesses that will run independently and now merge them under one layer and operating structure in our consumer segment called TFP. This new scaled or TFP. This new scaled platform of $1,300,000,000 based on last year's revenue is focused on niche markets where we believe we have the right to win and the right to grow. The integration of these businesses is well underway, and we expect to see operational and sales benefit in the future. The spirit of innovation to drive sales growth in the business is alive and well.

Speaker 2

2 of our most recent products were recognized with PAC Global Awards for 2024. Our EnviroSense Paper Blister Award won the best in show for sustainable packaging and our Enviro Paper Can with the paper bottom also won best in class award for sustainable packaging, and Award for Distinction for Design Innovation. We're delighted to be recognized for our proprietary designs to help our customers achieve their sustainability packaging goals. In support of our environmental commitments, we were pleased to announce that we entered into a 15 year virtual purchase power agreement with ENGIE's wind project. Starting in 2025, we will contract 140 megawatts of electricity through ENGIE, which is almost half of our U.

Speaker 2

S. Electrical needs. Projects like this help in our progress towards our emission targets by consuming clean, reliable power in the communities where we operate. If you'll turn to Slide 9, our sustainability efforts are highlighted in our 2023 corporate corporate sustainability report update, which we published just last week. Similar to last year's report, our materials were prepared in reference to GRI, TDFC and SASB standards and detailed progress to our 2023 targets are in line with the science based targets initiatives.

Speaker 2

On the social side, we have updated our work place diversity hiring progress, provided updates on our supplier diversity program as well as our community investments through the Sunoco Foundation. We're grateful for the recognition we received for these efforts and we are most recently named by Newsweek as one of America's Most Trustworthy Companies, which is fully aligned to the mission and values of Sunoco. With that update, I'm going to turn the call over to Rob to take us through more details on our results and second quarter outlook. Rob?

Speaker 4

Thanks, Howard. I'm pleased to present the Q1 2024 financial results starting on Page 11 of this presentation. Please note that all results are on an adjusted basis and all growth metrics are on a year over year basis unless otherwise stated. The GAAP to non GAAP EPS reconciliation is in the appendix of this presentation as well as in the press release. As Howard said, we've built a solid foundation for continued resilient financial performance, building on our enduring operating model and strong market position.

Speaker 4

Our strategy is to deliver shareholder value by growing these positions through disciplined and targeted investment, while also maintaining our investment grade balance sheet and our differentiating dividend. 1st quarter results again represent the resilience of our teams and our ability to deliver strong earnings despite a low volume environment. Adjusted EPS was $1.12 which exceeded the midpoint of our guidance range of $1.05 to $1.15 This result was driven by positive productivity of $0.39 per share, offset by negative price cost of $0.51 per share and negative volumemex of $0.12 per share. For the quarter, net sales decreased 5% to $1,640,000,000 due to index based price pressure. Volumemix was flat due to low single digit volume declines in consumer, high single digit volume increases in industrial and double digit volume declines in all other.

Speaker 4

These metrics include acquisitions. Organic volumemix was negative mid single digits due to lower organic volumes in consumer and flat organic volumes in industrial. Index based price pressure impacted sales negative 57,000,000 dollars This result was expected as paper, metal and some resin indexes have declined from their peaks. Adjusted operating profit was 176,000,000 dollars a sequential increase due to positive sequential volume mix as well as improved sequential productivity. Adjusted EBITDA was 245,000,000 dollars We maintained this historically strong profitability due to incredibly strong operating performance.

Speaker 4

Productivity was positive 51,000,000 dollars We achieved positive manufacturing productivity due to our lean programs and we achieved positive fixed cost productivity due to continued efforts to reduce our plant footprint and optimize our supply chain. From an EBITDA perspective, volume mix was negative $16,000,000 as consumer continues to be impacted by inflationary pricing at retail and industrial begins to improve. Acquisitions were positive $10,000,000 as the Innappelle, RTS and Chattanooga acquisitions are all ahead of plan. Price cost was negative 67,000,000 dollars as industrial price cost was negative $56,000,000 and metal price overlap was negative $16,000,000 The price cost in metal was only negative $4,000,000 due to pricing actions. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 14.9%.

Speaker 4

We expect EBITDA margins to improve throughout 2024 as we anticipate price cost and volume mix to improve in both segments. Page 12 has our Consumer segment results. Consumer net sales decreased 5% to 911,000,000 dollars Consumer volume mix decreased low single digits due to continued inflationary pricing at retail. Many consumer customers are beginning to return to historical pricing practices, including discounting. However, with list prices at elevated levels, volume have been slow to return to historical patterns.

Speaker 4

Despite the year over year decline, consumer volumes remain on trend and increased 5% sequentially. As a comparable, Q1 2023 was unusually strong due to the end of destocking in most consumer markets. RPC sales declined high single digits due to high single digit volumemix declines with particular weakness in North America relative to last year's strong comparable. TFP sales were flat as weakness in core flexible segments in cookies and confection and thermoforming food was offset by acquisition. Metal Packaging sales declined mid single digits as negative index based price actions offset low single digit volume gains.

Speaker 4

Aerosol volumes were positive and food volumes were slightly negative. Consumer EBITDA was flat at 129,000,000 dollars as $16,000,000 of productivity and $8,000,000 of benefit from restructuring and non operating benefits was offset by $9,000,000 of price costs and $15,000,000 of volume mix. Consumer EBITDA margin increased 60 basis points to 14.1%. We anticipate that EBITDA margins will increase in Q2 due to improved mix in RPC and increased mix of thermoforming and TFP. Page 13 has our Industrial segment results.

Speaker 4

Industrial sales decreased 4% to 593,000,000 dollars The reclassification of recycling reduced sales by $33,000,000 or 5% as we now account for recycling as a procurement function with recycling sales margins reflected only in cost of sales. This accounting better aligns with our strategy of conducting recycle activities to ensure low cost and available supply of recycled materials. In 2023, recycling contributed $100,000,000 in sales. Adjusted for the impact of recycling reclassification, industrial sales would have increased 2%. Industrial volume mix was positive high single digits due to acquisitions and a mid single digit recovery in Europe.

Speaker 4

North American volume mix was positive mid teens due to acquisitions. Organic volume mix in North America was flat. Industrial volumes are improving, but the recovery is uneven across our markets in a way that is unique relative to historical recoveries. We expect industrial volumes to improve as we are experiencing improved order rates and higher utilization, especially in the North America paper markets. Industrial price decreased mid single digits due to index based price actions.

Speaker 4

We have achieved the majority of our announced market price increases and acted to offset higher OCC and other inflationary inputs. However, paper index have not met the market. We anticipate paper indexes will correct in the Q2 and industrial prices will more reflect the inflationary environment and the improving market conditions. Industrial EBITDA decreased to 95,000,000 dollars due to $56,000,000 of negative price costs offsetting $28,000,000 of productivity. Industrial EBITDA margin was 16.1%.

Speaker 4

We believe this is our new low cycle profitability level and margins will improve with volume recovery and future pricing actions. We believe we have changed the fundamental profitability of the business through a series of restructuring activities in the last 4 years. We have shuttered 6 older, smaller paper machines and replaced their volume with larger and more efficient machines. We believe that this, along with restructuring our converting network and increased automation, have driven lasting profitability improvement. Page 14 has our results for the All Other businesses.

Speaker 4

All Other sales decreased 14% to $134,000,000 due to volumemix declines in Protective Solutions and the ThermoSafe Cold Chain business. All other EBITDA decreased to $21,000,000 due to lower volume mix and negative price cost, offsetting $7,000,000 of productivity. We completed the sale of Protective Solutions on April 1. This business underperformed in the quarter by $0.03 of adjusted EPS and will now have a negative $0.10 pro form a impact on the year. We continue to evaluate strategic alternatives for the remaining all other businesses.

Speaker 4

We're being disciplined with our approach to divestitures and our intent on maximizing value over the long term. Moving to Page 15. Our capital allocation framework aligns with our business strategy to drive value creation through earnings growth and margin improvement. The four pillars of our capital allocation model are capital investments to drive growth and improve profitability, dividend increases to reward shareholders, programmatic M and A to action the portfolio strategy and share repurchases to return capital and maximize shareholder value. We are intent on driving shareholder value by maximizing cash flows and investing or returning cash in the most efficient manner.

Speaker 4

Currently, we're focused on investing in our RPC growth strategy and in M and A with a focus on metal packaging and TFP. We are being disciplined in the disrupted M and A market and will execute the right acquisitions at the right time for us. On Page 16, we have our cash flow performance for the quarter. In the Q1, we generated operating cash flow of 166,000,000 This was a meaningful improvement from a year ago due to strong working capital management and increased focus on other cash costs. Capital expenditures was $86,000,000 for the quarter.

Speaker 4

We're on track with all major initiatives and anticipate investing approximately $350,000,000 of capital expenditures in 2024. Turning to Page 17. The foundation of our value creation strategy is disciplined management of our investment grade balance sheet. Our balance sheet is in excellent condition. We have over $1,100,000,000 of liquidity.

Speaker 4

We have a weighted average maturity of 6.9 years and we have a weighted average cost of debt of 3.8%. We developed this position through continued focus on debt reduction and management of our leverage levels. We repaid $22,000,000 of debt in the Q1 of 2024 and reduced net to adjusted EBITDA to 2.8 times. Furthermore, we used proceeds from the Protective Solutions divestiture to repay $75,000,000 of debt subsequent to the end of the Q1. Since the Ball Metal Pack acquisition in 2022, we have now repaid gross debt of 375,000,000 dollars Page 18 illustrates our history of increasing our dividend.

Speaker 4

We're excited to increase the quarterly dividend to $0.52 per share. We've now paid a dividend for 99 consecutive years and have increased the dividend on an annual basis for the last 41 years. We're committed to increasing the dividend and place a priority on dividend increases when allocating capital. Page 19 has our guidance for Q2 2024. Guidance for Q2 2024 adjusted EPS is $1.25 to $1.35 We expect consumer volumes to remain on trend in Q2 and expect year over year volumes to increase due to acquisitions.

Speaker 4

We expect industrial volumes to improve in Q2 as we are experiencing improved order rates and backlogs, especially in the North American paper markets. Industrial price trends are expected to improve and price cost is expected to improve sequentially. OCC is expected to increase in the quarter and tan bending chip is expected to reflect market increases. We're advising our guidance for full year 2024 adjusted EPS to $5 to $5.30 This guidance now includes the sale of Protective Solutions, which reduced results by approximately $0.10 Similarly, we are revising full year 2024 adjusted EBITDA guidance to $1,050,000,000 to 1,090,000,000 dollars We are reaffirming our operating cash flow guidance to $650,000,000 to $750,000,000 We're confident in this guidance as we anticipate we can continue to outperform our working capital expectation for the year. Now Roger will further discuss the outlook for the business.

Speaker 3

Yes. Thanks, Rob. Please turn to Slide 20 for our view of segment performance drivers in the Q2 of 2024. In the Consumer segment, we expect volume to be up sequentially and essentially flat year over year. We believe that continued retail price inflation and a slower uptick from promotions are the primary drivers of volume in the Q2.

Speaker 3

In rigid paper containers, we see sales decline sequentially and year over year in the second quarter in North America, primarily in snacks and other discretionary food products. Customer demand is lower than originally forecast and we see limited impacts from promotions in the near term. Rigid paper container net sales for the rest of the world are flat year over year where new product launches are progressing against the backdrop of sluggish consumer demand for legacy products in Europe. Our newly merged ThermoForm and Flexible Packaging business, we anticipate sales to be up sequentially in the Q2 from seasonal volume improvements in both flexibles and thermoforming. The thermoforming and flexible packaging team is making excellent progress in the integration of the leadership team and plant structure and we'll see near term cost benefits from the integration.

Speaker 3

Our focus now will be on driving growth through these resin based businesses. In our metal packaging businesses, sales are expected to be up sequentially in both aerosol and food cans. Aerosol demand improvement is offsetting lower volumes in food cans and we expect total year over year volumes to be up mid single digits in the second quarter. The Q1 was impacted by metal price overlap, which extended into the Q2 last year. So this will be a net positive for the quarter.

Speaker 3

It's worth noting that we are carefully monitoring tightening template steel availability. Domestic supply constraints as well as uncertainties around import tariffs have created tight supply market. Our teams are doing a great job of managing this issue, but it bears watching in the near term. Across all of our consumer businesses, we expect strong productivity in the Q2. In Industrial, we expect sales to be up low single digits year over year.

Speaker 3

In our North American paper businesses, volumes in support of tissue and tile consumer end markets remain strong and we've seen improvement in sales to the construction industry versus the lows we saw at the end of last year. The capacity utilization of our North American paper operations will remain strong in the Q2. The same is true for our North American converting businesses where volumes are projected to be up organically, year over year and sequentially in the low single digits. Similar to Q1, we experienced negative price costs through the 2nd quarter as higher input costs such as OCC and wage inflation have not yet been recovered through pricing increases. We believe this, as Rob said, to be a timing issue as price increases have not been fully reflected in index pricing, our open market increase in North America has been fully implemented.

Speaker 3

While overall international sales in industrial will continue to be sluggish, we are seeing some signs of improving volumes in Europe. In all other, we expect lower than expected sales as volume demand remains soft in our Temperature Assured Packaging business due to product transition delays in various shipping products. However, effective price cost offsetting some impacts from these lower volumes. The remaining businesses and all other are also benefiting from positive productivity. Our teams are doing a great job on the productivity front across all businesses and we expect continued strong productivity results in the 2nd quarter supported by footprint rationalization, ongoing expense activities and continuous improvement programs.

Speaker 3

We are very well positioned operationally for volume improvement. So with that Howard, I'll turn it back to you.

Speaker 2

Yes, I'm sorry. We had a little technical issue here. Yes, operator, let's handle any questions that you may have.

Operator

Certainly. And our first question will be coming from Ghansham Panjabi of Baird. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Hey guys, good morning. I hope I didn't miss too much with the call. But I guess first off on consumer, if we kind of look at that segment, is it fair to say that at this point coming out of 1Q that destocking is behind you for the most part and now you're just kind of bearing what the major end markets are doing. Is that how you see things unfolding here?

Speaker 2

Yes, Ghansham, this is Howard. Yes, we feel like we're fairly well through the destocking and it is market conditions at this point in time.

Speaker 5

Okay. And then in terms of aerosol, is that your performance seems a little bit better than the market. What do you attribute that towards?

Speaker 2

Only thing I can say to that is the mix of customers that we have. Only way I can really answer that. It's certainly I don't think I don't see any share movements as much as the customers that we have in our portfolio are doing better than they did obviously last year.

Speaker 5

Okay. That's a fair answer. And then last question is on the consumer segment and the RPC component. Just give us a little bit more color in terms of what drove the extent of that decline and the evolution in terms of getting back towards flat. Is that just a function of easier comparisons as the year unfolds?

Speaker 2

Yes. I'd say for the quarter, really impressed if you look at internationally with high I wouldn't say the high teens growth in Asia, South America, relatively lower numbers in Europe. And then we North America really had a difficult quarter really around a few discrete customers. And it's back to not unique to Sunoco, but in North America, the price versus volume equation and our customers on the RPC side and on the flexible side as well are telling us that they're starting to feel the pain of deleveraging and are planning to start increasing their promotion and marketing activity. So as we go into the remainder of the year, we feel like we should see some benefit from that.

Speaker 2

But it really was a North America story in RPC.

Speaker 5

Got you. Thank you so much.

Operator

And one moment for our next question. And our next question will be coming from George Staphos of Bank of America Securities. Your line is open.

Speaker 6

Hi, everyone. Good morning. Thanks for the details. I guess first question I had, you generated, I think you said $51,000,000 of productivity, Howard or Roger, on the back of not a lot of volume. And so on the one hand, kudos to everyone on the Sunoco team in that regard.

Speaker 6

But how much longer can you continue to drive productivity if the volumes don't materialize? Can you remind us what your budgets are for productivity for this year and how volume dependent they might be?

Speaker 3

Yes, George, this is Roger. I think we said last quarter, our productivity guide for the year is over $100,000,000 If you remember last year, we did had a record year in productivity over $100,000,000 last year. Certainly, we're tracking to do better than that this year. As I said in my comments, Q2, we should see continued strong productivity. It's volume sensitive to some degree, but the work the capital investments we've weighed, the footprint work we've done and that continues this year.

Speaker 3

We're confident we can have another record year in productivity this year. We don't really guide quarter to quarter as you know. But based on what we see for the year from a volume standpoint, the plans we have in place around productivity, we expect a stronger productivity this year than last year. So hopefully that helps. Yes.

Speaker 2

And George, I'd just say, you're right. Volume equals leverage and we're looking forward to volume returning to really start driving the invested at the plant level improvements that we've made and we'll talk about this, I'm sure, but really encouraged with what we're seeing from a loading of our North American paper business. I think it's the first time we've seen the amounts of backlogs that we have in place since we've made some really material capital investments, rationalizations. And so see this as upside as we go forward.

Speaker 6

Understood. And not to push too hard on this one, but let's say hopefully not, we're here in October and we're talking about this persistent issue, consumer hasn't come back, there's still this lingering destocking, if that would even be possible. And let's say volumes are trending especially in consumer kind of low single digit declines. Does that put at risk your productivity target for the year? Just trying to get a sense there.

Speaker 3

It does. No, it does not put at risk the target we laid out for the year of over $100,000,000

Speaker 6

Okay. Thanks for your thoughts and your patience on that one. So if we talk about consumer a bit more, I guess the overarching question would be what are your customers especially in paper seeing, it sound like in answering Ghansham's question a lot of it is just inflation and the effect on the consumer and their discretionary spending. If I missed that, please relay what you think is happening. And if overall consumer volumes are flat in the quarter coming up, And I think you said metal overall will be up mid single digits.

Speaker 6

It would suggest that everything is down, but can you give us sort of size order, what of the other large consumer segments are down the most and why? Thanks guys. I'll turn it over from here.

Speaker 3

Yes, George, Roger again. RPC Global, we're expecting to be down a little over 1% in the second quarter, which is an improvement obviously from the Q1. And that's driven by, Howard already mentioned, some really nice international growth with softness and continuing in North America. And it's exactly what you said. Our customers are telling us it's the price on the shelf.

Speaker 3

They are promoting, but we've seen limited impact from that. Hopefully that shows up over time. Slightly positive in flexibles in the Q2 from a year over year standpoint and then slightly negative in thermoforming versus a strong Q2 last year. And then metal as you said up mid single digits. So that's why we're calling consumer flat for the Q2.

Speaker 6

Thanks so much.

Operator

Our next question will be coming from Mark Weintraub of Seaport. Your line is open, Mark.

Speaker 7

Thank you. So if we look at Page 27 or Slide 27, the number that really jumps out was that negative $56,000,000 price cost in industrial. And as you said, you announced a price increase for February and that didn't get reflected by Pulp and Paper Week in February, March or April. But you are seeing it in your open market transactions. And so I guess the question is, what do you do if Pulp and Paper Week doesn't reflect it?

Speaker 7

How dependent is your ability to get prices on the converted product, etcetera, for it to be reflected in pulp and paper? What options do you have to make sure it happens? And maybe I'll start there.

Speaker 2

Mark, I'd say just direct to your question, we have contractual obligations that are aligned to certain indices and we're going to have to live by those. I think maybe where you're going is a longer term question and that's something that we're taking in consideration. But what do you do? If it doesn't happen, we pull the contingency plans that we've got in place to make up for the difference. But you noted exactly right that the uptake from our open market was highly successful.

Speaker 2

We are running here in North America with backlogs that I just noted a minute ago that we haven't seen in literally in years. And that is as far as we can see out, let's just say, in the Q3. So I would be shocked if any index didn't reflect those type of market conditions. But I think maybe you're asking a longer term question and that's one that we're certainly considering at this point here as well.

Speaker 7

That's right, very helpful. And maybe now with the RTS transaction done as well, could you remind us sensitivities for every $10 per ton change, let's just say, in the index, how it impacts the North American market, how it would flow through to EBITDA?

Speaker 3

Yes. Each $10 move in Tan bending chip is about $5,000,000 a year, up or down.

Speaker 7

I'm sorry, I don't maybe I'm asking the wrong question. But don't you have north of 1,000,000 tons of

Speaker 3

Yes. We have 1,200,000 tons in North America. But remember, almost 40% of that does not move off the index.

Speaker 8

Got it.

Speaker 3

Okay. It's either open market and some OCC movement.

Speaker 7

Okay, super. That is helpful. And just maybe real quickly too, you noted that OCC you thought would be higher 2Q than 1Q, I believe, yet it had shown signs of moderating in April. Is that just a carryover from 1Q having been rising as it progressed? Or is that that you're expecting OCC to start ticking higher again?

Speaker 3

Some carryover and we have projected another $5 move in the quarter as you get to the end of the quarter.

Speaker 8

Okay, super. Thanks for the color.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question will come from Gabe Hajde of Wells Fargo. Your line is open Gabe.

Speaker 9

Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask about the food can business. We're reading more reports about imported full cans of vegetables and fruits hitting shelves, maybe to circumvent templates, deal tariffs and otherwise. I think that's roughly 40% of your food can mix.

Speaker 9

I'm curious, based on conversations with customers and I know they have to kind of plan for this stuff in terms of plantings, what the expectation is for the upcoming pack season that's embedded in the food can business?

Speaker 2

Yes, Gabe, I really don't have that level of detail. I heard the same thing in terms of imports. I don't think we're hearing that as a direct impact to our customers. And as we said earlier, we expect to see a slight improvement in the second quarter. And that's feedback from our customers.

Speaker 2

So at this point in time, I really can't speak to any type of material influence that we are aware of within our customer base related to materials. Certainly, it's out there.

Speaker 9

Okay. Thank you. That was it for me.

Operator

And our next question will be coming from Gregory Andriopoulos of Citi. Your line is open.

Speaker 8

Hi, good morning. Just a few quick questions for me on consumer price costs. So you mentioned CPGs are kind of stepping up promotions or that could be happening in the near term. So I'm wondering how you think about your or the dynamic of CPGs stepping up promotions versus your ability to capture positive pricing in consumer or even positive price costs depending on how you want to address it? And then I had one follow-up after that.

Speaker 4

Yes. I mean, I think that we definitely have seen pricing dynamics at the consumer level. We think that the customer our customers are being really dynamic in their response to kind of higher prices on the shelf and are acting appropriately to drive the right volume for them. From in terms of our price, how we see that, there are a number of index based prices that affect that. I think overall, we've got kind of a little bit of price pressure.

Speaker 4

So I would say low single digit price pressure going into the Q2. And I think that some of that is going to be metal, probably a little bit more offset, but overall modest pricing pressure going into the Q2 from a sequential basis and then also on a year over year basis.

Speaker 8

Okay. That's fair. And I mean price cost didn't seem as bad as it could have been in 1Q, but down 9%. And I think you mentioned last quarter that you had some contracts resetting lower. So I'm wondering if you could kind of address what kind of kept price cost relatively close to neutral.

Speaker 8

And then if you could remind us what was what's implied for the full year guide in terms of consumer price cost for the balance of the year? Thank you. And I'll turn it over after that.

Speaker 4

Yes. Price cost was we had really strong performance in the businesses. I think they're doing everything they can to kind of manage price with their customers. Most of these are index based prices that are causing a little bit of declines, and that was across the board, across consumer. So it was pretty evenly spread.

Speaker 4

And Q1 is when we experienced metal price overlap, which was $16,000,000 this year. So a little bit down because we've been managing the inventory at the end of the year. And they did a really good job kind of managing the timing and the activation around that. So that was only 4 of the $9,000,000 or $10,000,000 that we had in price negative price cost in Q1. We think that will relieve somewhat in Q2 and actually we'll get some positive price cost in metal, which will give us get us to a modest positive in price costs for consumer in the second quarter and we expect that

Operator

I'm showing no further questions. I would now like to hand the call back to Lisa Weeks for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you again for joining us today. If you have any follow-up questions, we'll be around after the call. And please feel free to contact me if you'd like to schedule a follow-up meeting. We look forward to seeing you all on the road at our planned conferences and events in the coming weeks, and we look forward to reporting our 2nd quarter results in early August. With that, please have a great day.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Operator

And this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for

Powered by Quartr

Key Takeaways

  • Q1 Results: Sunoco delivered solid performance with $1.6 billion in net sales, $245 million of adjusted EBITDA (15% margin), $1.12 adjusted EPS above guidance midpoint, $166 million operating cash flow, and $51 million in productivity savings.
  • 5-Year “Next Era” Strategy: Targeting $1.5 billion adjusted EBITDA with high-teens margins, $4 billion–$5 billion cumulative operating cash flow, focused portfolio simplification, disciplined capital allocation, and continued dividend growth.
  • Portfolio Actions: Completed the non-core Protective Solutions divestiture and merged five businesses into a new $1.3 billion-revenue TFP segment to concentrate on niche markets, while acquisitions such as RTS and Innappelle are performing ahead of plan.
  • Sustainability Progress: Published the 2023 corporate sustainability report aligned to GRI, TCFD, and SASB standards, secured a 15-year virtual PPA for 140 MW of wind power (half of U.S. needs), and was named one of America’s Most Trustworthy Companies.
  • Updated Guidance: Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.25–$1.35 and full-year EPS of $5.00–$5.30 (EBITDA $1.05 billion–$1.09 billion), driven by expected volume recovery, improved price-cost dynamics, and continued strong productivity.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Sonoco Products Q1 2024
00:00 / 00:00