CCL Industries Q3 2026 Earnings Results & Report

CCL Industries EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$1.36
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

CCL Industries Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: C$2.22 billion
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

CCL Industries (TSE:CCL.A) Inc manufactures and sells packaging and packaging-related products. The company operates through various segments, which include The CCL segment, which generates the majority of revenue, sells pressure sensitive and extruded film materials used for labels on consumer packaging, healthcare, automotive, and consumer durable products. The Avery segment sells software, labels, tags, dividers, badges, and specialty card products under the Avery brand. The Checkpoint segment includes the manufacturing and selling of technology-driven, inventory management and labeling solutions. Innovia segment manufactures specialty films. Its geographical segments include Canada; USA and Puerto Rico; Mexico, Brazil, Chile & Argentina; Europe; and Asia, Australia, Africa & New Zealand.

CCL Industries Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Q3 sales rose 12.9%, including 6.9% organic growth, while adjusted EPS increased 12.4% to CAD 1.36. Operating income rose 11.3% excluding acquisition-accounting adjustments.
• Positive Sentiment: Performance was strong in several businesses: CCL reported high-single-digit organic growth in North America and Europe, Avery’s direct-to-consumer lines grew at a high-single-digit rate, and RFID inlay production increased at a low-teens rate.
• Negative Sentiment: Management expects CCL Design customers to remain constrained by memory-chip shortages, with PC output demand down sharply and automotive orders also lower. The chip disruption could persist for several quarters into 2027; European Innovia results also face continued channel de-stocking.
• Negative Sentiment: Q3 free cash flow from operations fell to CAD 236.5 million from CAD 333.4 million, mainly due to higher working capital and taxes. Net debt increased by CAD 497.6 million since year-end, and management expects financing costs to rise as the new term loan carries an interest rate of about 4.75%.
• Positive Sentiment: CCL returned CAD 692.1 million to shareholders through September, including CAD 508.1 million of share repurchases and higher dividends. Its board authorized up to CAD 1.2 billion in buybacks over the 12 months beginning March 2026.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, and welcome to the CCL Industries 2026 third quarter investor update. Please note that there will be a question-and-answer session after the call. The moderator for today is Mr. Geoff Martin, President and Chief Executive Officer, and joining him is Mr. Sean Washchuk, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, gentlemen.

[Sean Washchuk, SVP and CFO at CCL Industries]

Thank you, Matt. Good morning, everyone. We are dialed in today from Mexico City, where we just hosted our third quarter Board of Directors meeting, and let us get started. Moving to slide two, I would like to draw everyone's attention to our updated disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements. I will remind everyone that our business faces known and unknown risks and opportunities. For further details of these key risks, please take a look at our 2026 third quarter report and our 2025 annual report, particularly the section Risks and Uncertainties. Our annual and quarterly reports can be found online at the company's website, cclind.com, or at sedarplus.ca. Moving to slide three, our financial summary.

[Sean Washchuk, SVP and CFO at CCL Industries]

For the third quarter of 2026, sales increased 12.9%, with 6.9% organic growth, 3.9% acquisition-related growth, 2.1% positive impact from foreign currency translation, resulting in sales of CAD 2.22 billion compared to approximately CAD 1.97 billion in the third quarter of 2025. Operating income was CAD 356.3 million for the third quarter of 2026, compared to CAD 321.8 million for the third quarter of 2025, an improvement of approximately 8%, excluding currency translation. However, this include CAD 2 million of non-cash acquisition accounting adjustments to fair value, acquired inventory from the Sleever transaction. Excluding this non-cash adjustment, operating income improved 11.3%. Geoff will expand on our segmented operating results for the CCL, Avery, Checkpoint, and Innovia segments shortly. Corporate expenses were up for the 2026 third quarter compared to the prior year third quarter due to higher variable compensation expense and general costs.

[Sean Washchuk, SVP and CFO at CCL Industries]

Consolidated EBITDA for the 2026 third quarter, excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, increased 8% compared to the same period in 2025. Net finance expense was CAD 20.3 million for the third quarter of 2026, higher than the CAD 18.2 million for the third quarter of 2025. The increase is due to higher finance costs on the company's drawn debt and a reduction of finance income on the company's cash and cash equivalents. The overall effective tax rate for the third quarter of 2026 was 27.7%, compared to an effective tax rate of 25.5% recorded in the third quarter of 2025. This is due to an increase in taxable income in higher tax jurisdictions and an increase in withholding tax on repatriated cash from foreign regimes compared to the third quarter of 2025.

[Sean Washchuk, SVP and CFO at CCL Industries]

The effective tax rate may change in future periods depending on the proportion of taxable income earned in different tax jurisdictions with different rates, or if more cash is repatriated from regimes imposing withholding tax to Canadian domicile corporations. Net earnings for the 2026 third quarter was CAD 223.6 million compared to CAD 210.8 million for the third quarter of 2025. For the nine-month period, sales, operating income, and net income increased 7%, 5%, and 2%, excluding currency translation, respectively, compared to the nine-month period in 2025. 2026 included the results from four acquisitions completed since January 1st, 2025, delivering acquisition-related sales growth for the period of 2%, organic growth of 4.6%, and foreign currency translation was a tailwind of 1.7% to sales. Moving to our next slide, earnings per share.

[Sean Washchuk, SVP and CFO at CCL Industries]

Basic and adjusted basic earnings per Class B share were CAD 1.32 and CAD 1.36, respectively, for the 2026 third quarter, compared to CAD 1.21 basic and adjusted basic earnings per Class B share in the 2025 third quarter. Adjusted earnings per Class B share increased 12.4% compared to the third quarter of 2025. A 15% increase in adjusted basic earnings per share was primarily driven by improved operating income of CAD 0.12, share count reduction accounted for CAD 0.04, and there was a CAD 0.04 positive impact from foreign currency translation. This was partially offset by higher income tax rate, increased net finance costs, and higher corporate expenses, summing to CAD 0.05. Moving to our next slide, free cash flow from operations. For the third quarter of 2026, free cash flow from operations was an inflow of CAD 236.5 million compared to an inflow of CAD 333.4 million posted for the third quarter of 2025.

[Sean Washchuk, SVP and CFO at CCL Industries]

The decrease is principally due to an improved earnings offset by an increase in working capital and an increase in taxes paid for the third quarter of 2026 compared to the prior year third quarter. For the trailing 12 months, our free cash flow from operations remains very strong. Moving to our next slide, returns to shareholders. During the first nine months of 2026, the company moved from a discretionary share buyback to an automatic securities purchase plan that commenced March 2nd, 2026. Year-to-date, September 30th, 2026, the company repurchased 5.7 million shares for CAD 508.1 million. In addition, during the blackout period starting October 1st to yesterday, the company also repurchased 1.3 million shares for CAD 128.1 million.

[Sean Washchuk, SVP and CFO at CCL Industries]

Including the 12.5% increase in the 2026 annual dividend announced in February 2026, dividends paid year-to-date amounted to CAD 184 million, for a total of CAD 692.1 million returned to shareholders, including the aforementioned buyback. It is the company's expectation that more will be returned to shareholders in 2026, as the automatic share repurchase plan is active in the market daily, including blackout periods when the company was not permitted to make purchases in 2025 under its discretionary buyback plan. I'll remind everyone, our board of directors has authorized us, commencing March 2nd, 2026, to spend up to CAD 1.2 billion over that 12-month period on share buybacks. Moving to the next slide, our cash and debt summary. Net debt as at September 30th, 2026, was CAD 1.76 billion, an increase of CAD 497.6 million compared to December 31st, 2025.

[Sean Washchuk, SVP and CFO at CCL Industries]

The increase is principally a result of higher total debt outstanding due to CapEx, business acquisitions, and our share buyback plan. Despite the increase in the company's net debt, the balance sheet closed the quarter in a strong position. Our balance sheet leverage ratio was 1.03x at September 30, 2026, up from 0.78x reported at December 31, 2025. Early in July 2026, the company signed a delayed draw syndicated term loan for CAD 500+ million. This term loan was accessed subsequent to the quarter end on October 1 to repay the $500 million in bonds falling due on this due date. The term loan bears interest at SOFR plus 85 basis points. CCL's current liquidity remains strong, with $0.7 billion of undrawn debt capacity and cash on hand of CAD 1 billion.

[Sean Washchuk, SVP and CFO at CCL Industries]

The company's overall average finance rate was 2.6% at September 30, 2026, up slightly from 2.5% at December 31, 2025. This reflected an increase in our variable drawn debt in the first nine months of this year. Finance costs should increase in future quarters as the company's new syndicated term loan bears interest currently at approximately 4.75%. The company's balance sheet continues to be well-positioned as we move through the balance of 2026 and into 2027. Geoff, over to you.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Thank you, Sean. Good morning, everybody. I am on slide eight. Highlights for capital spending for the year, CAD 302 million spent far through Q3. That is quite a gap to the CAD 470 million that we plan to spend this year, I would estimate we will probably undershoot by something in the range of CAD 30 million-CAD 50 million, and we will see how that pans out at the end of Q4. Slide nine, highlights for CCL, very strong organic growth. High-single digits in North America and Europe, mid-single digit in Latin America, low single digit in Asia Pacific, influenced by CCL Design, which I will talk about in a minute. Good profitability gains at healthcare and especially at food and beverage. Solid results in home and personal care for labels, but our aluminum container profitability fell on swings in metal costs.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

CCL Design was impacted by unprecedented memory chip inflation, which really hurt some of our customers, and supply availability of chips for the whole electronics industry in Asia has become quite a topic du jour. And we had tough comps from an unusually strong prior year at CCL Secure. Slide 10, highlights for Avery. Strong-organic growth again in the direct-to-consumer product lines, especially in the U.S. A very smooth back-to-school season in North America, absent of many of the issues and challenges we faced in Q3 last year. And a stable quarter in the horticulture, even though it is a seasonally low period. Slide 11, highlights for Checkpoint. The MAS, merchandise availability business, had a solid quarter, despite difficult comps from some large retailer rollouts last year of new technology, which gave us quite a hurdle to overcome, but we just about did it.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

The apparel label business improved modestly as industry demand recovered. RFID growth continues quite nicely. Slide 12, Innovia. 24% change in sales rate here. I can tell you about half of that is volume-driven. The other half is price and mix. It is certainly not entirely a volume story. But we had very good results in Poland as EcoFloat continued to gain share, and other label films growth continued. Very, very good performance in the Americas. I am going to visit the main plant in Mexico here on Friday. Internal productivity initiatives really helped improve our profitability mix. European results were impacted by the corrective de-stocking in the pressure-sensitive materials industry channel, following the demand spike in Q2 caused by the events in the Middle East. We expect that to continue some in Q4, and our German startup losses narrowed modestly.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Slide 13, outlook for the next quarter. Core CCL segment orders in home and personal care, healthcare, and food and beverage, and our core CCL label businesses are stable. But our CCL Design business, and particularly its customers, will be further impacted by the memory chip supply crisis in what is normally a peak season for customer demand. It is really a supply issue. It is not about end-use market demand. It is really about the ability of our OEM customers to build enough inventory to supply the market. Avery and Checkpoint both face strong comps in Q4. In Avery, you should see similar demand patterns as Q3, albeit December is a very short month. EcoFloat growth is continuing. Good results in the Americas would also continue. But we will have the ongoing effect of the de-stocking events in Europe to deal with.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

FX should be a modest plus in the coming quarter. With that, operator, we would like to open the call for questions.

[Operator]

Certainly. Everyone at this time, we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone at this time. We do ask that while posing your question, please pick up your handset if you are listening on speakerphone to provide optimum sound quality. Once again, if you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone. Our first question is coming from Ahmed Abdullah from National Bank. Your line is live.

[Ahmed Abdullah, Analyst at National Bank]

Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking my question. My first question's on the CCL segment. You've delivered solid organic growth despite a somewhat softer consumer backdrop. Can you give us a bit more color? How much of that came from volume versus pricing here, and what are you seeing early in the fourth quarter around that dynamic?

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Well, it's very difficult to measure volume and price in this part of our business. There's too many transactions and too many different natures. I can tell you the strong businesses in the quarter were healthcare and specialty, food and beverage. The label side of the home and personal care business was also strong. CCL Design impacted by soft automotive and electronics markets, impacted by the chip problem. And we had tough comparability at CCL Secure.

[Ahmed Abdullah, Analyst at National Bank]

Okay, that's fair. And just touching on the Sleever integration, it's your first full quarter here. How are the margins tracking against your acquisition assumptions here? And any operational changes that you can give us some color on and how that's going to bring in some associated savings?

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

It's early days yet. It's only a few months since we've owned this company. And certainly, the impact on our P&L was pretty modest in the quarter because we had all the acquisition accounting effect of eliminating profit on finished goods inventory that we acquired. So, marginal gains in profitability this quarter, that will eventually phase out. And we've taken some actions to cut costs in a number of areas. But far, we're pretty pleased. And the underlying financial performance is pretty much in line with expectations.

[Ahmed Abdullah, Analyst at National Bank]

Okay, that's fair. Just one final one, housekeeping. Tariff refunds in the quarter, can you quantify how much that contributed to overall EBITDA?

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Handfuls of millions of dollars.

[Ahmed Abdullah, Analyst at National Bank]

All right. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question's coming from Hamir Patel from CIBC Capital Markets. Your line is live.

[Hamir Patel, Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

Hi, good morning. Geoff, you've seen organic growth north of mid-single digits for the last two quarters. Do you see that level of organic growth being sustained in Q4 and into 2027?

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Well, we just don't know. I mean, your guess is as good as mine. The consumer environment, as we all know, is quite challenging, the affordability crisis. We see some parts of the world doing well, and we see some parts of the world struggling a bit, and that's across all the commentary in the CPG space, you hear that. Europe gets called out by a lot of companies as being slightly weaker than other parts of the world. Developed markets are generally considered to be less good than emerging markets, emerging market strength has been a feature of why I think some businesses held up in the consumer space pretty well. How sustainable it is and what happens in the future, given all that's going on in the world, who knows? But for now, this is what we have.

[Hamir Patel, Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

Okay. Thanks for your help. Just turning to CCL Design, from a volume standpoint, just given the memory chip shortages, how are volumes tracking with those customers? You referenced weakness on the auto side as well, if you could speak to maybe how volumes are faring on that side of CCL Design.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Yeah. It's very difficult in the PC sector. We hear demand reports. Well, supply, it's not really demand. I'm sure these companies are being overwhelmed by people in their distribution channels for wanting to get product. But the output demand is down well into double digits, high teens, 20% in the PC space. It's also, inflation has become a factor. So, when you have inflation in memory chips, you look for cost savings in other areas. So, those customers have been a lot more demanding about pricing than they have been in more recent quarters because of that. So, it's a double-edged sword. We know that demand will improve. We know that some chip supply products will become available in 2027. How soon we'll be able to deal with this crisis in a meaningful way is not clear.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Some of our customers say it is likely to continue for a few quarters into next year, but this is a pretty fast-moving space, and we will just have to wait and see what really unfolds. But it has been part of an unpleasant surprise in that part of our business.

[Hamir Patel, Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

Okay. On the auto side?

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Well, the orders are down because they all run just-in-time manufacturing, our orders are a reflection not of their consumer demand, but a reflection of what they can make. Orders in that space are down.

[Hamir Patel, Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

Right. Okay. Just the last question I had, Sean, how are you thinking about CapEx in 2027? Any major organic projects worth highlighting?

[Sean Washchuk, SVP and CFO at CCL Industries]

It'll be in the neighborhood of CAD 470 million, give or take. We're going through our budget process now, it's a good question for us at the end of Q4 if we have any major projects to take on next year.

[Hamir Patel, Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

Okay, fair enough. Thanks. That's all I had. I'll turn it over.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question is coming from Sean Steuart from TD Cowen. Your line is live.

[Sean Steuart, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Couple questions with respect to the outlook. You referenced strong Q4 comps for Avery and Checkpoint, and Avery would seemingly make sense, but Checkpoint last year, Q4 2025, organic sales were down 8.1%. That looks like an easier comp. Just wondering, Geoff, if you can clarify the outlook for Checkpoint.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Yeah.

[Sean Steuart, Analyst at TD Cowen]

For the fourth quarter.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

The problem last year was all in the apparel industry. So, the comp challenge for us has really been more in the MAS space, where we have hardware business, and that's where we faced tough comps.

[Sean Steuart, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Okay, understood. You referenced stable demand for the core CCL segment, excluding design, and for Innovia. When you say stable, is that meant to reflect steady year-over-year or quarter-over-quarter trends, or both? Just trying to qualify exactly what you're referencing there.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Stable means stable.

[Sean Steuart, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Okay. Then, just lastly, with Sleever and the other acquisition fully integrated, and obviously with a lot of flexibility in the balance sheet, can you give updated perspective on what the M&A pipeline looks like and your appetite for more deals?

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Well, we always have an appetite, but we are a disciplined buyer, we will have to wait and see how things unfold. We did not predict we would have bought Sleever International this time last year, but strange things happen in life. If you are patient and disciplined, good things eventually come.

[Sean Steuart, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Understood. Okay, that is all I have for now. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question is coming from David McFadgen from ATB. Your line is live.

[David McFadgen, Analyst at ATB]

Oh, great. Yeah, thank you. A couple questions. Just on the RFID growth, I was wondering if you could give us a little more detail. Was it low-single digit, mid-single digit? And then could you give us just an update on the size of your RFID business right now—

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Sorry, David, your voice is very muffled. We can't hear you. Could you repeat the question?

[David McFadgen, Analyst at ATB]

Is this better? Hello?

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Yeah, we can just about hear you.

[David McFadgen, Analyst at ATB]

Okay. Sorry. I guess I have a bad connection. Just on RFID, I was just wondering if you could clarify what the growth is. Is it low single digit, mid-single digit? Then can you just give us an update on the size of your RFID business? I think before it was around CAD 250 million-CAD 270 million. I am just wondering where that stands right now.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Is the question about RFID?

[David McFadgen, Analyst at ATB]

Yeah, exactly. Yes.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Yeah. RFID hasn't been a material change in the size of our business. It is certainly up from last year. I can tell you that our production of inlays, which is probably the clearest indication we can give you, our production of inlays is up low double digits. Low teens.

[David McFadgen, Analyst at ATB]

Okay. Okay. Just on Avery, the direct-to-consumer growth, can you quantify that just approximately? Was it mid-single digit or high-single digit?

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

High-single digit.

[David McFadgen, Analyst at ATB]

Okay. All right. That is it for me. Thank you.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Okay.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question is coming from Nevan Yochim from BMO. Your line is live.

[Nevan Yochim, Analyst at BMO]

Good morning. Nevan Yochim filling in for Steve today. Just wanted to ask on the CCL margins, hoping you can unpack some of the compression we saw in Q3. Was the primary driver the higher inflationary pass-throughs or some of the challenges you saw in CCL Design? Would you expect margins to remain down year-over-year as we move into Q4?

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

There were two impacts in the quarter that really affected margin. One is the first part of your question, the pass-through of the aluminum cost in container. We had some challenges with that in the quarter. The other one was the profit swing. We had a very good mix quarter at CCL Secure last year. If you look at CCL Secure this year and last year, quite a gap. If you amalgamate the two together, the difference is about 110 basis points from those two issues.

[Nevan Yochim, Analyst at BMO]

Okay, thank you. Are those issues continuing into Q4? Would we expect another decline year-over-year?

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Yeah. CCL Secure has always been a business that varies quarter-to-quarter, sometimes you get these comps. I mean, it was a pretty big swing this quarter because last year's Q3 was unusually strong. That was really what the driver was.

[Nevan Yochim, Analyst at BMO]

Okay, got it. On the Innovia segment, with the revenue growth in the quarter, can you quantify how much of that would have been from volumes relative to pricing? Just what you are seeing so far.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

A little under half is volume, and the rest is pricing and mix.

[Nevan Yochim, Analyst at BMO]

Okay.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Mix was quite a considerable impact, especially in the Americas. In Europe, the revenue gains we had in Europe were more driven by pricing, passed on higher resin costs.

[Nevan Yochim, Analyst at BMO]

On the Innovia margins, can you unpack some of the drivers in Q3? It felt like there was a couple of factors there, just the sustainability of the margin expansion into Q4.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Well, Q4 is a short quarter in that business, it is never as good as Q3. We typically have a shutdown in the plants in the December month, it is always a shorter quarter than Q3. I think we have given you some color in the outlook, and we do not have much more to say than that, really.

[Nevan Yochim, Analyst at BMO]

Okay. Thanks for taking the questions.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

No problem.

[Operator]

Thank you. Once again, everyone, if you have any questions or comments, please press star, then one on your phone. Our next question is coming from Carol Adu-Bobie from Scotiabank. Your line is live.

[Carol Adu-Bobie, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Good morning. This is Carol Adu-Bobie for Jonathan Goldman from Scotiabank. Thanks for taking my question. Have you noticed any trade-down given the tougher consumer spending environment, and has this impacted the label business?

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

We haven't seen much impact from trading down. The one area I would say we've seen some significant issues is in the wine and spirits category. It's not a particularly large business for us, but we know there's quite a bit of trade-down activity happening in that space, which has become quite challenged. Beyond that, certainly in the home and personal care sector, we don't see that. In parts of our food and beverage business in Europe, we've got some private label customers there, supplying retailers like Aldi, that they're doing quite well. I wouldn't say we've seen any big issues affecting us from that trend in consumer behavior.

[Carol Adu-Bobie, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. Thank you for the color. Just a quick follow-up. I know you previously mentioned that you continue to be disciplined on M&A. I just wanted to get your take on, have you seen any change in seller expectations?

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Your line is breaking up a little bit. I think I missed the last part of your question.

[Carol Adu-Bobie, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Can you hear me now?

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Yeah.

[Carol Adu-Bobie, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. On M&A, I wanted to follow up on the previous question to ask whether you've seen any change in seller expectations.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

All right. I would say the private equity world, the era of double-digit multiples in our industry space for small private equity transactions seems to have elapsed, which is for our industry a good thing. We've seen private equity multiples come down as interest rates have gone up. That's a good thing as far as we're concerned. But memories are long. People who looked at selling their business in 2023 and being told we could get 10x, 11x, 12x EBITDA don't want to hear about, "We now would like to pay seven." I think it needs a little more time to elapse before some of that materializes into, "Well, this is the new world we live in.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

If we want to sell our company, we have to do it." On the other hand, certainly the Sleever transaction that we executed earlier this year, if it had been two years prior to that, we would never have been able to have bought that business for the price we paid in the market conditions of two or three years ago.

[Carol Adu-Bobie, Analyst at Scotiabank]

I appreciate the color. Thanks for taking my question.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

No problem.

[Operator]

Thank you. That concludes our Q&A session. I will now hand the conference back to Mr. Geoff Martin for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

[Geoff Martin, President and CEO at CCL Industries]

Well, thank you for joining us, everybody, and we look forward to hearing from you early in the new year.

[Operator]

Thank you. Everyone, this concludes today's event. You may disconnect at this time, and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.

Participants

Executives

• Sean Washchuk, SVP and CFO
• Geoff Martin, President and CEO

Analysts

• Ahmed Abdullah, Analyst at National Bank
• Hamir Patel, Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets
• Sean Steuart, Analyst at TD Cowen
• David McFadgen, Analyst at ATB
• Nevan Yochim, Analyst at BMO
• Carol Adu-Bobie, Analyst at Scotiabank