AptarGroup Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
July 31, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Neutral Sentiment: AptarGroup reported record quarterly sales of approximately $1 billion, up 6% year over year, while core sales rose 1%. Adjusted EBITDA fell 3% to $213 million and adjusted EPS declined 15% to $1.42, reflecting product mix, operational challenges, higher depreciation, interest expense, and taxes.
  • Positive Sentiment: Pharma remained the strongest business, with core sales up 8% excluding the anticipated emergency-medicine decline. Injectables grew 9% on demand for components used in GLP-1 therapies, biologics, and vaccines, while consumer healthcare rose 15% on strength in nasal, eye-care, and dermal applications.
  • Negative Sentiment: Emergency-medicine destocking is expected to reduce 2026 sales by approximately $65 million; two-thirds of the impact occurred in the first half, with most of the remaining decline expected in the third quarter. Beauty and Closures margins also declined year over year due to lower volumes, unfavorable mix, production-line ramp-up, and maintenance issues, although both businesses improved sequentially.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management expects third-quarter adjusted EPS of $1.45 to $1.53 and believes margins should improve as emergency-medicine pressure eases, Beauty’s delayed cost pass-through is resolved, and Closures’ operational issues abate. The company maintained its 2026 capital-investment outlook of $260 million to $280 million and ended the quarter with a 1.49 leverage ratio.
  • Positive Sentiment: Aptar highlighted growth opportunities in biologics, GLP-1 delivery, nasal therapies, next-generation inhalers, N-Sorb nitrosamine mitigation, and integrated injectable-system validation. CEO-designate Gaël Touya will assume leadership on September 1, with priorities centered on profitable growth, execution, and disciplined capital allocation.
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Earnings Conference Call
AptarGroup Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

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Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Aptar's 2026 second quarter results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. Introducing today's conference call is Mrs. Mary Skafidas, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications. Please go ahead.

Mary Skafidas
SVP of Investor Relations and Communications at Aptar

Hello, everyone, thanks for being with us today. Joining me on today's call are Stephan Tanda, our President and CEO, Vanessa Kanu, Executive Vice President and CFO, and Gael Touya, our CEO Designate and President of Aptar Pharma. Our press release and accompanying slide deck have been posted on our website under the Investor Relations page. During this call, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures are reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, and the reconciliations are set forth in the press release. Please refer to the press release disseminated yesterday for the reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measure discussed during this earnings call. As always, we will post a replay of this call on our website. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Stephan.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Thank you, Mary, good morning, everyone. As many of you know, this is my final earnings call as CEO of Aptar before I will retire later this year. It has been a tremendous honor to lead this company and work alongside our talented teams around the world. I'm incredibly proud of what we have accomplished together and confident that Aptar is well-positioned for continued success. With Gael Touya assuming the role of President and CEO on September 1, I am assured in the future success of the company and excited as a shareholder. Gael and I have worked closely together throughout this transition for much of the last decade. I know Aptar will greatly benefit from his deep experience, leadership, vision. Gael is joining us on the call today and will be sharing our outlook towards the end of the call.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

On a personal note, leading Aptar has been the greatest privilege of my career. What I will remember most is not any single accomplishment, but the people I've had the opportunity to work alongside, the relationships I have built with employees, customers, the investment community, and partners around the world. I have always believed that great companies are built by great people, Aptar is fortunate to have an exceptional team, a strong culture founded in performance and purpose, a consistent focus on execution, innovation, agility, and value creation. While there is always more work to do, I believe Aptar is entering its next chapter from a position of strength. I am excited about the future under Gael's leadership and remain confident in the company's ability to deliver profitable growth, create long-term value for shareholders. Now, back to the business at hand.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Let me begin my earnings remarks by highlighting our second quarter results. Later in the call, our CFO, Vanessa Kanu, will provide additional details on the key drivers for the quarter. I am pleased to report that all three of our segments delivered positive sales growth during the quarter, and we delivered adjusted EPS results above our guidance range, due in part to better-than-expected Pharma performance. The Pharma segment continued to perform well, driven by strong demand across our injectables, consumer healthcare, and prescription businesses, highlighting the strengths of our innovation-led portfolio and the dedication of our teams around the world. We saw continued momentum in injectables, supported by demand for elastomeric components used for biologics, vaccines, and GLP-1 therapies, which according to a recent survey, showed that 11% of Americans are currently taking GLP-1 for weight loss, up from just 3% in 2024.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Consumer healthcare benefited from strong nasal decongestion and eye care solution sales. Prescriptions saw growth in central nervous system therapeutics and asthma COPD applications, which helped offset the anticipated destocking-related decline in emergency medicines. Beyond Pharma, Beauty benefited from double-digit core sales growth in prestige fragrance, while Closures saw strong beverage demand, particularly in bottled water. Operational performance in both segments improved progressively from the first quarter. Shifting gears from performance highlights, I want to spend a few minutes discussing how we continue to strengthen the pipeline and long-term growth of Pharma. Beyond our core delivery systems, we continue to expand the capabilities we bring to customers across formulation development, analytical services, regulatory support, and patient engagement. A few good examples include the patent applications we announced during the quarter related to inhaled and nasal GLP-1 therapies.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

While these programs remain in the early stages, they build on formulation expertise that we currently provide to customers and demonstrate our continued exploration of capabilities that could create future growth opportunities in the delivery of biologics and other high-value therapeutic areas. Turning to active material science, our U.S. patent application for N-Sorb has been approved. N-Sorb is designed to address unacceptably high levels of nitrosamine impurities in pharmaceutical products. The FDA has issued guidance on nitrosamine, its predicted carcinogenic potency categorization, and recommendations on when a manufacturer should recall a product. As a first-of-its-kind packaging-delivered solution, Aptar's N-Sorb technology is intended to give pharmaceutical companies a new tool to reduce risk, meet regulatory demands, and deliver safer products. Additionally, we announced a collaborative system framework for injectable therapies, providing customers with earlier insight into assembled system performance for injectable therapies.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

These expanded capabilities help customers make more informed development decisions, better manage risk, accelerate development timelines, and address the expectation of the United States Pharmacopeia. Taken together, these investments continue to advance our strategy, focusing all the way from drug formulation to the patient and deepen our role in the pharmaceutical development process. During the quarter, we also saw several milestones that reinforced the strength of our core pulmonary, nasal, and injectable delivery platforms. In respiratory health, products utilizing Aptar technologies received FDA approvals across both rescue and maintenance therapies for asthma and COPD, further validating the performance and regulatory track record of our pressurized metered-dose inhaler, or pMDI, platform. Chiesi received approval from the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for the world's first pMDI utilizing HFA-152a, one of the next-generation propellants with low global warming potential.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

This achievement is particularly meaningful because in 2023, Aptar was selected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct research on next-generation propellant pMDIs through our Nanopharm business, recognizing our deep expertise in inhaled drug delivery. It is encouraging to see the first approval with this new propellant come to market, helping expand patient access to essential respiratory therapies while helping to reduce environmental impact. We continue to see growing interest in nasal delivery across a widening range of therapeutic areas. A recent example is Eli Lilly's announced acquisition of AtaiBeckley, centered on an intranasal therapy for treatment-resistant depression that has received the FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation, and the program has begun initiating phase III trials. We believe this highlights and confirms a broader trend we have been discussing for some time now.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Nasal delivery is increasingly being explored not only in allergy, migraine, and emergency medicines, but also in central nervous system disorders, where rapid onset and direct access to the central nervous system may provide meaningful therapeutic advantages. One of the most significant developments during the quarter was the FDA's update to multiple product-specific guidance documents for generic inhaled therapies. These changes remove certain requirements, including certain clinical studies and bioequivalence testing, representing a significant shift in the FDA's expectations for generic pMDI development. We believe this is a positive development for Aptar, as the streamlined requirements should help bring more generic inhaled products to market more efficiently, while also highlighting the value of the scientific expertise and data generated through our collaboration with the FDA.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Moving to Beauty, we continue to focus on premiumization, differentiated consumer experiences, and dispensing technologies that help our customers stand out in the increasingly competitive categories. We had the first commercial launch of our auto-loading dosing dropper technology for Dermalogica's FutureCode Booster skincare product. This technology features an auto-loading dropper cap, which fills the applicator with the same dose after each use and addresses consumer needs around dosage control, convenience, and clean usage. I also want to highlight that a new range of fragrances by French Corner have launched in the Middle East market featuring our prestige fragrance pump. Lastly, in Closures, recent launches showcase our ability to improve convenience, functionality, and the overall consumer experience through differentiated dispensing solutions. Heinz is featuring our Tab Top closure for clean, convenient, directional dispensing on its new line of flavorful dipping sauces in North America.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

In China, our Closures with SimpliSqueeze valve is being used for easy, one-handed, spill-free hydration on the go. In terms of sustainability, there are several notable recent accolades to touch on. Aptar was named a CDP supplier engagement leader for the sixth consecutive year. This assessment highlights companies that are engaging their suppliers on climate change and supporting efforts to address emissions throughout the value chain. We have also been named one of the world's most sustainable companies by Time for the third consecutive year, and we have been named among the magazine's top 100 America's Best Companies. This inaugural list highlights top U.S.-based companies during the nation's 250th anniversary. The America's Best Companies 2026 ranking identified the top-performing companies based on employee satisfaction, financial performance, as well as sustainability performance and transparency.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Aptar is ranked within the top five companies nationwide in the engineering, manufacturing, and medical technology category and is ranked in the top 10 companies nationwide for sustainability and transparency. I also want to provide an update on litigation. Recently, the court issued a favorable ruling for Aptar in our litigation against ARS Pharmaceuticals related to Aptar's proprietary nasal drug delivery technology and confidential manufacturing know-how. The court granted our motion to amend the complaint to maintain our state law trade secret misappropriation claim and denied ARS' motion to dismiss the remaining claims. We were also pleased that the court transferred the later filed California action brought by ARS to New York under the first-to-file rule, ensuring the related matters will proceed in a single jurisdiction. The litigation remains ongoing, and the next phase will allow us to further develop the factual record.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Overall, we view this decision as a positive step, allowing Aptar to continue pursuing the claims at the heart of the case and reinforcing the importance of protecting the intellectual property, technical expertise, and manufacturing know-how that differentiate us in the marketplace. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Vanessa to provide additional details.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

Thank you, Stephan, and good morning, everyone. Let me begin by summarizing the highlights for the quarter. Our reported sales increased 6% to approximately $1 billion, a new quarterly record, and core sales, which adjust for currency effects and acquisitions, increased 1% compared to the prior year. We achieved adjusted EBITDA of $213 million, a decrease of 3% from the prior year, and adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.7% compared to 22.6% in the prior year, primarily due to less favorable product mix and ongoing operational challenges in Beauty and Closures that have progressively improved since the beginning of the year. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.42 compared to the prior year's adjusted earnings per share of $1.68 at comparable exchange rates. Before moving to segment performance, I'd like to briefly address the higher input costs experienced since the start of the recent conflict in the Middle East.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

As anticipated, we experienced higher input costs during the quarter, which we largely offset through customer passthroughs, with some timing lag in Beauty. As we look beyond Q2, we continue to monitor the situation closely and will also continue to take appropriate pricing actions to offset higher costs where necessary. With that, let's turn to our Pharma segment's results. Pharma core sales increased 1%, impacted by the anticipated decline in emergency medicine. As previously discussed, emergency medicine sales are expected to decrease by approximately $65 million in FY 2026. Approximately two-thirds of this decline has already been incurred in the first half of the year, with the majority of that having been in the second quarter, as we had anticipated. The remaining one-third is expected in the second half of the year and primarily in the third quarter.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

We continue to expect that the year-over-year headwind will abate by the fourth quarter. Excluding emergency medicine, core sales in our Aptar Pharma segment grew by 8% in the quarter, demonstrating resilience of the portfolio. Let me break that down by market, starting with our proprietary drug delivery systems. Prescription core sales decreased 7%. Excluding emergency medicine, prescription core sales increased 8%. Central nervous system and asthma COPD therapeutics were drivers of growth in the quarter. Consumer healthcare core sales increased 15% due to strong demand for nasal decongestant, eye care, and dermal solutions, supported also by strong tooling sales. Injectables core sales increased 9%, with strong demand primarily for elastomeric components used for GLP-1, biologics, and vaccines. Services also contributed positively in the quarter, we continue to see strong pipeline build for Annex I, GLP-1, and biologics projects.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

For our Active Material Science Solutions, core sales decreased 2% in the quarter. Growth in probiotics and oral solid dose sales partially offset the decline in diabetes test strips, which reflected customer inventory normalization following robust growth in the prior year. Pharma's adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 33.6%, a 180 basis point decline from the prior year. The margin decline was anticipated and driven by short-term unfavorable product mix, primarily due to the decline in high-margin emergency medicine sales. While royalties and productivity initiatives continue to positively impact margins. Excluding emergency medicine, the adjusted EBITDA margin for the segment would have improved year-over-year. Moving to our Beauty segment, core sales increased 1% as demand for beauty dispensing systems and the passthrough of higher input costs more than compensated for lower tooling sales.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

Looking at the two largest end markets for Beauty, fragrance, facial skincare, and color cosmetics core sales increased 2%, primarily due to strong sales growth for prestige fragrance pumps and color cosmetics. Our turnkey indie beauty business also continues to perform well, benefiting from the growth of indie brands, which continue to capture consumer interest across the beauty market. Personal care core sales were flat. Applications for hair care continued to show good demand but did not offset lower tooling sales from the prior year. Beauty's adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 12.2%, which, while improved sequentially from the prior quarter, represented a decline of 190 basis points year-over-year. This was primarily attributed to lower product volumes, unfavorable mix, and the timing of rest and passthroughs. Moving to the Closure segment, core sales increased 4% compared to the prior year.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

Strong volume growth, particularly in beverages and the passthrough of higher input costs, more than compensated for lower tooling sales. Looking at the two largest end markets for Closures, food core sales decreased 1%, primarily due to lower tooling sales, which was partially offset by continued demand for our sauces and condiment dispensing closures. This end market also faced a challenging comparison from the prior year period of double-digit growth. Beverage core sales increased 14%, primarily driven by increased sales of bottled water and functional sports drinks. The segment's adjusted EBITDA margin was 14.9%, a 200 basis point decline over the prior year. These results were temporarily impacted by the ramp-up of new production lines and by a previously reported maintenance initiative that continues to make sequential progress.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

Selling, research and development, and administrative costs, or SG&A, increased in absolute dollars, largely due to currency effects and the impact of acquisitions. Excluding currency effects and acquisitions, SG&A dollars were flat year-over-year. SG&A as a percentage of sales decreased from 15.6% in Q2 2025 to 15.4% in Q2 2026, a 20 basis point reduction year-over-year. These amounts include approximately $4 million in legal expenses for non-ordinary course litigation, which did not exist in the prior year period. As I noted earlier, adjusted earnings per share of $1.42 were down 15% year-over-year at comparable exchange rates. This was due to lower sales of emergency medicine products in Pharma, operational issues in Beauty and Closures, as well as higher depreciation and amortization expenses associated with our capital investments and acquisitions. Interest expense also increased from higher interest rates and a higher average debt balance.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

Our adjusted effective tax rate for the quarter was 23.7% compared to the prior year's 20%. In the prior year period, the tax rate benefited from the realization of a deferred tax benefit, as well as greater excess tax benefits from share-based compensation. Moving to our year-to-date performance, reported sales increased 8% and core sales increased 1%. Strong growth in consumer healthcare and injectables offset the emergency medicine destocking, while Beauty and Closures also saw growth on a year-to-date basis. Adjusted EBITDA remained consistent at $401 million, while adjusted EBITDA margin decreased by 170 basis points to 20%. Adjusted earnings per share decreased 12% to $2.61 compared to the prior year period, including comparable exchange rates. Free cash flow year-to-date increased by $8 million to $99 million, comprising cash from operations of $222 million, less capital expenditures, net of government grants of $123 million.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

Over the last six months, the company has returned $212 million to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. So far this year, we have repurchased 1.1 million shares for $150 million. Finally, we ended the quarter with a cash balance of $190 million, net debt of $1.2 billion, and a leverage ratio of 1.49x, reflecting a very strong balance sheet. Now on to our outlook for Q3. We anticipate third quarter adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $1.45-$1.53. This assumes an effective tax rate range of 22.5%-24.5% and a euro to U.S. dollar exchange rate of $1.14. For full year 2026, we continue to expect capital investments to be in the range of $260 million-$280 million, and depreciation and amortization expense to be between $310 million and $320 million.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

Before I hand the call over to Gael, I want to take a moment to address Stephan. Stephan, it has been a pleasure to partner with you during an important chapter in Aptar's history. I joined Aptar because of its unique strengths, a rich history, a strong foundation that you have helped to build, its culture and values, and importantly, the robust opportunities that lie ahead. I've enjoyed working with you and appreciate your partnership. Stephan, thank you for your leadership, your contributions to Aptar, and the solid foundation you leave for the future. We wish you and your family all the best in retirement, and don't be a stranger. With that, I will turn it over to Gael to provide a few closing comments before we move to Q&A.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

Thank you, Vanessa. As I prepare to assume the role of CEO on September 1st, I do so with great confidence in Aptar's future. We expect growth across all three segments, supported by strong broad-based demand in Pharma across injectables and consumer healthcare and prescription applications, excluding emergency medicine, as well as continued momentum in Closures and improving trends in Beauty. Before we open the call for questions, I'd like to take a moment to recognize Stephan on his final earnings call as CEO of Aptar. Over the past nine years, Stephan has led Aptar through a period of significant transformation, strengthening our position in Pharma, expanding our global footprint, advancing our innovation capabilities, and reinforcing our leadership in sustainability. He leaves Aptar a stronger company with a robust pipeline of opportunities, leading market position, and an exceptional team that is well-positioned for the future.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

On behalf of our employees, customers, shareholders, and board of directors, I want to thank Stephan for his leadership, partnership, and dedication to Aptar. It has been a privilege to work alongside him, and I'm grateful for the strong foundation he leaves behind. Now, I'd like to open up the call for Q&A.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Operator, I think we are ready for questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. In the interest of time and fairness to all participants, please limit yourself to two questions and then come back into the queue if you have more questions, as time allows. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. The first question comes from the line of George Staphos with Bank of America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

George Staphos
George Staphos
Analyst at Bank of America

Hi, everyone. Good morning. Thanks for the details. Gael, congratulations again to you. Stephan, it's been an absolute pleasure covering Aptar the time that you've been CEO. Not many CEOs can move as deftly from tachycardia to the latest in ketchup squeeze technology, or have the buy side or sell side taking over unders on the references to systemic nasal drug delivery references on the call, but you've done a great job. No matter the rating, you've helped to reinvigorate the growth at Aptar. You're on the front foot and remain so on sustainability, and you built and continue to build a great bench, so congratulations and enjoy retirement, Stephan. Best of luck to you. In terms of my questions, first of all, it looks like some have noted some weakness in the Brazilian market. Have you seen that at all relevant to your beauty or personal care business?

George Staphos
George Staphos
Analyst at Bank of America

I want to stay on Beauty and Closures. I know there's been improvement, Beauty has, in particular, lagged in improvement for a number of periods. When should we, and Gael, obviously feel free to step in here, too, when are we going to see Beauty actually be a sustained grower, both of volume and earnings? Thank you, guys. Hello?

George Staphos
George Staphos
Analyst at Bank of America

Is there a second question? Are they responding? Are they talking?

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

George, can you hear us now? Oops, sorry. I hung up.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

You hung up here?

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Yeah. Why have we hung up here?

Operator

We are experiencing some technical difficulties.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Can you hear me now? Hello?

George Staphos
George Staphos
Analyst at Bank of America

We can hear you.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

All right. Sorry about that. I'm sure there will be an after-action report. George, I did hear your very nice comments. Thank you for that. Much appreciated. On your questions, yes, we've experienced also weak sales in Brazil. This is often a feast, famine cycle. There are really two main customers that trade shares. We experienced quite some weakness in Brazil. On your larger questions, if I zoom out, certainly there's always more to do, and certainly the beauty bottom line performance, in particular, is something that's left to do for Gael. As you remember, it's a story of two halves or three hemispheres. On the one hand, we're very proud with the turnaround we've achieved in Europe. I won't repeat all the things we did with shutting down plants, improving cost base, and Europe is firmly in the target range.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Asia has done very well and is well above that. We have fallen short in the Americas for different reasons. We've fallen short in North America and still wrestling with operational issues. Now came this Brazil situation. With respect to the future, the time certain, I certainly made the mistake of giving a time certain. I leave it to you now, Gael.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

Yeah, the one comment I will make, George. Last time I worked in Beauty was some times ago, more than eight years with Pharma. What I'm doing right now is really focusing on making sure I have a fresh Q1 perspective as we look ahead. I've been re-engaging myself with the business, visiting factories, our team around the world, and more importantly, I need to engage with customers. What I can tell you is that we've got all the ingredients. We've got deep customer relationship, and they are really looking at Aptar as not just being part of their supply chain, but being part of their success. Looking ahead, that's going to be what I'm going to be looking at.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

For sure, we're going to look at building on what works, address and course correct what needs to be corrected, protect what makes Aptar special, and to really focusing on delivering on our commitment and preparing the company for future growth.

George Staphos
George Staphos
Analyst at Bank of America

Gael, look, I just want to step in quickly here, I'll turn it over. Time certain, we've been patient, your investors have been patient. Look, the track record of Aptar has been quite good over the years, so no complaints with that. Within Beauty, does there come a time where you actually take action in the next year to do something more structural to fix the performance? Thanks, I'll turn it over there. Thank you.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Yeah, maybe I jump in first. Look, we are not taking the situation as is. We have clear ideas on how to also address the shortfall in the Americas. It's too early to commit to that.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

I'm engaging with an open-minded approach and looking at best interest for our customers and our shareholders. I will come back to you, [Armin], in due course.

George Staphos
George Staphos
Analyst at Bank of America

All right. I'll be back in queue with pharma. Thanks.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Paul Knight with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Paul Knight
Paul Knight
Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets

Yeah, congratulations. Congratulations, Gael. As I look at the quarter, the gross margin was not the driver of expansion in Q2. It was the op margin line with a big drop in SG&A. Going forward, I think it's implying margin expansion. Is it more all the gross margin line that we should think about modeling, Vanessa, on what's already been a good margin expansion period in Q2?

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Hey, Paul from KeyBanc, not blank. Thanks for the question. We're actually quite happy when you think about the emergency medicine pullback was the largest in quarter two, compared to the prior year, Pharma was still within the long-term guidance range. Certainly, as the emergency medicine situation normalizes, we expect the company margin to get back within its guidance range, within its long-term targets, not just the Pharma business. We didn't quite fully understand the rest of your question. Maybe you can repeat and then Vanessa will address.

Paul Knight
Paul Knight
Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets

Should we expect gross margin expansion in the second half of the year, or is it still below that line item?

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

Yeah. As we had said earlier on previous calls. Okay. Thank you, Paul. Now we understand the question. A lot of what you're seeing on the gross margin line is the emergency medicine dynamic that we had previously discussed. That dynamic was strongest in the first half. Two-thirds of that year-over-year headwind was incurred already in the first half, which will have the greatest amount of pressure on the gross margin. As that starts to ease in the back half, I do absolutely expect gross margins to actually improve from where we've been in the first half.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Also, we—

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

Q2 was the biggest quarter of that EM headwind, as we had previously communicated. That's the compression that you're seeing.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Yeah, also we see progressive improvement both in Beauty and in Closures. Closures are already a progressive improvement but will continue as the maintenance issues abate. We also expect progressive improvement in Beauty.

Paul Knight
Paul Knight
Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets

Lastly on Pharma, a really solid 8% quarter of growth. Is that momentum continuing here in rest of the year?

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

Yeah, I can take that question. We stated we are confident with our long-term targets. 2026 is in the story of the emergency medicine as we explained to you. We've got a strong pipeline. Pipeline build, pipeline conversion is robust. The underlying market is strong, and customers really are looking at us to be the partner of choice to support them from early stage to market launch. Confident to be in the long-term target.

Paul Knight
Paul Knight
Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Ghansham Panjabi with Baird. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Ghansham Panjabi
Ghansham Panjabi
Analyst at Baird

Pretty good. Good morning, everybody.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Sorry about that.

Ghansham Panjabi
Ghansham Panjabi
Analyst at Baird

Stephan, congrats on our end as well. Wish you the very best, along with you, Gael. It's been a pleasure working with you, Stephan.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Thank you.

Ghansham Panjabi
Ghansham Panjabi
Analyst at Baird

I guess, during the first quarter, if I remember correctly, Rx was down about 10%, and roughly half of that was emergency medication-related. Was part of the improvement in Q2 then just related to the catch-up from the previous shortfall in Rx? I'm just trying to get a sense as to what the underlying growth is in Rx, adjusting for obviously a lot of noise with the destocking and comparisons and so on.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

Ghansham, when you look at the Pharma business, we are present in different categories. The asthma and COPD market has been a great market for us, in the quarter. You know that the market is going to transition to a new propellant, and AptarGroup is well-positioned in that transition. You know that we are supporting the FDA in defining the guidelines for propellant switch approval. If you look at the press release recently, Chiesi announced the very first asthma and COPD product using the new propellant gas in U.K. with an Aptar solution. The underlying performance of prescriptions is also asthma and COPD performance.

Ghansham Panjabi
Ghansham Panjabi
Analyst at Baird

Thank you, Gael. For my second question, first off, can you confirm if there's any benefit from any sort of tariff refunds and so on and so forth? Then Gael, back to you. Obviously core sales and Pharma have been below trend for two years now. Different reasons for that last year versus this year. It has been two years. You've expressed confidence as a company as it relates to the secular growth there and so on and so forth. Is 2027, is there any reason why we should not expect growth in Pharma at this point to be within your 7-11 core sales growth range? Thank you.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

Yeah. Ghansham, you know that we are not guiding for the year. The long-term target of Aptar in the 7-11 is coming from the underlying robustness of our pipeline and the market positions we've got with our customers. Confidence is there. Yes, some years we're going to be up, some years we're going to be down. If you look at the past performance for the last eight years, I would say we have pretty much delivered on our long-term targets. The team remain focused on what? Delivering on our commitment, continuing to sharpen or to strengthen our capabilities in order to become or to stay the leading company in our respective market. This is with confidence there.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

Ghansham, I can absolutely confirm to you that there is no P&L benefit in our quarter from tariff refunds. The beat to our guide was purely operational, coming from the strength of Pharma, as we discussed earlier. In fact, you may recall our guidance was at $1.18 and actual exchange rates came at $1.16. We in fact had a headwind of a couple of cents that we had to absorb. The beat was all operational. None of it was tariff refunds or anything else of that nature, of a one-time nature.

Ghansham Panjabi
Ghansham Panjabi
Analyst at Baird

Okay, perfect. Thank you for that.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Matt Roberts with Raymond James. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Matt Roberts
Matt Roberts
Analyst at Raymond James

Good morning, everyone. Stephan, I send my congratulations as well. Similar to my introduction with Aptar that began in France, I hope your send-off is capped with cheers of only France's finest.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Thanks.

Matt Roberts
Matt Roberts
Analyst at Raymond James

Gael, congratulations and welcome. For my first question, perhaps it's a rite of passage to ask, but as you step into the role after roughly 10 years strong growth in Pharma, as we sit here, 2Q Pharma margin's still in the mid-30% range. On the other end of the spectrum, Beauty and Closures are in that low to mid-teens range. What benefit do you see from either an operational or cost standpoint as you look to allocate capital? Would you do it differently than your predecessor? Ultimately, is the coexistence of these businesses something you feel is necessary and should be maintained?

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

First, Matt, let me express my excitement to step in the role and to stand on the shoulders of my predecessors. I know the company in and out for the last 30 years, and I'm very confident on the company. As I've said earlier, I'm really focusing to reconnect and refresh my approach with the different businesses. I've been a beauty guy for years. I've been a closure guy for years, but that was almost a decade ago. I need to update my perspective as we look ahead. As I step in the role, commitment to deliver on our number, that's going to be number one priority. Number two, to be very disciplined on execution and search whatever segment for the company. Last, to be extremely thoughtful in our resource allocation.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

I'm going to keep on working, protecting what is making Aptar special, and focusing where we can create more value for customers and our shareholders.

Matt Roberts
Matt Roberts
Analyst at Raymond James

Thank you, Gael. Appreciate the comments there. Next question. Vanessa, you gave good color on emergency. Sounds like it was still two-thirds of the impact in first half, but given the swing from down 7% to up 8% in Rx, can you say what the dollar impact was in 2Q? Also on core sales, how much was the resin pass-through benefit in 2Q, and how is that split by segments? Any benefit you're expecting in 3Q on that? Thank you for taking the questions.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

Matt, I think the most I can say on the emergency medicine is that two-thirds to one-third. We didn't guide it by quarter, but I will say that the quarter was really in line with where we expected. Of course, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, the full year is also tracking as expected, and this should fully abate by Q4. Everything is tracking there. In terms of the resin pass-throughs, indeed we did pass resin and other inflationary pass-throughs, we did pass that through, as we had said last quarter. We did that successfully in every segment. The impact, I'm not going to break down the impact by segment. You will know that the pass-throughs tend to be bigger in Closures because of the resin percentage that's used in Closures.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

That being said, without the resin pass-throughs, Closures had strong revenue and volume growth, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks. That is not the driver of growth. The other piece I'll mention is, in the context of Beauty margins, we did have, and I mentioned this in my remarks as well, we did have a delay, a lag, in the Beauty segment. Every segment passed through, including Beauty, but we had a bit of a lag, which was a bit of a detriment, probably about 80-90 basis points of margin on Beauty impact of that delayed pass-through in the quarter. We expect that to be resolved in Q3.

Matt Roberts
Matt Roberts
Analyst at Raymond James

Good. Thank you, Vanessa.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Matt Larew with William Blair. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Matt Larew
Matt Larew
Analyst at William Blair

Okay. Thank you. Stephan, congratulations on your retirement. I wanted to ask on consumer, it has now grown for three consecutive quarters after that period of decline. It does seem like de-stocking perhaps has worked its way through. 15% growth, very strong. Was that a function of just easy comps, or was there any sort of pull forward in the quarter? Based on those two dynamics, how does that kind of factor into the Q3 outlook?

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Yeah, I will hand to Gael here. Obviously, de-stocking has run its course. I think we've already confirmed that in the previous quarter. It's been a strong quarter, as we said, especially in decongestants, maybe Gael, I don't know if you can give more color on consumer healthcare.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

Yeah, consumer healthcare, we've seen the dermal being up nicely. The ophthalmic play that we are converting some of the market, the blow-fill-seal market to a multidose preservative-free formulation continue to be solid and solid across the regions. The nasal decongestant is positive for us. That kind of color I can share with you for moving into Q3.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Please go out and get some Theraflu. Great new gesture.

Matt Larew
Matt Larew
Analyst at William Blair

Well, with school starting again, I imagine I will be a customer real soon. I wanted to ask then actually on injectables, again, a strong growth here. You obviously referenced the Annex I opportunity as you have. Is there any way you can kind of describe how that funnel has started to build as a new growth driver? And then also it'd be great to get an update on Congers just in terms of how you've been building into capacity, and how that plan is scaling up.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

We didn't quite hear your last question.

Matt Larew
Matt Larew
Analyst at William Blair

Yeah, sorry, just on Congers would love to hear.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Congers. Congers, New York

Matt Larew
Matt Larew
Analyst at William Blair

Yep. Exactly.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Got it.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

If you look at our pipeline in injectable, GLP-1 is an outperformance. GLP-1 by definition is part of the growth for the division. Not only we've got the biologics being strongly and robust, not only in the performance but also in the pipeline. You know that biologics are right now more than 50% of the pharma world research and development. The Annex I also, the regulatory compliance, raising the bar. They are really looking for players having the ability to be fully compliant with the Annex I. This is some of the drivers driving the growth for injectable. As far of Congers, we are done with what we call the big bucks investment. We are satisfied to be positioned from an injectable perspective, not only in Europe, but in the U.S. and in Asia, with China, specifically for Congers. We've got validation of our implementations.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

Customers audit, inspection, panel ready and helping us to deliver the growth that we are facing.

Matt Larew
Matt Larew
Analyst at William Blair

Okay. Very good. Thanks.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of George Staphos with Bank of America. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

George Staphos
George Staphos
Analyst at Bank of America

Hey, thanks very much. Two questions from me to wrap. On the one hand, can you talk, Gael and Stephan, about the collaborative framework you mentioned, I think in the opening remarks regarding injectable therapy. What's behind it? What do you get out of it? How does it help your shareholders? I'm guessing it's part of the more surface-oriented approach Aptar has been taking to become something more than just a device company. Switching gears to third quarter. Vanessa, what should we assume is FX based on your guide? Kind of a $0.03-$0.04 headwind there? Thank you and good luck in the quarter.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

Yeah. Let me take the first question, George. The job for us is to make validation and qualifications by our customers way easier. Instead of getting our customers qualifying components on each components, we are working with the different players, let's say the different PFS players in the market in order to come with a fully integrated validation. They know the performance, not only the plunger, but the plunger with the PFS and the arenas on the complete device that a customer is going to acquire. They've got day one, all the validations, all the key elements for entering into their process on a better shape. We are making their process and their validation way easier, and it's giving us also some color regarding the kind of very close relationship we've got with the other players in that space.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

George, I think you were asking what is our Q3 guide assume for FX? We're assuming $1.14, and Q2 averaged $1.16, that's a headwind. A quarter-over-quarter headwind. These days we're trending about $0.04 annualized for every $0.01 that we're off on the USD-to-euro exchange rate. That's a $0.02 quarter-over-quarter headwind.

George Staphos
George Staphos
Analyst at Bank of America

Got it. Thank you, Vanessa. Good luck in the quarter.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

Thank you.

Stephan Tanda
Stephan Tanda
President and CEO at Aptar

Hey, George, before you leave, I also just want to recognize, I just wrote down in front of me. I think you're the only one who now follows five of the six CEOs of Aptar as a public company, starting with Carl, Peter, Steve, myself, and now Gael. You can be relied on to keep us on our toes. Thank you for that.

George Staphos
George Staphos
Analyst at Bank of America

We'll be here. Thank you. Congratulations.

Vanessa Kanu
EVP and CFO at Aptar

We'll be here for the next one.

Operator

We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Gael for closing remarks.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

Before we conclude, let me leave you with a few thoughts on the quarter and the path ahead. For the second quarter, we delivered a solid performance driven by better top-line performance across all three segments, strong productivity improvements, and disciplined cost management. We delivered adjusted earnings per share above our guidance range. Across the broader Pharma portfolio, we continue to see encouraging demand trends in areas such as the biologics, the GLP-1, the systemic nasal drug delivery, consumer healthcare and other attractive end markets. Beauty benefited from continued strength in prestige fragrance, while Closures delivered strong beverage growth and continued momentum in food. Aptar has a great foundation built on differentiated technologies, deep customer relationship, leading market positions and very talented people. We are what I call an indispensable partner to our customers, helping them to innovate, grow, succeed across attractive end markets.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

Everything we do is ultimately focused on improving patient and consumer outcomes. Whether it's expanding access to therapies, improving adherence, enhancing safety and reliability, or creating simply a better end user experience, our solutions bring meaningful value to the people who use our products on a daily basis. That combination of a strong foundation, trusted customer partnerships, and a clear focus on end user outcomes gives me tremendous confidence in Aptar's ability to create sustainable growth and long-term value for our shareholders. As I step into the CEO role September 1st, I'm excited about this tremendous opportunity and I believe my priorities are clear. Drive profitable growth, execute consistently, and allocate capital thoughtfully. Based on the demand trends we see today and the momentum exiting the second quarter, we are confident in our outlook for the third quarter and our long-term prospects.

Gael Touya
Gael Touya
President and CEO Designate at Aptar

Thank you for your continued interest in Aptar, I'll see you on the road in the coming months.

Operator

That concludes our call.

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