Q3 2024 Sealed Air Corp Earnings Call
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q3 2024 Sealed Air Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode.
After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised.
To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised, we will be limiting each person to one question today. If you'd like to ask a second question, you may enter and requeue.
Speaker Change: Please also be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Brian Sullivan.
Investor Relations. Brian, please go ahead.
Brian Sullivan: Thank you and good morning everyone. With me today are Patrick Kivits, CEO and Dustin Semach, President and CFO.
Speaker Change: Before we begin our call, I would like to note that we have provided a slide presentation to supplement the call.
Brian Sullivan: Please visit sealedair.com where today's webcast and presentation can be downloaded from our investor relations page.
Statements made during this call stating management's outlook or estimates for future periods are forward-looking statements.
Brian Sullivan: These statements are based solely on the information that is now available to us.
Brian Sullivan: We encourage you to review the information in the section entitled Forward-Looking Statements in our Earnings Release and SLAB Presentation, which applies to this call.
Additionally, our future performance may differ due to a number of factors.
Brian Sullivan: Many of these factors are listed in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, as revised and updated on our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K.
Brian Sullivan: We discuss financial measures that do not conform to the U.S. GAAP.
You will find important information on our use of these measures and their reconciliation to U.S. GAAP in our earnings release.
Thank you.
Brian Sullivan: Included in the appendix of today's presentation, you will find US GAAP financial results that correspond to the non-US GAAP measures we referenced throughout the presentation.
Brian Sullivan: I will now turn the call over to Patrick and Dustin. Operator, please turn to slide 3. Patrick?
Speaker Change: Thank you, Brian, and thank you for joining our third quarter earnings call.
Speaker Change: Before we dive into today's earnings discussions, I would like to take a moment to update you on the progress we have made on the actions outlined during our last earnings call.
Speaker Change: Over the past few months, I've been engaging with our largest customers and distribution partners to gain deeper insight into how we can meet their needs and address their packaging challenges.
Brian Sullivan: Separately, I've connected with our investors to get their perspectives on the opportunities ahead for creating shareholder value.
Brian Sullivan: Through these discussions it became clear that reorganizing into two verticals, fluid and protective, was a critical foundational step to enhance our customers experience and maximize shareholder value.
Brian Sullivan: Each business is distinct, with unique end markets, customer base, innovation needs, and manufacturing assets.
Brian Sullivan: We are returning to our core value proposition as a company.
Brian Sullivan: Combining industry-leading material science, best-in-class services, and differentiated automation, offering to deliver world-class packaging solutions.
As we refine our strategy, serving our customers,
and addressing their critical packaging challenges remains a guiding principle.
Brian Sullivan: Next, we need to ensure we have the right team in place to drive accelerated progress in each vertical.
Brian Sullivan: We focused on bringing in talent from other packaging companies with strong commercial and portfolio expertise, looking for leaders that have successfully improved commercial execution and navigated sustainable portfolio shifts while consistently delivering sales and profit growth.
Brian Sullivan: The first critical hire was Byron Reckie, who now leads a protective vertical.
Brian Sullivan: With over 20 years of experience in the packaging industry and strong commercial acumen, Byron brings valuable knowledge in fiber similar to my own background.
Brian Sullivan: and he has successfully navigated substrate and packaging format transitions in his previous roles.
He is spearheading the turnaround of our protective business.
Brian Sullivan: In October, we brought on Steve Flannery as head of our food vertical.
Brian Sullivan: With over 25 years of experience at Avery Dennison, Steve has held leadership roles across sales, innovation, marketing, and operations.
Brian Sullivan: He has led businesses in multiple geographies, driving market-leading innovations, and fostering a team-based culture that consistently delivered robust sales and earnings growth.
Speaker Change: Steve will build on the momentum within a food business and unlock further growth.
Speaker Change: Emile Chammas continues to be our Chief Operating Officer, leading our efforts to optimize the supply chains for both food and protective, ensuring each respective supply chain is stable for those end markets and expected service levels.
Brian Sullivan: We also hired Belinda Hyde as our Chief People Officer, who will focus on enhancing the employee experience, cultivating a high-performance culture, and ensuring we have the right leadership and capabilities across the organization.
Speaker Change: Lastly, our President and Chief Financial Officer, Dustin Semach, is partnering closely with me to develop a long-term plan to create shareholder value and drive a broad transformation across the business.
Brian Sullivan: Beyond strengthening the management team, we are also enhancing the board. In October, the board appointed Tony Ellis as the new director.
Brian Sullivan: Tony is an experienced senior executive in the packaging sector. He successfully led Silgon for over 16 years as president and chief executive officer where he created significant shareholder value.
He continues to serve as Sylvan's chairman.
Speaker Change: We look forward to leveraging his expertise in leading packaging companies with diversified portfolios to help accelerate our transformation.
Speaker Change: With our food and protective presence now in place, we have aligned our operating units, innovation, customer service, and automation functions within each vertical.
Brian Sullivan: These changes will enable each vertical to swiftly adapt to market trends, leverage their global scale, enhance customer focus, and execute their respective growth strategies.
Brian Sullivan: This represents a significant milestone in our transformation, and I am eager to build on this foundation as we continue to evolve the business towards achieving long-term sustainable growth.
Brian Sullivan: I would like to highlight some early successes resulting directly from the transformation actions we have initiated.
Brian Sullivan: With our dedicated food commercial teams now aligned to each local end market and fully focused on execution, our food business is delivering above market growth in each of our end markets and across most product lines.
Brian Sullivan: This above-market performance is driven by a mix of commercial excellence, new product launches, and competitive wins.
Brian Sullivan: On the protective side, while volumes in the business continue to be soft, we are gaining traction in the market with our sustainable packaging solutions.
Brian Sullivan: We recently announced a partnership with a large retail customer, Best Buy, to provide a suite of high-recycle content and fiber-based products to help reduce the amount of virgin plastic used in their packaging.
Brian Sullivan: Additionally, we collaborated with them to arrange the collection of plastic waste from their distribution centers for recycling.
Brian Sullivan: Beyond this example, we continue to position our portfolio to match our customers' sustainability needs while still addressing their most critical packaging challenges.
Brian Sullivan: With that said, we still have much more work ahead of us. Over the next couple of months, we will focus on operationalizing each vertical.
Brian Sullivan: On Protective, we are continuing to work through sustainability-related portfolio gaps, improving commercial execution, and infusing talent throughout the organization.
Brian Sullivan: On food, we are focused on accelerating growth outside of our shrink bags business with case-ready and fluid and liquid solutions, successfully navigating sustainable packaging transitions and improving pricing dynamics.
Brian Sullivan: Until we see improvements in volume and price performance, we are accelerating our cost take-out initiatives to further right-size each vertical and drive overall profitability.
Speaker Change: Before I hand it over to Dustin for a business update, I would like to take a moment to discuss the impacts of Hurricane Helene.
Brian Sullivan: Hurricane Eileen's path impacted many of our plants and sites across South Carolina and Western North Carolina, affecting over 1,500 employees.
These locations experience challenges across many aspects of the infrastructure.
Brian Sullivan: Our team quickly mobilized to ensure that first, our people and their families were taken care of, and second, to restore normal operations.
Brian Sullivan: Despite these challenges, our team members kept us operational and ensured each other's safety, minimizing the impact on the corridor and to our customers.
Brian Sullivan: It was really inspiring to witness our team come together to support one another, their communities, and our company.
Speaker Change: I'm excited to be here and look forward to updating you on our transformation and 2025 Outlook in February.
Brian Sullivan: With that, I'll turn it over to Dustin to give an update on the business and our outlook. Dustin.
Dustin Semach: Thank you, Patrick. Let's turn this slide forward to review Sodair's third quarter performance.
Dustin Semach: We closed the quarter with sales of $1.35 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $276 million, each down 3% compared to last year on a reported basis.
Dustin Semach: Our third quarter results reflect a continued solid performance in food, persisting challenges in protective, and strong productivity benefits, including our cost takeout initiatives.
Dustin Semach: Adjusted earnings per share in the quarter of 79 cents were up 3% compared to a year ago.
Brian Sullivan: Our adjusted tax rate was 24% compared to 25.7% in the same period last year.
Brian Sullivan: The decrease in tax rate year-over-year was driven by the jurisdictional mix of income and non-recurring discrete items in the prior year.
Brian Sullivan: Our weighted average diluted shares outstanding in the third quarter of 2024 was $146 million.
Turning to slide 5.
Brian Sullivan: In the third quarter, organic sales were down 2% driven by lower pricing across both the food and protective segments.
Brian Sullivan: On a year-over-year basis relative to prior quarters, third quarter pricing was sequentially less negative as the carryover pricing actions from 2023 started to diminish.
Brian Sullivan: Volumes were relatively flat year-over-year for the quarter, with growth in the food segment across all regions offset by declines in protective in Americas and EMEA.
Brian Sullivan: Third quarter adjusted EBITDA of $276 million, decreased $9 million or approximately 3% compared to last year with margins of 20.5% down 10 basis points.
Brian Sullivan: This performance was mainly driven by lower volumes and unfavorable net price realization in protective, partially offset by higher volumes and favorable net price realization in food, and lower operating costs mainly driven by productivity benefits, including cost takeout initiatives.
Moving to slide six.
Brian Sullivan: Food net sales of $898 million for the quarter were up approximately 1%.
Brian Sullivan: Lower pricing primarily in America's NMEA was more than offset by positive volume growth in all regions, driven by strength in protein and market demand and share gains within our bags and case-ready solutions.
Brian Sullivan: In the third quarter, the global protein markets were net positive by approximately 1%.
Brian Sullivan: continued strength in Australian cattle cycles, stronger than anticipated U.S. beef production, and robust pork demand more than offset declines in poultry production caused by avian flu outbreaks affecting North American turkey flocks.
Brian Sullivan: Amid increased consumer demand in the protein markets, we further drove competitive wins.
Brian Sullivan: Our case-ready solutions experience high single-digit growth, driven by the ongoing recovery of the roll stock business, where we lost share in previous years due to residence shortages.
Brian Sullivan: and by market share gains in the retail space with our trades and lending offerings.
Brian Sullivan: Equipment sales, however, declined as customers continued to exercise caution in deploying capital.
Speaker Change: Who did Justice Eve adopt? $206 million in the third quarter was up 6%.
Speaker Change: with margins at 22.9% up 120 basis points compared to last year.
Brian Sullivan: The increase in adjusted EBITDA was mainly driven by volume growth and net price realization.
Brian Sullivan: Transitioning to protective, third quarter net sales of $447 million were down 8% as anticipated in our Q2 guidance.
Brian Sullivan: Industrial portfolios remain weak due to subdued manufacturing activities in the developed world.
Brian Sullivan: Volume of the fulfillment portfolio has declined approximately 10% driven by the slowdown in equipment automation and continued pressure within void fill product lines.
Brian Sullivan: In our APAC region, volumes grew approximately 1% in the quarter as the gain in box-right sizing automation offset weakness in industrial and fulfillment portfolios.
Brian Sullivan: and the Americas and EMEA regions volume performance remained largely unchanged from the prior quarter.
Brian Sullivan: Sustainability pressures on the void fill product lines, ongoing weakness in industrial sector, and lower automation sales continues to negatively impact our results.
Brian Sullivan: Protective Adjustment EBIDTA of approximately $75 million in the third quarter was down 21% year-over-year with margins at 16.9% down 260 basis points.
Brian Sullivan: The decrease in adjusted EBITDA was driven by lower volume and unfavorable net price realization, partially offset by productivity benefits, including cost takeout initiatives.
Brian Sullivan: On slide 7, we review our third quarter net sales by region.
Brian Sullivan: On an organic basis, America was down 2% primarily due to lower pricing.
Brian Sullivan: Volumes were down 1% driven by continued softness in protective portfolios, partially offset by strength in food.
Brian Sullivan: AMEA declined 6% organically driven by lower pricing across both segments and volume declines in protective.
Brian Sullivan: APAC was up 3% organically as tailwinds from Australian cattle cycle and the gain in fulfillment automation more than offset lower pricing and continued weakness in our other protective portfolios.
The End.
Brian Sullivan: Now let's turn to Pre-Cash Flow and Leverage on slide 8.
Brian Sullivan: Through the focused efforts of our teams around the world, we deliver strong free cash flow of $323 million as of the third quarter year to date. This is well above the $183 million a year ago when excluding payments and deposits for resolution of certain prior years U.S. tax matters.
Brian Sullivan: Our teams continue to focus on improving working capital which is a percentage of sales is improved by 120 basis points year-over-year as we continue to improve payables and inventory velocity.
Brian Sullivan: We maintained our focus on deleveraging the balance sheet and ended the quarter with a net leverage ratio of 3.7 times.
Brian Sullivan: Our total liquidity position was $1.4 billion, including $386 million in cash and the remaining amount in committed and fully undrawn revolver.
Brian Sullivan: We are highly confident in achieving our net debt to adjust EBITDA targets of below 3.5 times by the end of 2025.
i
Let's turn to slide 9 to review our 2024 outlook.
Our third quarter results were largely in line with expectations.
Brian Sullivan: We are pleased with the continued momentum in our food business.
Brian Sullivan: At this point, we expect our protective volumes to remain soft in the fourth quarter due to continued portfolio challenges and overall market dynamics.
Brian Sullivan: As a result, in total, we expect our Q4 volumes to be slightly up year-over-year in Q4, with the strength in food being partially offset by weakness in protective.
Brian Sullivan: Heading into the fourth quarter we expect sales to be approximately 1.3 billion dollars, consistent with the midpoint of our sales guidance.
Brian Sullivan: with year-over-year volume performance improving slightly versus the third quarter levels for both businesses.
Brian Sullivan: Continue to expect Adjusted EBITDA to be in line with the midpoint of our guidance range, mainly driven by continued cost control actions.
Brian Sullivan: We are raising the midpoint of Adjusted EPS to be at the higher end of the previous range driven by lower interest expense, expected tax rate, and depreciation and amortization expense reflecting an improved discipline around capital deployment.
Brian Sullivan: We are also raising the midpoint of our free cash flow guidance to $400 million.
reflecting the continued improvement in working capital.
Brian Sullivan: We will be working with a new management team over the coming months to operationalize each vertical and fully form the growth strategies and transformation plans for each business.
Brian Sullivan: This will inform our outlook for 2025 and beyond. In the meantime, we are accelerating our cost-reduction operational excellence initiatives to drive profitability.
Turning to slide 10.
Brian Sullivan: I'm very excited about the reorganization into food and protective verticals and their new leadership teams.
Speaker Change: As Patrick mentioned earlier, the transformational steps we have taken will position each business and Silt Air as a whole for long-term growth and success.
Brian Sullivan: With that, Patrick and I look forward to your questions. Operator, we would like to begin the Q&A session.
Speaker Change: Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced.
Brian Sullivan: To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please note, we will be limiting each caller to one question. You may requeue to ask an additional question. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster.
Thank you.
i
Speaker Change: The first question comes from the line of George Stappos at Bank of America Securities. Your line is open.
Speaker Change: Thanks very much. Hi everyone. Good morning. Thanks for the details. My question is on fourth quarter and in particular how protective plays out.
Speaker Change: So, you know, traditionally, again, fourth quarter tends to be, over time, a bit better versus 3Q. And nonetheless, if I'm doing my analysis correctly, based on your guidance,
Speaker Change: We're looking at down sequentially both year-on-year and in the quarter.
Speaker Change: Protective is obviously weak. I think you said though both segments should be up sequentially in volume, both food and protective. So can you talk a little bit further about what is happening, assuming it's in protective, that's driving that fourth quarter versus
Speaker Change: last year and the year ago, and in particular, or in addition, can you talk about what kind of growth you're seeing between fiber and poly, if you will, within protective? Thank you.
Speaker Change: Hey George, Jeb Dustin here. So a couple comments, just clarifying ones as you think about kind of the guidance for the full year.
Speaker Change: When you look at both businesses, they're going to step up sequentially, right? So if you think about food, you're looking at roughly $920 million coming off the quarter of $898 in Q3. And when you look at protective, you're seeing we're laying into the quarter for Q3, $447 million, and we'll be stepping up to roughly $460 in the fourth quarter.
Speaker Change: That implies we're still down, but the commentaries around the fact that we're actually, it's performing better in the sense that Q3, we're down roughly 8%, and it would imply Q4 is going to be down roughly 6%.
Speaker Change: And so what's driving that, so one is you do get that sequential step up in protective that's being driven by seasonality, largely associated with the holiday season, which at this point in time, we still see, you know, we perceive to be strong, particularly in the U.S. And so that's reflected up in that particular number.
Speaker Change: The growth in fiber versus poly just keep in mind and this commentary I'll make it specific relative to protective is that you're still only looking at that business about 15% in the fiber base Fiber is performing better than poly, but at that size, you know It's not going to be able to compensate relative to the declines we're seeing in some of our other broader portfolios
Speaker Change: But the other clarifying point I'll make is that, just keep in mind, too, that within protective, not all is equal relative to how each of the portfolios are behaving. If you look at our APS business, this is...
Speaker Change: You know, the mailers and the auto bagging, that could be fiber and or poly. It's performing well throughout the year. If you think about inflatables, they're performing well. It's just in other areas of the portfolio, specifically as we've related to, you know, void, fill, etc., that we're seeing that pressure. Hopefully that answers your question.
Thank you. Please stand by for the next question.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Anthony Petanari with Citi. Your line is now open.
Anthony Petanari: Good morning. Just following up on George's question, you know, understanding you don't have a crystal ball on the economy, is it possible to kind of update, you know, just even directionally when you might expect to see flattish year-over-year volumes in protective? And then just looking at parts of that business, you know, when does void fill come into play?
Speaker Change: When has it shrunk to a point where declines are not big enough to move the needle on overall segment volumes, and is there a point where automation comps get easier on a year-over-year basis?
Speaker Change: Yeah, good morning, Anthony, it's Patrick. Just let me start by saying, you know, as a reminder, and I think Dustin hit on that, so the overall void filler and mailers, this is where most of the fiber transition takes place, is roughly 10% of our business in protective, right? So that's roughly the size of it in total.
Speaker Change: So, I had the opportunity to visit the Beck Expo exhibition this week in Chicago, and if you look at all of the changes you're seeing in that space, you know, it's amazing.
Speaker Change: A lot of people commented on how they were surprised how many paper offerings we actually have on the market. And obviously, we will not...
Speaker Change: We will continue to drive focus on all of our existing incumbent offerings, if you will, as we pivot towards more fiber-based offering in that space.
Speaker Change: So, in the next couple of months, I referenced the Best Buy win, which is a really significant one, which actually showcases that, yes, we may have been late to the party with fiber-based offerings in this space, but our offering is a really good one, and I do think we will continue to drive further growth in that space. It's a little bit too early to tell how much that will do to the mailer space at this point. We'll come back to you on that in February. But in the grand scheme of things, in these sort of vehicles we're using in our portfolio shift, I go to market changes that I talked about in order to drive to a turnaround in that space.
Speaker Change: And so, and then just to follow on a couple of Patrick's comments, you know, so right now, we're working with the coming months, going back to the points about understanding the market, but in general, just the comments in the script around fully forming those growth strategies, overall transformation plans, and in February, Anthony will have a better idea of how we see protective playing out across 2025 and beyond.
Speaker Change: The couple of points you made about Boydville specifically, in terms of benefits going into next year, keep in mind that, you know, we talked about the specific Amazon loss at the beginning of the year that was in our guidance, but then Boydville deteriorated further than that, you are going to have a wrap. The comp going into next year on Boydville is going to be much better than this year, just because you're past that one large customer loss.
Speaker Change: and then automation in general. It's a great question. We talked about this year's been challenging due to capital deployment, etc. A lot of that's an extension of last year. The market dynamics are getting more favorable with rate cuts, etc. And what we've seen across this year is our book-to-bill ratio in both food and protective has largely been one-to-one.
Speaker Change: And so implying that we're coming into 2025 in a much better starting point relative to our backlog and our ability to drive, you know, flattish to growth in our automation space, which will also benefit from a materials perspective.
Speaker Change: So, give us some time and we'll come back and, you know, we're going to put this all together over the next couple of months.
Thank you.
Please stand by for the next question.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Ghanshyam Punjabi with Baird. Your line is open.
Ghanshyam Punjabi: Thank you, good morning guys. You know, I just wanted to go back to the operating structure shift into two distinct verticals.
Speaker Change: Can you sort of put that change in context for us on a historical basis? Are you basically just going back to the structure of the companies? Had in place a few years back and then there was a shift and also what do you expect the positive changes will be coming out of this operating model shift including the leadership changes that you've announced there?
Yeah, good morning, guys. Great question.
Speaker Change: So let me start by saying this is, so we were organized as a vertical organization towards the end of 2018. We changed this to a more regional focused organization.
Speaker Change: And we are going back to the model of verticals. But it's not just rearranging the deck chairs. I'd like to make that very, very clear because this is really about a different way of going to market, a different look at our value proposition in our portfolio. So it's not just...
Speaker Change: the rearrangement of those tech chairs, as I mentioned earlier. What is important here to mention is that we would like people to wake up every day to worry, to be concerned about the growth in the areas that they're responsible for. And by doing it this on a vertical basis,
Speaker Change: This is where people have things in common, this is where we can drive that growth strategy. What is important on the go-to-market is we...
Speaker Change: And these were great by themselves, but at the end of the day, it sort of defocused or it was hiding the real problem that we had, the secular decline that we had in protective. So we're moving away from that, and we're looking at a go-to-market, because with that, some of our distribution partners that I met in the last couple months,
Speaker Change: really got the perception that we were starting to compete with them to alternative channels, right, to maybe e-commerce or maybe online ordering tools. And we have reinforced the message with them that they are a very important part of our go-to-market strategy.
Speaker Change: It's not an easy model to implement and that's why we're getting all of the feedback to say how can we really drive, get traction with our salespeople and their salespeople where the rubber meets the road. So the go-to market is a very important one. The second one, as I highlighted before, the portfolio shift.
Speaker Change: from plastic-based offerings to fiber-based offerings. This will continue to be pushed very strongly in your organization and into the market. So those are the things that you will see, change market approach and also change portfolio predominantly in the protective side. And on the food side, we will drive more towards further growth in areas that are currently under-penetrated.
Speaker Change: And just to compliment a couple of the comments Patrick made is
Speaker Change: specifically to shift innovation, customer service. We talked about getting closer to the customer proximity, so innovation in itself has been reorganizing to the verticals. And then specifically customer service, and you're going back to improving that three legs of the stool on the service side.
Speaker Change: Those are two fundamental shifts in the comment you made around when to expect those kind of improvements associated with it.
Speaker Change: You know, you already see it today within food. Keep in mind the operating model shift we made earlier in the year. You've seen the food business perform. We're talking about share gains, not just in one region or one product line, but across all regions and most product lines.
Speaker Change: So food's already benefiting from that focus, and protective, and the comments that Patrick's alluding to around the go-to-market change, as well as the portfolio shift, you know, there's more of a focus there in protective, and that's where we'll see, in between now and kind of February, we're going to continue to lay out the transformation plan there and give you more clarity in February.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Please stand by for the next question.
Speaker Change: The next question comes from Stefan Diaz with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Stefan Diaz: Hi, good morning, thanks for taking my question. So you mentioned in the prepared remarks stepping up the CTO to grow initiative.
Speaker Change: I believe the previous cost takeout number was $140 to $160 million. Do you have an update for that number? And then maybe if you could also highlight some of the additional actions you're taking as far as cost takeout versus before. Thanks.
Dustin Semach: Okay, this is Dustin speaking. So, if you go back to the original intent of the program, we talked about $140 to $160 million of cost takeout savings.
Dustin Semach: and as we announced this back in the middle to later part of 2023, we're on track right now for the $90 million and we talked about it across a number of different buckets, right? This is related to network optimization across our supply chain, it's related to GNA, back office, as well as touching other areas of go-to-market that we're largely non-customer facing.
Dustin Semach: And so we continue to execute on that, you know, and what we talked about originally was next year is going to be roughly $50 million.
Dustin Semach: over the next two to three months will be factored into kind of our outlook for 2025. But that's the intention, so we at this point have at least another $50 million already baked in in terms of actions that we're taking that we'll continue to roll through next year. And then we have another, you know, kind of X amount that we're working through to determine that. And our commitment is that we're going to be driving profitability, right? That's the main message I want to leave you with on that point.
Dustin Semach: And so in terms of areas that we're focused on, it is largely in those same buckets that we talked about.
Dustin Semach: you know, but I would say there's a more primary focus on protective than relative to food due to the performance of each of those individual businesses. And that's one of the great benefits of moving to the models that we're going to is being able to better really understand those cost structures kind of because they're not aligned to each individual
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Our next question is from Josh Spector with UBS. Your line is open.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Yeah, hi good morning. I wanted to follow up again on some of the comments around the two segments and the different presidents So you talked a lot about the operational side, which is good to see
I guess the question is really strategically...
Speaker Change: Does this change anything? So you're investing more, I guess, in protective to improve it. Does that change your willingness to look at any divestment opportunities or carve-outs within there? So how are you thinking about that today versus maybe three, six months ago? Thanks.
Speaker Change: Yeah, good morning, Josh. I think that's a good, a very good question. So,
Speaker Change: At the moment, we're really laser focused on operationalizing all of the changes that we're making. We do believe, with feedback from our distribution partners, that we are on the right path in terms of the go-to-market. We have confidence that, you know, the fiber offering is going into the right direction. The accountability, a clear line of sight, those are the issues that we've been trying to address with this verticalization. So, I do think we have a lot of opportunities right now to improve our business as we go forward. We will always look into opportunities for footprint rationalization or areas where we think.
Speaker Change: You know, we're maybe not that successful in the future, or the market's not growing that much. But in the grand scheme of things, I think we are very comfortable where we are today with all of the changes we're making, and we are going to drive change in those organizations.
Speaker Change: The first time I've seen this video, I've been watching this video for a long time.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: The next question comes from Mike Roxland with Truth Securities. Your line is now open.
Speaker Change: Thanks, Patrick, Dustin, for taking my questions. Just quickly, I wanted to follow up on the comments on that shifted to two verticals. Obviously, you established these distinct operating units, but how do you now fully separate each business such that if you were to parse out protective, the synergies would be minimized? And then just quickly on food, I think you've been going to food margins about 21% in 3Q. You round up around 22.9. What exactly occurred during the quarter that allowed you to be in? How should we think about that margin progression in 4Q?
Speaker Change: Thank you. Well, thank you, Mike. Great question. I'll start with the verticals and let Dustin answer the...
the full question on the margin.
So, um...
Speaker Change: The reason for putting our verticals back in place and changing the operating model there is really about the organizational effectiveness. I mentioned earlier that you want people to wake up every day to just focus on the areas they're responsible for. We can create that clear line of sight. We will create clear accountabilities with P&L structure with subject matter experts.
Speaker Change: in order not to lose traction in the market because I think that's where we have been in the last couple of years.
Speaker Change: The benefit of doing that is having innovation in our verticals, which means that now, when aerobics is allowed, you have one individual that's responsible for that, and we no longer have the situation where we start finger-pointing, and we have innovations that actually...
Speaker Change: are based on customer pool rather than trying to develop something that we think a customer needs without really asking. So that is the basic premise for doing this. Obviously, that gives us optionality in future, but the real focus has been on driving that verticalization to get a stronger operational effectiveness.
and...
Speaker Change: And so, just to compliment that comment, going back to the prior statement that I made as well, you know, obviously going through this, you know, the reorganization, the way that we are, it is giving us a chance to really look at that cost structure and really take a step back and ask ourselves what is really needed to support our growth expectations for each business and take a look at it in a very different way. And so, I think of it less from a dysenergy standpoint, how do we maximize the value of each individual business and get them back to, you know, driving towards, you know, long-term sustainable growth, which I'm highly confident that we have the opportunity. Both businesses demonstrated today based on how food is already operating. And going back to food margin, we benefited this year from the volume growth, right? We talked about it. We are driving volume growth across, you know, all the regions, across the
the businesses themselves, different product lines.
You're creating an opportunity for higher utilization across our network.
Speaker Change: And so you're seeing that come through in the margin pull-through. We expect that business to operate still in the low 20s, right? Where you could have a point of difference every quarter or two, depending on how you're operating. And so right now, any expectation above and beyond that, we would think about in terms of reinvestment economics going forward, in terms of how we continue to unlock further growth in the areas that Patrick outlined earlier.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Please stand by for the next question.
Speaker Change: The next question is from Chris Parkinson with Wolfe Research. Your line is open.
Speaker Change: Hi everyone, good morning. It's Andrew on for Chris. I just want to delve into food volume trends both in this quarter and, you know, looking into to the fourth quarter into 25. Would you mind walking through protein substrate and sort of the success of new products and how those two have interplayed and what you expect going forward? Thank you.
Speaker Change: Okay, I'll make a couple of comments, right, just to kind of reorient. Again, you're looking at food overall and in Q3, we talked about driving, you know, kind of low single digit grows 2.4% from a volume perspective.
Speaker Change: It's really 4% underlying strength that we talked about in Q2 that pulled forward of some of the tomato season that would have pulled forward back into Q2, so again, Q3 very strong. We're going to expect some more performance in Q4.
Speaker Change: One of the big changes this year from a market perspective that we talked about is that the U.S.
Speaker Change: beef cycle has actually been much better than we'd originally anticipated coming into the year. But just keep in mind that you're going to see that become more challenging in Q4 and going into 2025. I would say that it's been a market headwind this year, but a slight one where we thought it was going to be higher. And going into next year, it's going to be a little bit heavier relative to
impacting our volume, particularly in bags.
Speaker Change: But outside of that, I would tell you that our Latin American beef cycles and our competitive gain share there is pulling through. EMEA is performing very well. And we talked about that in Q1 and Q2 as well, and you're seeing a lot of competitive wins in that business continue to ramp up, with volume being very strong in Q3 as well as Q4.
Speaker Change: as well as just the progress we're making across a number of our different product lines outside of just our core bags business, that momentum will continue into 2020, into Q4, but also into 2025. Albeit, the market dynamics in terms of proteins, we're still evaluating that, recognizing the USB cycle was better this year. You're delaying some of the impact, you're pushing it further into 2025, and we're still working through that. We'll have a better understanding of what that means to the overall business and our outlook.
in February.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: The next question comes from Arun Visvantasa, RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Michael Jackson, George Staphos, John
Speaker Change: All right, we cannot hear the caller. We'll be moving to the next.
in the queue. One moment.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Eden Rodriguez. With Mizzou, your line is now open.
Eden Rodriguez: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Just a quick one for me, and that's about the guidance. I mean, Patrick, of course, you're new to the firm.
So, it's been...
Speaker Change: Like, this is like the third quarter in a row where you have exceeded your expectation.
Speaker Change: So, it's very likely that the guide for 4Q is as conservative as the prior quarters. But the question for me is, like, where is the uncertainty coming from? Like, what's driving results higher than you initially expected? Is it a question of volume visibility? Is it cost? Like, what's making the quarters different?
Speaker Change: from what you expected just a couple of months before that.
Speaker Change: Yeah, great question. I think, you know, as we went into Q3, this was really about the volume development and protective.
Speaker Change: I think we anticipated a different volume situation in the protective business. We continue to see strength in our food business, which I think is really strong, despite some of the headwinds we had in certain cattle cycles.
Speaker Change: in certain regions, and we're very well hedged there. But at the end of the day, that's the main uncertainty in terms of our guidance going forward.
Speaker Change: Yeah, so a couple comments I'll compliment there. One is if you look at Q3 relative to your point around, you know, meeting or beating expectations, you know, on the top line it was relatively tight, I would say, relative to our expectations. So both businesses came in, you know, protective in the way that we bought as well as food. On the bottom line, there's some benefits and that's largely coming from leverage in terms of how we're optimizing within our plants and some of the cost takeout and some of the timing of that. But again, I would say if you look at Q3, it's more modest relative to Q2 and Q1. And so as we go into Q4, I would tell you that if you go back to the beginning of the year and say what's played out, you know, throughout the year, our food business has gotten better and better and better, right? And our protective business has actually gotten worse, you know, from our original expectation. If you go back to the beginning of Q1, we would have, at that point, thought
Speaker Change: more of an L-shaped recovery, but some inflection towards the end of the year, particularly in Q4, and our outlook has changed, right? That's been the downside, so the strength in our food business has been continuously offset by the weakness in our protective business due to the portfolio challenges we've had and that we're working through.
Speaker Change: And so that, to me, is what set up our view of guidance. When we look at Q4, we think that that's what we're guiding towards is what we expect to actually happen. And so it's reflective of that. So it's not intended to be conservatism per se.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you. Please stand by for the next question.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Gabe Hodgde with Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is open.
Patrick, Dustin, good morning.
Speaker Change: I'm going to try one more time. You kind of gave us a top line number, Dustin, for food and protective, and you talked about maybe some sequential strengthening, actually, or seasonally speaking, for protective.
Speaker Change: I know price cost was a little bit worse in protective versus food, in fact food was positive.
Speaker Change: So, is there anything discreet in the fourth quarter for some of these hurricane or weather impacts that you alluded to that you haven't quantified for us?
Speaker Change: And then the variability on cash flow is still 100 million, which is obviously wider than...
Speaker Change: I think I know it's probably working capital related, but once you get to your desired level
Speaker Change: I don't know when exactly that will be, maybe give us some insight into that. But.
Speaker Change: Then we should be stable, and then it'll move with growth in the company, or is there something that could unwind maybe next year, so we've got to be mindful of that, on the working capital side.
Speaker Change: Yeah, and so Gabe, I appreciate all those, all that commentary. So let me start with
Speaker Change: discreet events related to Q4. We don't see at this point in time anything that we believe that would have happened as part of Hurricane Helene has been factored into the guidance you have. There's no material discreet impact to our business and that's really a testament. Patrick made the
Dustin Semach: The remarks earlier in the script, it's really a testament to our teams and their ability to drive everything that they did. So we're really pleased with that. Maybe to build on that Dustin, if you remember the hurricane that just happened.
two business days before the end of the quarter.
Dustin Semach: So I think we were able to manage the quarter pretty well. So some of the costs were just a carryover between the two quarters, but at the end of the day it was immaterial.
Dustin Semach: And so the other comment I would make, kind of shifting from there, relative to the working capital and as well as the free cash flow comment,
Dustin Semach: Look, we're really pleased with what we've been able to drive this year, and what we're committed to and what we've always been committed to is driving a high conversion from adjusting that income into free cash flow rate, which we expect that to be the same going into next year. The one-time benefit, Gabe, that you would have this year is the restoration of our compensation pools.
Dustin Semach: As a reminder, last year we talked about the fact that we're benefiting from the fact that we have very low, think of it as executive compensation, and that's played a factor this year. And on a positive note, if you actually look at the $1,100 adjusted EVA-DA,
Dustin Semach: At the midpoint, that's also factoring in a $30 million step up in our compensation expense due to the restoration of those compensation pools, which you would have remembered during our original guidance and outlook for 2024.
So...
Dustin Semach: We do expect working capital. I would say it's largely normalized now. There's still a little bit of opportunity, probably in inventory going into next year, but we don't see, you know, because next year we'll factor in the fact that we'll be paying out bonuses more in line with historical expectations, at least at this point in time. And so I think that this, you know, we still expect a very strong year for next year free cash flow. It'll be somewhat determined obviously based on our
Dustin Semach: are a profit outlook once we get to February, and we still expect very high conversion, and we wouldn't expect our ability to de-lever and hit the commitments that we've outlined. We still feel it's fully intact within our control at this point.
Thank you. Please stand by for the next question.
Speaker Change: The next question comes from Theo Ning with Jeffrey. Your line is open.
Hey guys, congrats on the strong quarter.
Speaker Change: I guess from a high level, I would say demand for food has been pretty solid. So, my question is really, is there a scope for positive price mix when we look at the 2025?
Have you started having those conversations?
Speaker Change: Separately, pricing and protective seems to be fairly stable, any color on, you know, the competitive landscape, your ability to kind of maintain price. So, ultimately, Dustin, I'm trying to get at, is there opportunity for price cost actually, I'm sorry, net price to flip positive in 2025 in either of your two businesses?
Speaker Change: Yeah, so, Phil, I really appreciate the question, you know, as it relates to kind of price, price-cost dynamics for each individual business.
Dustin Semach: And you're correct in what you said. Obviously, if you look at Q4, what's implied in our guide beyond the overall kind of low single digit growth that we have for volumes, which is kind of commensurate with the prior three quarters, you're also seeing price.
Dustin Semach: The spread come down almost to where it's almost flattish, right? Which is obviously a very positive indication in terms of going into next year. There are still some pressures within the food business related to some of the largest industrial processors, particularly in their businesses, going into next year. But we see pricing dynamics more favorable going into next year than where we sit today.
Dustin Semach: Now, I'll caveat that and say that obviously input costs, resin costs are obviously a big factor into that. They've been very stable this year and we talked about the positivity around reducing a lot of that volatility.
Dustin Semach: And so we do think the wraparound effect going next year is going to be a better pricing cost dynamic than we had in 2024. To what extent for food, we're still working through, and that will be kind of thought through kind of over the next three to four months.
Dustin Semach: On protective, there are still, you know, pricing pressures, right? It's definitely narrowed because a lot of the comes down, you know, in terms of the price reductions.
Dustin Semach: do to a number of things, kind of working through the supply chain, but really the bring down on resin happened across 23 into 24, so that wraparound effect.
Dustin Semach: You still feel it to some degree, but it's narrowed again, similar to food, but not quite to the same degree. So you'll see about a 1% reduction in price in Q4, which will obviously have a tail going to next year. A lot of that is coming from competitive dynamics, particularly in the areas that we talked about where you have deterioration in volumes.
Dustin Semach: Black Poly Void Fill. So it's not just that there's a volume loss there, but because there's less volume to grab right now, you're seeing a lot more pricing pressures across the competitive landscape in that particular area.
Dustin Semach: But again, in a similar vein, we see it to be more positive going into next year than we experienced in 2024. To what extent, and does that mean it will be positive?
Dustin Semach: You know, overall from an NPR relative to the, if you're, just as a reminder, we're down, it's improved throughout the year, but we're down about negative 60 million this year, but so TBD, but we do expect it to be better.
Speaker Change: Okay, very encouraging. Thanks a lot. Yeah, thank you. It's a great question.
Speaker Change: Thank you. Thank you. Please stand by for the next question.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: The next question comes from Matt Roberts with Raymond James. Your line is now open.
Speaker Change: Hey, Patrick, Justin, good morning. I know we spent a lot of time talking about fiber, but maybe I'll try to give them one more here. Patrick, you did say you spoke to many distributors and customers over the last couple days. So, can you help me understand specifically where your fiber product lacks versus peers?
Dustin Semach: What products or changes are there in the pipeline that we could expect to see, how long would it take to commercialize any of those new products to stop the erosion you're seeing in mailer and void fill areas, and what type of investment would it require to ramp those up? Thank you for taking the question.
The End
Thank you, Matt.
Speaker Change: So start with the mailers, right. So as you were placing plastic mailers with the bubble wrap on the inside, the traditional jiffy mailers, if you will, the perception of the protection of those products is actually very different. So people are actually compromising from moving from plastic to fiber-based products, and the protective nature of that fiber-based mailer is actually very important. So one of the things I think we've been lacking a little bit as I came into the organization and looked at some of our comparative offerings
Speaker Change: Even though, in theory, our product is as protective as the alternative offering in the market, it wasn't perceived that way. So we're working on the perception, and actually the protection, so that we can get a better mailer out in the market. And there's some...
Dustin Semach: prototypes that we actually launching at the moment and that are in a very good condition and actually can help us drive sales in that space.
Dustin Semach: So, as far as the void filler goes, I think, you know, in general terms, our focus has been on the mailers, because the void as such has been under pressure quite a bit, and people are trying to...
Dustin Semach: design out the void because it's a challenge per se. Now there is still very solid volume growth in the space, but it's really about getting the sweet spot in terms of all of the different applications you have in terms of
Dustin Semach: What kind of protection do you need? So again, the protection there is critically important, but it is more going hand-in-hand with automation.
So, if you go to the timing of things...
Dustin Semach: And I'll get to your question about what kind of investment does it require. So the timing of the paper mailers will go faster because we have a lot of offerings already available and we have fine-tuned, sharpened the pencil on that offering quite substantially. So that is faster. When it comes to the capital investment, I think we're in a good position on the capital investment.
Dustin Semach: capital intense as for instance on a food business so it's easier to implement and then as far as the voice filling goes this is more an interplay between automation and the paper that you're using so that is something that will take a little bit longer in terms of a portfolio change being
effective.
Thank you. Please stand by for the next question.
Speaker Change: The next question comes from George Dappos, Bank of America Securities. Your line is open.
George Dappos: Hi, thanks very much for taking the follow-on. It's on protective as well, so
George Dappos: One, what are your views on Instapak and how important that is in the portfolio on a going forward basis?
relatedly, in terms of protective,
George Dappos: Does the, you know, affinity for sustainability, the focus on fiber versus poly vary?
depending on whether we're talking with a large distribution company.
George Dappos: or E Taylor or a smaller one, I would imagine, but maybe this is incorrect. The smaller distribution guys, the guys more in the street, don't care as much. But, you know, if you could help us understand that.
Dustin Semach: And then lastly, as you move this transformation over time to fiber versus plastic, recognizing there are no guarantees here, because it's still nascent days for you.
Dustin Semach: Does it make the business more or less price competitive? Do you think it makes your pricing more variable, less predictable, or more if you move to fiber over time? So thanks guys, and I'll turn it over and good luck in the quarter.
Speaker Change: Thank you, George. Great question. So let me start with the.
Speaker Change: The question you asked about, so where I see the difference is really more
Speaker Change: between products that touch the consumer and products that go into a more industrial space.
Speaker Change: Those are the biggest shifts that I see. Yes, there will be differences between larger and smaller consumers, but it is actually more pronounced.
Speaker Change: when it comes to where products touch your consumer. And that goes back into your Instapack question. So Instapack typically hits more in the industrial space because your products are typically heavier.
Speaker Change: more higher value and the industrial segment is much more price sensitive and much less driven by consumer preferences who wanted to get out of poly and going into paper.
Speaker Change: So these are areas actually that I think Instapak is an important part of our portfolio. That is an area that from a fiber-based shift is much less on the pressure because simply fiber-based products will not give these products the same level of protection and that is important as we move forward.
Speaker Change: The other thing is the curbside recycling for consumers is a very different ballgame.
Dustin Semach: then the recycling opportunities you have in industrial. So more price sensitive, industrial recyclability is more available. So from that point of view, I do believe there is a difference between the different segments, but not necessarily as much in the small and large space, more in terms of whether a product touches the consumer or not.
Dustin Semach: So then let's talk a little bit about that pricing. So I talked about, you know, as we develop more fiber based alternatives it is really important to us that we become more substrate agnostic.
in my room.
Dustin Semach: It's going to be more expensive to use a fiber-based product than a poly product.
Dustin Semach: customers have that choice now. So I do think the price predictability is relatively stable from that point of view, but what is more critically important to us as an organization is that people want to go shop for fiber based products, they don't have to go somewhere else.
Dustin Semach: They can use the fiber-based options that we're offering them and potentially just a drop-in in the equipment that we're using today.
Thanks very much, Patrick.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I would now like to turn it back to CEO Patrick Kivits for closing remarks.
Patrick Kivits: So I'd like to thank everyone for their time today. I look forward to updating you over the coming quarters on the progress we are continuing to make to transform sealed air. And lastly, I'd like to close by thanking the global sealed air team for their efforts in solving our customers most critical packaging challenges every day. Thank you.
Speaker Change: Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program and you may now disconnect.
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Speaker Change: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q3 2024 Sealed Air Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode.
Speaker Change: After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised.
To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again.
Speaker Change: Please be advised, we will be limiting each person to one question today. If you'd like to ask a second question, you may enter and re-queue.
Speaker Change: Please also be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Brian Sullivan.
Investor Relations. Brian, please go ahead.
Speaker Change: Thank you and good morning everyone. With me today are Patrick Kivits, CEO and Dustin Semach, President and CFO.
Speaker Change: Before we begin our call I would like to note that we have provided a slide presentation to supplement the call.
Speaker Change: Please visit sealedair.com where today's webcast and presentation can be downloaded from our investor relations page.
Speaker Change: Statements made during this call stating management's outlook or estimates for future periods are forward-looking statements.
Speaker Change: These statements are based solely on the information that is now available to us.
Speaker Change: We encourage you to review the information in the section entitled Forward-Looking Statements in our Earnings Release and SLAB Presentation, which applies to this call.
Speaker Change: Additionally, our future performance may differ due to a number of factors.
Speaker Change: Many of these factors are listed in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, as revised and updated on our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K.
Speaker Change: We discuss financial measures that do not conform to the U.S. GAAP.
Speaker Change: You will find important information on our use of these measures and their reconciliation to U.S. GAAP in our earnings release.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Including the appendix of today's presentation, you will find US GAAP financial results that correspond to the non-US GAAP measures we referenced throughout the presentation.
Speaker Change: I will now turn the call over to Patrick and Dustin. Operator, please turn to slide 3. Patrick?
Patrick Kivits: Thank you, Brian, and thank you for joining our third quarter or next call.
Patrick Kivits: Before we dive into today's earnings discussions, I would like to take a moment to update you on the progress we have made on the actions outlined during our last earnings call.
Patrick Kivits: Over the past few months, I've been engaging with our largest customers and distribution partners to gain deeper insight into how we can meet their needs and address their packaging challenges.
Patrick Kivits: Separately, I've connected with our investors to get their perspectives on the opportunities ahead for creating shareholder value.
Speaker Change: Through these discussions it became clear that reorganizing into two verticals, food and protective, was a critical foundational step to enhance our customers experience and maximize shareholder value.
Speaker Change: Each business is distinct, with unique end markets, customer base, innovation needs, and manufacturing assets.
Speaker Change: We are returning to our core value proposition as a company.
Speaker Change: Combining industry-leading material science, best-in-class services, and differentiated automation, offering to deliver world-class packaging solutions.
as we refine our strategy, serving our customers,
and addressing their critical packaging challenges remains a guiding principle.
Speaker Change: Next, we need to ensure we have the right team in place to drive accelerated progress in each vertical.
Speaker Change: We focused on bringing in talent from other packaging companies with strong commercial and portfolio expertise, looking for leaders that have successfully improved commercial execution and navigated sustainable portfolio shifts while consistently delivering sales and profit growth.
Speaker Change: The first critical hire was Brian Reckie, who now leads a protective vertical.
Speaker Change: With over 20 years of experience in the packaging industry and strong commercial acumen, Byron brings valuable knowledge in fiber similar to my own background.
Speaker Change: and he has successfully navigated substrate and packaging format transitions in his previous roles.
He is spearheading the turnaround of our protective business.
Speaker Change: The first time I've seen this video, I've been watching this video for a long time.
Speaker Change: In October, we brought on Steve Flannery as head of our food vertical.
Speaker Change: With over 25 years of experience at Avery Dennison, Steve has held leadership roles across sales, innovation, marketing, and operations.
Speaker Change: He has led businesses in multiple geographies, driving market-leading innovations, and fostering a team-based culture that consistently delivered robust sales and earnings growth.
Speaker Change: Steve will build on the momentum within our food business and unlock further growth.
Speaker Change: Emile Chammas continues to be our Chief Operating Officer, leading our efforts to optimize the supply chains for both food and protective, ensuring each respective supply chain is tailored for those end markets and expected service levels.
Speaker Change: We also hired Belinda Hyde as our Chief People Officer, who will focus on enhancing the employee experience, cultivating a high-performance culture, and ensuring we have the right leadership and capabilities across the organization.
Speaker Change: Lastly, our President and Chief Financial Officer, Dustin Semach, is partnering closely with me to develop a long-term plan to create shareholder value and drive a broad transformation across the business.
Speaker Change: Beyond strengthening the management team, we are also enhancing the board. In October, the board appointed Tony Ellis as the new director.
Speaker Change: Tony is an experienced senior executive in the packaging sector. He successfully led Silgon for over 16 years as president and chief executive officer where he created significant shareholder value.
He continues to serve as Sullivan's chairman.
Speaker Change: We look forward to leveraging his expertise in leading packaging companies with diversified portfolios to help accelerate our transformation.
Speaker Change: With our food and protective presence now in place, we have aligned our operating units, innovation, customer service, and automation functions within each vertical.
Speaker Change: These changes will enable each vertical to swiftly adapt to market trends, leverage their global scale, enhance customer focus, and execute their respective growth strategies.
Speaker Change: This represents a significant milestone in our transformation, and I am eager to build on this foundation as we continue to evolve the business towards achieving long-term sustainable growth.
Speaker Change: I would like to highlight some early successes resulting directly from the transformation actions we have initiated.
Speaker Change: With our dedicated food commercial teams now aligned to each local end market and fully focused on execution, our food business is delivering above market growth in each of our end markets and across most product lines.
Speaker Change: This above-market performance is driven by a mix of commercial excellence, new product launches, and competitive wins.
Speaker Change: On the protective side, while volumes in the business continue to be soft, we are gaining traction in the market with our sustainable packaging solutions.
Speaker Change: We recently announced a partnership with a large retail customer, Best Buy, to provide a suite of high-recycle content and fiber-based products to help reduce the amount of virgin plastic used in their packaging.
Speaker Change: Additionally, we collaborated with them to arrange the collection of plastic waste from their distribution centers for recycling.
Speaker Change: Beyond this example, we continue to position our portfolio to match our customers' sustainability needs while still addressing their most critical packaging challenges.
Speaker Change: With that said, we still have much more work ahead of us. Over the next couple of months, we will focus on operationalizing each vertical.
Speaker Change: On Protective, we are continuing to work through sustainability-related portfolio gaps, improving commercial execution, and infusing talent throughout the organization.
Speaker Change: On food, we are focused on accelerating growth outside of our shrink bags business with case-ready and fluid and liquid solutions, successfully navigating sustainable packaging transitions and improving pricing dynamics.
Speaker Change: Until we see improvements in volume and price performance, we are accelerating our cost take-out initiatives to further right-size each vertical and drive overall profitability.
Speaker Change: Before I hand it over to Dustin for a business update, I would like to take a moment to discuss the impacts of Hurricane Helene.
Speaker Change: Hurricane Eileen's path impacted many of our plants and sites across South Carolina and Western North Carolina, affecting over 1,500 employees.
These locations experience challenges across many aspects of the infrastructure.
Speaker Change: Our team quickly mobilized to ensure that first, our people and our families were taken care of, and second, to restore normal operations.
Speaker Change: Despite these challenges, our team members kept us operational and ensured each other's safety, minimizing the impact on the corridor and to our customers.
Speaker Change: It was really inspiring to witness our team come together to support one another, their communities, and our company.
Speaker Change: I'm excited to be here and look forward to updating you on our transformation and 2025 Outlook in February. With that, I'll turn it over to Dustin to give an update on the business and our Outlook.
Dustin
Dustin Semach: Thank you, Patrick. Let's turn this slide forward to review SODAIR's third quarter performance.
Speaker Change: We closed the quarter with sales of $1.35 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $276 million, each down 3% compared to last year on a reported basis.
Speaker Change: Our third quarter results reflect a continued solid performance in food, persisting challenges in protective, and strong productivity benefits, including our cost takeout initiatives.
Speaker Change: Adjusted earnings per share in the quarter of $0.79 were up 3% compared to a year ago.
Speaker Change: Our adjusted tax rate was 24% compared to 25.7% in the same period last year.
Speaker Change: The decrease in tax rate year-over-year was driven by the jurisdictional mix of income and non-recurring discrete items in the prior year.
Speaker Change: Our weighted average diluted shares outstanding in the third quarter of 2024 was $146 million.
Turning to slide 5.
Speaker Change: In the third quarter, organic sales were down 2%, driven by lower pricing across both the food and protective segments.
Speaker Change: Volumes were relatively flat year-over-year for the quarter, with growth in the food segment across all regions offset by declines in protective in Americas and EMEA.
Speaker Change: Third quarter adjusted EBITDA of $276 million, decreased $9 million or approximately 3% compared to last year with margins of 20.5% down 10 basis points.
Speaker Change: This performance was mainly driven by lower volumes and unfavorable net price realization in protective, partially offset by higher volumes and favorable net price realization in food, and lower operating costs mainly driven by productivity benefits, including cost takeout initiatives.
Moving to slide six.
Speaker Change: Food net sales of $898 million for the quarter were up approximately 1%. Lower pricing primarily in America's NMEA was more than offset by positive volume growth in all regions, driven by strength in protein and market demand and share gains within our bags and case-ready solutions.
Speaker Change: In the third quarter, the global protein markets were net positive by approximately 1%.
Speaker Change: continued strength in Australian cattle cycles, stronger than anticipated U.S. beef production, and robust pork demand more than offset declines in poultry production caused by avian flu outbreaks affecting North American turkey flocks.
Speaker Change: Amid increased consumer demand in the protein markets, we further drove competitive wins.
Speaker Change: Our case rate solutions experience high single-digit growth, driven by the ongoing recovery of the roll stock business, where we lost share in previous years due to residence shortages.
Speaker Change: and by market share gains in the retail space with our trades and lending offerings.
Speaker Change: Equipment sales, however, declined as customers continued to exercise caution in deploying capital.
Speaker Change: Who did Justice Eva Dock? $206 million in the third quarter was up 6%.
Speaker Change: with margins at 22.9% up 120 basis points compared to last year.
Speaker Change: The increase in adjusted EBITDA was mainly driven by volume growth and net price realization.
Speaker Change: Transitioning to Protective. Third quarter net sales of $447 million were down 8% as anticipated in our Q2 guidance.
Speaker Change: Industrial portfolios remain weak due to subdued manufacturing activities in the developed world.
Speaker Change: Volume of the Filament Portfolio has declined approximately 10% driven by the slowdown in equipment automation and continued pressure within void fill product lines.
Speaker Change: In our APAC region, volumes grew approximately 1% in the quarter as the gain in box-right sizing automation offset weakness in industrial and fulfillment portfolios.
Speaker Change: and the Americas and EMEA regions volume performance remained largely unchanged from the prior quarter.
Speaker Change: Sustainability pressures on the void fill product lines, ongoing weakness in industrial sector, and lower automation sales continue to negatively impact our results.