AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Stephan Tanda: Now with respect to your M&A question, we continue to have an active M&A pipeline and look at opportunities along the lines that we have done before; technologies geographic opportunities venturing type investments. So we continue our M&A activity unabatedly. For every 10 deals you study or work on maybe one happens. Clearly the high interest rates gives the sponsors a pause, which may help us a little bit because we never look at these high leverage ratios. On the other hand, we also recognize that our cost of capital has gone up with the higher interest rates. So we continue to be a disciplined player in this game.

Gabe Hajde: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Ghansham Panjabi from Baird. Please go ahead.

Ghansham Panjabi: Good morning, everybody. On the Rx growth of 20% and OTC of 14% in 3Q, at least part of that seems to be driven by new products and related inventory build for products such as Narcan. Can you help us dimensionalize the potential headwind from a volume standpoint as you cycle through the inventory build comparisons thinking after 2024, or do you not see that as material at this point?

Stephan Tanda: Well, certainly, we don’t see that to keep growing at these rates. On the other hand, there is not a day that goes by where we don’t pick up personally reports of the non-traditional channels continuing to expand, whether it’s school, whether it’s communities, whether it’s fire department. So yes, the OTC channel has added pipeline fill. But Narcan is increasingly pervasive and that we see continue some growth there plus given that the nasal delivery route is increasingly seen as an attractive shortcut to the brain if you want, we also see the pipeline continue to fill. So of course, those double-digit or high double-digit growth rates will not continue but we also don’t see a significant decline or anything like that but more in line with our Pharma growth rates.

Ghansham Panjabi: Okay. And then for my second question on personal care which seems – it seems awfully weak across the board. Is there a category or a customer mix issue that is weighing on this segment for you? And then for fragrance, which the whole supply chain ecosystem has called out as strong, how sustainable do you think this is in context of uneven consumer spending that we’re seeing in so many other categories?

Stephan Tanda: It’s really completely different dynamics. In personal care it is predominantly the US destocking issue. And we see that running its course. I have several anecdotes where customers say “Hey we’re still fine leave us alone” and then the next week they call out and they are oh my God, we are out of stock for this item and are please we need it tomorrow. That hasn’t happened in the past few quarters, it’s happening now. So it seems to me that things will return. I think we’ve said before certainly in personal care closures, home care closures we had some share loss. On the other hand in other categories we had share gains. But certainly, North America whether it’s personal care home care closures personal home care that’s still accounted for in Beauty has been a challenge for us.

And on the other hand what we’re signaling from everything we see that will have run its course by the end of the year. On fragrance, it’s a completely different dynamic. Fragrance is really driven by launches and then flankers. And clearly brands are eager to continue to get their franchises out there. We also have gained some share there. And that’s without China really getting back into direction and we see that happening also now. So again, we see a normalization of growth but not going the other way.

Ghansham Panjabi: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Daniel Rizzo of Jefferies. Please go ahead.