Barnes Group Inc. (NYSE:B) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

So that’s where we are seeing a large portion of the pressure is on those hot runner product lines to the end-markets, to mobility and transportation. That is an operational commercialization challenge, as well as a market weakness shift that’s in China that’s occurring in combination. Of course, the UAW strike is a dark cloud on the horizon, but it is not affected and it is not a reason for that outlook being a little bit more conservative and pessimistic. I would say that, you know, as we are repositioning Molding Solutions and integrating it and streamlining its management significantly, it will allow us to focus more sales resources on our principal zone structure in terms of sales and marketing to help get us more commercial market traction.

And that includes whether it’s automotive or personal care, packaging, medical. It’s a tough transition to make over the third quarter, but it’s long overdue and needed to get the business onto a more fundamental track to sell strongly into those markets.

Matt Summerville: And then it is — one of my follow-ups, it would be helpful if you can sort of bridge to the extent you can Julie, how you get from 3.8 times levered coming out of year end 2023 all the way down to 3 times. How much incremental EBITDA are you expecting MB to add in 2024 over 2023? It’s a little tough for me to see mathematically how you get down to 3 times by the end of next year.

Julie Streich: So if we look at what’s happening from, obviously, a cash generation perspective as well, we would continue to see a decrease in the investment in working capital with our — with the assistance of excellent management on those fronts which will contribute. We will continue to see the topline growth. We have non-cash charges that are flowing through the P&L that also contribute to that paydown. So while we are not prepared to talk about what our EBITDA is for 2024 on either side of the business and looking at the data that we have available today, we see a path with our cash generation and with expected topline to get the leverage to that level.

Matt Summerville: Okay. And then I will just ask one more. So productivity challenges in Aero. Can we kind of underline that a little bit and talk about where that’s at versus where it was 90 days ago, specifically, what you are doing to fix those issues. And then if you can kind of recap the go forward restructuring savings you are expecting in 2024 and 2025, and what these incremental actions, the impact that may be having on those numbers? I would assume they are moving up, but if you can give a little more detail on those topics, that would be great?

Thomas Hook: Certainly. So for Aero, Matt is, in the Legacy Barnes Aerospace, we have had two facilities we have spoken to. One of those OEM facility has had operational performance challenges and specifically plant output. There we have in the third quarter started to turn the corner with changes in leadership at that facility, as well as in the — how we are actually running the facility and that has started to turn the corner into a positive direction. Of course, one month does not make a trend, so we are watching it very closely with the new leadership in place, but it has turned the corner from the kind of headwinds that it was facing. The second facility we highlighted that is — has operational performance issues in Aerospace and the Legacy Barnes is an aftermarket facility that is continuing to have challenges.

There are commercial challenges based on its performance and reputation historically, the solution set is a commercial engagement of — with customers to bring business in that facility so that it can put itself on a growth trajectory. That is in process. It is premature to call it turning around since we still have work to do heading into Q4 and into 2024 to improve that situation. It does involve leadership changes as well, both operationally and commercially to improve it. So those are also being put in place by Ian Reason to improve that situation. The last piece I would highlight really is relating to MB Aero. In the month of September, one of the facilities had an atypical month of performance, which is really just an isolated item and is not something that’s persistent that kind of affected that productivity of that specific individual facility.