FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Mike Lenz: All right. Jon, let me take a swing at that here. So look the way we have framed this is that our expectation is for continued, but moderating underlying inflation. So what we illustrated here in this midpoint scenario is positive contribution beyond inflation amidst a muted demand growth scenario. Then obviously on top of that the DRIVE savings are greater than the nonrecurring headwind. So, again, as Brie mentioned, we’ll see moderating volume declines as we move through the year here, but at the same time, the degree of yield increases that we saw last year are not going to continue into this year.

Operator: The next question will come from Brian Ossenbeck with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Brian Ossenbeck: Hey, good evening. Thanks for taking the question. For Brie, can you just talk about any plans of financial structure trade-down in this uncertain environment? You mentioned one customer making a change, I think it was within U.S. Air freight, I believe it was? And then relatedly, can you just talk about, if you’re seeing any diversions from UPS network that might be driving some of those month-on-month incremental gains in terms of Ground and Express. Thank you.

Brie Carere: Okay, I think I got all that Brian. I think you got a couple of questions. Let’s start with the last part first, so I think the question was, are we seeing any benefit from the UPS labor negotiation, so the short answer is, in Q4 we did not see any material benefit because of those discussions and we have not planned for any benefit moving into fiscal year ‘24. What I can tell you is that this has opened a lot of doors. We’re having a lot of great conversations with legacy UPS customers and we feel really strong — we feel really good about the sales pipeline because of the strong value proposition we have versus our primary competitor. I think the other question was about the mix and are we seeing any customers make trades within the portfolio where we’re seeing that most pronounced and we have plan for it, to Mike’s point, it’s in our range accounted for is in Asia.

Obviously, capacity has come back relative to demand, and we did reopen our IE product in the fourth quarter, that has performed well, and actually I’m really pleased with the performance that I’m seeing from the Asia-Pacific team and their sales pipeline, but that’s where we’ve seen the biggest shift.

Operator: The next question will come from Jack Atkins with Stephens. Please go ahead.

Jack Atkins: Okay, great, thank you for taking my question. So, I guess maybe if I could a two-parter here, the guidance itself, I think the bottom-end, Mike, if the way you described it, if I understood it correctly, contemplates the operating environment remains as it is right now, if we were to see things deteriorate in terms of just underlying customer demand, is the company prepared to maybe pull forward some of the DRIVE savings from FY ’25 into FY ’24, is that even really possible at this point, if you maybe you could talk about that? And then for Brie for the second part of the question is the $800 million of International Export yield pressure that you guys are going to be seeing this year, is that going to fully capture sort of getting back to sort of pre-COVID levels there? Again, thanks for the two-parter, but would appreciate the effect.