Pactiv Evergreen Inc. (NASDAQ:PTVE) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jon Baksht: Yeah. So the vast majority of the COGS that you’re seeing there is going to be on raw material pricing. So as we go year-over-year, a lot of the resins have come down. So that’s a big percentage of that. But embedded in that is also improvements in manufacturing and logistics. So if you were to kind of disaggregate that a bit. I would say more than half of that is raw materials. And, which we have past dues for. And then, probably a bit more than 50% is raw materials. And then the remainder is, manufacturing, logistics and just overall kind of savings from the restructuring.

George Staphos: Okay. Thank you. I’ll turn it over.

Operator: Standby for our next question. Our next question comes from Arun Viswanathan. Arun, go ahead with your question.

Arun Viswanathan: Great. Thanks, for taking my question. I had that same issue that George had on the first question. Hopefully, we continue to hear everyone. So I guess, yeah, just congrats on the great results. I guess I just wanted to dive into kind of the outlook here. So you are guiding to year-on-year improvement in Q4, obviously, sequentially lower due to seasonality and some other issues. But as you kind of look out, you’re posting about 6% EBITDA growth for this year. Is that kind of within your targeted range? I mean, should we continue to see Pactiv kind of post that kind of mid-single digit EBITDA growth? And is that mainly because of low single digit volume growth, or is there maybe some upside to that from restructuring and some of the other actions you’re taking? Thanks.

Mike King: Yeah. So, from an annualized basis, I think those are all quite fair characterizations. I think the benefits of the restructuring, we’re starting to see those in Q3. We expect this to come on a bit further in Q4 as we get more to our normalized run rate. And then some of the other dynamics that you saw from Q3 to Q4 basis are going to be consistent in terms of just the operational savings, the efficiencies that we built into the business. We expect those to continue into Q4. As I mentioned to George one of the factors leading in was some material prices have come down. And so from a pass through basis, we’re seeing some of some of that come through. And then just back to the value over volume, we are really, we’re focused on our business mix and customer mix and really getting that to a better place. And you’ll see that in the fourth quarter as well.

Arun Viswanathan: Okay. And then just as a follow-up, you did increase your free cash flow guidance at 250 plus. So as you look out into 2024, would you expect maybe similar kind of growth in free cash flow, that would dovetail the EBITDA growth or could maybe the free cash flow growth exceed EBITDA because of lower working capital or any other discrete items. I mean, do you expect to kind of be below four turns of leverage, next year?

Mike King: So, thinking controllable and manageable we’re not really talking about 2024 at this point. What I would tell you is we’re keenly focused on free cash and deeply committed to our reducing our net leverage. So I think that’s right. I think as we’ve said in our prepared remarks, getting into the 3s is certainly a top priority for us. But I wouldn’t guess a free cash for next year at this point.

Arun Viswanathan: Thanks.

Operator: Standby for our next question. Our next question comes from Anthony Pettinari of Citi. Anthony, go ahead with your question.

Anthony Pettinari: Hey. Good morning. The range for cash costs from restructuring, I think, ticked up with the revised guide I think from 130, 160 to 150 to 160, does that mean 2024 maybe has less than the I guess, $30 million to $40 million cash costs that were previously expected, or is that unchanged? And then, is working capital still looking like, I think $150 million to $170 million source of cash.

Jon Baksht: So on the first one, yes. So just to confirm, that is the revised guidance. So we took up the bottom end of the range, $20 million and we’ve what we did not change was our guide for 2023 cash impact. And so effectively, I would think — and we haven’t provided overall guidance for 2024 as Mike highlighted. But the way to think about that, it incremental cash is related to that, to the Canton closure and the restructuring, that’s going to be a 24 item. So our 2023 guide does not change as it relates to the cash cost there. And just confirm. You can hear me okay, Anthony?

Anthony Pettinari: Yeah. I can hear you?

Jon Baksht: Okay. Great.

Anthony Pettinari: That’s helpful. And then on working capital in terms of a source of cash.

Jon Baksht: Yeah. So in terms of our cash outlook for this year that’s right. The change in working capital, we have a bridge in our investor deck on slide 23. So that range of 140 to 150 remains the same.

Anthony Pettinari: Got it. And then in Foodservice, and I guess in Food and Beverage Merchandising as well, is there, like, when would you expect kind of the value over volume decisions can kind of run their course or maybe a related question. Like, as you just kind of look at the comps, when would you expect volumes to inflect positively? And then, was there anything in October that made you feel maybe better or worse or the same about sort of 4Q demand?