PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Vincent Andrews: Yes. And Duffy thanks for the question. It’s Tim here. On the new pricing, if you will, it will be more targeted just based on where each of the segments are on their catch-up and on offsetting total inflation and new inflation. We’ve already gone out for additional price in a couple of businesses. We’re having discussions with customers in a few other businesses, and we’ll prefer to have those discussions with the customers first and — but we’ll have more visibility on that as we move forward. But we will have positive price when you net all of that here as we move through ’23.

Operator: Our next question comes from Laurent Favre with Exane BNP Pariba. Please go ahead.

Laurent Favre: Tim, in your focus areas, you mentioned simplification and optimization of supply chain and manufacturing. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about this and maybe size the opportunity on costs and working capital, and other areas where you think you need to rationalize the footprint based on a structurally lower demand environment for instance in Europe?

Tim Knavish: Yes. Thanks, Laurent. If you look at our journey over the last decade and we’ve got a lot of acquisitions, we’ve acquired a lot of manufacturing . We’ve also acquired a lot of product portfolios, and we’ve captured a lot of synergies along the way. As we look at where we are today and some of the things we’ve learned through some of the supply shortages, et cetera, of the crisis, we believe there’s fairly significant opportunities for us to really simplify, not only our footprint, but our processes, simplify and standardize some of what we’ve acquired, simplify some of the portfolios that we’ve required are. So, we do believe that there’s some significant upside for us there as we move forward. And as you can imagine, that’s not as quick a realization as, say, procurement synergies when you first close the deal, but we feel pretty confident that in the medium and long term that we can deliver value there.

Operator: Our next question comes from Kevin McCarthy with Vertical Research Partners. Please go ahead.

Kevin McCarthy: Tim, a question on your U.S. architectural business, if we look at most of the macro indicators for housing and construction, they’re slowing markedly in recent months. On the other hand, you have some company-specific tailwinds in the form of a ramp of your Pro paint program at Home Depot. I think you also referenced increased shelf space at Glidden. So can you frame that out in terms of what you’re anticipating maybe volumetrically as 2023 progresses in that vertical?

Vince Morales: Yes, Kevin, this is Vince. Let me just start on the macro. Again, what we’re seeing, which I think has been pretty chronicled is new housing starts and leading indicators, certainly pointing down. We really have to bifurcate that. Single-family housing starts are significant, significantly down. Multifamily, we expect to turn down, and they’re starting to turn out, but there’s still going to be growth. Multifamily completions, again, paints at the end of the cycle here, there’s still completions that will carry us well into the year. Tim mentioned earlier on the commercial side, commercial new build, again, for the — sorry, for the first half of the year should be some constant, if not longer. And then commercial repaint is solid right now. And there’s a backlog on that. So, those are the macro signs and we do have some PPG-specific items that Tim’s can talk about.

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