Quad/Graphics, Inc. (NYSE:QUAD) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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But on the operational side, we do a lot of stuff to offset the post office over a lot of time. We significantly offset current postal costs through all the co-mailing that we do. And we’re really excited because we’re rolling out a whole new product right now that might — not might, will, help our clients significantly offset more of this postal increase that’s going on. It takes time to ramp up because some people need to test into it, but we’re rolling it out with publications right now, and we expect to — as fast as possible to get the catalogers on task as well. So we — it really pushes us to be innovative. Because I think the key point is people have to remember, we do most of the post offices work. We do all the sortation, we combine the customers, and we drop it to the almost to the closest post-office to your house, and that’s where the post office picks up.

And so that’s where we really push process innovation to help them offset it. So it’s a little bit of both in terms of your question.

Anthony Staniak: Yes, and the majority of cost that someone pays to print is postal, right? So this is a big item. So all the solutions that Joel talked about and the scale that we bring, that gives us an advantage in helping businesses be the most efficient they can be in getting things delivered to end destinations.

Kevin Steinke: All right. Yes. Understood. So just 2 more here. Anything to highlight in your international markets and what’s going on there? Saw decline year-over-year. But is that seeing the same kind of headwinds as you’re experiencing in the U.S., I guess?

Joel Quadracci: Well, quite frankly, where we see the softness would be in Europe because Europe has obviously big challenges now and ahead of it. But if you look at Mexico, that is being tremendously successful for us, and we’re continuing to actually grow that organically. And so we’ve got into some new product lines. We’ve signed up a lot of new customers. We’re adding a new very large press in Mexico, has to be up and running by February or our clients will be upset, but it’s on schedule. But that’s actually a great story. So Mexico is a very good highlight offset by some of the softnesses in Europe.

Kevin Steinke: Okay. And then lastly, Tony, as we think about the restructuring and impairment charge line, they were up a bit sequentially in the third quarter from the second quarter. Have you taken additional actions that would lead to a bit higher charges than you had been previously expecting here? Or just how should we think about that trending in the fourth quarter?

Anthony Staniak: Sure. So if I start with the third quarter on that, a portion of the expense that you saw come through that line was impairment related, about half of it, impairment-related noncash in nature. So third quarter was actually from a cash perspective, the lowest restructuring quarter thus far. As we look out in the fourth quarter, we are anticipating some restructuring expenses. We continue to address capacity needs in our production platform that will lead to cost there.

Joel Quadracci: Operator?

Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Joel for closing remarks.

Joel Quadracci: Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining today’s call. I want to close by reiterating my confidence in our strategy and in our role as a marketing experience company. Our integrated marketing offering continues to be a competitive differentiator and a key driver behind our company’s overall momentum going forward. At the same time, we remain focused on proactively managing all aspects of our business for long-term strength and stability and shareholder value creation. With that, thank you again, and have a good day. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter.

Operator: Conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.

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