Sonoco Products Company (NYSE:SON) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Robert Coker: Yes. And Anthony, I’d just add to that. As we talk about the volume side, and we feel like we’ve been in manufacturing depression or recessions really since December or so of last year. Our volumes, as you have seen through the course of that period of time on Industrial, have been challenged to say the least. But I can’t tell you how impressed I have been with the team performance. We talk about productivity. We talk about the investments that we’ve made. I guess you guys are probably glad we’re not talking about Project Horizon every moment that you see us or hear from us, but that’s just a poster child of not being in the corrugated medium market up right now, vertically integrated and how does that flatten out and then will, frankly, improve, particularly in times like this our overall Industrial margin profile.

So we’re seeing some degradation, very high levels last year from a price/cost perspective even with difficult volumes. You’ve seen Tan Bending Chip has dropped by $20 a ton, but we are extremely confident that we’re going to maintain those double-digit type margins even in difficult times. And what excites me about where we stand today is there will be a recovery. We’re not losing share. The market is not shifting in any way and there will be a recovery. And when that happens, the leveraging effect we are not enjoying right now in our productivity will come into play. And looking forward to getting out of the situation that we’re in, hopefully, that will be — and for us, as far for anybody that has a crystal ball that maybe next year, we start seeing some type of improvements on the Industrial side, and with that will come added leverage as it relates to the investments and the productivity that we have.

Operator: Our next question will be coming from Mark Weintraub of Seaport Research Partners.

Mark Weintraub: First question was, the RTS transaction getting completed. Obviously, the world’s changed a little bit. OCC higher, URB a bit lower. Can you update us kind of on what type of accretion or EBITDA contribution in the current environment is it reasonable to be anticipating?

Robert Dillard: Yes, Mark, that’s a good question. Really no change. I mean we’ve been really pleased with how those assets have come over to our portfolio. When we talked about it last year, we said it was $50 million of EBITDA with about $16 million of targeted synergies, but $10 million of those were kind of day 1 and what we’re seeing is that those synergies are coming through day 1. So the business is performing well. I would say the TSA load is probably a little bit more than you probably were anticipating. We think that this is — that it’s give or take $0.05, plus or minus a couple of cents, per quarter next year. And so we feel really good about how that’s coming through and how the business is operating. And as Howard said, I think that that is additive to the system in this low volume environment because the mill is relatively covered, but it gives us more tons to spread across the system. So we feel really good about that.

Mark Weintraub: Okay. Great. And that includes Chattanooga when you’re talking in this conversation?

Robert Dillard: Yes, that’s a good question. I was talking about both. I mean we think about it all as one kind of integrated transaction.

Mark Weintraub: Got it. Makes sense. And then second, maybe what are some of the other actions that you’re taking that can move the dial that are outside of business getting better that are going to be flowing through next year that you’d want to highlight as we think about bridging out ’24 versus ’23?