Sonoco Products Company (NYSE:SON) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Howard Coker : Yes. Again, we’ll get into this in more detail, and I think, it will be a lot more obvious to all of you next week of why it makes sense to combine these under one leadership team. And as we look at — so look, we do think to open up the aperture in terms of acquisition opportunities within that side of the business, but it doesn’t take away from many of the other core businesses at all. It just makes — and you’ll see that next week makes good solid sense. The Cleveland that not really a big surprise as related to the mill not a material impact to us at all from a supply position. And that’s really all I can say to that. We don’t view that as an impact to us in any way. this year or in future years going forward depending on how long they do and tend to keep that mill down.

Gabe Hajde: Okay. And then the recovery in consumer we’re reading about cocoa hitting new highs in terms of commodity costs. How has the recent dialogue going with your customers in terms of expectations there? I mean we’re reading articles about smaller chocolate bars and things like that. I’m just curious if that’s baked into your outlook?

Rodger Fuller: Yes, I think as we said in my opening comments, I think we’re being fairly conservative action on volume. Our customers are planning to react to the new weight loss drugs. They’re planning for so far they say they see no impact on that. Really it goes — in my view it goes back to the pricing on the shelf. And Howard mentioned it earlier, there’s a lot of pressure from the big retailers now on our customers to start to bring their prices down. You’re starting to see more promotions. A lot of these baked goods snacks, confection, or discretionary items and they had a price point where it’s really impacted their volume. So, what we’re hearing from our customers is they’re going to be more aggressive on promotions and more aggressive on regaining some of the volume that’s been lost over the last year.

So, that’s what we’re depending on along with the good job our team does on new products and like the paper bottom for the Pringles can for Kellanova and the global expansion on those packages have been fantastic. That’s why we’re more confident about our recovery in consumer volumes as we go throughout the year.

Gabe Hajde: Okay. Thank you. And one last one I apologize just for posterity sake. The divestiture that you all announced if I heard you correctly assuming it closes at the end of Q1. It’s maybe a $0.07 $0.08 drag to the midpoint of your guidance. Is that what I’m hearing? And then on URB and downstream-related products price increases, are you assuming or embedding in your outlook today that the 20% of the open market there’s price realization there and then we’ll wait to see this Friday what’s recognized by RISI, maybe specifically what’s embedded in the Q1 outlook or H1 outlook? Thank you.

Rob Dillard: Gabe yes. So, we are — we there we expect the sale of [indiscernible] to close at the end of Q1. And if it does then that will be a $0.07 drag on the year we anticipate. For industrial pricing, we’re seeing that flow through. Certainly the trade market sales Howard and Rodger have said is flowing through well. That’s a component of our current guide.

Gabe Hajde: Thank you.

Rob Dillard: Thanks.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from Mark Weintraub with Seaport Research Partners. Your line is open.

Mark Weintraub: Maybe kind of first more housekeeping. What did the metal over [Technical Difficulty] embedder for 2024?

Rob Dillard: We lost you for a second there Mark, but I’m assuming you’re asking about metal price overlap. For the year, it will be slightly less than what it was last year. So, it’s actually a slight positive on a year-over-year basis. In Q1, because of the timing, it’s going to be net neutral.

Mark Weintraub: Okay. Great. Hopefully you can hear me now. Do you — so what did it end up being in 2023?

Rob Dillard: Yes. So last year, it was $41 million negative. This year, we anticipate just the Q1 component of that to repeat.

Mark Weintraub: Okay. And can you quantify that for us?

Robert Dillard: Sure. It was between $20 million and $25 million.

Mark Weintraub: Okay. Super. And then on URB, I think you mentioned that you expect to be in the mid-90s post the actions you’ve been taking in North America and demand getting a little bit better. Where are you now in terms of integration in URB in North America? Maybe we start with that?

Rodger Fuller: Are you talking about integrated? Yes, integrated volume, we’re in the — we’re about 55%, 56% integrated volume now, Mark with the RTS acquisition.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And I’m showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back to Lisa Weeks for closing remarks.

Lisa Weeks: Thank you all for joining us today. If you have any follow-ups, we’ll be around after the call to answer your questions or contact me to schedule a follow-up. As Howard stated, we look forward to hosting you at our Investor and Analyst Day in New York next week on February 22. This will be an in-person event and a webcast will also be available. Registration details are on our website. We also look forward to seeing you on the road at our planned conferences and events in the coming months and we’ll talk to you again in May when we report our first quarter results. Thanks to everyone and have a great day.

Operator: And this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.

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