Berry Global Group, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the third quarter 2023 Berry Global Group earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Dustin Stilwell, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Barry's third fiscal quarter 2023 earnings call. Throughout this call, we will refer to the third fiscal quarter as the June 2023 quarter. Before we begin our call, I would like to mention that on our website, we have provided a slide presentation to help guide our discussion this morning. After today's call, a replay will also be available on our website at barryglobal.com under our investor relations section. Joining me from the company, I have Barry's Chief Executive Officer, Tom Salmon, and Chief Financial Officer, Mark Miles. Following Tom and Mark's comments today, we'll have a question and answer session. In order to allow everyone the opportunity to participate, you do ask that you limit yourself to one question at a time and then fall back into the queue for any additional questions. As referenced on slide two, during this call, we will be discussing some non-GAAP financial measures. The most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of the differences between the GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures are available in our earnings release and investor presentation on our website. Please note that in our commentary today and within our presentation, when we compare our results to the prior year, quarter, or four year, we have adjusted to present on a constant currency basis and remove the impact of divested businesses to provide the appropriate comparable results. A reconciliation to reported results have been provided in our earnings release and the appendix of our presentation. And finally, a reminder that certain statements made today may be forward-looking statements. These statements are made based upon management's expectations and beliefs concerning future events impacting the company, and therefore involve a number of uncertainties and risks, including but not limited to those described in our earnings release, annual report on Form 10-K, and other filings within the FDC. Therefore, the actual results of operations or financial condition of the company could differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. And now let's turn the call over to VARI's CEO, Tom Sandler.

Thank you, Dustin. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for being with us today. Turning to our key takeaways for the quarter on slide four. Today, we're pleased to reiterate our outlook for fiscal 2023, which is in line with our previously announced range. Our commitment to improving our mix of high-value growth products and implementing structural cost reductions has effectively offset weaker demand from customers, including these stock initiatives. Our cost actions include site rationalizations, moving business to more cost-efficient facilities, and labor cost reductions, all enabling improved productivity. Notably, we've made strategic investments in high-growth markets such as food service, health and beauty, dispensing, and pharmaceuticals, with a strong focus on sustainability-linked customer projects. Moreover, we have been dedicated to returning capital to our shareholders, having already purchased nearly 7 million shares in fiscal 2023, amounting to 5.6% of total outstanding shares. Looking ahead, we expect to meet our commitment of repurchasing $600 million of shares in fiscal 2023. Our unwavering commitment to strengthen our balance sheet has led us to lower our long-term leverage target to 2.5 to 3.5 times and expect to be at 3.7 times at the end of this fiscal year. with plans to be below 3.5 times by the end of fiscal 24 and well within our new targeted range. While we recognize that overall market demand may present challenges for the remainder of the calendar year, we remain very optimistic. By making long-lasting structural cost improvements and advancing our strategic initiatives, we are confident in exiting 23 as a much stronger and more focused company. Turning now to the financial results on slide 5. Earnings for the June 2023 quarter were modestly below our expectation, mainly due to higher inflation impacting market demand. During the quarter and throughout the year, the teams have performed exceptionally well on things within our control. We achieved another quarter of positive price-cost spread from inflation recovery, and we successfully implemented strong cost reductions and mixed improvements across our businesses. Although our efforts were partially impacted by overall soft and marked demand, we're encouraged by the fact that it aligns with what our global customers have experienced and the trends they've reported across various regions. Looking ahead, we anticipate an improvement in volumes in all four segments sequentially compared to prior year quarter, especially with the inflationary pressures easing on consumers. In addition, We are thrilled to announce our inclusion in the S&P MidCap 400 Index on June 20. This is a significant milestone for Barrie, reflecting our strong progress as a leading global packaging company committed to providing protective and sustainable solutions to our worldwide customers. During the quarter, we performed well, achieving strong operational performance, including progress on energy reduction and labor stability. We also took additional cost reduction actions, including rationalizing facilities To optimize our assets, reducing our footprint by a total of 20 facilities resulted in a total annualized savings of $140 million from our cost initiatives, of which $75 million is expected to be realized in fiscal 2023. Additionally, we remain dedicated to providing strong capital returns for our shareholders, having returned $513 million through share repurchases and dividends in the first three quarters of the year. Furthermore, and in line with this commitment, we expect to repurchase nearly 3 million shares or 2.5% of our total shares outstanding during this fourth fiscal quarter, bringing our anticipated total share repurchases for fiscal 23 to $600 million. We continue to believe our shares remain undervalued, and these repurchases reflect our confidence in the outlook for our business and long-term strategy. Before handing over to Mark, I want to review slide six and emphasize our continued focus on driving consistent, dependable, and sustainable organic growth. We are investing in our businesses, particularly in key end markets like healthcare, personal care, beauty, and food service, which offer greater potential for differentiation and long-term growth. We have grown these select markets over the past 10 years from 20% to now more than 30% of our portfolio, which has a compounded annual growth rate of more than 15% over the same period. Our emerging market presence is also expanding, supporting our commitment to global growth. Moreover, We are passionate about the innovation and sustainability utilizing our product design leadership to continuously develop products that meet our customer needs and expectations. Our efforts have resulted in significant growth in sustainable polymer purchases, and we're working towards our goal of achieving 30% circular material by 2030. These combined efforts, along with our ability to deliver continual cost improvements through our scale advantages and capabilities, instill confidence that we will consistently deliver solid earnings growth from our stable portfolio of businesses. Now, I'll turn the call over to Mark, who will review Barry's financial results.