6/5/2025

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Greif Second Quarter 2025 earnings 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 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to your speaker today, Bill D'Onofrio, VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please begin.

speaker
Bill D'Onofrio
VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development

Thank you, and good day, everyone. Welcome to GRIF's fiscal second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Today, our CEO, Ole Rosgaard, will begin with an update on our colleague and customer engagement, as well as progress on our cost optimization commitment. He will then discuss key global market trends. Our CFO, Larry Hilsheimer, will walk through second quarter financial results and 2025 guidance. Please turn to slide two. In accordance with regulation fair disclosure, please ask questions regarding topics you consider important because we are prohibited from discussing material nonpublic information with you on an individual basis. During today's call, we will make forward-looking statements involving plans, expectations, and beliefs related to future events. Actual results could differ materially from those discussed. Additionally, we will be referencing certain non-GAAP financial measures and the reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP metrics that can be found in the appendix of today's presentation. I'll now hand this all over to Ole on slide three.

speaker
Ole Rosgaard
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Bill, and good morning, everyone. I want to start by recognizing our more than 14,000 colleagues across the world. Their discipline, focus, and execution continue to drive strong performance. In Q2, we made further progress under our built-to-last strategy. Despite ongoing macroeconomic volatility, our resilient business model and emphasis on controlling what we can control give us confidence in the road ahead. That confidence is reflected in our decision to raise full-year guidance which Larry will walk through shortly. Our culture remains a core competitive advantage. I'm proud to report that we have once again been named one of Newsweek's top 100 most loved workplaces in the world. This marks our third consecutive year on the list. In addition, we received Gallup's Exceptional Workplace Award for the second year in a row, Our colleague engagement score places us in the 86th percentile of all manufacturing companies globally with a remarkable 94% participation rate. These recognitions speak to the pride our teams take in their work and the environment we built where people feel empowered, valued and connected to our purpose. That engagement drives legendary customer service. Our fiber team was recently honored with the Supplier Innovation Award from the US Postal Service. USPS joined us in 2024 and is now a key customer for our Dallas sheet feeder facility. This award is a strong validation of the long-term value and customer loyalty we create. Sustainability also sets us apart. While we view it as the right thing to do, it is also a clear business advantage. This marks our 16th consecutive year publishing sustainability report, a rare track record in our industry. Our sustainability strategy is central to strengthening customer relationships and pursuing durable high margin growth. Please turn to slide four. Our cost optimization efforts are progressing rapidly thanks to our team's focus and willingness to embrace change. As of quarter end, we have achieved 10 million in run rate savings toward our full year commitment of 15 to 25 million and 100 million total commitments compared to our 2024 baseline. A few highlights of projects on the way. A thank you to our colleagues in Warminster, ALSEP, Wellcome and OSCOS. Our operations and engineering teams are embracing change and utilizing Six Sigma practices to advance scalable and structural change in process efficiency and scrap reduction across our metal and fiber production plants. Second, we made a strategic decision to close our LA paperboard mill removing 72,000 tons of capacity. While difficult, this step streamlines our network and improves long-term performance across our fiber operations. These are just two of many projects on the way. Each day, our conviction grows in our ability to achieve or exceed both our 2025 and 2027 commitments. Across the board, our strategy is working. We are sharpening our competitive edge, optimizing operations, and expanding in high-return markets that positions us well when demand accelerates. Please turn to slide five. Our portfolio continues to show resilience with especially strong performance in the areas we are investing. polymer solutions volumes improved year over year with small containers and IVC both up. That impact was partially offset by lower large polymer drawn volumes due to softer industrial demands. Our polymers growth was driven by our target growth in markets of agrochemicals, food and beverage, pharma, and flavors and fragrances. which all showed year-over-year growth. This contrasts with metals, which was down 5% year-over-year due to exposure to chemical and lubricant markets, which continues to be softer. Fiber solution volumes were down slightly compared to last year, but improved each month throughout the quarter. Our corrugated business outperformed and was up high single digits per day versus an industry decline of 2%. This differentiation was driven by strong independent demand. Integrated solutions saw continued growth led by recycled fiber, while external volumes and closures paints, linings, and adhesives held steadily as we managed our own internal needs versus external demands. It is interesting to note that last year was a leap year, giving one additional day of business as well. Demand remained stable across all regions outside North America. In North America, softness persisted due to greater exposure to industrial end markets. The key takeaway across the previous four slides is clear. Our strategy is working. We are investing in resilience, high growth markets, reinforcing our competitive strengths, and optimizing our cost base simultaneously. This all prepares us to capture even further upside when demand meaningfully rebounds. Please turn to slide six. In closing, I want to briefly touch on a topic which demonstrates the resilience of our business model. On tariffs, we are staying ahead of potential disruption. Year to date, we have not seen major demand shifts tied directly to tariffs, but we continue to monitor demand patterns and talk closely with customers to identify any potential impacts on our end markets. Our network of more than 250 facilities in over 40 countries allows us to buy, produce and sell locally. This flexibility minimizes disruption, serves our customers' needs more flexibly than competition and allows us to obtain a fair price for the additional exceptional service and adaptability we provide our customers. Our global sourcing team continues to assess risk and we reaffirm that our maximum direct cost exposure is less than 10 million annually. Although that figure at present is even lower due to mitigation actions and tariffs currently in effect versus worst case scenario. Meanwhile, we are capturing more value through network flexibility and pricing. We are also benefiting from pass-through mechanisms in our metals business as steel producers respond to raw material inflation. With that, I'll turn it over to Larry to walk through our Q2 financial performance on slide 7.

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Ole, and good morning, everyone. For the second quarter of fiscal 2025, adjusted EBITDA increased $44 million year-over-year to $214 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was up 300 basis points to 15.4%. These results are a testament to our disciplined cost management, resilient business model, and our team's unwavering commitment to value creation. We generated $110 million of adjusted free cash flow, up from $59 million in Q2 of 24, and adjusted EPS of $1.19 versus $0.83 in Q2 of 24. The sale of our land management business, Satara, is on pace and we are excited about the level and the quality of interest we've received. The proceeds from the Satara divestment, combined with our accelerating cash flow generation, will be used to reduce debt following our capital allocation framework as outlined at Investor Day. Our decision to close our LA paper board mill, while extremely difficult due to the impact on our colleagues, is a prime example of the next stage of optimization for great. At our December investor day, we discussed how we've executed on the vast majority of opportunities in the lowest quartile of our quadrant analysis. We are now focused on moving from good operators to great operators across our global footprint of 250 plus facilities. We are digging deeper to identify untapped opportunities to increase our return on invested capital within facilities in each quadrant. This may lead to strategic investment or closure, as was the case of LA, but our actions will remain focused on deriving the highest long-term return on capital. Please turn to slide 8 for a segment overview. In our customized polymer solutions segment, adjusted EBITDA increased $19 million year-over-year to $53 million driven by a combination of volume growth, favorable product mix, and continued discipline on value over volume pricing. Our polymer segment is performing well given the demand environment as our target growth end markets continue to be more resilient than other areas of our business. Durable metal solution sales were lower year over year due to the softness of the industrial end markets only mentioned earlier. A core focus for us is capitalizing on operating leverage in metals when industrial and markets recover. Encouraging gross margins were up year over year through value over volume focus. Sustainable fiber solutions posted $80 million of adjusted EBITDA relative to $50 million in the prior year. EBITDA margins also improved to 13.3% from 8.5% in the prior year. As a reminder, in February, RISI recognized $40 a ton of container board price increase, which contributed to this quarter's results. While we are certainly pleased with the improvement in price cost in our fiber business, we consider the market to be out of balance. The $30 a ton URB price increase recently recognized by RISI will continue to improve margins, but we have conviction that the demand we are seeing warrants recognition of the full $50 to $70 a ton we announced in March. Those price increases will continue to push our fiber business towards normalized margins near 20% and get us closer to achieving our objective of greater than 18% margins for the enterprise. Integrated Solutions delivered $17 million and adjusted even up slightly from prior year. While volumes were strong in Q2, the overall product mix was incrementally heavier on recycled fiber, which led to lower sales mix, resulting in modest growth year over year. Sales were still up year over year in closures as we continue to grow that business. However, paints, linings, and adhesives had lower external volumes in the quarter. Please turn to slide nine to discuss guidance. We are raising low-end fiscal 2025 guidance. Adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be at least $725 million, up from $710 million and adjusted free cash flow guidance is increased to $280 million from $245 million due to the increased EBITDA and improving operating working capital management. This raise reflects the impact of better price-cost performance in Q2 and revised higher price-cost expectations for the second half. Given this is low-end guidance, we reduced that impact with a more bearish volume assumption than in our previous guidance as well as for the negative EBITDA impact of higher incentives due to our improved performance. The largest variable which could provide upside to this low end guidance is volume. We are not yet providing a range due to the continuously evolving trading dynamics, but have high conviction in our raised low end. This increase is not based on optimism. It is grounded in our demonstrated ability to execute. We've proven that Greif can deliver performance even in a challenging industrial economy. Price-cost performance, especially in fiber, is improving. Polymers continue to grow, and our disciplined cost structure is enabling margin expansion. We're raising guidance because our actions are driving results, and we're confident in our ability to sustain this performance through the balance of the year. With that, I'll turn it back to Ole on slide 10.

speaker
Ole Rosgaard
Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Larry. Let me close by underscoring what this quarter confirms. Our strategy is working. We are expanding margins, growing EBITDA and generating strong free cash flow even in a challenging macro environment. We set ambitious cost optimization commitments at our investor day and we are delivering exactly as planned. Our commitment to achieving $1 billion in EBITDA and $500 million in free cash flow by 2027 is unwavering. As we have consistently done with every commitment we have given in the past, we are also delivering on this commitment. We remain focused on what we can control, the culture we have built centered on high engagement, agility, and disciplined execution continues to be a powerful competitive advantage to us. I have never been more confident in our team or more optimistic about Gripe's future. We are building a stronger company and doing it the right way for our customers, for our colleagues, and for our shareholders. Thank you for joining us today. Operator, will you please open the line for questions?

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Yes, as a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. And one moment for our first question. And our first question will be coming from Ghanshyam Punjabi of Baird. Your line is open.

speaker
Josh Vesely
Analyst, Baird

Hey, everyone. It's actually Josh Vesely on for Gantram. Thanks for taking my questions. You know, Oli, you provided some, you know, good commentary on tariffs. And, you know, it seems like demand fluctuation is relatively minimal. But, you know, I'm just curious what those conversations with customers look like as it relates to, you know, kind of what they're seeing in that market demand and, you know, how they're thinking about that on a go-forward basis.

speaker
Ole Rosgaard
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. So, I mean, generally, the sentiment is really unchanged. you look at housing for instance housing sales of existing housing is it at its lowest since 1995 and auto bills it is lowest in in three years and the set tariffs that we keep talking about that is reoccurring themes and all this really has an impact especially on our chemical customers and until we see a a improvement of existing house sales, which is linked to the interest rates, we don't really believe, and our customers don't really believe they'll see any demand improvement either.

speaker
Josh Vesely
Analyst, Baird

Did that answer your question? Yeah, no, that's great, Collar. Thank you. And then maybe just for my follow-up, I just wanted to clarify on some of the raw material inflation that you were talking about that was tariff-related. you know, just, you know, any more color on what, you know, you guys are seeing there and, you know, what the near-term impact on EBITDA margins might be for the year?

speaker
Ole Rosgaard
Chief Executive Officer

As I said, we... The maximum, the worst case impact for us is around 10 million, but we're not even close to that. Our team have done a great job in minimizing that impact, and we are much, much lower than that at the moment. So it's really non-material.

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, and Josh, the other element of that, obviously, is we've already seen steel producers in the U.S. push up costs or prices. know that then applies against our lower base inventory and provides some lifted margin that while temporary until things catch up will provide additional spread so this increase in tariffs to the 50 percent level would probably end up being helpful above our our low-end guidance and it could actually end up being a tailwind for us just and then again this i just want to remind that you know we operate 250 facilities in over 40 countries so

speaker
Ole Rosgaard
Chief Executive Officer

Most of our business is done locally. We source raw materials locally. We manufacture locally. We sell locally, which obviously means that tariffs doesn't come into play.

speaker
Josh Vesely
Analyst, Baird

Okay, great. Thanks, guys. I'll turn it over.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

One moment for our next question. And our next question will be coming from Michael Roxland. Of Truist Securities, your line is open, Mike.

speaker
Michael Roxland
Analyst, Truist Securities

Thank you, Oli, Larry, Bill, and Dan for taking my questions, and congrats on all the progress. The first question I have is on SG&A, which we believe remains elevated. I think there was a slight decline sequentially in SG&A as a percentage of revenue, but still above the average for last year. So I'm just curious as to what's driving the elevated SG&A And what level of SG&A as a percent of sales are you targeting and over what time?

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

So you've got a couple of factors going in. I mentioned in my commentary somewhat of an increase in incentives because your team's performing well. So that has a little bit of impact. You've got the entry of the sort of full quarter of IPAC chem, and then you've got currency impacts, which on the bottom line are actually a lift, but on SG&A it's increasing it. But, yeah, we agree with you. Our SG&A is higher than what we view it to need to or should be over a long period of time. And as part of our cost optimization efforts, we would like to see as the volume recovers and our revenue goes back, we expect our SG&A to be below 10%. Now, it gets somewhat inflated when you're doing acquisitions because you end up with depreciation related to intangibles that flows in there. But that, as a general rule, is what our target is longer term, Michael.

speaker
Michael Roxland
Analyst, Truist Securities

Very helpful. So just to put a bow on that, there are some factors in terms of incentive comp and IPAC cam, but really you're expecting accelerating revenue to bring down that ratio. So it's more market-related in terms of driving that ratio.

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

No, it's a combination. But, yeah, I mean, ultimately we do, obviously there would be an impact to the ratio related to the recovery of volumes And, you know, our cost optimization is like, you know, one of our key focuses, obviously. And so we announced $100 million cost optimization. I'd call it business optimization over our entire platform. Some of that relates into business operations. Some of it's SG&A, but it's over our 24 levels. So, yeah, it's a combination, but I just was trying to give you the long-term impact. We try to get down below that 10%. which would be a combination of some revenue recovery, but a lot of it is still cost out.

speaker
Michael Roxland
Analyst, Truist Securities

Got it. My second question, while you mentioned strong URB demand, which you believe should warrant the full price increase of $50 to $70 a ton, so if you get that incremental $20 to $40 a ton of URB pricing, all else equal, What type of incremental EBITDA should we expect you generate, and what type of margin would you have in sustainable fiber as a result of that? And then quickly, lastly, do you see the potential for further rationalization in CRB and maybe just becoming solely focused on URB and container board? Thanks very much.

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

Let me answer the last piece first and then come back to the incremental impact on pricing issues. So the remaining CRB machine we have is actually a swing machine. So we can swing between URB and CRB depending on market demand. And right now we're a niche little player in our space. We're happy with the operations there and we don't really have any plan to make it full-time URB or we're just taking advantage of whatever we can get in the market. Relative to the impact of pricing You know, about a $10 ton change in URB pricing is about $530,000 a month for us. So hopefully that gives you something to work with.

speaker
Ole Rosgaard
Chief Executive Officer

And Mike, just an added comment to what Lara said. So on the CRB, we will continue to optimize paper grades, you know, by highest return. And if we swing a machine to URB from CRB, that's what we will do if that's what it provides us.

speaker
Michael Roxland
Analyst, Truist Securities

Got it. Thank you very much again.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Matt Roberts of Raymond James. Your line is open, Matt.

speaker
Matt Roberts
Analyst, Raymond James

Hey, Larry. Good morning. First question, on the volume, I believe you said not giving a range, but maybe could you just help Let me understand what underpins the 725 guide. And related to tariff impacts on volumes, I know you noted no demand shifts, but in light of Liberation Day in early April, can you provide some incremental color into demand in April, whether there was any front running ahead of that or how trends have progressed in April and May? More recently, there's a window open in the tariff. So I'm wondering if you've seen any spike more recently there.

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, Ole can supplement what I say, but we haven't seen really any trends specifically tied to tariffs, even in indications with customers. It really, particularly in the U.S., has a whole lot more to do with interest rates and home building. and the demand impact that's having on the chemicals industry and even auto production being down, which perhaps that's indirectly tied to tariffs. But what we saw is, you know, if I go from our prior low egg guidance of 710 to 725, we got about, you know, 50, 3 million roughly price-cost benefit in that, which metal solutions is up 17 million, polymer solutions is up 17 million, fiber solutions is up 26 million, and integrated with the OCC cost coming down is down 8. And then if you go on the volume side, we're down about 5 million in metal solutions, about 5 million in polymer solutions, and down 30 million in fiber solutions. just relative to, just an overall impact relative to where we were previously.

speaker
Ole Rosgaard
Chief Executive Officer

And Matt, just on tariffs, so directly impact, that's something we can control. And so there is no direct impact on us. But one thing we cannot control, that's the indirect impact. And with tariffs, affect the overall demands in the markets. That obviously has an effect on all of us, which is something we can't control. But we do have the flexibility to adapt production for customers, and we will price for it. And then all ranges of these outcomes, they are considered in Larry's revised guidance.

speaker
Matt Roberts
Analyst, Raymond James

Thank you very much for the incremental color there. For my follow-up, specifically in Polymer, you noted business wins and market-driven growth in target end markets. I think if you elaborate on what you're expecting in those target end markets for the rest of the year, and more specifically on those new business wins, what areas were they in and what do you attribute those to? Is it greater scale or are you starting to realize cross-saving benefits following acquisitions? The customer service tool is providing a benefit as Rife Plus is rolled out further. Sending you a great call there on those new market wins. Thanks again for taking the questions.

speaker
Ole Rosgaard
Chief Executive Officer

Let me just zoom out and then go back to, we often reference Invest Today, but that's where we presented our whole strategy. Our growth strategy hinges around the following N segments, and it's agrochemical, food and beverage, flavor and fragrances, and pharma. Those end segments, they grow faster than GDP. That's why we have picked them to really focus on them. The products that services those segments, they are polymer products. That's why we are focusing on polymer in our strategy. And what we have seen in the quarter is exactly that, that those end segments have proven to be more resilient than other end markets, exactly as we planned and expected. And also we have grown year over year in those end segments. So the overall growth in our polymer has been one and a half percent year over year. But then our legacy polymer business, which is large polymer drums, especially in North America, that market serves the chemical industry, the the industrial side of it, and that market's down. But even with that, you know, we still have seen, you know, overall growth in the polymer markets.

speaker
Matt Roberts
Analyst, Raymond James

Good to see you. Thank you, Olly.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

And one moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from George Stafford of Bank of America Securities. Your line is open, George.

speaker
George Stafford
Analyst, Bank of America Securities

Thanks so much, everyone. Good morning. Hope you can hear me okay. Thanks for the details. How are you? So my questions to start, I know we have two questions here, is on paperboard broadly. So when we consider the LA closure and also Austell, what will that do ultimately to your blended cost per ton and or margin as you see it normalized for the businesses? And given the closures, will it require you to adjust operations or inventory management since you'll have fewer facilities to produce from and therefore you might need to keep more buffer stock or do other things from an operating standpoint? So cost per ton given the closures and then operating adjustment that you might need given the closures and then how to follow on.

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, George, I don't have the answer for you on what the cost per ton impact is. What I can tell you is that with the closures of, you know, Fitchburg and LA and Austell, After we get through the transitionary costs that sort of offset that stuff, that'll be an annual bottom line, even a cost impact of a positive $10 million a year to the bottom line. As we said on each of those facilities, the end customer mix, we shifted what made sense to being served out of our existing mill footprint. And, you know, so obviously that all factors in to drive a lower average cost per ton and, you know, higher margin that drives to that bottom line $10 million impact for that. But, yeah, I haven't looked at what the average cost per ton impact is, unfortunately.

speaker
George Stafford
Analyst, Bank of America Securities

And just on the operations, aside from sort of optimizing your production relative to your target and markets, anything else that you would relate to us that we'll be able to discern watch monitor in your financials?

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

Um, yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, obviously it's, it's all part of, as you noted, our cost optimization, our cost out program. And I would just add it to that $10 million on the bottom line for fiscal 26 and forward.

speaker
George Stafford
Analyst, Bank of America Securities

Okay. Um, I was, that's fine. Like I was getting more into sort of how you run the business, but I'll leave it there. I guess on the cost out program and the progress you're making towards the goal of on the high end, $25 million this year and the $10 million I think you've got through 2Q, are the categories of benefit the same throughout the year? Do they evolve? And if they do evolve over the course of the next couple of quarters, what does that mean in terms of the business and the margin both the rest of the year and into 2026? I'll turn it over there and come back if I can.

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

And Oli may add some color too, but basically what we've got so far is a combination of operational costs, outs, and some SG&A cost reductions. And to reemphasize, the $10 million is what would be run rate, what we know will be run rate this year. $5 million is what we'll actually realize this year. And then... And the $10 million I mentioned from those three middle closures does not impact this year. So we're effectively locked up against our long-term objective, already 20 of the 100 kind of thing. So this whole program goes against the broad cost structure and revenue opportunities of our business, so whether it's manufacturing costs or SG&A, But we're very pleased with the progress to date. We've even enhanced our confidence of getting to our billion-dollar-plus commitment going into 28 with every month that we go further.

speaker
Ole Rosgaard
Chief Executive Officer

Josh, just to give you some color, you'll remember that last year we reorganized the business. which was really the precursor, the planned precursor for doing the business optimization. And the business optimization, we have more than 70 work streams in motion at the moment. And they are SG&A rationalization, network optimization, operating efficiency gains, and so on. So in terms of The millions we talk about, we're playing on the whole piano, and we will continue to do that. And there's things that's in flight that we can't talk about on the earnings call. But I can just mention again that we have over 70 work streams in flights.

speaker
George Stafford
Analyst, Bank of America Securities

Very good. I'll turn it over. I'll have one more question when we come back in queue if we get there. Thanks.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 from your touchtone telephone. Our next question will be coming from Gabe Hady of Wells Fargo. Gabe, your line is open.

speaker
Gabe Hady
Analyst, Wells Fargo

Bully, Larry, Bill, good morning. I wanted to ask about slide eight. You referenced some price and volume impacts in the metals business. I'm just curious if you're specifically calling anything out from a competitive standpoint or if this is in relation to steel. And then maybe revisiting the question that Matt Roberts was asking about on slide six, it seems like there's sort of two discrete items. You've got an identified up to $10 million impact, and it's not clear if that's volume-related or cost-related. So maybe if you can clarify that. And then I think two bullet points down you say, there's a potential positive head or tailwind from, I'm assuming, rising steel. If you didn't, can you quantify that for us? Or was that included in the $17 million of favorable price cost that you called out, Larry, in response to another question?

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, it is included in there, Gabe. And so what we are referencing relative to the metals business is the fact that In the U.S., you know, cost index have risen, causing our price adjustment mechanisms to kick in against lower cost inventory. Now, what we haven't tried to build in, because it's speculative right now, is is there going to be incremental to that because of this newly announced increase that, you know, to the 50% level on tariffs. We've built nothing in for that. And then your first question on page 8, can you repeat that?

speaker
Gabe Hady
Analyst, Wells Fargo

Yeah, I mean, it just says in the metal segment, sales were impacted by both price and volume. And I didn't know if that was competitive price or if you're talking about the positive price impact.

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

No, I'm talking about the positive price development. Yeah, the price-cost mix was positive. The volume was negative.

speaker
Ole Rosgaard
Chief Executive Officer

And the negative volume was positive. mainly attributed to North America, which relies on the industrial sectors of chemical.

speaker
Gabe Hady
Analyst, Wells Fargo

Yep. Okay. And then maybe what George was trying to get at was integration in the URB business. I mean, I think if I did my math right, you're around 650,000 tons now of URB capacity. And is the goal there to be fully integrated or are you there already?

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

And if not, you know, this goes back, Gabe, we've said this all along, integration is not that important in that business because of the breadth of customers that there are out there, the numbers of them and the small number. Integration value just becomes much less important in that space than it is in the container board space. And so, you know, Phil, do you know what our integration level even is on URB? It's over 50%. Yeah. Okay. But so, yeah, so we're happy with it. If there were really high margin opportunities to acquire integration, we'd do it. I mean, sort of like the coal pack acquisition we did. We've talked about, you know, that's a joint venture we have. And we're thrilled with it because really nice high margin business on the beverage divider business. But it's not something that we need to seek out because of the just general structure of that industry.

speaker
Gabe Hady
Analyst, Wells Fargo

Perfect. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will be a follow-up from George Staffos of Bank of America Securities. Your line is open. Hi, thanks for taking my question.

speaker
George Stafford
Analyst, Bank of America Securities

Larry, I seem to remember in the discussion that you said on the increase in the guidance in the low end, you were still building in some, I guess, additional volume downside. That might not have been your phrasing, but nonetheless in the worst-case scenario. If I got that correctly, can you tell us a little bit about where you are – taking in a little bit worse case on volume. Thank you very much, and good luck in the quarter.

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I mean, yeah, we did have a walk, and I gave the numbers on the volume element of that that shows a volume impact of a negative 40. A lot of that within the fiber business already happened in the second quarter. Like we said, each month it got better through the second quarter, so I was just giving it relative to where we were In Q1, you know, and we already talked about metals being less, and also we build in some on polymers. But again, we build in sort of worst-case scenario in giving our low-end guidance. So, you know, what we've provided is low-end, and we have extreme confidence in delivering it. And so those are the factors that I gave you, George. Current demand pretty much was expected. A little slower start to fiber in Q2. It got improved. Backlogs are really now about as high as they've been in two years. And then cautionary stuff.

speaker
George Stafford
Analyst, Bank of America Securities

Understood. And on pricing, you mentioned ultimately that you still think $50 to $70 per ton is was, and again, this is my phrase and not yours, appropriate relative to the attention in the URB market. With that, if that's correctly sort of phrased, are you still attempting to get the full price hike in the market, or have you at this juncture stopped and you've taken what you've taken? Thanks again, and good luck in the quarter.

speaker
Larry Hilsheimer
Chief Financial Officer

No, no, no. We're obviously still working that price increase in the market, you know, where we're not on index-type contracts.

speaker
Ole Rosgaard
Chief Executive Officer

And just call that our backlogs are actually stronger than in two plus years at the moment.

speaker
George Stafford
Analyst, Bank of America Securities

Understood. Thank you, Gus.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

And I would now like to turn the conference back to Olli Rosgaard for closing remarks.

speaker
Ole Rosgaard
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. I want to say thank you for your time today and also for your continued interest and investment in GRIFE. We remain committed to continue delivering exceptional results and are focused on accelerating our performance towards our 2027 target of 1 billion EBITDA and 500 million in free cash flow. We are confident that our relentless pursuit of operational excellence and customer-centric growth will create enduring value for all our stakeholders. Thanks again for joining us today.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

And this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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