Silgan Holdings Inc.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Silgan Holdings fourth quarter 2022 earnings conference call. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode and please be advised that this call is being recorded. After the speaker's prepared remarks there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time just press star 1 on your telephone keypad and if you would like to withdraw your question press star 1 again. And now at this time, I'll turn things over to Ms. Kim Ulmer, Senior Vice President, Finance and Treasurer. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you. Joining me from the company today are Adam Greenlee, President and CEO, Bob Lewis, EVP and CFO, and Alex Hutter, Vice President of Investor Relations. Before we begin the call today, we would like to make it clear that certain statements made today on this conference call may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking 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 the company's annual report on Form 10-K for 2021 and other filings with the SEC. Therefore, the actual results of operations or financial condition of the company could differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. With that, I'll turn it over to Adam.

Thank you, Kim, and welcome, everyone, to SILGEN's fourth quarter and full-year 2022 earnings call. On the call today, we will review the highlights of our full-year performance and provide details around our fourth quarter results and our outlook for continued growth in 2023. 2022 was another exceptional year for Silgun, hosting our sixth consecutive year of record sales and delivering yet another year of record double-digit growth in adjusted EPS, as the momentum we've built in the business continues to show in our results. I'm incredibly proud of the entire Silgun team and the accomplishments that we've achieved together, proving that through a variety of economic environments, Silgan remains a steadfast partner to our customers, employees, and shareholders. Day in and day out, our teams prove that our founding principles of competing and winning in the marketplace by being the best at what we do continues to translate into meaningful value creation for all of our stakeholders. Our ongoing and unwavering focus yielded significant adjusted earnings growth in 2022 despite difficult volume comparisons as our business overcame known challenges from the prior year pre-buy activity ahead of significant raw material inflation, ongoing supply chain disruptions, and customer and retail inventory destocking throughout the year. In combination with our outstanding operational performance, our long-term contractual arrangements and focused discipline of passing through inflationary costs helped our business to grow adjusted earnings in a period of unprecedented inflation in raw materials, labor, energy, and other costs. A few highlights we delivered in 2022 are as follows. Record sales of $6.4 billion, up 13% versus the prior year. Record adjusted earnings per diluted share of $3.98, which increased 17% versus the record prior year. Free cash flow of $368 million, while continuing to make investments in future growth opportunities, And finally, record revenue, volume, and segment income in our high-margin dispensing and specialty closures business. As we exit 2022 with unit volumes well ahead of pre-pandemic levels and our businesses executing at an exceptionally high level, we remain confident in our ability to build on our momentum in 2023 and beyond. More specifically, as we look to 2023, we believe the business will continue to drive at least mid-single-digit improvements and total adjusted segment income organically, which will be partially offset by higher interest expense due to higher interest rates expected in 2023. In addition, and as outlined in the press release, beginning in 2023, we have adjusted the prior year results, the prior year periods for pension income and the amortization of acquired intangibles. From a segment perspective, we expect our dispensing and specialty closure segment to produce high single digit adjusted segment income growth driven by mid single digit volume growth and improved mix, including double digit volume growth in our higher value dispensing products. In our metal container segment, we see low single digit volume and low to mid single digit adjusted segment income growth in 2023, primarily as the result of mid single digit volume growth in our pet food markets, which represent roughly half of our total volume in the segment, and continued operational improvements in the business. In our custom container segment, we expect adjusted segment income to grow in the low single digits, with low single-digit volume growth as volume trends are expected to improve throughout the year as we continue to cycle over a previously discussed decision to not renew a long-term piece of business and to replace that volume with new, higher-margin contractual business later in the year. We're excited about what the future has in store for Sylvan and the opportunity to continue to showcase the unique nature and continued success of our business in 2023 and beyond. With that, Bob will take you through the specifics of our financial results for the quarter and provide additional color around our earnings estimates for 2023. Thank you, Adam.