Transcontinental Inc.

Mesdames et messieurs, merci d'avoir patienté et bienvenue à la conférence téléphonique concernant les résultats du quatrième trimestre et de l'exercice 2022 de TC transcontinental. Pendant la conférence, tous les participants seront en mode d'écoute seulement. Une période de questions suivra la présentation et des directives vous seront données à ce moment. Nous désirons vous rappeler que cette conférence est enregistrée aujourd'hui le 13 décembre 2022. Welcome to the TC Transcontinental Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2022 Results Conference Call. During this presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct the question and answer session and instructions will be provided at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, December 13, 2022. I would like to turn the conference over to Yann Lapointe, Director, Investor Relations and Treasury. I would now like to give the floor to Yann Lapointe, Director, Relations with Disinvestors and Treasury. Mr. Lapointe, please go ahead.

Thank you, Sylvie, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 earnings call. Before we begin, please note that the press release, the MD&A, along with complete financial statements and related notes, as well as the slides supporting management's remarks, are all available on our website. at www.tc.tc under the Investor Relations section. A replay of this conference call will also be available on our website shortly after the call. We have with us today our President and Chief Executive Officer, Peter Bruce, and our Chief Financial Officer, Donald LeCavalier. Before I turn the call over to management, I would like to specify that this conference call is intended for the financial community. Media are in listen-only mode and should contact Nathalie Saint-Jean, Senior Advisor, Corporate Communications, for more information. Please be reminded that some of the financial measures discussed over the course of this conference call are non-IFRS. You can refer to the MD&A for a complete definition and reconciliation of these measures to IFRS. In addition, this conference call might also contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the current expectations of management and information available as of today, and they involve numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown. The risk uncertainties and other factors that could influence actual results are described in the fiscal 2022 annual MD&A and in the annual information form. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to our President and CEO, Peter Bruce.

Thanks Jan. Good afternoon and thanks for joining our call. As usual, I'll start with safety. I'm proud to report that in fiscal 2022 our injury rate decreased by 21%. This is a major achievement by the team. Although significant work remains to achieve an injury free workplace, this is a big step in the right direction. In terms of Q4 financial results, excluding the impact of the 53rd week in the Canadian wage subsidy, we saw a solid increase in profit. I'm proud of the actions taken by the team to make our clients successful and improve our financial performance. Following a disappointing first quarter, our packaging sector took action and demonstrated improved profit in each quarter that has followed. Q4 was no different, achieving over 10% growth in adjusted EBITDA on a comparable basis. The Q4 results were achieved despite a 1.8% decline in volume due to the continued weakness in our Latin American business. We have taken action to adjust our cost-based structure there to reflect current volume. In our print sector, in-store marketing, book printing, and pre-media activities continue their growth path with double-digit revenue increase. Excluding the additional week, the sector continued to grow organically. Despite organic growth, inflationary pressures had a negative impact on our volume, cost structure, and profit. Our media sector saw another quarter with a strong increase in both revenues and profits, mostly coming from our most recent acquisitions. In fiscal 2023, we will remain focused on improving profitability and cash flow from our operating activities. Our solid financial performance with no major debt maturity until 2025 gives us the flexibility to pursue our disciplined approach to growth.