3M Company (NYSE:MMM) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Monish Patolawala: Yes. So, on Consumer — so you’re right, Joe, I’ll start with the summary, which is we are expecting that as things stabilize and as customers slow down their destocking, you will start seeing the comps get better in the year. The fourth quarter was extremely hard. And as Mike said, we saw an acceleration of a trend in December. We continue to see that in January, and that’s why the first quarter starts pretty soft. But our hope is that as things stabilize, as destocking gets better, as consumer confidence builds into the year, we’ll start seeing the consumer business starting to get better.

Joe Ritchie: Got it. That’s helpful, Monish. And maybe my follow-up question is a little bit of a longer term question on the electronics business. So, specifically, I think in your comments, as you mentioned that the shift into OLED. I know there was an announcement about Apple making your own custom displays starting in 2024. Just trying to understand like how that will potentially impact your business beyond this year? And then is it already expected to impact your business in 2023?

Monish Patolawala: What — I would answer and then I’ll ask Mike to join in. The way I look at this, Joe, is there are a couple of things. The company has always — has been looking at the LCD-OLED transition for a period of time. And that transition has been happening for a few years and the team has continued to deal with that as it goes on. What the team is working through is as new devices are coming on, what does that mean from a OLED to LCD ratio to mix. It definitely did have an impact for us in 2022. And then we are seeing what trends we are seeing — as of right now, the trends we saw, we have predicted into 2023. But with that said, the one thing about the Electronics segment and especially the display teams is they always have a lot of innovation that is out there that helps offset some of these headwinds that come across.

That business keeps reinventing itself as time has gone. For example, Ashish and his team have launched products that are used in AR and VR technology, which also hopefully is a growth market in the future, and that’s what — that business is very good at looking at these trends, working these headwinds, and then finding innovation to offset that as time goes. But right now, we have embedded what we think is the trend in LCD-OLED shift into our 2023 guide.

Mike Roman: Yes. And Joe, I would add we’ve been managing that transition and that trend for some time. It’s — and it’s part of our innovation that we’re doing with our customers, too, innovating on both sides of that, the OLED displays. And as Monish said, the other higher growth segments in electronics, historically, our electronics business has been overweight to consumer electronics. And as we’ve talked about over the last few years, our strategy is continue to innovate there, and we’re working with our customers multiple generations ahead, whether it’s OLED displays or other applications, we’re really working with them to innovate and drive value and opportunity for 3M in that consumer electronics. At the same time, we recognize the big growth drivers are some of these other higher growth segments.

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