Berry Global Group, Inc. (NYSE:BERY) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 6 of 10

Mark Miles: Sure. I think in the aggregate, we think our business has grown in the low single-digit range. We’ve got a lot of focused effort to as we talked about in the prepared comments and have now for many quarters, pivoting to higher-growth markets. So, certainly, over time, we’re looking for a higher result, but at the moment, our current mix of business support low single-digit growth on the volume side, which we can again deliver something higher than that on EBITDA as we get the benefit of leverage on our fixed costs, as well as mix improvement opportunities. So, bolt-on acquisitions, how to predict those year-to-year, I think, is very difficult. Obviously, it depends on market conditions and sellers in the market at a price that’s attractive to the company that meets our return thresholds, et cetera, et cetera.

So, those targets are meant to be long-term targets, you know year-to-year, the contribution of bolt-on acquisitions is going to vary, could be higher in one year and lower in another. But again, that low single-digit volume growth should provide something incremental on the EBITDA side supplemented by acquisitions.

Angel Castillo: And then on the EPS side, curious kind of longer term, how are you thinking about if it’s just kind of 4% to 6%, is the rest more buybacks or anything else we should be mindful of there?

Mark Miles: Yes, same thing. Yes, the market is going to provide us with different opportunities at different times. Right now, our share price is very attractive. And so, it’s providing us very great investment opportunity that we’re taking advantage of, and that’s bolstering our EPS results, certainly. But depending on the situations and what the market provides us, we’ll be able to respond accordingly to drive at those results.

Angel Castillo: Got it. That’s helpful. And then just lastly on the destocking question earlier, you mentioned seeing some green shoots in January. Could you give us a little bit of color as to what you’re seeing or hearing from your customers, maybe what those green shoots might be? And how are those kind of conversations with customers evolving? It sounds like frequency and size of orders maybe changes a little bit, but just any incremental color would be helpful?

Tom Salmon: Yes. It’s not an uncommon strategic path that’s been taken whenever there’s uncertainty in demand. They take their inventories down. And ultimately, it requires us to be more agile relative to meeting peaks and valleys relative to that demand. We’d expect that to continue to play out here in the coming months with an improvement as we get into the back half of our fiscal year. We’re in regular conversation with our customers and have as much visibility to that consumer demand is possible, but it’s changing, and it’s evolving. And they’re learning what that means in terms of their order patterns and what type of inventory levels they need to meet that demand. So, we’ll be flexible with them. While that gets worked out.

Nonetheless, we’ll be in a really good position given the proximity of our plants to their locations to meet their needs as expeditiously as possible. But we feel very good, though, that as part of those discussions, the pipeline of opportunity that we have from a growth perspective continues to be very, very robust. You heard Mark mention in some of his commentary relative to the success and advancements that we’re seeing inside of foodservice with additional investment for point to meet demand that continues to be incredibly robust certainly in North America with our quick serve focus on carryout with our all polypropylene cup and lid. And growing in Europe is around reusable cups that are ultimately being marketed by some of the largest QSRs in the world, and they’re very participating in the creation of those programs, the execution of those programs as well.

Page 6 of 10