Berry Global Group, Inc. (NYSE:BERY) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Mark Miles: Yes. You’re accurate on the buyback. We have $440 million remaining under the Board approved buyback program. We continue to work with the Board on a quarterly basis relative to our capital allocation strategy and detailed plans. We have a capital allocation committee that resides as well as part of the Board that provides in that regard. With respect to debt repayment, I mentioned in my prepared comments, we’ve already repaid $200 million of debt as the year has started. We generate a lot of free cash flow. We have more than sufficient liquidity. And, obviously, we have an open process with the HHS business that, could generate a substantial amount of additional cash flow for the company that the Board and the committee can decide how to allocate. But we’re certainly cognizant of our debt and the maturities and continue to evaluate our payment options on that debt.

Chris Perrella: All right. Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for the next question. Our next question will be coming from Matt Roberts of Raymond James. Your line is open.

Matt Roberts: Hey. Good morning, everybody, and thanks for your time. On really just one for me. But as we look to past divestitures that the company has done, in what areas of the business has that created any cost dis-synergies or inefficiencies, if any? And if you think about the raw material procurement and pass-through mechanisms, are there any dissimilarities between HHS and any of the other segments? Thanks again for taking the question.

Kevin Kwilinski: Yeah. I would say with respect to our past divestitures, obviously, each of our businesses has various levels of synergies with the rest of the business. The divestitures that we have completed to date have been on the lower end of that spectrum. So while there has certainly been some negative synergy, it’s been on the lower end of the range of synergies of our businesses inside the portfolio. And can you repeat — I’m sorry, the part about — your last part of your question about HHS?

Matt Roberts: Is there much difference in basically the raw material procurement or any of the pass-through mechanisms that you have in that business compared to the others?

Kevin Kwilinski: Yes. I would say our pass-through mechanisms are similar in terms of polymer pass-through. We have a number of different arrangements, but the lag on polymer pass-through is pretty similar in that business to the rest of our portfolio. With respect to sourcing, there are many common raw materials. When we did that acquisition, that was before the RPC acquisition, which was a much larger acquisition relative to scale. So we do not believe, any activities that may conclude from our process would negatively impact the base company relative to cost synergies.

Matt Roberts: Very helpful. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. One moment. And we have a follow-up question from George Staphos of Bank of America. Your line is open.

George Staphos: Thanks very much, everyone. Just a quick follow-on. You had mentioned that for the year, foodservice grew, I think you said double digits. Was that your experience in terms of the fourth quarter? And could you comment specifically there in terms of what trends you’re seeing in foodservice into fiscal ’24? Thanks again, and good luck in the quarter.

Kevin Kwilinski: Yes. Sure. Thanks, George. With respect to foodservice, had another great year in ’23, and that’s been a strong performing franchise for decades now, really since that product was introduced around the year 2000 actually. The growth in Q4 was, slightly below double digits, but still strong as we were lapping some of the new wins that we got around a year ago. We’re expecting continued growth for that business in ’24. We continue to add incremental capacity to service demand for our cup as we continue to take share from both paper and styrofoam.

George Staphos: Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you. This does conclude the Q&A session for today. Now, I would like to turn the call back over to management for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Kevin Kwilinski: Thank you, operator. I’d just like to thank everyone for your interest and participation and we look forward to telling you more in future calls. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you for participating in today’s conference call. You may all disconnect.

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