FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Mike Lenz: Hi, Jack, will give you a special pass then. On the low end there, I characterize that’s flattish revenue year-over-year. So that would be the low-end of our expectation, but in terms of how we navigate and manage through that, the flexibility that Raj mentioned too that we are incorporating into the network is allowing us to then react to that and adjust and again point to the tremendous progress we’ve made and the results you’ve seen at Ground in the last few quarters of material volume declines, get improved margins and profitability, and you saw in the last quarter here Express is mitigating the flow-through from the reduced demand. So we will move with great urgency should it be below our range of expectations.

Raj Subramaniam: And let me just jump in before I turn it on to Brie here, so it’s a simple one, two, three formula. At 1%, we are at the low-end of the range; at 2%, we’re in the middle; at 3%, we are at the higher-end of the range in terms of revenue growth. Now, to go beyond that, we become non-linear in terms of significant operational leverage, so, yes, DRIVE is working and we have flexibility to pull additional levers as we need to. Brie?

Brie Carere: Thanks, Raj. So, Jack, the short answer is yes, that we have planned for the $800 million impact this fiscal year and then as we lap that impact, we will be able to build back from there, so the short answer is yes.

Operator: The next question will come from Chris Wetherbee with Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Chris Wetherbee: Hi, maybe just on the $1.2 billion cost savings, can we just understand the timing of that as we go through fiscal ’24? How much that comes, I guess in 1Q or in the first-half, and how much should be spread out over the rest of the year?

Mike Lenz: Sure, Chris, this is Mike. The $1.8 billion, it is a sequential build, as we go through, we continue with the discipline and rigor of the DRIVE framework. So, as certain things are implemented during the year, we won’t get the full run-rate of that, because there is a continuous flow of initiatives. So it will be least amount of that $1.8 billion will be in the first quarter and build as we go through the year and then that gives us the run-rate momentum then to get to the $4 billion fully by FY ’25.

Operator: The next question will come from Brandon Oglenski with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Brandon Oglenski: Yes, thank you, and good afternoon. Raj, I think in your prepared remarks you said that you’ve already transitioned something like 20 markets to One FedEx operation, but not every market is the same. Can you elaborate on that a little bit and how this hybrid model going to work in the States, where you do have overlapping contractors and potentially employee drivers? Thank you.

Raj Subramaniam: Yes, Brandon, the markets that we have transitioned over are, we’re in Alaska, we’re working through Hawaii, and certain other markets in Minneapolis, so we have learned a lot in this process from technology, from facilities and people. And the hybrid model is that in some markets, we will have couriers and in some markets, we have a — we have contractors, so those things will be determined, they will air-driven and they will work-through with our people first — PPSP philosophy and they will, as I said, because this is going to take a little bit of time as we told you, but glad we’re making the progress we’re making already. Thank you.

Operator: The next question will come from Tom Wadewitz with UBS. Please go ahead.