H.B. Fuller Company (NYSE:FUL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Vincent Anderson: All right. Excellent. Thank you very much and good luck on the year.

Celeste Mastin: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

David Begleiter: Thank you. Good morning. Celeste, on the Q1 guidance and the range itself, what could drive the upper and lower ends of that guidance range being achieved? And by segment, how do you expect the segments to perform within that range in Q1?

Celeste Mastin: Yeah, I think that, the range we’ve expressed there is definitely going to be subject to what happens with volume. Destocking €“ we were anticipating, we’ll be seeing destocking in HHC complete in Q1 with Construction Adhesives. It’s going to be interesting to watch that one. I think we’re going to start seeing the restocking kind of February, March time frame. What will be interesting is what level are we restocking to that remains the question in the construction business. So, I don’t know, John, do you want to add more color?

John Corkrean: Yes, I’ll just kind of maybe help David with how that may look in terms of our different businesses. So, Celeste’s comments on China, China recovers more quickly, that could be an upside. If we start to see other economies, maybe start to show a little bit more bounce back from what was a very slow Q4 that could be opportunities. As you think about the core €“ that guidance for the quarter and how that looks by our GBUs, we think HHC will continue to be very steady, right? EA, which has more of a China exposure, will probably be a little more impacted than HHC in terms of slower results. And then, construction, as Celeste indicated, we think it will take a little longer than the first quarter to see the recovery there. So that’s kind of the direction we would see those three GBUs going in the first quarter.

David Begleiter: No, very helpful. Appreciate that. And guys, just on the cost issue, if you go back to beginning of 2021, how much have your raw material costs increased by? And how much do you expect them to fall by in 2023, just raw material costs?

Celeste Mastin: Yes. So they’ve increased by $800 million. But — and when you ask how much should we expect them to fall? It’s a great question, right? And that’s why I continue to go back to wanting to bucket price and raw material cost into one big category for the upcoming year. It’s very hard to assume how much those materials are going to come down, particularly because there are so many. We’re monitoring 4,000 of them at any one point in time and watching for movements. And none of them is really — none of them is significant. So that’s a great question, and that’s why what we’ve decided is, regardless of what happens, whether raws come down significantly and we benefit by, of course, lower raw material costs, but also being able to support our customers in a recessionary time, or if raw materials don’t come down or they move up a little, we’ll pass through price increases.

So I hate to speculate on what kind of reduction we’ll see. And I think the important thing is that the company is preparing itself no matter what happens.

David Begleiter: Thank you very much.

Operator: The next question is from Jeff Zekauskas with JPMorgan Chase. Your line is open.

Jeff Zekauskas: Thanks very much. If your prices didn’t move from the end of fiscal 2022, how much would your average prices be higher in fiscal 2023? Is it 3%, or is it more or less than that?

Celeste Mastin: It’s about 4% to 6%.

Jeff Zekauskas: 4% to 6%. Okay.

Celeste Mastin: Okay. Again, it’s murky water, because there are so many — there’s indices, we have new product introductions, we have — I mean, it’s a challenging question. And so, again, I want to remind you to — let’s go back to looking at that overall price and raw material cost bucket as one.

Jeff Zekauskas: Okay. Your non-recurring charges this year were about $40 million. Is that a good number for next year?

Celeste Mastin: Why don’t you take that? Why don’t you take that one, John?