International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Salvator Tiano with Bank of America. Your line is now open.

Salvator Tiano: Yes, thank you very much. I want to ask a couple of questions on the — I guess, strategy shifts to grow that you mentioned a little bit more, a few more details. And essentially, as you’re trying to reposition the business and gain market share that’s becoming the clear focus. What would that mean for R&D spending, SG&A spending, and CapEx in the next few years, not necessarily 2024, but that’s almost three or four-year basis? And you made a comment about the 2024 price, that’s 2.5% negative, in part being because of competitive pressures, but also because it will allow you to gain some market share. So how are you thinking in this new strategy about the tradeoff between price and volume?

Erik Fyrwald: I’ll start, and I think our R&D spend is significant today. I think if you look at what we spend, it’s very competitive versus the industry leaders, other industry leaders, but I do think we can focus it better, connect it better to the business units and to customers, and ensure that the R&D efforts are fully aligned with the highest value needs that our customers have. So I think we can get more out of the R&D spend that we have, and where there are areas that we need to spend more R&D, particularly in health &biosciences and flavors and fragrances, we will spend more on R&D. On capital expenditures, I feel similarly that the level of capital expenditures are reasonable, but we have to look at where we’re spending it and make sure that it’s optimized and we’re spending the capital in places that have significant returns, have very good returns, and strengthen the businesses where we need to win.

Glenn Richter: And I would just add to that, as we mentioned, we’re going to be up about 8% year-over-year in CapEx, and at core operational CapEx, which is really supporting growth in our core products is up 10%. So we’re in the right range from a CapEx, around 5% of sales in terms of what we need to maintain and grow the business.

Operator: Thank you. There are no further questions at this time, so I would like to hand the call back to the team for concluding remarks.

Erik Fyrwald: Great. Well, thank you for joining the call this morning. Again, I just want to finish by saying that I’m thrilled to be at IFF. We’ve got a tremendous team at IFF. We’ve got great capabilities. We haven’t performed to our potential in the past, but I can tell you we’re all completely committed to making sure that we unleash the full potential of our businesses and drive the right kind of synergies that enhance each of the businesses, and make customers very pleased, delighted with what we bring in our innovation. And by doing that, possibly grow our market share and through their productivity efforts, make sure we do that with leading margins. Thank you.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

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