And we’re through that. And I think you’re starting to see — and those acquisitions were in the pet care space. If you look at that margin expansion in consumer and specialties, that’s where that’s come from. That’s the true — really putting the MTI culture, the MTI operating system and the operating practices into these. So we’ve taken a — done a great job this year with those. We’re in a good spot in terms of where those business is. As D.J. highlighted, they are the teams and how they did a tremendous job this year on that front. So, we’ve got a great muscle memory in this company to be able to pull in acquisitions and turn them into value. I think this year there could be some opportunities as the kind of market. I think there’s been some — couple of years of a bit of a lull and I think that could come around.
We’re going to be cautious about that. We got the balance sheet in great shape to be able to execute on something. You know us, we’re going to be diligent about how we look at things, what we’re going to do with it, the opportunity it provides for us and our shareholders. So we’ll go into it cautiously, but we do think the balance sheet and there could be some opportunities that come our way this year.
Daniel Moore: Appreciate the color, as always. Thank you.
Douglas Dietrich: Thank you, Dan.
Operator: And our next question is coming from David Silver with CL King. Your line is open.
David Silver: Yeah, hi. Thank you. I did want to ask you about the program that was announced during your Investor Day or thereabouts with the $10 million cost reduction efforts. Just in general, how much do you think was reflected in your fourth quarter results? And then maybe if there was any kind of feel for the cadence for the remainder of capturing the full $10 million benefit? Thank you.
Erik Aldag: Yeah, sure, Dave. So we’re about 75% of the way through that program. So we’ll be finished in the first half of this year. So we’ve got around $2 million more to go this year, which should help margins by around 10 basis points for 2024.
David Silver: Okay, great. And the next question would be, I guess, for D.J., but it’s about the PCC business. Two parts to it. First, I was wondering if you could give us maybe a view to the new project funnel or the opportunity set that you’re working with currently? And then secondly, I’ll ask you that — I’ll stipulate this is an unfair question. I’m sure you love all your children equally, but if you were thinking about your book of business in China and your book of business PCC satellites in India, you have a healthy number of relatively new projects in both areas. Regarding the business environment and whatever other factors you consider relevant, I mean, where do you think — not necessarily the group best upside is, I’m sure they’re both very high growth opportunities.
But where do you see the business environment maybe being a little bit more difficult to navigate or other types of risks? In other words, if there was kind of a shortfall in your growth plans in either of those two countries, which might it — where might it occur and what might be the source of maybe a little bit of a slowdown in anticipated growth? Thank you.
Douglas Dietrich: So, David, I’m going to try and answer those. Let me — let’s get set on the baseline. Erik had mentioned the three new PCC plants coming on mixture of China and Asia. And one came on early, two came on just towards the end of the year. And just to get something established here, that was roughly 300,000 tons of GCC, which is a new product for us going into the packaging space. And then we had about 65,000 tons of what I’ll just call those engineered crystal and those PCC type products. And not to be too indescript here, but part of that’s new yield and part of that is our standard PCCs. So, coming on that you’ll see the full benefit of this year is those 65,000 tons of PCCs, call it, and 300,000 tons of GCC.
What we already are in the process of building that you’ll see towards the end of the year is two other projects in Asia that bring on 140,000 tons of traditional PCC. I say 140,000 tons of traditional PCC, but one of those is in a specialty papers and packaging application. And then what Doug had also mentioned as just a kind of closing remark is we have — we’ll be announcing soon who are these customers are. Who we picked up two other projects in Asia, again India and China. But it’s — it is standard PCC and a printing writing grade. But it also — we’ve got this combination of new yield and GCC in a packaging grade. So that’s another called 50,000 tons of the engineered crystals and 145,000 tons of the GCC. So we’ve got a lot coming on that’s in pocket.
And as I look at that broader pipeline, what is interesting and it’s especially related to our pursuit of the packaging growth and the new products, we’re getting interest all around the world. So it shows up in Europe, it shows up in Latin America. And, of course, it shows up in Asia as well. And I would say North America is more curious than pulling us hard, but there’re certainly these new products are offering something different than what we’ve offered before and our penetration, the packaging is something of interest to those folks. So, lots coming on, lot of that is in the pocket. You started seeing a little bit of the results show up in ’23, 2024 has more coming on. We already know 2025 is going to have more coming on. And as I look at what else is developing, you’re right, I love all the babies.
But what I would say is that because of these new products, because of this broader pursuit in the packaging, where it’s not just Asia, Asia still is the — a good part of our growth, but it’s — we’re getting a global pull, if that helps.
David Silver: No, that’s great. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Douglas Dietrich: Thank you, David.
Operator: And it appears there are no further questions at this time. So, I would like to turn the call back to Mr. Dietrich for any closing remarks.
Douglas Dietrich: Thanks everyone for joining the call today, staying on for a bit longer. We do appreciate it. We’ll talk to you again in three months. Thanks.
Operator: This concludes today’s call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
