Sonoco Products Co Q4 FY2025 Earnings Call

Let me make sure we're there. Again, good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us at today's Sunoco's 2026 Investor Day. I'm Roger Schrum, I'm Head of Investor Relations for the company. And it's been my honor to work for Sunoco for 20 years, although I did have a couple of years off for good behavior. This morning, Howard Coker, our President and CEO; and Paul Joachimczyk, our Chief Financial Officer, will start with a brief review of our fourth quarter and full year results. Sunoco issued a news release and posted a presentation on our website at sonoco.com yesterday evening, which provided detailed information on our financial results. We also will post today's presentation on our website after we conclude prepared remarks. Once we finish with our review of 2025 results, Howard will come back on the stage and do our strategic review and follow that with our presentations from our 3 business unit presidents on our industrial and consumer businesses. We're then going to take a short break, and Paul will come back up and provide further financial review and present our targets for 2026 through 2028. Howard will close our formal presentation, and then we'll take your questions. For those of you that are listening virtually, we do have an option for sending us questions as well. After we conclude Q&A, we'll be hosting a short modeling session across the hall over here and Harvard Room 1 to answer any detailed questions that you may have. With that in mind, we hope that you limit your financial modeling questions during the Q&A; we'll take care of them over there. But before we get started, let me remind you that during today's presentation, we will discuss a number of forward-looking statements based on current expectations, estimates and projections. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Therefore, actual results may differ materially. The company undertakes no obligation to revise any forward-looking statements. Additionally, today's presentation includes the use of non-GAAP financial measures, which management believes provides useful information to investors about the company's financial condition and results of operations. Further information about the company's use of non-GAAP financial measures, including definitions and reconciliations to GAAP measures is available in the Investor Relations section of our website. Now with that, let me turn it over to Howard.

Okay. Well, good morning, and thank you, Roger. It's really great to see so many of you who I've come to know over so many years, and I'll certainly look forward to getting to those that don't know through the course of this conversation and others. Before Paul and I review fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results and present our '26 guidance, let me open with a few comments about what you will hear today. First, our portfolio transformation is complete. In fact, what differentiates us from so many in our industry today is that the most difficult part of our transformation journey is behind us and we're poised to create greater value for our customers and shareholders going forward. Second, there was a purpose behind our portfolio changes and we have built global market-leading franchises in both metal and paper, consumer and industrial packaging. And while our portfolio is set, we have plans to further improve profitability and cash flow generation. Finally, we believe we are in the best position to deliver consistent earnings growth going forward. Our Sonoco team executed well in the fourth quarter despite a difficult macroeconomic environment, delivering strong operating results. We reduced net debt by approximately 40% year-over-year and lowered the company's net leverage ratio to approximately 3x. And we concluded our portfolio transformation following the successful divestiture of ThermoSafe and further simplified our Consumer Packaging segment by consolidating our global metal packaging and rigid paper containers business into a single integrated structure driven geographically. Which we believe enhances our go-to-market strategy and will drive additional synergies across global channels. I'll let Paul go through the numbers in detail, but we improved revenue, operating profit, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS above consensus and our own expectations. We achieved this improvement despite the divestiture of ThermoSafe earlier in the quarter. Providing some context for the quarter, October was a strong month for all of our businesses, while November was a bit weaker than we had expected. December is always a difficult month to predict due to our customers' inventory management practices and consumer demand at year-end. But overall, the month was better than we had planned. Productivity, favorable price cost environment and structural cost savings throughout the quarter improvement, meaning we were effective in controlling the controllables. Demand was about what we expected with volume mix overall down just under 2%. Metal Packaging U.S. had a record quarter and a record year. U.S. food can units were up 10% in the quarter and 9% for the full year exceeding reported industry averages. Results from metal packaging EMEA exceeded our expectation, although food can units were down about 3%. Some of our customers manage inventories below what they had done historically. Rigid Paper Containers were down in North America on soft construction, stack chip and other food categories while unit volumes in Europe were flat. Industrial had another solid quarter on top of a record year and margins expanded for the ninth consecutive quarter. As mentioned, we completed the sale of ThermoSafe, our temperature-assured packaging business in early November and received $656 million in cash which equates to a valuation of approximately 13x. We used net proceeds and free cash flow in the fourth quarter to reduce debt by $966 million. Year-over-year, we reduced net debt by approximately $2.7 billion, if you include the proceeds from our TFP divestiture and free cash flow. This debt reduction effort lowered our net leverage ratio from 6.4x starting the year to approximately 3x at year-end. As you recall, we had targeted to reduce our leverage to 3.3x to 3x by the end of 2026. So we are tracking ahead of our expectations. Net-net, it was a good end to the year, an excellent setup for 2026. Now I'm going to turn the podium over to Paul to go over the numbers in more detail and review our 2026 guidance.

Thank you, Howard, and thanks, everybody, for being here today. I'll walk through our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial performance. All of the results are presented on an adjusted basis, with growth on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted. The GAAP to non-GAAP EPS reconciliation is included in the appendix and in our press release. As Howard noted, 2025 was a pivotal year for Sonoco. With our portfolio transformation complete, we now have global market-leading positions across 2 focused segments, positioning the company for more consistent execution and sustainable long-term performance. Turning to the fourth quarter. Results reflected strong execution across the businesses despite a mixed demand environment. From a revenue perspective, fourth quarter net sales for continued operations increased 30% to $1.8 billion, driven by the metal packaging EMEA acquisition, strong pricing and favorable FX. This was partially offset by volume and mix which declined approximately 2%. Adjusted EBITDA increased 10% to $272 million with margin expansion of 51 basis points, reflecting strong operational discipline, despite softer volumes. Adjusted EPS was $1.05, up 5% year-over-year, driven primarily by favorable price cost largely in our consumer segment. Continued productivity gains were evenly split between consumer and industrial. FX tailwinds and lower SG&A also contributed to that. These benefits were partially offset by softer volume and mix, slightly higher interest expense and lost net earnings from our divestitures. Operating cash flow was $413 million for the quarter, while that includes a onetime tax payment from divestitures, it also demonstrates the strong seasonal cash generation of our Med can businesses. Turning to the full year results. Full year net sales for continued operations increased 42% to $7.5 billion, driven by the metal packaging EMEA acquisition, favorable FX pricing, which was partially offset by volume and mix. Adjusted EBITDA of $1.3 billion increased 28% with margin expanding 120 basis points to 16.9%. This improvement was driven by the metal packaging EMEA acquisition, strong price/cost execution, continued productivity, lower fixed costs and favorable FX partially offset by volume softness, primarily in our converting and Consumer business. We also had lost earnings from our divested businesses within the year. Adjusted EPS was $5.71, representing a 17% increase year-over-year. This improvement was driven by metal packaging EMEA acquisition, favorable price cost productivity gains and FX, partially offset by divested businesses, unfavorable volume, a higher tax rate and interest expense. Operating cash flow was $690 million, including $216 million of onetime items, primarily $196 million in taxes paid on capital gains from our divestiture. On a normalized basis, full year operating cash flow was $906 million, underscoring the strong cash generating capability of the portfolio. Looking ahead to 2026, we expect continued earnings growth, supported by improving volume and mix, disciplined pricing, strong productivity and lower interest expense. We are projecting sales of $7.25 billion to $7.75 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $1.25 billion to $1.35 billion and adjusted EPS of $5.80 to $6.20. Operating cash flows of $700 million to $800 million. This includes approximately $100 million of taxes related to our capital gains from the businesses divested in 2025. Before reviewing the 2025 to 2026 bridges, let me clarify our definition of pro forma. It reflects our 2025 reported results adjusted to exclude divested businesses and represents the comparable asset base for growth in 2026. Relative to the 2025 pro forma sales of $7.3 billion, we expect low to mid-single-digit sales growth driven by favorable volume mix, pricing and FX.

Again, thank you for joining us today. I really, really am looking forward to the next portion of our presentation, which, as you just saw, is all about our focus towards the future. Sunoco has transformed over the last several years to create a more focused, simplified business. This focus allows us to move faster, allocate capital with greater discipline and hold ourselves accountable for returns. After reviewing our strong finish to 2025 and our outlook for '26, we now want to take a step back to talk about our transformed portfolio, our focused strategy and the experienced leadership team that we have in place, which you'll hear from today. Importantly, what is different today is not just where we are but how decisively we will run the business going forward. Focusing management attention, capital and resources on fewer but scale businesses, we have a strong competitive advantage. I've been at Sunoco for over 4 decades and have experienced a wide range of economic cycles, changing competitive dynamics and shifting consumer trends, but I've never been more excited about the opportunities we have for the next phase of our growth. What gives me confidence today is not simple optimism, but clarity, clarity around our portfolio, our strategy and our ability to execute through cycles. Our scaled well-capitalized asset base underpins our belief that Sunoco is the investment of choice in packaging. We are a global leader in high-value paper and metal cans as well as uncoated recycled paperboard and associated converted products. Significant prior investments in our operations, systems and people position us to drive improved profitability. Our streamlined portfolio supported by our proven operating model enables accelerated margin expansion and consistent earnings growth. We focus on essential center of the store food categories and partner with large growing brands and private label customers. Through strong relationships, product quality and service excellence core to Sunoco's culture, we continue to gain share. With more than 125 years of value creation, strong cash flow generation and disciplined capital allocation, we are investing for growth, strengthening our balance sheet and returning capital to shareholders, including 100 consecutive years of sector-leading dividends...

Thank you, Howard, and good morning, everyone. I'm incredibly proud to introduce you to our Industrial Packaging group. As you heard from Howard, I've spent more than 40 years at Sonoco in the last 30 with the industrial team, I absolutely love being the industrial guy. Very proud of this team and what they have accomplished. This is Sonoco's oldest business spanning our full 125-plus years. Generation after generation of team leaders and team members have found ways to keep reinventing this business, and this team is no different. I know I'm biased that I wake up every day knowing I am competitively bringing the best talent to task to continue to create value for our customers and our shareholders. Our best is still ahead of us. There's a number of key themes I would like for you to consider as I take you through this business. We are the URB global leader focused on vertically integrated, low-cost system producing paper and converted paper products. We have a proven track record of EBITDA growth, cash generation and high returns on investment. With our focus on customers and solutions through R&D and technology, we expect to achieve better than industry growth rates. As you have heard from Howard, we have been focused on simplifying our portfolio and structure. And this business has gone through those same filters...

Good morning, everybody, and thank you, James. So I'm actually super excited to be here today to share with you my passion for this business. As over the past years, my team and I have helped reshape how Paper Packaging is perceived globally by inventing, commercializing and scaling all paper packaging solutions that resonate with both brand owners and consumers. Late last year, Howard asked me to lead our newly combined consumer packaging business in EMEA and APAC. And after my early career as a Merchant Marine, I spent 13 years at Crown in the metal business that we acquired. Today, I'll walk you through how we're going to integrate these 2 businesses and continue to grow in this region. We're the only player in EMEA and APAC that produces both paper and metal packaging, the two most sustainable and circular packaging substrates. Our customers require packaging solutions to meet increasing regulations and unique sustainability demands and, of course, their performance requirements. The streamlined organization improves flexibility, lowest cost to serve and strengthens customer partnerships. Our consumer APAC business is around about $2.9 billion in revenue with about 8,000 employees across 65 facilities. That scale creates meaningful advantages from procurement leverage, operational agility, supply security and, of course, capital efficiency...

Thank you, Sean, and good morning, everyone. I'm Ernest Haynes, and it's really good to be with you all in New York. As Howard mentioned, I've had the great fortune to spend over 28 years with Sonoco between both our consumer and industrial businesses and I feel positioned well to now lead Consumer Packaging Americas. No matter the economic climate, one principle remains constant: consumers vote with their wallets every time they shop. That vote is shaped by where they are today and more specifically, how they think about grocery decisions, affordability and value, and brands must meet them where they are. We have a really clear view of how consumers are shopping, how retailers are responding, and how our customers are adjusting to win those choices. My team's role is to help our customers earn that shopper's choice by making our packaging a competitive advantage through quality, service, advanced technology, and sustainability. Each facility is equipped with advanced automation, affording us significant cost efficiencies. In addition, we implement lean technologies to promote operational excellence throughout our entire network. Today, we produce over 3 billion steel food and aerosol cans in both 2-piece and 3-piece formats, whether you're in the center aisle of a grocery store or working on your DIY projects on a Saturday afternoon at home, our cans are likely very well represented...

As we gather back here, thanks again, everybody, for your time for being here today. We do not take your time lightly at all. The fact that you're here reflects the long-term relationships we're focused on building as we continue to strengthen Sonoco. Again, I'm Paul Joachimczyk, Chief Financial Officer. I joined Sunoco after 3 decades across global manufacturing, building materials, and consumer businesses. All environments where capital discipline, execution, and cash flow matter. Today, I'll walk you through our financial strategy and our 3-year outlook. It's grounded in discipline, shaped by transformation, and designed to deliver durable long-term value. I'll focus on 3 things. First, how our recent financial performance reflects the transformation you've heard about today. Second, how we think about growth, margins, and capital allocation going forward. And third, how our financial discipline underpins everything we do as we execute our strategy, what we call focus. As you heard from James, the Industrial business is a clear example of what happens when strategy and execution truly align. Five years ago, this was a collection of assets in markets that didn't always move together. Today, it's a focused, integrated business with a clear operating model. Since 2020, Industrial has added $190 million of EBITDA with margins expanding by more than 600 basis points...

On behalf of the entire Sonoco team, I want to thank you. Thank you for your time today, your presence, and interest in our company. We believe we have the right strategy at the right time. Let me close by summarizing what we laid out today. Our portfolio transformation is complete. And the most difficult part of our journey is behind us. We believe we're poised to create greater value for our customers and our shareholders. There was a purpose behind our portfolio changes, and we have built global market-leading franchises in both metal and paper cans and industrial packaging, which we believe provides us with a competitive advantage in the key markets that we serve. While our portfolio is set, we have plans to further improve profitability and cash flow generation. Finally, 2025 was a good year. But we were setting the foundation for a stronger '26, and we believe we're in the best position to deliver consistent earnings growth going forward. Now let me call on the management team, if you would join me. And we would love to entertain any questions that you possibly may have.