First Quarter Highlights
*GAAP: Net sales of $2.9 billion; Operating income of $157 million; Earnings per share of $0.50
*Fiscal 2024 outlook: Reaffirmed adjusted EPS guidance of $7.35 – $7.85 and free cash flow of $800 – $900 million
*Announced plans for a tax-free spin-off and merger of the majority of our HH&S segment to include its global nonwovens and films business with Glatfelter, creating a global specialty materials leader, in a transaction expected to be valued at $3.6 billion
Kevin Kwilinski, Berry’s CEO said, “Berry delivered a solid first quarter result, in line with our expectations, as our teams executed well despite a challenging macro demand environment. Free cash flow was ahead of last year’s first quarter, putting us on track to deliver against our fiscal 2024 guidance, which we reaffirmed today. Our global teams have executed exceptionally well, implementing robust cost reductions and optimizing our product mix across our businesses. This strategic focus is helping to counter the challenges of soft market demand caused by inflation on consumers. As volumes recover we would expect an incremental benefit to earnings on more efficient assets. We are dedicated to delivering long-term value for our shareholders, and remain confident in the strength of our market positions and underlying businesses.
Building on a solid core, we have made substantial progress on two key areas of priority: customer focused organic growth through superior service and product performance and world class continuous improvement delivered through lean transformation. To this end, we pivoted our service and quality review process to be less internal focused and more driven by the voice of our customers and have began adding a net promotor score integrated process to ensure closed-loop feedback. Lean transformation is a key priority for 2024 and will become a core component of our culture going forward.
We will continue to focus on driving long-term shareholder value in fiscal 2024 and expect to prioritize repayment of debt, to meet our leverage target commitment, along with returning capital to shareholders via further share repurchases and dividend payments. We continue to believe our shares are undervalued and our repurchases reflect our confidence in the outlook for our business and long-term strategy.”
details at: https://ir.berryglobal.com/news-releases/news-release-details/berry-announces-first-quarter-2024-results