Berry Global Group, Inc. Reports Strong Second Quarter 2020 Results; Net Sales up 53 percent; 2 Percent Organic Volume Growth

EVANSVILLE, Ind.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 2020-- Berry Global Group, Inc. (NYSE:BERY) today reported its second quarter 2020 results, referred to in the following as the March 2020 quarter.

Second Quarter Highlights
(all comparisons made to the March 2019 quarter)

• Net sales up 53 percent to $3.0 billion
• Operating income up 54 percent to $284 million
• Operating EBITDA up 52 percent to $539 million
• Net income per diluted share increase of 71 percent to $0.94
• Adjusted net income per diluted share increase of 42 percent to $1.19
• RPC Group Plc (“RPC”) integration progressing on plan; synergy target remains on track
• Reaffirmed fiscal year 2020 cash flow from operations and free cash flow guidance of $1.4 billion and $800 million, respectively

Berry’s Chairman and CEO, Tom Salmon said, “While there are unprecedented uncertainties impacting the global economy right now, we are fortunate to have an extremely diverse portfolio of products, both geographically and by end market, which will further demonstrate our proven track record of stability as we progress through the back half of fiscal 2020. The long-term fundamentals of the business have strengthened and we remain focused on our top three financial objectives of improving our strong balance sheet, organically growing our businesses, and integrating the RPC acquisition as demonstrated in this recently completed quarter.

“I am happy to report we generated March quarterly records for net sales and operating EBITDA, both increasing over 50 percent to $3 billion and $539 million, respectively. Our adjusted earnings per share increased 42 percent to $1.19, and we reported a significant improvement in quarterly free cash flow, bringing our four quarters ended free cash flow to $886 million.

“For the March 2020 quarter, overall volumes were up 2 percent in the aggregate. We estimate the net volume benefit from corona-driven activity in the quarter was 1 percent. Specific detail by segment includes our Health, Hygiene & Specialties segment, which recorded stronger than expected volume growth of 3 percent. We anticipated volume growth inflection within this business in the June quarter and we are very proud of accomplishing this goal a quarter ahead of plan. Our Engineered Materials team delivered volume growth in the quarter of 2 percent, which was in line with our commitment. Our Consumer Packaging North American business had flat volume for the quarter with strength in healthcare, household cleaning and grocery offset by softness in food service and industrial markets. We remain encouraged by the momentum of the division with a continued growing revenue pipeline. And lastly, our Consumer Packaging International business reported improved volumes sequentially, and we continue to efficiently integrate the business with an intense focus on developing our growth pipeline and realizing the cost synergies in our initial forecast of $150 million.

“Our financial profile remains solid as we have a strong liquidity position with over $950 million of cash at the end of the quarter as well as an undrawn $850 million asset-based line of credit representing $1.8 billion of liquidity. Also, we have no financial maintenance covenants or near-term debt maturities.”

March 2020 Quarter Results

Consolidated Overview

Overall net sales in the quarter were $2,975 million a 53 percent increase compared to the prior year quarter. The net sales growth is primarily attributed to acquisition net sales of $1,174 and a base volume increase of 2 percent. These increases were partially offset by lower selling prices of $148 million due to the pass through of lower resin costs and prior quarter divestiture sales of $24 million.

The operating income increase is primarily attributed to acquisition operating income of $81 million, an $11 million decrease in business integration costs, a $9 million decrease in selling, general and administrative expenses primarily related to timing of issuing annual option awards to employees and an $8 million decrease in depreciation and amortization. These improvements were partially offset by a $9 million negative impact from price cost spread and prior quarter divestiture operating income of $7 million.

Consumer Packaging - International

Consumer Packaging – International delivered net sales of nearly $1.1 billion in the March 2020 quarter. The net sales and operating income growth in the Consumer Packaging International segment is attributed to the RPC acquisition.

Consumer Packaging - North America

Consumer Packaging – North America delivered net sales of $706 million, a 10 percent increase compared to the March 2019 quarter. The net sales growth in the Consumer Packaging North America segment is primarily attributed to acquisition net sales of $123 million related to the U.S. portion of the acquired RPC business partially offset by lower selling prices of $56 million due to the pass through of lower resin costs.

The operating income increase is primarily attributed to acquisition operating income of $16 million and a $3 million decrease in depreciation and amortization.

Engineered Materials

Engineered Materials delivered net sales of $598 million in the March 2020 quarter. The net sales decrease in the Engineered Materials segment is primarily attributed to lower selling prices of $39 million due to the pass through on lower resin costs partially offset by a 2 percent base volume increase.

The operating income increase is primarily attributed to a $4 million decrease in depreciation and amortization, a $4 million decrease in selling, general and administrative expenses, and a favorable impact from price cost spread.

Health, Hygiene, & Specialties

Health, Hygiene & Specialties delivered net sales of $576 million in the March 2020 quarter. The net sales decrease in the Health, Hygiene & Specialties segment is primarily attributed to lower selling prices of $52 million due to the pass through of lower resin costs and prior quarter sales of $24 million related to the divested Seal for Life (SFL) business. These decreases are partially offset by a 3 percent base volume increase.

The operating income decrease is primarily attributed to an $8 million unfavorable impact from price cost spread and prior quarter operating income of $7 million related to the divested SFL business. These decreases were partially offset by a $6 million decrease in business integration costs and a $3 million favorable impact from the base volume increase.

Cash Flow and Capital Structure

Our cash flow from operating activities was $315 million for the quarter ended March 28, 2020, compared to $170 million in the prior year quarter, increasing over 80 percent, primarily from incremental cash flow resulting from the RPC acquisition. Our free cash flow for the quarter ended March 28, 2020, was $200 million, an increase of 156 percent compared to $78 million in the prior year quarter. The Company’s cash flow from operating activities and free cash flow for the four quarters ended March 28, 2020, was $1.4 billion and $886 million, respectively.

Our total debt less cash and cash equivalents at the end of the March 2020 quarter was $10,162 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the four quarters ended March 28, 2020, was $2,127 million.

RPC Group Plc Acquisition

In July 2019, we completed the acquisition of RPC, for aggregate consideration of $6.1 billion. RPC is a leading plastic product design and engineering company for packaging and select non-packaging markets, with 189 sites in 34 countries. RPC develops and manufactures a diverse range of products for a wide variety of customers, including many household names, and enjoys strong market positions in many of the end markets it serves and the geographical areas in which it operates. It uses a wide range of polymer conversion techniques and is also one of the largest plastic recyclers in Europe. The international based facilities are now operated within Berry’s Consumer Packaging - International segment with the remaining U.S. based facilities operated within the Consumer Packaging - North America segment.

The legacy RPC business demonstrated a sequentially improved financial performance in the March 2020 quarter. Volumes were 2 percent lower compared to the prior year quarter, with operating EBITDA down approximately 3 percent. The volume decline in the quarter was primarily attributed to the impact of COVID-19 in Asia along with continued weakness in European industrial markets partially offset by growth in grocery, pharmaceutical, and hygiene markets.

Sale of SFL Business

In July 2019, the Company completed the sale of its SFL business, which was operated in our Health, Hygiene & Specialties segment for net proceeds of $325 million. The SFL business had sales of approximately $120 million for the four quarters ended June, 29, 2019. The Company used the proceeds of the sale to repay debt and expedite the primary goal of improving our balance sheet.

Outlook

While certain markets have been impacted by COVID-19 and related restrictions, we are fortunate to have such a diversified portfolio with strong, stable end markets. Our guidance has assumed COVID-19 related restrictions, such as shelter-in-place orders, continue for the remainder of our fiscal year. We believe approximately 65 percent of our portfolio is advantaged to neutral with about 35 percent disadvantaged related to COVID-19. We expect the coronavirus to negatively impact our volumes with a low-single digit decline, but believe that we will still generate growth in EBITDA for the back half of our fiscal year driven by cost synergies and improved cost productivity. The net negative impact we are anticipating related to COVID-19 on volumes and earnings are transitory. As the restrictions are lifted, we anticipate all our segments will return to positive organic growth, as demonstrated in the most recent fiscal quarter from the pre-COVID-19 volumes and earnings levels.

We are pleased to report that we expect our fiscal year 2020 free cash flow will be in excess of $800 million, which includes at least $1.4 billion of cash flow from operations partially offset by capital expenditures of $600 million. Cash taxes are expected to be $150 million, and cash interest costs are projected at $430 million assuming interest rates at the end of the March quarter. Additionally, we expect working capital, restructuring and other costs to be $50 million.

We believe the acquisition of RPC is truly a transformational and complementary opportunity for our Company and we are off to a solid start with respect to our synergy realization and integration activities. We intend to realize approximately $150 million of annual cost synergies of which an estimated $75 million is expected to be realized in fiscal 2020.

Investor Conference Call

The Company will host a conference call today, May 1, 2020, at 10 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss our second fiscal quarter 2020 results. The telephone number to access the conference call is (800) 305-1078 (domestic), or (703) 639-1173 (international), conference ID 6897421. We expect the call to last approximately one hour. Interested parties are invited to listen to a live webcast and view the accompanying slides by visiting the Company’s Investor page at www.berryglobal.com. A replay of the conference call can also be accessed on the Investor page of the website beginning May 1, 2020, at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, to May 15, 2020, by calling (855) 859-2056 (domestic), or (404) 537-3406 (international), access code 6897421.

About Berry

Berry Global Group, Inc. (NYSE:BERY), headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, is committed to its mission of ‘Always Advancing to Protect What’s Important,’ and proudly partners with its customers to provide them with value-added protective solutions that are increasingly light-weighted and easier to recycle or reuse. The Company is a leading global supplier of a broad range of innovative rigid, flexible, and non-woven products used every day within consumer and industrial end markets. Berry, a Fortune 500 company, has over 48,000 employees and generated $12.6 billion of pro forma net sales in fiscal year 2019 from operations that span over 290 locations on six continents. For additional information, visit Berry’s website at berryglobal.com.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release includes non-GAAP financial measures such as operating EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income, and free cash flow. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to comparable measures determined in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP) is set forth at the end of this press release.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this release that are not historical, including statements relating to the expected future performance of the Company, are considered “forward looking” within the meaning of the federal securities laws and are presented pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “believes,” “expects,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “seeks,” “approximately,” “intends,” “plans,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “outlook,” or “looking forward,” or similar expressions that relate to our strategy, plans, or intentions. All statements we make relating to our estimated and projected earnings, margins, costs, expenditures, cash flows, growth rates, and financial results or to our expectations regarding future industry trends are forward-looking statements. In addition, we, through our senior management team, from time to time make forward-looking public statements concerning our expected future operations and performance and other developments. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may change at any time, and, therefore, our actual results may differ materially from those that we expected.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations, which we refer to as cautionary statements, are disclosed under “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, in conjunction with the forward-looking statements included in this release. All forward-looking information and subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us, or to persons acting on our behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements. Some of the factors that we believe could affect our results include: (1) risks associated with our substantial indebtedness and debt service; (2) changes in prices and availability of resin and other raw materials and our ability to pass on changes in raw material prices to our customers on a timely basis; (3) risks related to acquisitions or divestitures and integration of acquired businesses and their operations, and realization of anticipated cost savings and synergies; (4) risks related to international business, including as a result of the RPC transaction, including foreign currency exchange rate risk and the risks of compliance with applicable export controls, sanctions, anti-corruption laws and regulations; (5) uncertainty regarding the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union and the outcome of future arrangements between the United Kingdom and the European Union; (6) reliance on unpatented proprietary know-how and trade secrets; (7) risks related to the phase-out of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), or the replacement of LIBOR with a different reference rate or modification of the method used to calculate LIBOR; (8) increases in the cost of compliance with laws and regulations, including environmental, safety, and production and product laws and regulations; (9) employee shutdowns or strikes or the failure to renew effective bargaining agreements; (10) risks related to disruptions in the overall economy and the financial markets that may adversely impact our business; (11) risk of catastrophic loss of one of our key manufacturing facilities, natural disasters, and other unplanned business interruptions; (12) risks related to the failure of, inadequacy of, or attacks on our information technology systems and infrastructure; (13) risks related to market acceptance of our developing technologies and products; (14) general business and economic conditions, particularly an economic downturn; (15) risks that our restructuring programs may entail greater implementation costs or result in lower cost savings than anticipated; (16) ability of our insurance to fully cover potential exposures; (17) risks related to future write-offs of substantial goodwill; (18) risks of competition, including foreign competition, in our existing and future markets; (19) new legislation or new regulations and the Company’s corresponding interpretations of either may affect our business and consolidated financial condition and results of operations; (20) risks related to the impact of business, travel and safety restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including on our internal controls over financial reporting and the ongoing process of implementing standardized internal control procedures within the recently acquired RPC Group business; and (21) the other factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors may not contain all of the material factors that are important to you. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on those statements. All forward-looking statements are based upon information available to us on the date of this release. All forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.

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Company Contact:
Dustin Stilwell
1+812.306.2964
ir@berryglobal.com

Source: Berry Global Group, Inc.