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Text: Before we begin our call today.
These statements are based solely on information that is now available to us.
Additionally, our future performance may differ due to a number of factors.
We also discuss financial measures that do not conform to US GAAP.
We appreciate your interest in SEE and hope you and your families are staying safe and healthy.
We're working through very exciting and challenging times as we continue to transform SEE.
You can see on Slide 3, our strategy to become a world-class digitally driven company, automating sustainable packaging solutions.
I'll share our strategy for growth and automation, digital, and sustainability, within our global core markets.
Chris will review our financial results and outlook in more detail.
I will end with closing remarks before opening the call for Q&A.
Net sales increased 13% in constant dollars with volume growth of 5% and price realization of 8%.
Adjusted EBITDA increased 4%, higher volumes and pricing efforts helped mitigate inflationary pressures and supply disruptions, yet our industry-leading margins were still under pressure at 19.2% compared to 21% last year.
On a per-share basis, adjusted earnings of $0.86 were up $0.04 compared to last year.
We generated free cash flow of $223 million in the first nine months of the year, which compared with $292 million in the first nine months of last year.
Our SEE Operating Engine is performing.
SEE Touchless Automation & Sustainable Packaging Solutions are generating demand, growth, and delivering productivity savings.
I want to highlight our SEE Operating Model on Slide 5, which defines where we're taking SEE and what you should expect us to deliver.
Our innovations in Automation, Digital and Sustainability continue to gain momentum and are driving our growth above our traditional packaging markets.
We are targeting adjusted earnings-per-share growth of greater than 10% and free cash flow conversion of more than 50%.
Our SEE Operating Model generates significant cash from our purpose-driven approach to capital allocation.
To fuel our growth, we are increasing our Capex investments for innovation in Touchless Automation.
Through SEE Venture's Investments, we're using our balance sheet to incubate disruptive technologies and new business models to accelerate our pace of innovation and speed to market.
We continue to return value to our shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.
We further strengthened our capital structure with a $600 million new bond issuance in the third quarter.
For SEE, this is our first secured, investment-grade bond in the company's history.
The proceeds were used to pay down existing debt.
We encourage you to visit our website, where you can read about our innovation and customer success stories.
We create measurable value for our customers through automated and sustainable solutions that are designed to maximize food safety, minimize waste, protect goods and deliver productivity savings.
Sales in our Automation portfolio, which includes equipment, services and spare parts, have increased approximately 20% [Phonetic] year-to-date, accounting for 8% of our total sales.
Autobag Systems, our fastest-growing automated solution, with year-to-date sales up more than 25%, and bookings up approximately 50%.
For proteins, equipment, spare parts and service, sales are up double digits, year-to-date.
Our protein automation pipeline continues to grow across all regions, with major food producers committing to our SEE Touchless Automation future.
Our automated equipment in service sales have a strong pull-through for a high-performance sustainable materials.
Our unique approach to automation has strengthened, with our digital solutions.
Through our SEE Mark Smart Packaging, enabled with our patented digital printing, we are creating Touchless Digital Connectivity from our operations to our customers, and to consumers' homes.
This level of connectivity is transformational for our customers.
It enables us to be embedded into our customers' operations, where we can drive significant savings to their bottom line.
Our customers are buying into our automation future.
In addition to growth in automation, the recovery in foodservice and our innovations and fluids are driving increased demand for our high-performance, sustainable Cryovac barrier bags pouches in case-ready applications across all regions.
In the quarter, our fastest growing Food Solutions was our Cryovac Pouches, designed for fluids and liquids with double-digit sales growth.
We continue to benefit from the industrial recovery and strength automation designed for e-commerce fulfillment.
We're seeing significant shift in our fulfillment portfolio toward automation and sustainable solutions.
In Industrials, we delivered mid-to-high single-digit volume growth.
In Fulfillment, we experienced double-digit volume growth in automation, paper systems, and temperature assurance solutions.
Although, we face global supply challenges across our business, our team is doing a nice job of minimizing disruptions and delivering on increased demands.
I'd also want to highlight that we recently launched a new innovative BubbleWrap on-demand inflator system, designed for industrial and fulfillment customers.
You can see the illustration of this system, on the right side of this Slide.
It features smart technology that recognizes the type of film that's loaded and easily switches between material types, whether it's inflatable cushioning, pouches, or air pillows.
SEE is becoming an automation company.
On Slide 7, you can see how we are making this happen.
For the full year, we expect to exceed our $425 million sales target or over 12% growth in Equipment, System and Service.
We're confident in our ability to exceed our 2025 target of over $750 million, which is more than $500 million will come from Equipment and Systems.
Over the last 12 months, our bookings are up significantly, even though supply disruptions persist.
The pandemic accelerated demand for automation.
As I noted earlier, we're highlighting the success of our Autobag systems portfolio, with bookings up approximately 50% year-to-date, and more than 60% since the start of the pandemic.
The accelerated systems demand will drive up to 7 times, future pull-through for Materials and Services over the equipment lifecycle.
We currently are experiencing a significant increase in all Autobag material orders and we're investing in innovation and capacity expansions to meet this increased demand.
Our year-over-year bookings growth in Auto box is also notable.
Our Touchless Automation value proposition resonates with customers as we're generating significant operational savings and taking our strategic partnerships to the next level.
Sustainability is in everything we do and it starts with our purpose-driven culture and values to how we innovate and invest to generate growth.
Sustainability is core to our responsible sourcing of raw materials, our carbon footprint, as well as our efforts to advance circularity of packaging materials with our customers and suppliers.
You can see on this Slide, our environmental goals and our sustainability pledge.
Our long-term targets are ambitious and lead the industry toward a better future.
As it relates to climate change, we are doing our part with an ambitious pledge to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across our operations by 2040.
We continue to take actions in our own facilities to reduce energy consumption, with incremental investments in Touchless Automation and renewable energy sources.
We are making significant progress on our 2025 Sustainability Pledge, with approximately 50% of our solutions already designed for recyclability, which have reached approximately 20% recycled into a renewable content in those solutions.
We designed our high-performance materials with recyclability in mind, to make sustainability more affordable, and to create a pathway for a circular economy.
You can see on this Slide how Touchless Automation is transforming our operations, our customers' operations, and enabling a circular economy.
We're innovating in smart packaging, incorporating digital technology and delivering supply chain efficiency, sustainability, and brand engagement with our customers.
We are excited to share that in early October, we published our Global Impact Report that highlights our ESG priorities and commitments, related initiatives, our progress, and performance.
We highlight how SEE is shaping the future of the packaging industry and progressing toward our bold environmental targets.
I'll now pass the call to Chris to review our results in more detail.
Let's start on Slide 9 to review our quarterly net sales growth by segment and by region.
In Q3, net sales totaled $1.4 billion, up 14% as reported, up 13% in constant dollars.
Food was up 12% in constant dollars versus last year, and Protective increased 13%.
The Americas and EMEA were both up double digits, with Americas up 14% and EMEA up 13%.
APAC was up 6% versus last year.
On Slide 10, you see organic sales volume and pricing trends by segment and by region.
In Q3, overall volume growth was up 5%, with favorable price of 8%.
Let's start with volumes.
Food volumes were up 6% with growth across all regions.
Americas up 5%, EMEA 6%, and APAC 7%.
Protective volumes were up 4%, led by EMEA with 16% growth, followed by APAC up 4%, and Americas, essentially flat to prior year.
Q3 price was favorable 8% with the Protective at 10%, and food at 7%.
Formula-based pass-throughs, primarily in Food North America, are now better aligned with input costs.
For the full year 2021, we now expect to realize more than $275 million in price, given additional pricing announcements since our last call, as well as timing of formula-based pricing.
As we head into 2022, we will be announcing additional price increases, effective December 1, and in response to continued inflationary pressures.
This increase will vary based on region and product offering and will average between 5% and 10%.
We are engaging directly with our customers to meet increased demand with automation and alternative solutions that drive productivity savings.
On Slide 11, we present our consolidated sales and adjusted EBITDA walks.
Having already discussed sales, let me comment on our Q3 adjusted EBITDA performance of $271 million, which was up 4% compared to last year.
Margins of 19.2% were down 180 basis points.
Despite favorable pricing in the quarter, you can see how the inflationary environment and supply challenges weighed on our results with an unfavorable price cost spread of $18 million.
Operational cost decreased approximately $3 million relative to last year, with Reinvent SEE productivity gains and a $5 million benefit related to an indirect tax recovery in Brazil.
Our SEE Operating Engine is performing with 40% leverage on our higher volumes.
In the month of September, price cost spread turned favorable.
In Q4, we expect this favorable trend to continue.
Adjusted earnings per diluted share in Q3 was $0.86 compared to $0.82 in Q3 2020.
Our adjusted tax rate was 24.9% compared to 20.6% in Q3 2020.
The prior-year tax rate included a benefit of US GILTI regulations issued in 2020.
Our weighted average diluted shares outstanding in the quarter were $151 million.
Turning to Slide 12.
Here we provide an update on Reinvent SEE, which is now the foundation of our SEE Operating Engine.
We have achieved $43 million of benefits in the first nine months of the year, and remain on track to realize approximately $65 million in 2021.
Turning to segment results on Slide 13, starting with food.
In Q3, food net sales of $797 million were up 12% in constant dollars.
Cryovac Barrier Bags and pouches were up for the second consecutive quarter versus last year, and combined, accounted for nearly 50% of the segment sales.
Sales in case-ready and roll stock applications were also up as food service recovers and retail demand remained strong.
Equipment, Parts and Service sales, which account for 7% of the segment, were up low-single-digits in the quarter.
As Ted noted, we are experiencing strong demand in protein automation, and continue to build our pipeline.
Adjusted EBITDA of $169 million in Q3 increased 11% compared to last year, with margins at 21.2% and 40 basis points.
Higher volumes, favorable pricing, and productivity gains offset elevated costs.
On Slide 14, we highlight Protective segment results.
In constant dollars, net sales increased 13% to $609 million.
Relative to last year, Industrial was up more than 15% and fulfillment up approximately 7%.
We faced supply chain disruptions throughout the quarter and leveraged our broad portfolio and global footprint to meet customer demands where possible.
As a reminder, approximately 55% of our Protective sales are derived from industrial end markets and the remaining 45% from fulfillment and e-commerce.
Adjusted EBITDA of $103 million decreased 5.5% in Q3, with margins at 16.9%, down 350 basis points versus last year.
We incurred transitory headwinds, including non-material inflation and labor challenges, which more than offset higher volumes and pricing actions.
Let's turn to free cash flow on Slide 15.
In the first nine months of 2021, we generated $243 million of free cash flow.
Relative to the same period last year, higher earnings and lower restructuring payments were offset by the impact of higher employee-related costs, cash tax payments, and Capex investments to support growth and innovation.
On Slide 16, we outline our purpose-driven capital allocation strategy, focused on creating economic value.
We maintain a strong balance sheet while driving attractive returns on invested capital and supporting profitable growth initiatives.
As Ted mentioned, I want to highlight that during Q3, we executed a $600 million five-year senior secured bond at 1.573%.
The proceeds of this offering were used to pay down $425 million senior unsecured notes at 4.875%, due in 2022, and $175 million pre-payable term loan debt.
To support our growth initiatives, we are focusing our Capex on Touchless Automation, Digital, and Sustainability.
We are expanding our capacity in equipment to align with customer demands and support continued growth.
We are investing in smart packaging and digital printing and see opportunities to expand our presence in attractive growth markets and geographies.
We are managing our product portfolio with discipline to ensure alignment with our growth strategy.
As it relates to returning capital to shareholders, we have repurchased 6.6 million shares, for $329 million year-to-date September, reflecting confidence in our future growth.
At quarter-end, we have approximately $970 million remaining under our authorized repurchase program.
Our net sales we now estimate are approximately $5.5 billion or up approximately 12% as reported growth to reflect the favorable demand environment and pricing actions.
This compares to our previous range of $5.4 billion to $5.5 billion.
We expect a favorable currency impact of approximately 1.5%.
Given the current environment, we now anticipate adjusted EBITDA in the range of $1.12 billion to $1.4 billion.
On a reported basis, adjusted EBITDA is expected to grow 6.5% to 8.5%.
This compares to our previous guide of $1.12 billion to $1.5 billion.
For adjusted EPS, we expect to be in the range of $3.50 to $3.60, the higher end of our previous guidance.
This assumes depreciation and amortization of $230 million and adjusted effective tax rate of approximately 26%, and approximately 152.5 million average shares outstanding.
And lastly, our outlook for free cash flow is expected to be in the range of $520 million to $540 million.
There is no change to our outlook for 2021 Capex of approximately $210 million, and Reinvent SEE restructuring associated payments of approximately $40 million.
For cash taxes, we anticipate approximately $110 million, which is net of a $24 million tax refund associated with the retroactive application of the revised US GILTI regulations.
As we close out the year and enter 2022, we are executing on our growth strategy, driving productivity and aligning our business with our SEE Operating Model.
With that, let me now pass the call back to Ted for closing remarks.
Demonstrating our ability to grow and expand our presence globally, considering the inflationary pressures in global supply disruptions, is a true reflection of the talent we have at SEE.
We are differentiating ourselves in the markets we serve with a can-do, get-it-done culture.
We're reinventing where we are taking SEE and driving our performance to world-class, where we're [Phonetic] at the table with our customers, solving their most critical packaging challenges with automated and sustainable solutions.
Our strategy is working and continues to gain momentum.
We are purpose-driven to create long-term value for our stakeholders and making our world better than we found it.

user
sees fy adjusted earnings per share $3.50 to $3.60.
q3 sales rose 14 percent to $1.4 billion.
sees fy sales about $5.5 billion.
q3 adjusted earnings per share $0.86.
sees full year adjusted ebitda to be in range of $1.12 billion to $1.14 billion.
sees free cash flow in 2021 to be in range of $520 million to $540 million.

assistant