Graphic Packaging Holding Co (GPK) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, welcome to the Graphic Packaging Holding Company fourth quarter and full year 2024 conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this conference is being recorded.

問候，歡迎參加 Graphic Packaging Holding Company 2024 年第四季和全年電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，本次會議正在錄音。

I will now turn the conference over to your host, Melanie Skijus, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin.

現在，我將會議交給主持人、投資人關係副總裁 Melanie Skijus。你可以開始了。

Good morning, and welcome to Graphic Packaging Holding Company quarter and full year 2024 earnings call. We have with someone call today, Mike Doss, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Steve Scherger, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

早安，歡迎參加 Graphic Packaging Holding Company 2024 年季度和全年收益電話會議。今天我們聯繫了一位名叫 Mike Doss 的人，他是公司總裁兼執行長；以及執行副總裁兼財務長史蒂夫·謝爾格 (Steve Scherger)。

On today's call, we'll be referencing our fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings presentation, which you can access through the webcast and also on the Investors section of our website at www.graphicpkg.com. Today's beliefs and the presentations made by our executives include forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the factors identified in the release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

在今天的電話會議上，我們將參考我們 2024 年第四季和全年收益報告，您可以透過網路廣播或我們網站 www.graphicpkg.com 的投資者部分存取。今天的信念和我們高階主管的陳述包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》定義的前瞻性陳述。這些聲明受風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與我們的預期和預測有重大差異。這些風險和不確定性包括但不限於新聞稿和我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中確定的因素。

Now let me turn the call over to Mike.

現在讓我把電話轉給麥克。

Thank you, Melanie. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. Graphic Packaging is a global leader in sustainable consumer packaging. In 2024, we demonstrated the strength of our business model delivering strong and steady margins and challenging market conditions. We are well positioned for 2025 and to meet our [Vision 2030] aspirations in the years ahead.

謝謝你，梅蘭妮。大家早安，感謝大家今天參加我們的電話會議。Graphic Packaging 是永續消費包裝的全球領導者。2024 年，我們展示了我們商業模式的實力，提供了強勁而穩定的利潤率和充滿挑戰的市場條件。我們已經為2025年做好了準備，並有望在未來幾年實現我們的[2030願景]。

For the full year 2024, Graphic Packaging sales were $8.8 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $1.7 billion, margins were 19.1% and adjusted EPS was $2.49. In the fourth quarter, Graphic Packaging sales were $2.1 billion, adjusted EBITDA was $404 million margins were [19.3%] and adjusted EPS was $0.59.

2024 年全年，圖形包裝銷售額為 88 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 為 17 億美元，利潤率為 19.1%，調整後每股收益為 2.49 美元。第四季度，圖形包裝銷售額為 21 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 為 4.04 億美元，利潤率為 [19.3%]，調整後每股收益為 0.59 美元。

Turning to slide 3. 2024 marked the start of our Vision 2025 Transformation Plan, Division 2030 and which we presented at our Investor Day last February, our transformation to a leading consumer packaging company will be largely complete later this year. I will come back to Vision 2030 later in my remarks.

轉到投影片 3。2024 年標誌著我們「2025 願景轉型計劃」和「2030 部門」的開始，我們在去年 2 月的投資者日上介紹了該計劃，我們向領先消費品包裝公司的轉型將在今年晚些時候基本完成。我稍後將在發言中再次討論 2030 願景。

In May of 2024, we divested our Augusta Georgia bleached paperboard manufacturing facility, along with most of our open market bleached paperboard sales exposure. Augusta was a high-quality asset with a strong team but did not have the level of competitive advantage we believe was required to support ongoing capital investment. We elected to put the capital to better use for our stockholders. After the divestiture, 95% of our sales come from high-value consumer packaging.

2024 年 5 月，我們剝離了位於喬治亞州奧古斯塔的漂白紙板製造工廠，以及大部分公開市場漂白紙板銷售業務。奧古斯塔是一項優質資產，擁有強大的團隊，但並不具備我們認為支持持續資本投資所需的競爭優勢。我們選擇將資本更好地用於為股東謀福利。剝離後，我們 95% 的銷售額來自高價值的消費包裝。

We made a number of moves during 2024 to improve our environmental footprint, including the execution of a virtual power purchase agreement, which significantly increases renewable energy use in our European operations, minimizing our environmental footprint and helping our customers minimize theirs is despite -- to our mission. During the second quarter, we applied $200 million of the August divestiture proceeds to repurchase approximately 2% of our common shares outstanding. And during the full year 2024, we paid dividends of $122 million.

我們在 2024 年採取了多項措施來改善我們的環境足跡，包括執行虛擬購電協議，這顯著增加了我們歐洲業務中的可再生能源使用，最大限度地減少了我們的環境足跡，並幫助我們的客戶最大限度地減少他們的環境足跡——儘管這對我們的使命來說也是如此。在第二季度，我們利用 8 月剝離所得的 2 億美元回購了約 2% 的已發行普通股。2024 年全年，我們支付了 1.22 億美元的股息。

After the close of 2024 and in recognition of the strong results our business model is delivering as well as declining capital spending needs, the Board of Directors approved a 10% increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.11 per share effective with the April 2025 dividend payment. Volumes did turn positive in the second half, up 1%, although the pace of normalization was slower than we and many of our customers had anticipated.

2024 年結束後，鑑於我們的業務模式取得的強勁業績以及資本支出需求的下降，董事會批准將季度股息增加 10% 至每股 0.11 美元，並從 2025 年 4 月的股息支付開始生效。下半年，銷售量確實轉為正成長，成長了 1%，儘管正常化的速度比我們和許多客戶的預期要慢。

Full year volumes were down approximately 1%. We delivered a growing 19.1% adjusted EBITDA margin for the full year 2024 with outstanding quarter-to-quarter stability despite a challenging market environment, our financial performance demonstrates just how much Graphic Packaging has evolved. When I became CEO back in 2016, our business which was about half the size, far less balanced than it is today, wasn't capable of generating the consistency that we now deliver. Our team has done an outstanding job executing at a high level to build a consumer packaging business capable of generating strong and steady margins and cash flows in a variety of market environments.

全年銷量下降約 1%。儘管市場環境充滿挑戰，但我們在 2024 年全年調整後 EBITDA 利潤率仍增長 19.1%，並保持了出色的季度穩定性，我們的財務業績證明了圖形包裝的發展程度。當我在 2016 年擔任執行長時，我們的業務規模只有現在的一半，遠不如現在平衡，無法實現現在的一致性。我們的團隊在高水準的執行下出色地完成了工作，建立了能夠在各種市場環境中產生強勁而穩定的利潤和現金流的消費包裝業務。

2024 is on a clear consumer focus on finding value, significant growth in private label and more consumers shopping for groceries, in club and superstores. Our Waco which is designed to move with the consumer response was in those trends. We introduced new packaging innovations in all categories with significant new product innovations for our private label customers across the US and Canada and Europe.

2024 年，消費者的焦點將明顯轉向尋找價值，自有品牌將顯著成長，在俱樂部和超市購買雜貨的消費者也將增加。我們的 Waco 的設計旨在順應消費者的反應，符合這些趨勢。我們在所有類別中都推出了新的包裝創新，並為美國、加拿大和歐洲的自有品牌客戶提供了重要的新產品創新。

As our experience demonstrates, our private label customers and retailers are just as committed as our branded customers to plastic reduction and to a more circular more functional and more convenient packaging that consumers prefer. And finally, we delivered innovation sales grow to $205 million in 2024.

正如我們的經驗所顯示的，我們的自有品牌客戶和零售商與我們的品牌客戶一樣致力於減少塑膠並致力於消費者喜歡的更循環、更實用、更方便的包裝。最後，我們實現了創新銷售額在 2024 年成長到 2.05 億美元。

Turning to the fourth quarter on slide 4. Our Waco Texas recycled paperboard is moving ahead well and remains on schedule in the fourth quarter. On a smaller scale, but no less important strategically, we continue to make targeted investments in our packaging facilities to drive productivity and expand our capabilities.

翻到投影片 4 上的第四季。我們的德州韋科再生紙板進展順利，第四季度仍按計劃進行。儘管規模較小，但從戰略上來說同樣重要，我們將繼續對包裝設施進行有針對性的投資，以提高生產力並擴大我們的能力。

Culture is the second pillar of our Vision 2030 and keeping our teams safe and focused on delivering results for customers is essential to our success. We continue to have one of the industry's best safety record. And in the fourth quarter, we saw improvement in employee engagement. We had an 87% global participation in our recent employee survey, which is really outstanding, and we see meaningful improvement in 11 to 12 categories we measure, engagement and safety go hand-in-hand in our two my highest priorities.

文化是我們「2030 願景」的第二大支柱，確保團隊安全並專注於為客戶提供成果對於我們的成功至關重要。我們的安全記錄繼續位居業界前列。在第四季度，我們看到員工敬業度有所提升。在我們最近的員工調查中，全球參與率達到了 87%，這個數字確實非常出色，而且我們在衡量的 11 到 12 個類別中看到了有意義的改進，參與度和安全是我們最優先考慮的兩個事項。

In the fourth quarter, volume was up 1%. Price was down 2%, consistent with the second third quarter results. Results in beverage, foodservice and household were relatively steady overall, while food was modestly weaker and health and beauty remain mixed. We saw the gains during the quarter with our private label customers and participated in the continued growth in grocery sales by club and superstores.

第四季度，銷量成長了 1%。價格下跌2％，與第三季業績一致。飲料、餐飲服務和家庭用品的表現整體相對穩定，而食品則略有走弱，健康和美容仍然喜憂參半。本季度，我們看到自有品牌客戶的成長，並參與了俱樂部和超市雜貨銷售的持續成長。

In Europe, where consumers tend to shop more often prepared ready-to-eat foods, we are seeing volume gains with our convenience channel customers. The European convenience channel is a high service turnover refrigerated food market, where our extensive packaging and logistics capabilities are a critical competitive advantage.

在歐洲，消費者更傾向於購買即食食品，我們看到便利通路客戶的銷售量正在成長。歐洲便利商店通路是一個服務週轉率較高的冷藏食品市場，我們廣泛的包裝和物流能力是關鍵的競爭優勢。

As I noted, sales growth of $63 million in the quarter, but our full year innovation sales growth of $205 million. We are well positioned to achieve our goal of at least 2% innovation sales growth again in 2025. Our customers are always -- better, more sustainable matching solutions and no one has invested as much or built as powerful plate have to deliver the more circular, more functional and more convenient package solutions that consumers prefer.

正如我所說，本季銷售額成長了 6,300 萬美元，但全年創新銷售額成長了 2.05 億美元。我們有能力在 2025 年再次實現創新銷售成長至少 2% 的目標。我們的客戶始終是——更好、更永續的配套解決方案，而且沒有人投資如此之多或建造如此強大的板塊，以提供消費者喜歡的更循環、更實用、更方便的包裝解決方案。

Slide 5 is a reminder of just how broad our portfolio really is and why we are able to generate strong results even in challenging market conditions.

投影片 5 提醒我們我們的投資組合實際上有多麼廣泛，以及為什麼我們即使在充滿挑戰的市場條件下也能夠創造強勁的業績。

Turning to slide 6. Let's look at our sales in more detail. Overall, year-over-year fourth quarter and full year packaging sales roughly flat with a relatively steady performance in beverage, food service and household of moderately weaker results in food. Food represented approximately 38% of our packaging sales in 2024 and here, we saw a continuation of even results we experienced all year. We saw significant gains in pasta, which is in growth from consumers looking for simple and less expensive alternatives to -- meals and takeout.

翻到幻燈片 6。讓我們更詳細地看看我們的銷售情況。整體而言，第四季和全年包裝銷售額比去年同期大致持平，飲料、食品服務和家庭用品表現相對穩定，食品銷售略有下降。2024 年，食品約占我們包裝銷售額的 38%，在這裡，我們看到了全年持續均勻的表現。我們看到麵食的銷售量顯著成長，這得益於消費者尋求簡單且更便宜的堂食和外帶替代品。

We are also participating in the growth in Mac and Cheese. Always an affordable choice, Mac and Cheese is also benefiting from the newer gourmet varieties, which are taking a classic comfort food of market while remaining relatively affordable. Noting that in both the Americas and in Europe, private label represented the big area of the growth we are seeing in both Pasta and Mac Cheese, although branded is also doing well. But these gains were not enough to offset the continued weakness in frozen and refrigerated prepared foods categories, which tend to come in at a higher price point.

我們也參與了 Mac and Cheese 的成長。起司通心粉一直是一種價格實惠的選擇，它也受益於較新的美食品種，這些品種佔據了市場上經典的舒適食品，同時價格仍然相對便宜。我們注意到，在美洲和歐洲，自有品牌是義大利麵和通心粉起司領域成長的主要領域，儘管品牌產品的表現也不錯。但這些漲幅不足以抵消冷凍和冷藏預製食品類別持續疲軟的影響，因為這些食品的價格往往較高。

Confectionery continues to see weakness in Europe as a result of high cocoa prices, while the U.S. demand has been more stable. Coffee and tea saw significant gains thanks in part to our more product innovation but also from a shift in coffee consumption home and office and away from coffee shops, driven in part by the consumer focus on value. Categories like yogurt did well in both the Americas and Europe as consumers opt for this less expensive source of protein.

由於可可價格高企，歐洲糖果市場持續疲軟，而美國的需求則較為穩定。咖啡和茶的銷售量顯著成長，部分原因在於我們更多的產品創新，同時也因為咖啡消費從咖啡店轉向家庭和辦公室，而這在一定程度上是由於消費者註重價值。由於消費者選擇這種較便宜的蛋白質來源，優格等類別在美洲和歐洲都表現良好。

As we think about shifting food purchasing behavior, it is important to consider the role retailers are playing while growth in private label is significant, retailers are also creating and expanding loyalty programs. Loyalty programs are designed to keep consumers come back at a time when consumers are increasingly visiting more stores, but spending less in each one. It will continue to shift and Graphic Packaging is one of the very few companies with the capabilities to execute quickly and in scale for the largest CPGs, co-packers and smaller regional customers.

當我們考慮改變食品購買行為時，重要的是要考慮零售商所扮演的角色，雖然自有品牌的成長顯著，但零售商也在創建和擴大忠誠度計劃。忠誠度計劃的目的是讓消費者在越來越多的消費者光顧商店但在每家商店的花費越來越少的時代再次光顧。它將繼續轉變，而 Graphic Packaging 是極少數能夠為最大的 CPG、聯合包裝商和較小的區域客戶快速、大規模執行任務的公司之一。

Beverage, which represents about 25% of our overall packaging sales, saw some modest improvement with continued solid growth in Europe. Our European business is benefiting from regulatory requirements to eliminate plastic and we expect those regulations to support growth in the business for several weeks to come. We are well positioned after the investments we have made in anticipation of this trend, including at Bristol in the UK where we have doubled the size of our facility in the world-class innovation center.

飲料約占我們整體包裝銷售額的 25%，在歐洲持續保持穩健成長，並取得了一定程度的改善。我們的歐洲業務受益於消除塑膠的監管要求，我們預計這些法規將在未來幾週內支持業務成長。為了因應這一趨勢，我們進行了多項投資，其中包括在英國布里斯托爾，我們將世界一流創新中心的設施規模擴大了一倍，從而為自己做好了準備。

Food service represented 21% of our packaging sales in 2024. After 11 consecutive positive quarters in a row with over 5% year-over-year growth, we saw stability in the fourth quarter against a very strong last year. Our multiyear power performance of the food service market has been by the growth in investments we've made and in innovations that are helping our customers meet their goals to reduce plastic consumption and improve functionality.

到 2024 年，食品服務將占我們包裝銷售額的 21%。在連續 11 個季度實現同比增長超過 5% 之後，第四季度的表現較去年同期的強勁表現趨於穩定。我們在食品服務市場的多年強勁表現得益於我們不斷增長的投資和創新，這些投資和創新幫助我們的客戶實現了減少塑膠消耗和提高功能性的目標。

Foodservice continues to represent a big opportunity for us, driven by platform replacement and the demand better, easier to use and easier to recycle containers. Promotional activity by quick service restaurants remained strong our foodservice customers continue to focus on value options and are making other menu changes to drive volume, and we are working closely with them to develop the best solutions for their strategies. Household products represent approximately 12% of our packaging sales and the results were generally flat year-over-year.

在平台更換和對更好、更易於使用和更易於回收的容器的需求的推動下，餐飲服務仍然為我們帶來了巨大的機會。快餐店的促銷活動依然強勁，我們的餐飲服務客戶繼續專注於價值選擇，並正在進行其他菜單更改以推動銷量，我們正在與他們密切合作，為他們的策略制定最佳解決方案。家用產品約占我們包裝銷售額的 12%，業績與去年同期基本持平。

Tissue continues to be one of the weaker year-over-year, but we are seeing better growing products, particularly in Europe as we are in pet care. Over time, we see clear opportunities to expand this part of the portfolio in both the Americas and in Europe.

與去年同期相比，紙巾類產品仍然是表現較弱的類別之一，但我們看到成長勢頭較好的產品，尤其是在歐洲，因為我們從事寵物護理行業。隨著時間的推移，我們看到了在美洲和歐洲擴大這部分投資組合的明顯機會。

And finally, (technical difficulty) a small but promising part of our overall packaging sales continues to show mixed results. This is mainly a European business for us now, although we have very exciting opportunities here in North America, thanks in part to PaceSetter Rainier, our 100% cycle paperboard that performs as well as more expensive bleached paperboard. The high end of the cosmetics market remains challenged, but we are seeing improvement at the lower price points. Fine Fragrance is also showing encouraging gains. Health care remains challenging, but we suspect the majority of the destocking is over.

最後，（技術難度）我們整體包裝銷售中一小部分但很有希望的部分繼續顯示出好壞參半的結果。目前這對我們來說主要是歐洲業務，儘管我們在北美也擁有非常令人興奮的機會，部分歸功於 PaceSetter Rainier，我們的 100% 循環紙板性能與更昂貴的漂白紙板一樣好。高端化妝品市場依然面臨挑戰，但我們看到低價位市場正在改善。高級香水也顯示出令人鼓舞的成長。醫療保健仍然充滿挑戰，但我們懷疑大部分去庫存階段已經結束。

If you'll turn on to slide 7, we present typical seasonal patterns left in our action and expected experience on the right. Seasonality in the fourth quarter was relatively normal in beverage where we saw the usual dip. But as I noted, through 11 quarters of impressive gains, our foodservice results were relatively flat in the fourth quarter. Our other markets food, household, health to be performed broadly in line with normal seasonality patterns overall, with quite a bit of variation within those segments driven by the consumers or value. Monthly patterns were also mixed. October overall was not as strong as we typically see, November was fairly normal and December followed the typical pattern, but with the incremental impact from the timing of the holidays this year as expected.

如果您翻到投影片 7，我們在右邊展示了我們的行動和預期經驗中留下的典型季節性模式。第四季的季節性對於飲料而言相對正常，我們看到了常見的下滑。但正如我所指出的，經過 11 個季度的令人矚目的成長，我們的餐飲服務業績在第四季度相對持平。我們的其他市場（食品、家居、健康）總體上與正常的季節性模式大致一致，但這些細分市場內部受消費者或價值的驅動而存在相當大的差異。每月的模式也是好壞參半。十月份的整體表現不如我們通常看到的那麼強勁，十一月則相當正常，十二月則遵循了典型模式，但今年假期時間的增量影響正如預期的那樣。

I have already summarized our fourth quarter experience. Looking ahead to the first quarter, we expect the consumers' focus on value to remain strong. And importantly, as you are hearing from many of our customers, driving volumes moving up and priority. Many of our food and beverage customers are rolling out more new products and new configurations to reach consumers in new and existing channels.

我已經總結了我們第四季的經驗。展望第一季度，我們預期消費者對價值的關注度仍將保持強勁。重要的是，正如您從許多客戶那裡聽到的那樣，推動銷量上升並成為優先事項。我們的許多食品和飲料客戶正在推出更多新產品和新配置，以透過新管道和現有管道接觸消費者。

In foodservice, we continue to see focus on promotion with new menu choices emphasizing value and more limited time offerings designed to drive foot traffic. Each of these represent an opportunity for us to partner with our customers to create real value, and we are encouraged by the level of engagement we are experiencing.

在餐飲服務方面，我們繼續看到對促銷的關注，新的菜單選擇強調價值，並提供更多限時優惠，旨在增加客流量。所有這些都為我們與客戶合作創造真正價值提供了機會，而我們正在經歷的參與程度也令我們感到鼓舞。

Slide 8 outlines the company's five packaging innovation platforms and notice the scale of the opportunity we see in each one. Each of these five platforms made important contributions to our -- sales growth in 2024 and will again in 2025. Alongside volume growth, plastic substitution is a top priority for many of our customers, and we have outstanding commercially proven solutions for a very wide range of new applications.

第 8 張投影片概述了該公司的五個包裝創新平台，並注意我們在每個平台中看到的機會規模。這五個平台都為我們 2024 年的銷售成長做出了重要貢獻，並將在 2025 年再次實現銷售成長。除了產量成長之外，塑膠替代方案也是我們許多客戶的首要任務，我們為非常廣泛的新應用提供了經過商業驗證的出色解決方案。

Turning to slide 9. I thought it would be useful to step back and look at the breadth of the innovation we delivered in 2024. Each quarter, I've been highlighting an innovation win, but there are dozens of exciting new packaging in nations that we haven't talked about. From trays and bowls to beverage multi packs to toothpaste raise the blade packaging have introduced some of the most innovative, most functional and most convenient new packaging available anywhere. We are a clear global leader in sustainable consumer packaging innovation, and we are excited about the opportunities we see in the year ahead.

翻到第 9 張投影片。我認為回顧一下我們在 2024 年實現的創新廣度是有益的。每個季度，我都在強調一項創新勝利，但是還有幾十種我們尚未談到的令人興奮的新包裝出現在各個國家。從托盤和碗到飲料多件裝到牙膏提升刀片包裝都引入了一些最具創新性、最實用和最方便的新包裝。我們是永續消費包裝創新領域的全球領導者，我們對未來一年的機會感到興奮。

On slide 10, you can see from the picture that our Waco, Texas recycled paperboard investment is moving ahead nicely. Our decision to accelerate equipment purchases has helped us derisk key elements -- we have all the major equipment on site and that gives our contractors more flexibility and more ways to stay on schedule.

在投影片 10 上，您可以從圖片中看到我們在德州韋科的再生紙板投資進展順利。我們加快設備採購的決定幫助我們降低了關鍵要素的風險——我們在現場擁有所有主要設備，這為我們的承包商提供了更大的靈活性和更多方式來按時完成工作。

We are signing recovered contracts to coincide with the startup, setting up the logistics to bring trimmings from our own packaging plants to Waco and talking to a wide range of sources to collect and recover paper costs. We designed Waco to be able to recycle up to 15 million paper cups per day because of cups are outstanding BioSource, our ability to process paper costs generated in the Texas Triangle of Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, is one of the many competitive advantage that we've designed into the support strategic investments.

我們正在簽署與啟動相吻合的回收合同，建立物流以將我們自己的包裝廠的邊角料運送到韋科，並與廣泛的來源進行談判以收集和回收紙張成本。我們設計的 Waco 每天能夠回收多達 1500 萬個紙杯，因為杯子非常出色，BioSource 能夠處理德克薩斯州三角地區（休斯頓、達拉斯和聖安東尼奧）產生的紙張成本，這是我們設計用於支持戰略投資的眾多競爭優勢之一。

Stepping back for a moment, Vision 2025 was about transformational investment. Investment and capabilities to drive greater top line consistency, investments in innovation to drive growth and create the kind of packaging that consumers prefer and investment in competitive advantage, which is what our Waco over cycle paperboard manufacturing facility is all about. Waco is the last major investment of Vision 2025 and will allow us to fully capture the competitive advantage and quality and economics that started with our Kalamazoo investment and will soon be in place throughout North America.

回顧一下，2025 願景是關於轉型投資。投資和能力可以提高營收的一致性，投資創新可以推動成長，創造出消費者喜歡的包裝類型，投資競爭優勢，這正是我們韋科循環紙板製造工廠的意義所在。韋科是「2025願景」的最後一項重大投資，它將使我們能夠充分掌握自卡拉馬祖投資以來就開始的競爭優勢、品質和經濟效益，並且很快將在整個北美推行。

Turning to slide 11. Vision 2030 marks our transition from major transformational investment to innovation and execution. We have built a world-leading sustainable consumer packaging company on a foundation of innovation, an exceptional team and a commitment to protecting and preserving the plant. We focus our resources to deliver outstanding results for customers, stockholders and all our stakeholders. We are already making excellent progress towards our Vision 2030 goals and aspirations and I'm incredibly proud of the results our team delivered in the challenging market environment we and our customers faced in 2024.

翻到第 11 張投影片。2030願景標誌著我們從重大轉型投資轉向創新和執行。我們以創新、優秀的團隊以及保護和保存植物的承諾為基礎，建立了一家世界領先的永續消費包裝公司。我們集中資源為客戶、股東和所有利害關係人提供卓越的成果。我們已經在實現 2030 願景的目標和願望方面取得了顯著進展，我為我們的團隊在我們和我們的客戶於 2024 年面臨的充滿挑戰的市場環境中取得的成績感到無比自豪。

Now let me turn it over to Steve for a review of our company's financials and operations. Steve?

現在，讓我將任務交給史蒂夫，讓他審查一下我們公司的財務和營運。史蒂夫？

Thank you, Mike. Turning to slide 12. Sales for the full year 2024 were $8.8 billion. Fourth quarter sales were $2.1 billion. Volumes which turned positive in the third quarter were up 1% in the fourth quarter. Full year volumes were down 1%, a modest decline given the challenging market environment. Price declines remained steady and relatively modest at about 2%, consistent with the second and third quarters. Prices are stable as we begin 2025.

謝謝你，麥克。翻到第 12 張投影片。2024 年全年銷售額為 88 億美元。第四季銷售額為 21 億美元。第三季轉為正值的銷售量在第四季成長了 1%。全年銷量下降 1%，考慮嚴峻的市場環境，降幅較小。價格跌幅保持穩定且相對溫和，約 2%，與第二季和第三季一致。2025 年伊始，價格維持穩定。

The divestiture of Augusta and lower open market bleached paperboard sales reduced reported sales by $389 million for the year and by $103 million for the quarter. Other M&A, excluding Augusta a $27 million positive for the year and a $14 million negative for the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter of two months of sales impact from the Russia divestiture, which took place in November 2023.

奧古斯塔的剝離和公開市場漂白紙板銷售額的下降導致全年報告銷售額減少了 3.89 億美元，本季銷售額減少了 1.03 億美元。其他併購（不包括奧古斯塔）今年的獲利為 2,700 萬美元，第四季的虧損為 1,400 萬美元。2023 年 11 月進行的俄羅斯業務剝離對第四季度的銷售產生了兩個月的影響。

Recent currency movement has been noteworthy following the November election in the United States Foreign exchange was a $15 million sales headwind in the fourth quarter, taking the full year to an approximately $24 million headwind. I'll come back to the implications that a strong US dollar could have on our 2025 results in just a few minutes.

繼美國 11 月大選之後，近期的貨幣走勢值得關注，外匯對第四季度的銷售造成了 1500 萬美元的不利影響，導致全年的銷售不利影響達到約 2400 萬美元。幾分鐘後我將再次討論強勢美元對我們 2025 年業績的影響。

Adjusted EBITDA for the full year was $1.7 billion and $404 million for the fourth quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margins remained strong and steady at 19.1% for the full year and 19.3% for the fourth quarter. Net performance was an outstanding $170 million for the full year and $80 million for the fourth quarter, offsetting lower pricing and inflation.

全年調整後 EBITDA 為 17 億美元，第四季調整後 EBITDA 為 4.04 億美元。調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率保持強勁穩定，全年為 19.1%，第四季為 19.3%。全年淨業績表現出色，達到 1.7 億美元，第四季淨業績達到 8,000 萬美元，抵消了價格下跌和通貨膨脹的影響。

The adjusted EBITDA impact of the Augusta divestiture and lower bleached paperboard sales was a negative $164 million for the full year and a negative $39 million in the fourth quarter. Power issues in the third quarter and the decision to accelerate digester maintenance into the fourth quarter, reduced 2024 adjusted EBITDA by approximately [$30 million] for the full year and $5 million in the fourth quarter. These items should not repeat in 2025.

奧古斯塔業務剝離和漂白紙板銷售額下降對調整後 EBITDA 的影響為，全年負 1.64 億美元，第四季負 3,900 萬美元。第三季的電力問題以及將消化器維護加速到第四季度的決定，導致 2024 年全年調整後 EBITDA 減少約 [3000 萬美元]，第四季度減少 500 萬美元。這些情況在 2025 年不應該重演。

Other M&A, excluding Augusta, was a positive $10 million for the year, and a negative $3 million in the fourth quarter. Foreign exchange was a $9 million adjusted EBITDA headwind for the year and $5 million in the fourth quarter. The swing we saw in foreign exchange was the largest piece of the shortfall versus our Q4 expectations. We ended the year with $5 million in net debt and net leverage of 3 times in line with our expectations.

除奧古斯塔之外的其他併購交易全年獲利 1,000 萬美元，第四季虧損 300 萬美元。外匯對本年度調整後 EBITDA 造成了 900 萬美元的不利影響，對第四季度造成了 500 萬美元的不利影響。我們看到的外匯波動是導致第四季業績低於預期的最大原因。我們今年的淨債務為 500 萬美元，淨槓桿率為 3 倍，符合我們的預期。

Net debt is at a reasonable level for us given the consistency of our sales and margins, our declining capital spending needs and the rapidly rising cash flow generation we are anticipating as we move towards 2026 and beyond. We have no debt maturities in 2025 and only modest maturities in 2026. During 2024, we reduced outstanding shares by $5.6 million or approximately 2% even as the company invested $1.2 billion of capital and kept leverage within the target range.

考慮到我們的銷售額和利潤率的穩定性、我們不斷下降的資本支出需求以及我們預計在 2026 年及以後快速增長的現金流，淨債務對我們來說處於合理水平。2025 年我們沒有債務到期，2026 年只有少量債務到期。2024 年，儘管公司投資了 12 億美元資本並將槓桿率保持在目標範圍內，但我們仍將流通股減少了 560 萬美元，約 2%。

Slide 13 highlights the impressive margins that our business delivered in a challenging volume environment. Despite a broad-based customer and retailer destocking and consumers under pressure from inflation, both of which reduced our volumes, we are generating appropriate value for the packages we deliver and that is translating into strong and steady margins.

投影片 13 重點介紹了我們的業務在充滿挑戰的業務環境中取得的令人印象深刻的利潤。儘管廣大客戶和零售商都在減少庫存，消費者也面臨通貨膨脹的壓力，導致我們的銷售減少，但我們仍為我們遞送的包裹創造了適當的價值，從而轉化為強勁而穩定的利潤率。

Turning to the outlook on slide 14. We expect 2025 sales growth consistent with our Vision 2030 basement model in the low single digits. That, of course, includes our 2% of expected innovation sales growth. Given the volume challenges our customers are facing, the bottom of our 2025 adjusted EBITDA range assumes the year not very different from the one we just ended.

轉向第 14 張幻燈片上的展望。我們預計 2025 年的銷售額成長將與我們的 2030 願景基礎模型保持一致，保持在個位數的低點。當然，其中包括我們預期的 2% 創新銷售成長。考慮到我們的客戶面臨的產量挑戰，我們 2025 年調整後的 EBITDA 範圍的底部假設該年份與剛結束的年份沒有太大差別。

Even at that level, margins would be in the 19% range, which again speaks to the strength of the business model. Over the next six years of Vision 2030, we are confident in our ability to achieve our base model of low, mid and high single-digit growth for sales, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS.

即使在這個水平上，利潤率也會在 19% 左右，這再次證明了該商業模式的實力。在「2030 願景」的未來六年裡，我們有信心實現銷售額、調整後 EBITDA 和調整後 EPS 的低、中、高個位數成長的基本模型。

We have quantified the impact of the foreign exchange headwind that developed in late 2024. At current forward rates from Bloomberg, foreign exchange is an approximately $120 million sales headwind and an approximately $20 million adjusted EBITDA headwind in 2025 as compared to 2024.

我們已經量化了 2024 年底出現的外匯逆風的影響。以彭博社目前的遠期匯率計算，與 2024 年相比，2025 年外匯將帶來約 1.2 億美元的銷售阻力，約 2,000 萬美元的調整後 EBITDA 阻力。

Our largest currency exposure is to the euro, but we also have meaningful exposure to the peso, pound, Swedish krona, Canadian dollar and yen. Our base financial model and our ['25] core guidance as presented on slide 14, and exclude the foreign currency impact. The column on the right, adjust those core figures to -- core the currency headwinds.

我們最大的貨幣風險是歐元，但我們也對比索、英鎊、瑞典克朗、加幣和日圓有大量曝險。我們的基本財務模型和 ['25] 核心指導如投影片 14 所示，不包括外匯影響。右邊的欄位調​​整了那些核心數據，以應對貨幣逆風。

If we leave currency aside for a moment, our expectation for 2025 would call for a relatively normal overall quarterly cadence, broadly in line with the pattern outlined on slide 7. In the fourth quarter, we successfully accelerated capital spending again, taking total capital expenditures in 2024 to approximately $1.2 billion versus our previous estimate of $1.1 billion.

如果我們暫時不考慮貨幣問題，我們對 2025 年的預期是，整體季度節奏將相對正常，與投影片 7 中概述的模式大致一致。第四季度，我們成功再次加快資本支出，使 2024 年的總資本支出從我們先前估計的 11 億美元增加到約 12 億美元。

2024 was peak CapEx for Graphic Packaging and we are now targeting 2025 capital spending in the range of $700 million, down $100 million from our previous estimate. As a reminder, beginning in 2026, we expect capital spending to be roughly 5% of sales, with 2% of that representing maintenance capital spending and the rest available for growth projects greenhouse gas emission projects and other productivity initiatives.

2024是圖形包裝的資本支出峰值，我們現在計劃 2025 年的資本支出在 7 億美元左右，比我們先前的估計下降了 1 億美元。提醒一下，從 2026 年開始，我們預計資本支出將佔銷售額的約 5%，其中 2% 代表維護資本支出，其餘可用於成長項目、溫室氣體排放項目和其他生產力計劃。

Slide 15 provides the company's Vision 2030 based financial model and our capital allocation priorities. Once the Waco investment is completed later this year, our priorities turned to our normal level of reinvestment for growth, which is included in our 5% sales CapEx target, growing the dividend opportunistic share repurchase, deleveraging and tuck-under M&A.

投影片 15 提供了公司基於 2030 願景的財務模型和我們的資本配置優先事項。一旦韋科投資在今年稍後完成，我們的重點將轉向正常的再投資增長水平，這包括在我們的 5% 銷售資本支出目標中，增加股息機會性股票回購、去槓桿和隱藏式併購。

Turning to slide 16. Over the next several years, we expect to generate significantly more cash than we require for reinvestment. 2025 marks the beginning a multiyear cash flow expanded cycle, and we intend to deploy that incremental cash to generate outstanding returns to stockholders while we further strengthened Graphic Packaging position as the world's leading producer of sustainable consumer packaging. On slide 18, you will find supplemental information may be useful for modeling purposes.

翻到第 16 張投影片。在接下來的幾年裡，我們預計將產生比再投資所需的多得多的現金。 2025 年標誌著多年現金流擴展週期的開始，我們打算部署增量現金為股東創造豐厚回報，同時進一步鞏固 Graphic Packaging 作為全球領先的可持續消費包裝生產商的地位。在投影片 18 上，您將發現可能對建模目的有用的補充資訊。

That concludes our prepared remarks. We will now turn the call back to the operator to begin Q&A. Operator?

我們的準備好的演講到此結束。我們現在將電話轉回給接線員開始問答。操作員？

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指令）

Lewis Merrick, BNP Paribas Exane.

法國巴黎銀行 Exane 部門的 Lewis Merrick。

Thank you for taking my questions. Just to start, I was wondering if you could give us a bit of a flavor for how you're thinking through the impacts from any possible tariffs that have mentioned from President Trump both for yourselves and the wider industry? And if there are any potential second order effects that might entail? And now I've just got a quick follow-up.

感謝您回答我的問題。首先，我想知道您是否可以向我們簡單介紹一下，您如何看待川普總統提到的任何可能的關稅對您自己以及整個行業造成的影響？這是否會引起任何潛在的二階效應？現在我只想快速跟進。

Yeah, thank you, Lewis. I'll start with some of the macro on that and I'll turn it over to Steve to make some commentary perhaps on the financial side of that. I guess if you just speak for a minute around what was announced here at the end of last week in terms of Canada and Mexico, kind of high level, we manufacture products largely for customers in those geographies and the facilities we have, both in Mexico and in Canada.

是的，謝謝你，劉易斯。我將從一些宏觀角度開始，然後將問題交給史蒂夫，讓他對財務方面發表一些評論。我想，如果您只花一分鐘時間談論一下上週末在加拿大和墨西哥宣布的情況，從高層來看，我們主要為這些地區的客戶以及我們在墨西哥和加拿大的工廠生產產品。

If you look at kind of the cross border in North America, we would estimate that around $300 million of paperboard in some cases that's flowing in and some cartons that would flow out of the US and into Canada as an example. So it's relatively small. I think about 3% of our total sales. We really don't have exposure to China in a material way at all. And so as you kind of look through that, the biggest impact we've seen so far has really been on the translational impact on the strengthening of these currencies. And Steve gave a pretty good explanation of what that looks like.

如果你看北美的跨國情況，我們估計在某些情況下大約有價值 3 億美元的紙板流入，有些紙箱會從美國流出到加拿大。所以它相對較小。我認為約占我們總銷售額的3％。我們實際上根本沒有任何實質的與中國接觸。所以，當你仔細觀察就會發現，迄今為止我們看到的最大影響實際上是對這些貨幣升值所產生的轉換影響。史蒂夫對此給出了很好的解釋。

For these tariffs are now on hold for 30 days. So like everybody else, we're going to have to wait and kind of see how that plays off. And certainly, that's Canada and Mexico. But that's how we're thinking about it. We do have some actions as things get clearer where we could shift some production to probably minimize some of those things. once we have clear line of sight, if, in fact, something does go in and we need to respond.

這些關稅目前暫停徵收 30 天。因此，像其他人一樣，我們將不得不拭目以待，看看事情將如何發展。當然是加拿大和墨西哥。但我們就是這麼想的。隨著情況變得更加明朗，我們確實採取了一些行動，可能會轉移一些生產以盡量減少這些問題。一旦我們的視線清晰，如果確實有東西進入，我們就需要做出反應。

Perfect. And then just focusing a bit more on the volumes. Clearly, we returned to positive volumes in the second half of 2024. Have you seen that trajectory sort of continue as you -- as that played out in January?

完美的。然後將更多的關注放在音量上。顯然，我們在 2024 年下半年恢復了正向成長。您是否看到這種軌跡繼續下去，就像一月發生的那樣？

Yeah. Thanks for the question, Lewis. If you kind of look macro 2024, the first half we were down 2%. The second half, we were up on 1%. We delivered $205 million of innovation sales. I'm really proud of that. Our funnel for innovation remains very strong and our confidence level. We continue at that kind of pace with what you see on page 8 and 9 of our debt remains very, very high. So as we look at 2025, we've given you a guide of 1% to 2%. It's early in the year. But if you look at January, we saw -- it's our weakest quarter, as you can see on slide 7 relative to kind of how the timing plays out with our customers. But we actually will grow here in Q1, and that's consistent with what we saw here in January.

是的。謝謝你的提問，劉易斯。如果您看一下宏觀 2024 年，上半年我們下降了 2%。下半場我們領先了1%。我們實現了 2.05 億美元的創新銷售額。我對此感到非常自豪。我們的創新管道仍然非常強勁，我們的信心水平也很高。我們繼續以這種速度成長，正如您在第 8 頁和第 9 頁所看到的，我們的債務仍然非常非常高。因此，展望 2025 年，我們為您提供了 1% 到 2% 的指導。現在還只是年初。但如果你看看一月份，我們會發現 - 這是我們最疲軟的一個季度，正如你在幻燈片 7 上看到的那樣，相對於我們與客戶的時間安排而言。但我們實際上將在第一季實現成長，這與我們一月份看到的情況一致。

Great, thank you. I'll pass it over.

太好了，謝謝。我就把它傳給你。

Anthony Pettinari, Citi.

花旗銀行的安東尼‧佩蒂納裡 (Anthony Pettinari)

Good morning. Mike, could you talk a little bit about kind of the relative strength in the different substrates that you produce maybe kind of industry operating rates and how your system is operating, obviously, post divestiture with Augusta?

早安.麥克，你能否談談你生產的不同基質的相對強度，也許是行業的運營率，以及你的系統的運行情況，顯然，在與奧古斯塔剝離後？

Our system is operating very well, as you saw from the performance that we generated on a year-over-year basis. And I guess the relevancy of operating rates for us is a bit diminished as you know, Anthony, relative to how we think about the business. Specifically, what I'm talking about on our solid bleached paperboard that's mid folding cartons and are unbleached, once our bleached uncoated paperboard that we use for cupstock, that's almost 100% integrated into our own operations. So it's really not as relevant for us anymore. We get a ton of questions on imports. The reality of it is, as I've told you guys in the past, it really doesn't make my list of things that keeps me up at night because it doesn't impact our overall business.

我們的系統運作良好，正如您從我們逐年取得的業績中看到的那樣。而且我想，正如你所知，安東尼，相對於我們對業務的看法而言，營業率對於我們而言的相關性有所降低。具體來說，我談論的是我們的固體漂白紙板，它是折疊紙盒中未漂白的，曾經我們用於杯託的漂白未塗佈紙板幾乎 100% 融入到我們自己的運營中。所以這對我們來說已經不再那麼重要了。我們收到大量有關進口的問題。事實是，正如我過去告訴過你們的那樣，它確實不會成為讓我夜不能寐的事情之一，因為它不會影響我們的整體業務。

Relative to CRB, coated recycled paperboard and the unleased paperboard, those grades continue to be strong and in demand. We're investing heavily uncoated recycled paperboard, as you know, and what we're doing in Waco. And ultimately, we publicly said that the ultimate, most likely result is, we will close or smaller undercapitalized facilities in Ohio and Pac once that machine is up and running, we expect to be making commercial paper board on it in Q4 this year.

相對於 CRB、塗佈再生紙板和未租賃紙板，這些等級的紙板繼續保持強勁且需求旺盛。如您所知，我們正在大力投資無塗層再生紙板，這也是我們在韋科所做的。最後，我們公開表示，最終、最有可能的結果是，一旦該機器投入運行，我們將關閉或縮小俄亥俄州和太平洋中心的資本不足的工廠，我們預計將在今年第四季度在其上生產商業紙板。

So when you kind of think about what where that positions us, we're going to have five incredibly well capitalized assets that are making the paperboard that we need and that flow through our 120 converting facilities spread around the globe. That's the business we're running, really selling packaging, we're selling cups. And that's why you've seen our disclosures really make more of a shift towards end-use markets, what's the consumer doing, how we're performing in those markets because it's really more relevant for how we're running the company and how we think investors should be looking at us.

所以當你思考我們的定位時，你會發現我們將擁有五項資本充足的資產，用於生產我們所需的紙板，並透過遍布全球的 120 個加工設施進行流通。這就是我們經營的業務，實際上銷售包裝，我們銷售杯子。這就是為什麼你會看到我們的揭露實際上更多地轉向終端使用市場、消費者在做什麼、我們在這些市場的表現如何，因為這與我們如何經營公司以及我們認為投資者應該如何看待我們更為相關。

Got it. It's very helpful. And then you talked about volume assumptions for '25. I'm just wondering if you could talk a little bit about pricing assumptions or at least the pricing environment as you start the year, both in terms of just kind of the strength of the market, but also your efforts to move customers off of the RISI index.

知道了。這非常有幫助。然後您談到了'25 年的銷售假設。我只是想知道您是否可以談談定價假設，或至少是年初的定價環境，既包括市場實力，也包括您讓客戶脫離 RISI 指數的努力。

Yeah, Anthony, it's Steve. Just a couple of things there. Overall, in our guide, as Mike just said, we're assuming continued modest volume growth kind of in that 2% range, consistent with our innovation engine year-over-year. Right now, pricing heading into 2025 is pretty neutral, the 2% price declines that we managed through 2024 are fundamentally behind us. So we've got relative price neutrality heading into 2025, and that's pretty consistent with what we're seeing on the input cost side as well, which is pretty neutral on a year-over-year basis.

是的，安東尼，我是史蒂夫。那裡只有幾件事。總體而言，正如 Mike 剛才所說，在我們的指南中，我們假設銷量將繼續保持適度增長，增幅在 2% 左右，與我們的創新引擎同比增長保持一致。目前，2025 年的價格走勢相當中性，我們在 2024 年實現的 2% 的價格跌幅基本上已經過去了。因此，我們在進入 2025 年時將看到相對價格中性，這與我們在投入成本方面看到的情況非常一致，與去年同期相比，投入成本是相當中性的。

And actually, we've been very pleased, Mike and I were talking about it this morning with the progress we're making with our negotiations we're putting in place our internal delydeveloped index for price changes with our long-term customers who are all to year contracts. And so overall, interested receptivity has been high, and we're executing on those on a proprietary business with our customers. So we're actually very pleased with the movement on that front.

實際上，我們非常高興，麥克和我今天早上正在談論我們的談判進展，我們正在與所有簽訂年合約的長期客戶制定內部開發的價格變化指數。因此整體而言，客戶的興趣接受度很高，我們正在與客戶一起開展專有業務。因此，我們實際上對這方面的進展感到非常滿意。

Phil Ng, Jefferies.

傑富瑞 (Jefferies) 的 Phil Ng。

I was curious to get your latest thoughts on the quarter itself is a little softer than we expected. A little noise with some of the movements. Can you kind of help us flesh out whether it was productivity or just how Augusta kind of shook out? Just give us a little more color and how that kind of plays into '25?

我很好奇，想知道您對本季本身的最新看法，它比我們預期的要疲軟一些。一些動作會產生一點噪音。您能否幫助我們詳細說明這是否與生產力有關，還是奧古斯塔的表現如何？請給我們更多細節，以及這將如何影響 25 年？

Phil, it's Steve. You broke up a little. You're referring to Q4?

菲爾，我是史蒂夫。你們分手了一點。您指的是 Q4？

Yeah, Q4. I mean I thought volumes in price largely -- in line. EBITDA is relative to consensus was a little lighter, help us think through were there any big surprises in the quarter that we should be -- a loss?

是的，Q4。我的意思是，我認為交易量和價格基本上一致。EBITDA 相對於普遍預期來說稍微低一些，請幫助我們思考本季是否有重大意外，我們應該－虧損嗎？

Thanks, Phil. Really two things. First, our expectations. One, volume came in at 1% and we had kind of guided for the quarter inherently in the 1% to 3%. So volume was a little bit lighter than we expected, a little bit less promotional, activity and volume from our customers. So about 1% was volume driven. At 1% of the top line. Of course, that flows through our EBITDA and then really was FX. This move post the election was kind of an $8 million to $10 million hit for us relative to what we expected it to be when we last chatted and put out our guidance. So really, it's those two things, Phil, nothing operationally of any substance margin overall at very high at 19.3%. So little bit of a late FX move and 1% volume versus an expectation of modestly higher were the two things caused a little bit of shortfall versus our expectations in Q4.

謝謝，菲爾。確實是兩件事。首先，我們的期望。首先，交易量增加了 1%，而我們對本季的預期是在 1% 到 3% 之間。因此，交易量比我們預期的要少一些，客戶的促銷、活動和交易量都少一些。因此約有 1% 是由銷量驅動的。佔營業額的 1%。當然，這流經我們的 EBITDA，然後才是真正的外匯。與我們上次討論和發布指導意見時所預期的相比，選舉後的這一舉措對我們來說是 800 萬至 1000 萬美元的損失。所以實際上，菲爾，這兩件事在營運上沒有任何實質作用，利潤率總體很高，達到 19.3%。因此，外匯市場的後期波動和 1% 的交易量（相對於略高的預期）是導致第四季度業績與我們預期相比略有不足的兩個因素。

Okay. And when we think about '25, your 1% and 3% volume growth, that's kind of largely assuming the markets are still pretty muted and a lot of that's innovation. Is that the right way to think about it, Steve? And I guess the reason why I'm asking is where are you seeing some of the biggest wins on the innovation side of things. Some of the CPG companies that have called, talked about maybe dialing back on those sustainability ambitions of consumers dealing with inflation. So just kind of give us a little more perspective. Where are some of the wins, where are you super excited. And in any way to kind of quantify perhaps any wins you've picked up on the Rainier side just because it's a low cost, really high-quality product?

好的。當我們考慮 25 年，您的 1% 和 3% 的銷售成長時，這很大程度上假設市場仍然相當低迷，其中許多是創新。史蒂夫，這樣思考問題正確嗎？我之所以會問這個問題，是因為您認為創新方面最大的勝利是什麼？一些快速消費品公司打來電話，表示或許會降低消費者應對通貨膨脹的永續發展目標。所以請給我們更多一點的觀點。哪些地方取得了勝利，哪些地方讓您超級興奮。您是否可以量化您在 Rainier 方面獲得的優勢，僅僅是因為它是一款低成本、高品質的產品？

Yeah. Why don't I start, Phil, and then Mike can bring some additional context you summarized it well. In 2025, our primary assumption is that the 2% innovation growth will be the primary driver of volume growth for the year, which assumes pretty margin -- market neutral, so market neutrality. Now keep in mind, 2024, we were down 1% on volume, we were inside of that up 2% innovation, minus 3%on the market. So the market goes from kind of a minus 3% to pretty neutral on a year-over-year basis, hence the 2% volume growth on the top line price relative stability.

是的。我先開始吧，菲爾，然後邁克可以提供一些額外的背景信息，你總結得很好。到 2025 年，我們的主要假設是 2% 的創新成長將成為當年銷售成長的主要驅動力，這假設利潤率相當高——市場中性，即市場中性。請記住，2024年，我們的銷量下降了1％，而創新則增長了2％，市場則下降了3％。因此，市場從年比-3%轉為相當中性，因此銷售成長2%，營收價格相對穩定。

So that's kind of the content around that. Mike laid it out in his commentary extremely well. The portfolio of innovation is quite wide. And it's dozens and dozens of categories and they fall across the portfolio, which is good to see a lot of singles and doubles in baseball terms. And I'll let Mike talk about Rainier, where we're actually really quite good about the testing and the momentum on that front.

這就是有關該內容的內容。麥克在他的評論中非常出色地闡述了這一點。創新範圍相當廣泛。它有幾十個類別，遍布整個投資組合，從棒球的角度來看，很高興看到很多單打和雙打。我讓麥克來談談雷尼爾山，我們在這方面的測試和勢頭實際上做得相當好。

I appreciate the question on that, Phil. I guess from our standpoint, our progress for Rainier continues to accelerate. We're very pleased with what we've seen. We've got commercial sales on that board -- grade primarily in the Health and Beauty segment that are in place, our trial activity remains quite high in interest around this high-quality coated recycled paperboard that beat with bleached paperboard continues to accelerate. We'll continue to give everybody an update on that. We're just not going to break it out every quarter. We kind of see this is one of the innovations that as part of what Steve just referenced.

菲爾，我很感謝你提出這個問題。我想從我們的角度來看，我們在 Rainier 方面的進展將繼續加速。我們對所見所聞感到非常滿意。我們已在該紙板上進行了商業銷售，主要銷售於健康和美容領域，我們的試驗活動對這種高品質塗佈再生紙板的興趣仍然很高，而漂白紙板的銷量持續增長。我們將繼續向大家通報有關情況。我們不會每季都公佈這項數據。我們認為這是史蒂夫剛才提到的創新之一。

Okay, appreciate all the color guys thank you.

好的，感謝所有的色彩愛好者，謝謝。

Gabe Hajde, Wells Fargo Securities.

富國證券的 Gabe Hajde。

Mike, Steve, good morning. I had a question about inventory levels. And I'm looking at inventory days that have kind of jumped up since 2018. And I suspect part of that might be related to the cups business maybe in a little bit more inventory for QSR to make sure that they have what they need. But it also kicked up a little bit in '23 and '24. I'm just curious if there's anything that's intentional, number one. And then number two, on the production side, the paper side or maybe folding cartons, I don't suspect you guys are holding a whole lot of inventory there. what that might imply for your own operating rates in '25, meaning it matched up with what you expect to be kind of 2%-ish volume rates.

麥克、史蒂夫，早安。我對庫存水準有疑問。我發現庫存天數自 2018 年以來有所上升。我懷疑部分原因可能與杯子業務有關，可能需要為 QSR 增加一些庫存，以確保他們有所需的東西。但在23年和24年，這一數字也有所上升。首先，我只是好奇這是否有任何故意為之的事情。第二，在生產方面，紙張方面或折疊紙盒方面，我不懷疑你們在那裡持有大量庫存。這對你們 25 年的營運率意味著什麼，也就是說它與你們預期的 2% 左右的產量率相符。

Yeah, you read is good. I appreciate the question you're asking there. I mean, in some cases, we did have inventories that were a bit depleted coming out of the rush through the pandemic, if you will. And so our customers wanted us to get those back to the traffic levels, which we've done. The biggest impact on a year-over-year basis to give some of the planning we're already doing to get ready for the Waco start up as you can appreciate, we've got a couple of board manufacturing facilities that we need to take down and what we need to start up. So we have to make sure we protect our customers during that process.

是啊，你讀得很好。我很感激你提出這個問題。我的意思是，在某些情況下，如果你願意的話，我們的庫存確實因為疫情而有點耗盡。因此，我們的客戶希望我們將其恢復到原來的流量水平，我們做到了。與去年同期相比，最大的影響是我們已經在為韋科工廠的啟動做準備，正如您所看到的，我們有幾個需要拆除的電路板製造設施，還有一些需要啟動的設施。因此我們必須確保在此過程中保護我們的客戶。

You'll see that wash through pretty quickly as Waco comes online, we expect to harvest that working capital. It's something we've got an ion, we want to normalize our paperboard and the levels that we have. But when you're going through a startup like that, you've got to make sure that you cover for some of the contingencies, that's what we're doing. There's stuff more with that.

隨著 Waco 上線，您很快就會看到這一情況，我們希望收穫這些營運資金。這是我們得到的離子，我們希望使我們的紙板和我們擁有的水平正常化。但是當你經歷這樣的創業時，你必須確保能夠應對一些意外情況，而這就是我們正在做的事情。還有更多內容。

Got it. Okay. And then maybe, Steve, you talked about kind of -- it sounded like price cost neutrality and maybe that includes productivity. We've only heard from a couple of companies thus far. But seems like labor and some of these indirect costs are still rising. And so I'm curious what made assumption you have for the more visible direct implementation that we can track in the outside world versus maybe where you guys are doing better on the indirect side?

知道了。好的。然後也許，史蒂夫，你談到了某種——這聽起來像是價格成本中立，也許還包括生產力。到目前為止，我們只收到了幾家公司的消息。但似乎勞動力和一些間接成本仍在上漲。所以我很好奇，對於我們可以在外部世界追蹤的更明顯的直接實施，你做出了什麼假設，而不是在間接方面你們做得更好？

Yeah. Okay, you're spot on there. You summarized it well. Overall, our pricing, as we mentioned, pretty stable heading into 2025, along with the accumulation of our input costs, the input commodity costs. We continue to have labor and benefits and other inflation. It's in that the 3%, 4% range as we've seen in the past, maybe a little lower than -- historical. But it's in that $100 million range for us on a total basis. And as such, our confidence that our productivity initiatives will more than offset that again in 2025. And remains high given the productivity initiatives that we have in place. So those fundamentals remain intact, which is why margin stability remains extremely high. And then, of course, we'd expect to earn on the volume growth that we've shared with you. So no those overall fundamental components of the business all around very high levels of margin stability as we head out of 2024 into '25 really remain intact.

是的。好的，你說得對。你總結得很好。總體而言，正如我們所提到的，我們的定價隨著投入成本、投入商品成本的積累，在 2025 年將保持相當穩定。我們繼續面臨勞動力、福利和其他方面的通貨膨脹。正如我們過去所見，它是在 3% 到 4% 的範圍內，可能比歷史水平略低。但就我們的總額而言，這個數字在 1 億美元左右。因此，我們有信心，到 2025 年，我們的生產力措施將再次抵銷這項影響。考慮到我們已實施的生產力舉措，這一數字仍然很高。因此這些基本面仍然完好無損，這也是為什麼利潤率穩定性仍然極高。然後，當然，我們希望透過與您分享的銷售成長來獲利。因此，當我們從 2024 年邁入 2025 年時，業務的整體基本要素——圍繞著非常高的利潤率穩定性——仍然完好無損。

Got it. Thank you.

知道了。謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Ghansham Panjabi, Baird.

甘沙姆·潘賈比，貝爾德。

Yeah, hey guys, good morning. I'm kind of thinking back to 2024, it's clear that you made your customers started ramping promotional activity higher, but frankly, it just was not enough to move volume velocity in a material way. Do you sense any shift in terms of what they may do different in 2025, if anything, maybe in terms of packaging mix or lower price point architecture, et cetera?

是的，嘿大家，早安。我回想起 2024 年，很明顯你讓你的客戶開始加大促銷活動，但坦白說，這還不足以實質地提高銷量速度。您是否感覺到他們在 2025 年可能會做出什麼不同轉變，例如包裝組合或低價位架構等方面？

Yeah. Well, we certainly heard it in my prepared remarks that we're seeing a lot of activity around new products and trying to position things. Some of that is tied to the GLP-1 drug set there that our customers are reacting to and that creates opportunities for us. Anytime there's a change, as you know, Ghansham, that's an opportunity for us to have a conversation with our customers.

是的。嗯，我們當然在我的準備好的發言中聽到過，我們看到圍繞新產品和嘗試定位的許多活動。其中一些與我們的客戶正在做出反應的 GLP-1 藥物組有關，這為我們創造了機會。正如甘沙姆您所知，每當有變化時，這對我們而言就是與客戶進行對話的機會。

And we are seeking those, but you read is right to promotional activity, what we really saw in 2024 was one customer in a category, promoted the overall segment of the category didn't really grow, it shifted that producer or that promoter actually won that at the expense of somebody else, but didn't really expand category. We saw it on food service, too. where some of those promotions were really high, the $5 value meal as an example, where you saw mix that improved, but then a portion of the mix actually declined. And so it was really just prioritizing mix as opposed to growing the overall pie.

我們正在尋求這些，但您讀得對，對於促銷活動，我們在 2024 年真正看到的是某個類別中的一個客戶，推動了該類別的整體增長，它轉移了生產商或發起人，實際上是以犧牲別人為代價贏得了勝利，但並沒有真正擴大類別。我們也在餐飲服務中看到過這種情況。其中一些促銷活動的價位確實很高，以價值 5 美元的套餐為例，您會看到產品組合有所改善，但隨後一部分產品組合實際上下降了。因此，這實際上只是優先考慮組合，而不是增加整體份額。

So I guess, 2025 -- you say we've got a pretty neutral market assumption there. I am used by the amount of activity we see the engagement we have with customers, our confidence level is high in our innovation pipeline. So I guess, got to kind of play out here over the next quarter or two, but that's kind of how we're thinking about it and what we saw last year.

所以我猜，2025年 - 你說我們有一個相當中性的市場假設。我透過與客戶的互動看到了我們所進行的活動量，我們對於創新管道的信心程度很高。所以我想，在接下來的一個或兩個季度裡，這種情況會有所好轉，但這就是我們的想法以及我們去年看到的情況。

Okay. And then my second question as it relates to -- you made some comments on tariffs and the direct impact on you, but if we kind of zoom out on the supply chain, including your customers, et cetera. Just in terms of your conversations with them, is there any consideration to change the network of production in any way to offset what looks like is going to be a secular issue in terms of tariffs?

好的。然後我的第二個問題是——您對關稅及其對您的直接影響發表了一些評論，但如果我們縮小到供應鏈，包括您的客戶等等。就您與他們的談話而言，是否有考慮以任何方式改變生產網絡，以抵消關稅方面看似長期存在的問題？

Yeah, I think, look, every one of our customers has got a war room set up trying try this thing out because as you well know, we're pretty quickly. And so I think they're all trying to get a pretty good beat on what kind of the path is going to be and what it looks like. Again, I mentioned, and we know there's a 30-day reprieve now for both Canada and Mexico, but to your point, it's something that we're -- going to have to deal with. There are a fair amount of consumer goods applications at the US. And any of that stuff that would be made domestically ultimately benefits us.

是的，我想，看，我們的每一個客戶都已經設立了一個作戰室來嘗試這個東西，因為正如你所知，我們的速度非常快。所以我認為他們都在努力準確地了解這條道路將會是什麼樣的以及它看起來會是什麼樣子。我再次提到，我們知道加拿大和墨西哥現在都有 30 天的寬限期，但正如您所說，這是我們必須處理的事情。美國有相當數量的消費品申請。而任何在國內生產的產品最終都會使我們受益。

And so I think that we look at that I already kind of mentioned imports, paperboard, something, I guess, we get asked on what does that mean to you? You heard my explanation in terms of how we can in the marketplace, but it's probably a modest tailwind for us that actually happened. So we're trying to through all that stuff, leveraging a large platform that we have in North America. And again, we've got 85 converting facilities across North America. That gives us a lot more options than most packaging companies and we'll obviously work really hard with our customers to mine our supply chain. And there is two, once we've got a clear line of sight in terms of how it all it gets implemented and plays out assuming it does.

所以我認為，我們看到我已經提到進口、紙板等東西，我想，我們會被問到這對你意味著什麼？您聽到了我關於我們如何在市場上取得成功的解釋，但這對我們來說實際上可能是一個適度的順風。因此，我們正嘗試解決所有這些問題，並利用我們在北美擁有的大型平台。我們在北美有 85 個轉換設施。這為我們提供了比大多數包裝公司更多的選擇，我們顯然會與客戶一起努力挖掘我們的供應鏈。還有兩個，一旦我們對這一切如何實施以及假設它確實會如何發揮作用有了清晰的認識。

Yeah, Ghansham, it's Steve. Just to add to Mike's commentary. I think the modest potential tailwind is just a little more of a localization, if you will, of of raw material production and ability to produce packaging and our 20 facility network is nicely positioned to be, as you know, close to those customers and in reasonable property and the vast majority of the paperboard that we produce for our own packages are for consumption year quite locally as well.

是的，甘沙姆，我是史蒂夫。只是想補充一下麥克的評論。我認為，適度的潛在順風只是原材料生產和生產包裝能力的本地化，如果您願意的話，我們的 20 個設施網絡位置優越，如您所知，靠近這些客戶，並且位於合理的位置，我們為自己的包裝生產的絕大多數紙板也都是在當地消費。

Okay perfect thank you guys.

好的，非常感謝你們。

Matt Roberts, Raymond James.

馬特羅伯茲、雷蒙詹姆斯。

Hey, Mike, Steve, good morning. Steve, you talked this a little bit earlier, but I want to dig into the ongoing conduct initial just a bit more -- so last quarter, you announced you did address the remaining 5% of open market contracts. And so the open market portion is now a direct. Is there some type of natural price benefit we should see in 2025 from that. And being at the contract resets in the consumer pack products. I believe you've noted that 50% are still tied to the index. Are you able to provide more color in terms of how many contracts have come up since the initiatives was undertaken? What is the conversion rate of those been or when we should start to see more of a material benefit flow through from that initiative?

嘿，麥克、史蒂夫，早安。史蒂夫，你之前談到了這一點，但我想更深入地了解正在進行的工作——上個季度，你宣布你確實解決了剩餘 5% 的公開市場合約問題。因此，公開市場部分現在是直接的。我們是否應該在 2025 年看到某種自然的價格效益？並且正在合約中重置消費者包裝產品。我相信你已經注意到，50% 仍然與指數掛鉤。您能否提供更多有關自該舉措實施以來已簽訂了多少合約的詳細資訊？這些轉換率是多少？或者我們什麼時候才能開始看到該計劃帶來的更多物質利益？

Yeah, Matt, it's Steve. I think we might take a little different take on what you're asking. I mean, as you know, we've been on a five year journey of really being compensated appropriately for the value of our patches, and we've made a lot of progress in that regard and hence, the market stability of the business. On the open market, 5% of the company, yes, we've made those transitions and we're being compensated appropriately for paperboard at market rates and we'll have other mechanisms in place if there is a need to move that pricing with those that small section of the customers.

是的，馬特，我是史蒂夫。我認為我們可能會對你的問題有一點不同的看法。我的意思是，如你所知，我們經過了五年的努力，真正獲得了與我們的補丁價值相符的補償，並且我們在這方面取得了很大進展，因此也提高了業務的市場穩定性。在公開市場上，是的，我們已經完成了這些轉型，並且按照市場價格獲得了適當的紙板補償，如果需要針對那一小部分客戶調整定價，我們將採用其他機制。

And as we've talked, we're in a step-by-step renegotiation of all of our natural packaging customer contracts. And we don't really have plans to kind of put that out in percentage terms and the like because this is a journey that we've been on, and we're going to stay on. What we like is that receptivity is high. There's a general recognition that having a transparent price change mechanism that works with our customers is something that they want as well.

正如我們所討論的，我們正在逐步重新談判所有天然包裝客戶合約。我們實際上並沒有計劃以百分比等形式來公佈這一數字，因為這是我們一直以來的旅程，而且我們將繼續前進。我們喜歡的是接受度較高。人們普遍認識到，擁有一個透明且適合客戶的價格變動機制也是他們所希望的。

So I think, overall, I would just put it into the context of the consumer packaging company that we've become in our ability to be compensated appropriately for the packages we produce and maintain those long-standing relationships with our customers.

因此，我認為，總的來說，我只會將其置於消費包裝公司的背景下，我們已經有能力為我們生產的包裝獲得適當的補償，並與我們的客戶維持長期的關係。

And I think, Matt, one other thing I'd point out on that on slide 13, you can really see the material benefit that we're already experiencing from that effort that Steve just referenced over the last 5 years, the stability of our margins in out of quarters. And if you look back in 5 years before we started that process, there was a lot more variation in that process. So it's clear it's working, and our investors are benefiting from that.

馬特，我想指出的第 13 張幻燈片上的另一件事是，您可以真正看到我們從史蒂夫剛才提到的過去 5 年的努力中已經獲得的物質利益，即我們季度外利潤的穩定性。如果回顧我們開始這個過程之前的五年，就會發現這個過程的變化要大得多。顯然，這項舉措是有效的，我們的投資者也從中受益。

No, it's all very helpful, and it certainly makes sense. And maybe holistically, if I could ask another question on the unbleached side of the business. Maybe can you talk about how your share has trended over time? Is that market relatively stable? And given the structure, are there any differences in the contracts there versus either bleached or recycled? Or any color you could give on kind of the different dynamics that would be helpful.

不，這一切都非常有幫助，而且確實很有意義。也許從整體上來說，如果我可以就業務的未漂白方面再問一個問題的話。也許您可以談談您的份額隨時間的變化趨勢？那個市場相對穩定嗎？考慮到結構，那裡的合約與漂白或再生的合約有什麼區別嗎？或者您可以給出任何有助於表示不同動態的顏色。

Thank you again for taking the questions.

再次感謝您回答這些問題。

No, I appreciate the question. I think on the bleached paperboard side, there's been a lot of risky about weakness there, and we just haven't seen that. I mean our overall beverage business, as you saw, has performed quite well. It's a global business. The vast majority of that material flows through our own converting facilities. We saw very little of that. into the open market, and it's a very good grade paperboard.

不，我很感謝你提出這個問題。我認為，就漂白紙板方面而言，存在很大的弱點，但我們還沒有看到這種情況。我的意思是，正如您所看到的，我們的整體飲料業務表現相當不錯。這是一項全球性業務。絕大多數材料都流經我們自己的轉化設施。我們很少看到這樣的情況。進入公開市場，這是一個非常優質的紙板。

So and of course, you know what we think about coated recycled paperboard, we've made two very large-scale investments, one in Michigan and one in Texas to increase our capabilities to quality where we able to generate and ultimately, the cost position that our customers are always looking for. So those two grades. That's grades of paperboard and we'll continue to sell them through our converting facilities to customers.

因此，當然，您知道我們對塗佈再生紙板的看法，我們進行了兩項非常大規模的投資，一項在密西根州，一項在德克薩斯州，以提高我們的品質能力，最終實現客戶一直在尋找的成本優勢。這兩個等級。這些都是不同等級的紙板，我們將繼續透過我們的加工設施將它們出售給客戶。

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate it.

謝謝，麥克。我很感激。

George Staphos, Bank of America.

美國銀行的喬治‧斯塔福斯 (George Staphos)。

Hi everyone, good morning. Thanks for the details and taking the question, guys. I guess I had three questions. I'll ask them in sequence. So first of all, as we do the guidance for the year, and the fact that this juncture ex FX will be a little bit below your normal target of mid-single digit. What would be the biggest sort of risk factor you see in guidance and sort of the variance there? Is it just the fact that we're stepping off at a lower point from 2024 because all the risks from the consumer, are there other factors at work as well. And that's question number one.

大家好，早安。謝謝你們的詳細說明並回答問題。我想我有三個問題。我會按順序詢問他們。首先，正如我們對今年的預期一樣，事實上，此時的外匯收入將略低於正常的個位數中等目標。您在指導中看到的最大風險因素是什麼？其中的差異是什麼？是因為所有來自消費者的風險，我們從 2024 年開始的起點就較低，是否有其他因素在運作？這是第一個問題。

Question number two, food service obviously up against a tough comp and you were flat. The industry data shows some pickup in foodservice volume recognizing production, not consumption. Have you seen any pickup in your data looking out into '25 on the food service side because that's been somewhat encouraging. And then last, help us understand how you'll be able to use cash flow and maybe the beginning of Waco and its production to support earnings perhaps in 2025?

第二個問題，餐飲服務顯然面臨嚴峻的競爭，而你們的表現卻平平。產業數據顯示，餐飲服務量有所回升，這是生產量的回升，而不是消費量的回升。您是否看到食品服務的數據在 25 年有所回升，因為這在某種程度上是令人鼓舞的。最後，請幫助我們了解您將如何利用現金流以及韋科的開始和生產來支持 2025 年的收益？

So I'm going to ask Steve to do one and three, and I'll handle two there, Steve. So George, on one, on risk in terms of the -- if you will, the closer control I mean, overall, of course, volume will be vertical there. And we're assuming some modest volume growth that has a market assumption that is pretty neutral as we talked earlier. And as we've described here, that just requires our customers to have some commitments to promotion and to managing through that day-to-day life of a really stretched consumer. So I think really kind of there evolves around volume.

因此我要請史蒂夫做一和三，然後我會處理二，史蒂夫。因此，喬治，一方面，就風險而言——如果你願意的話，我的意思是，控制越嚴格，總體而言，當然，交易量將是垂直的。我們假設銷售量會略有成長，而市場假設則相當中性，這點正如我們之前所說。正如我們在這裡所描述的，這只需要我們的客戶對促銷和管理真正緊張的消費者的日常生活做出一些承諾。所以我認為這確實與數量有關。

Our productivity, the initiatives we have in place, we have a lot of confidence in our innovation pipeline, a lot of confidence in price and margin stability, contract negotiations are kind of in front of us. On FX, George, it can move, and that's mostly just a translation activity, which is the reason we kind of called it out for you here. understand.

我們的生產力、我們已經採取的措施、我們對我們的創新管道充滿信心、對價格和利潤穩定性充滿信心，合約談判都在我們面前。喬治，在 FX 上，它可以移動，而這主要只是一種翻譯活動，這就是我們在這裡向您指出它的原因。理解。

I was asking more foreign exchange, but it's -- basically, it's the volume and the consumer variability that's in the -- got you're calling out.

我要求增加外匯，但基本上，這是交易量和消費者變化的問題，這就是你所呼籲的。

That's correct, George. Yeah. And then obviously, FX is separate. And then your question on cash flow is an important one. And one, our confidence in the cash flow inflection for the business is very high, particularly given the catalyst that it will provide for margin enhancement as we move out of 2025 and into 2026 as we bring Waco to life and really inflect on the cash flow front. And that enabler for earnings capacity as well as cash flow duration. We're looking forward to the start of Waco, Obviously, the difficult decisions to close down other facilities as part of that, but that is in motion. And as Mike talked earlier to suggestion, we're doing some building on the inventory front in prep, and we're looking forward to having that capacity for doing so and for that being a significant enabler for earning cash flow generation.

沒錯，喬治。是的。顯然，FX 是分開的。那麼你關於現金流的問題就很重要。首先，我們對業務現金流變化的信心非常高，特別是考慮到它將提供利潤率的提高，因為我們將從 2025 年進入 2026 年，屆時我們將讓 Waco 煥發生機並真正影響現金流方面。這也是獲利能力和現金流持續時間的推動因素。我們期待著韋科行動的開始，顯然，關閉其他設施是其中的一部分，這是一個艱難的決定，但一切正在進行中。正如麥克之前提到的建議，我們正在準備庫存方面的事情，我們期待擁有這樣做的能力，並希望這成為產生現金流的重要推動因素。

And it also related to capital allocation, I mean, it's allowing us to have confidence in how we allocate capital. Today's announcement to increase the dividend, a good, steady, growing dividend, an important part of our capital allocation priorities. And then obviously, the other priorities that we've spoken about. So yes, they're all related in terms of EBITDA improvement, cash flow improvement and how we allocate capital going forward.

它也與資本配置有關，我的意思是，它讓我們對如何分配資本充滿信心。今天宣布增加股息，良好、穩定、成長的股息，是我們資本配置重點的重要組成部分。然後顯然我們也談到了其他優先事項。是的，它們都與 EBITDA 改善、現金流量改善以及我們未來如何分配資本有關。

In regards to foodservice growth, George, and you referenced is right, we have outperformed in that space pretty dramatically. So we do enough comps that we have to meet. But having said that, we're investing heavily in Asia, we profiled on our last earnings call, one really great one that we put in place with McDonald's that -- I really like it because it's, of course, it's on a paperboard application. But for them, it ultimately eliminated two SKUs and made it into one. We got a couple of sizes out there. We've seen the roll through of that. McFlurry out there, and we've got a number of other things we're working on this year. So I anticipate we're going to continue to grow in the food service space. And that's our expectation as we go into 2025.

關於餐飲服務的成長，喬治，您說得對，我們在該領域的表現相當出色。因此，我們做了足夠的比賽以滿足我們的要求。但話雖如此，我們在亞洲投入了大量資金，我們在上次收益電話會議上介紹了一個與麥當勞合作實施的非常棒的項目——我真的很喜歡它，因為它當然是在紙板上應用的。但對他們來說，這最終消除了兩個 SKU，並將其合併為一個。我們有幾種尺寸。我們已經見證了這一切。麥旋風已經做好了，今年我們還在做許多其他事情。因此我預計我們將在食品服務領域繼續發展。這是我們對 2025 年的期望。

Thanks so much.

非常感謝。

Arun Viswanathan, RBC Capital Market.

加拿大皇家銀行資本市場 (RBC Capital Market) 的阿倫·維斯瓦納坦 (Arun Viswanathan)。

Great, thanks for taking my question, guys. You guys are well. I guess the first question, going back to the inventory side. So it looks like you took quite a bit of action over the last half year. So I know there was some downtime. There was also some downtime a year ago in the second half. So I guess as it stands, would you say that your inventories are balanced where you want to be? Or is there still some more work to bring those down I think, build some inventory ahead of the Augusta closure. So maybe you can just update us on that first.

太好了，謝謝大家回答我的問題。你們都很好。我想第一個問題還是回到庫存方面。所以看起來你在過去半年採取了不少行動。所以我知道有一些停機時間。去年下半年也出現過一些停機狀況。所以我猜就目前情況而言，您是否認為您的庫存已經達到了您想要的平衡狀態？或者我認為還需要做更多的工作來降低這些成本，在奧古斯塔關閉之前建立一些庫存。所以也許你可以先向我們更新這個情況。

Yeah, so as I kind of mentioned there, Arun, I mean, from -- we had some rebuilding we needed to do with our finished goods coming through the pandemic. We've done that. We have to be able to service our customers in a highly variable market. We feel about where we're at. Our on-time delivery is very high, and we're servicing them very well.

是的，正如我之前提到的，阿倫，我的意思是——我們需要對疫情期間運送來的成品進行一些重建。我們已經做到了。我們必須能夠在瞬息萬變的市場中為客戶提供服務。我們感受著我們所處的位置。我們的準時交貨率非常高，而且我們為他們提供的服務也非常好。

As I mentioned, we made a decision to build a little bit of paperboard inventory here as we prepare for start paperboard mill, but as I mentioned earlier in my comments, that will wash you pretty quickly as we bring that mill up and running. So by and large, we are -- with our finished goods. We've got a little work to do on our raw material side it's a focus for us, but it's a balance to make sure that we're able to respond to customer needs in a highly variable market.

正如我所提到的那樣，我們決定在這裡建立一些紙板庫存，為啟動紙板廠做準備，但正如我之前在評論中提到的那樣，當我們啟動並運營該工廠時，這將很快耗盡你。總的來說，我們已經有成品了。我們在原材料方面還需要做一些工作，這是我們的重點，但我們需要保持平衡，確保能夠在高度變化的市場中滿足客戶的需求。

Okay. That's helpful. And then I was just hoping we could address some of the concerns in the market out there around new capacity as well as imports. So several of us have seen the reports of imports coming in from Europe, given maybe a softer demand environment there. Are you still seeing that? Is that a credible threat to oversupply and then similarly, there were some announcements of new capacity in CRB. There were conversions from SBS and into the UK. So maybe just give us your thoughts on, yes, new capacity as well as import threats.

好的。這很有幫助。我只是希望我們能夠解決市場上關於新產能和進口的一些擔憂。因此，我們中的一些人已經看到了來自歐洲的進口報告，因為那裡的需求環境可能比較疲軟。你還看到了嗎？這是對供應過剩的可信威脅嗎？同樣，CRB 也宣布了一些新產能。有來自 SBS 和英國的轉換。所以也許您可以告訴我們您對新產能以及進口威脅的看法。

I think, Arun, and I'll make a few comments on it, but this question is much better for people that are actually in the marketplace selling paperboard, which is not Graphic Packaging, we're selling packages. In particular, I think what you're referencing is some of the FBB board that's coming into the North American market, Europe, which was up, I think, modestly last year as I look at the numbers. But again, as I indicated, it really doesn't impact our business much, if at all.

我認為，阿倫和我會對此發表一些評論，但這個問題更適合那些實際上在市場上銷售紙板的人，這不是圖形包裝，我們銷售的是包裝。具體來說，我認為您所提到的是一些進入北美和歐洲市場的FBB 板，從數據來看，我認為去年這些板的銷量略有上漲。但正如我所說，它對我們的業務實際上影響不大，甚至沒有影響。

We're integrated into that in our own paperboard facility in manufacturing facility in Texas or Canada. We use almost 100% of our own material. So the impact on that really falls on others that are participating in that market. It's the biggest market out there. It's over 4.5 million tons. And again, I'd encourage you to ask the major producers of that paperboard grid, what their thoughts are on that. They'll have a more important view than me.

我們將這項業務融入到位於德克薩斯州或加拿大的製造工廠中的紙板工廠。我們幾乎100％都使用自己的材料。因此，影響實際上落在了參與該市場的其他人身上。這是那裡最大的市場。超過450萬噸。再次，我鼓勵你詢問該紙板網格的主要生產商，他們對此有何看法。他們會有比我更重要的觀點。

As it relates to people, converting into coated on bleached scrap, I think you're referencing, we've got that question. Again, as I mentioned, we run a highly integrated process with specifications that are very particular in terms of strength and tear and that's based on decades of experience that we have flowing through our own packaging operations and customer lines that run at incredibly high speeds and are intolerable of any variation that is met.

至於它與人有關，轉化為塗層漂白廢料，我想你正在參考，我們有這個問題。再次，正如我所提到的，我們運行一個高度集成的過程，其規格在強度和撕裂方面非常特殊，並且基於數十年的經驗，這些經驗貫穿於我們自己的包裝操作和客戶生產線，這些生產線以極高的速度運行，並且不能容忍任何變化。

So I like the way we're positioned on that. We're clearly the low-cost producer of uncoated material here in North America, and that will continue to be the case. And as I mentioned to a question I got earlier, our integration rates continue to go up on that grade. So that's how we compete there. It's really not a big issue for us.

所以我喜歡我們在這方面的定位。顯然，我們是北美地區低成本的未塗層材料生產商，而且這種情況將繼續存在。正如我之前回答的問題中提到的那樣，我們的整合率持續上升。這就是我們在那裡競爭的方式。對我們來說這確實不是什麼大問題。

And Arun, it's Steve. I think just there are no low-cost alternatives for converting something from a bleached paperboard into an unbleached coated, that is our product category. So as Mike said, it's highly integrated and there are no low-cost alternatives to do that. It's just an idea.

阿倫，我是史蒂夫。我認為，沒有低成本的替代品可以將漂白紙板轉化為未漂白的塗佈紙板，這就是我們的產品類別。正如麥克所說，它是高度整合的，並且沒有低成本的替代方案可以做到這一點。這只是一個想法。

Great thanks.

非常感謝。

We have reached the end of the question inter session, and I will now turn the call over to Mike Doss for closing remarks.

我們的閉會期間提問環節已經結束，現在我將把發言權交給麥克多斯，請他作結束語。

Thanks, operator and thank you for joining us on our call today. There is no doubt 2024 was a challenging year for consumer product and quick service restaurant customers for Graphic Packaging. It was challenging, but an exciting year. Investment capital from the business that lack competitive advantage. We delivered significant packaging innovations to new and existing customers, and we made outstanding for Waco. And despite the headwinds, we returned to growth in the second half and early exceptional margin stability. Graphic Packaging is demonstrating the strength of its business model. I'm proud of our team, excited about our innovation pipeline and optimistic about our future. Thank you, and have a good day.

謝謝接線員，謝謝您今天參加我們的電話會議。毫無疑問，2024 年對於 Graphic Packaging 的消費品和快餐店客戶來說是一個充滿挑戰的一年。這是充滿挑戰但又令人興奮的一年。來自缺乏競爭優勢的企業的投資資本。我們為新舊客戶提供了重大的包裝創新，並為韋科做出了卓越的貢獻。儘管面臨阻力，但我們在下半年仍恢復了成長，並且初期利潤率也保持穩定。Graphic Packaging 正在展示其商業模式的實力。我為我們的團隊感到自豪，對我們的創新管道感到興奮，並對我們的未來感到樂觀。謝謝您，祝您有美好的一天。

This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for participation.

今天的會議到此結束，各位現在可以掛斷電話了。感謝您的參與。