H.B. Fuller Reports Second Quarter 2023 Results

H.B. Fuller Company (NYSE: FUL) today reported financial results for its second quarter that ended June 3, 2023.

Second Quarter 2023 Noteworthy Items:

• Net revenue of $898 million, down 9.6% year-on-year; organic revenue decreased 8.3% year-on-year, driven by lower volume;
• Gross margin was 28.6%; adjusted gross margin of 29.0% increased 330 basis points year-on-year, driven by the combined impact of pricing and raw material cost actions;
• Net income was $40 million; adjusted EBITDA was $143 million, at the mid-point of Company guidance and up 3% year-on-year, adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 190 basis points year-on-year to 15.9%;
• Reported EPS (diluted) was $0.73; adjusted EPS (diluted) was $0.93, down versus the prior year, driven by higher interest expense and unfavorable foreign currency exchange;
• Cash flow from operations in the second quarter improved $94 million year-on-year to $103 million.

Summary of Second Quarter 2023 Results:

The Company’s net revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2023 was $898 million, down 9.6% versus the second quarter of fiscal 2022. Organic revenue declined 8.3% year-on-year, driven by lower volume, offset somewhat by favorable pricing. Volume declined 14.2%, driven by customer destocking actions and generally slower industrial demand across all three global business units. Pricing actions favorably impacted organic growth by 5.9 percentage points. Foreign currency translation reduced net revenue growth by 3.4 percentage points and acquisitions increased net revenue growth by 2.1 percentage points.

Gross profit in the second quarter of fiscal 2023 was $257 million. Adjusted gross profit was $261 million. Adjusted gross profit margin of 29.0% increased 330 basis points year-on-year. Pricing and raw material cost actions and operating efficiencies drove the increase in adjusted gross margin year-on-year and more than offset the impact of lower volume.

Selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expense was $167 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2023 and adjusted SG&A was $159 million, effectively flat year-on-year, as good cost management, restructuring benefits, and favorable foreign currency impacts offset inflation in wages and services.

Net income attributable to H.B. Fuller for the second quarter of fiscal 2023 was $40 million, or $0.73 per diluted share. Adjusted net income attributable to H.B. Fuller for the second quarter of fiscal 2023 was $52 million. Adjusted EPS was $0.93 per diluted share, down year-on-year due to higher interest expense and unfavorable foreign currency impacts, which reduced diluted earnings per share by approximately $0.19 and $0.07, respectively, year-on-year in the second quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter of fiscal 2023 was $143 million, at the mid-point of Company guidance and up 3% year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased 190 basis points year-on-year to 15.9%, driven by the combined impact of pricing and raw material cost actions versus the prior year’s second quarter, as well as restructuring savings, partially offset by the impacts of lower volume and wage and other inflation.

“Pricing discipline and focused efforts to reduce costs drove margin expansion and overcame a challenging volume environment, delivering second quarter profit performance in-line with our expectations,” said Celeste Mastin, H.B. Fuller president and chief executive officer. “Our ability to successfully manage changing price and raw material dynamics, and scale production costs with volume, is delivering EBITDA growth and significant margin improvement. We remain on track to deliver strong growth in adjusted EBITDA and outstanding cash flow in fiscal 2023.

“Global industrial activity has slowed, but underlying demand across the portfolio remains much stronger than our second quarter volume performance implies, due to the effect of customer destocking, which is significant, but not unique to us, or our industry. This destocking is now tapering over a large portion of our portfolio, and we believe our year-on-year volume comparisons will be stronger in the second half of the year.

“Our diverse portfolio and robust innovation pipeline engender continual product line upgrades that solve customer problems, enabling strong profit growth in almost any economic environment. Our confidence remains high in a stronger second half performance as we expect customer destocking activities to fade, EBITDA margins to continue to expand due to price and raw material cost management, demand in China to improve, better foreign currency comparisons, and restructuring benefits to ramp through the end of the year.”

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Items:

Net debt at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2023 was $1,779 million, up $31 million sequentially versus the first quarter and down $89 million year-on-year. The sequential increase in net debt was driven by acquisition activity during the second quarter, offset by improved cash flow from operations.

Cash flow from operations in the second quarter was $103 million, up $94 million year-on-year, reflecting improving margins and lower net working capital requirements.

Fiscal 2023 Outlook:

• Adjusted EBITDA for fiscal 2023 is still expected to be in the range of $580 million to $610 million, equating to growth of approximately 9% to 15% versus fiscal year 2022;
• Both net revenue and organic revenue for fiscal 2023 are now expected to be down 3% to 5% versus fiscal 2022, reflecting continued customer destocking actions and slower industrial production; the combined impact of FX, acquisitions, and the extra week in fiscal 2022 are expected to be effectively neutral versus fiscal 2023;
• Net interest expense is now expected to be in the range of $125 million to $135 million and depreciation and amortization expense is expected to be approximately $160 million, reflecting recent acquisition activity and higher interest rates;
• Adjusted EPS (diluted) is now expected to be in the range of $3.80 to $4.20, equating to a range of down 5% to up 5% year-on-year;
• Operating cash flow in fiscal 2023 is now expected to be between $325 million and $375 million.

Conference Call:

The Company will hold a conference call on June 29, 2023, at 9:30 a.m. CT (10:30 a.m. ET) to discuss its results. Interested parties may listen to the conference call on a live webcast. The webcast, along with a supplemental presentation, may be accessed from the Company’s website at https://investors.hbfuller.com. Participants must register prior to accessing the webcast using this link and should do so at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the call to install and test any necessary software and audio connections. A telephone replay of the conference call will be available from 12:30 p.m. CT on June 29, 2023, to 10:59 p.m. CT on July 6, 2023. To access the telephone replay dial 1-800-770-2030 (toll free) or 1-647-362-9199, and enter Conference ID: 6370505.

Regulation G

The information presented in this earnings release regarding consolidated and segment organic revenue growth, operating income, adjusted gross profit, adjusted gross profit margin, adjusted selling, general and administrative expense, adjusted income before income taxes and income from equity investments, adjusted income taxes, adjusted effective tax rate, adjusted net income, adjusted diluted earnings per share and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) does not conform to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP) and should not be construed as an alternative to the reported results determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Management has included this non-GAAP information to assist in understanding the operating performance of the Company and its operating segments as well as the comparability of results to the results of other companies. The non-GAAP information provided may not be consistent with the methodologies used by other companies. All non-GAAP information is reconciled with reported U.S. GAAP results in the “Regulation G Reconciliation” tables in this press release with the exception of our forward-looking non-GAAP measures contained above in our Fiscal 2023 Outlook, which the Company cannot reconcile to forward-looking GAAP results without unreasonable effort.

About H.B. Fuller

Since 1887, H.B. Fuller has been a leading global adhesives provider focusing on perfecting adhesives and sealants to improve products and lives. With fiscal 2022 net revenue of $3.75 billion, H.B. Fuller’s commitment to innovation and sustainable adhesive solutions brings together people, products and processes that answer and solve some of the world's biggest challenges. Our reliable, responsive service creates lasting, rewarding connections with customers in electronics, disposable hygiene, medical, transportation, aerospace, clean energy, packaging, construction, woodworking, general industries and other consumer businesses. Our promise to our people connects them with opportunities to innovate and thrive. For more information, visit us at https://www.hbfuller.com.

Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such statements often address expected future business and financial performance, financial condition, and other matters, and often contain words or phrases such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “opportunity,” “outlook,” “plan,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “strategy,” “target,” “will,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result,” “would” and similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words or phrases. These statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the following: the consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak and other pandemics on our operations and financial results; the impact on the supply chain, raw material costs and pricing of our products due to the Russia-Ukraine war; the impact on our margins and product demand due to inflationary pressures; the substantial amount of debt we have incurred to finance our acquisition of Royal, our ability to repay or refinance our debt or to incur additional debt in the future, our need for a significant amount of cash to service and repay the debt and to pay dividends on our common stock, the effect of debt covenants that limit the discretion of management in operating the business or in paying dividends; our ability to pay dividends and to pursue growth opportunities if we continue to pay dividends according to the current dividend policy; our ability to achieve expected synergies, cost savings and operating efficiencies from our restructuring initiatives and operational improvement projects within the expected time frames or at all; our ability to effectively implement Project ONE; uncertain political and economic conditions; fluctuations in product demand; competing products and pricing; our geographic and product mix; availability and price of raw materials; disruptions to our relationships with our major customers and suppliers; failures in our information technology systems; regulatory compliance across our global footprint; trade policies and economic sanctions impacting our markets; changes in tax laws and tariffs; devaluations and other foreign exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of litigation and investigations, including for product liability and environmental matters; impairment charges on our goodwill or long-lived assets; the effect of new accounting pronouncements and accounting charges and credits; and similar matters.

Additional information about these various risks and uncertainties can be found in the “Risk Factors” section of our Form 10-K filings, and any updates to the risk factors in our Form 10-Q and 8-K filings with the SEC, but there may be other risks and uncertainties that we are unable to identify at this time or that we do not currently expect to have a material impact on the business. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. We do not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.