International Flavors & Fragrances Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 7, 2024

There are 16 speakers on the call.

Operator

I would now like to introduce Michael DeVoe, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, everyone. Welcome to IFS' Q1 2024 Conference Call. Yesterday afternoon, we issued a press release announcing our financial results. A copy of the release can be found on our IR website at ir.

Speaker 1

Ifs.com. Please note that this call is being recorded live and will be available for replay. During the call, we will be making forward looking statements about the company's performance and outlook. These statements are based on how we see things today and contain elements of uncertainty. For additional information concerning the factors that can cause actual results to differ materially, please refer to our cautionary statement and risk factors contained in our 10 ks and press release.

Speaker 1

Today's presentation will include non GAAP financial measures, which exclude those items that we believe affect comparability. A reconciliation of these non GAAP financial measures to their respective GAAP measures set forth in the press release that we issued yesterday. With me on the call today is our CEO, Eric Fearwalt and our Executive Vice President, CFO and Business Transformation Officer, Glenn Rechter. We will begin with prepared remarks and then take any questions you have at the end. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Eric.

Speaker 2

Well, thank you, Mike, and hello, everyone. I'm excited to join you all today to discuss our solid performance in the Q1 and what we are seeing across the business so far this year. Today, we'll focus on our financial results, our outlook for the balance of the year and our increased confidence in our reiterated guidance, where we now see us trending toward the upper end. Now before moving forward, I want to acknowledge Glenn, who today is announcing his plan to retire at the end of 2024 after 3 successful years with the company. During his tenure, Glenn has driven multiple actions to improve our balance sheet and position the company for financial success.

Speaker 2

We've benefited from his experience and commitment to transformation and his ongoing leadership to position IFF to drive long term profitable market share growth. He has also been very helpful to me already as I've come on to the IFF team. Now with this announcement, we have started a succession plan to evaluate internal and external candidates to succeed Glenn. The Board and I are grateful for all Glenn has helped IFF accomplish and look forward to his continued leadership as we identify a successor and ensure a smooth transition. Now turning to slide 6.

Speaker 2

We are off to a good start at IFF. We achieved volume growth for the first time since the Q1 of 2022 as volumes grew mid single digit in the Q1 of 2024 with strong contributions from Scent, Nourish and Health and Biosciences. We are also encouraged by the double digit comparable adjusted EBITDA growth as we not only benefited from volume growth, but also from productivity gains across our businesses. At the same time, we made important progress focusing our portfolio with closing the divestiture of the cosmetics ingredients business and the announced sale of our Pharma Solutions business. We expect to complete the Pharma transaction in the first half of twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2

The proceeds from these divestitures will help further strengthen our capital structure, address our deleveraging goal of 3 times net debt to credit adjusted EBITDA and refocus us on high growth areas of our business. With our solid performance in the Q1 and our expectations for the remainder of the year, we are cautiously optimistic about the remainder of 2024 and now expect full year 2024 results to trend toward the higher end of our previously announced guidance ranges. It's still early in the year and there is a lot more work to be done, but we are focused on building on our momentum to energize our team and return to sustainable profitable growth. Turning to Slide 7. Let me take a step back for a moment and share what I've learned during my 1st 90 days here at IFF.

Speaker 2

I've spent time getting to know our teams all over the world and meeting with many of our customers. And I'm grateful for the productive discussions. And what I found is that IFF has lots of top talent and incredible innovation capabilities, but we're not yet realizing our full potential. With a new leadership perspective on our priorities and a renewed focus on execution by our executive leadership team, we are getting back to basics and I'm optimistic about what we will do from here. 1st, we are strengthening our balance sheet and capital structure to create the flexibility we need to achieve our long term goals.

Speaker 2

My assessment is we have not consistently delivered on our financial commitments largely due to a need for more strategic and organization operating model clarity to enable us to better execute against our goals. I think we are now getting the clarity we need and have taken some decisive steps in the Q1 to help us start to realize more of our potential. We recently rightsized our quarterly dividend to align with the market and our long term cash flow generation and have made divestiture moves including cosmetics and pharma solutions to focus our portfolio and drive debt reduction. We also recently announced and are implementing our refocused IFF operating model, which is now business led supported by lean functions. This includes the appointment of Ana Paula Mendonca, who has dedicated her career to the advancement of fragrance at IFF as the President of Scent.

Speaker 2

This enables Simon Herriot to focus his full attention on driving profitable growth in our Health and Biosciences business unit. We will also put more focus on our flavors and functional ingredients units within our Nourish division. With this operating model change, we have also changed the reporting structure of several of our functions including R and D, operations, finance and HR to go directly into our business unit presidents. So they have the full end to end responsibility and accountability for business execution. Their goals will include delivering growth above market with a margin structure that gets us in line with or better than leading peers.

Speaker 2

Now to make this work, we have also established an operating system, which is a simple set of management processes that collectively define how IFF makes decisions and creates value, provides a framework for standardized processes, responsibilities and metrics and defines the tools to help managers drive continuous improvement. We believe this will create greater visibility to track performance, so we drive execution to deliver results in the current period in ways that strengthen us for the coming years. We are also introducing an operating philosophy based on 4 main pillars. Number 1, customer focus to drive profitable market share growth. Number 2, innovation powerhouse to create sustainable new products and other innovations, customers value and do this faster.

Speaker 2

Number 3, operational excellence to lead our relentless focus on safety, quality, continuous improvement and competitive cost structures. And 4, people, people who are engaged across the organization. We expect that our business empowered model and operating system will enhance collaboration to profitably win with customers and by doing so deliver strong financial performance over time. And while it's still early, I am pleased and encouraged by the energy and commitment of our teams all around the world. With that, I'll now pass it over to Glenn to dive deeper into our results for the Q1.

Speaker 2

Glenn?

Speaker 3

Thank you, Eric, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. As Eric mentioned earlier, we're encouraged by the momentum across our business as we start the year and we are excited to continue to build on these positive early signals throughout 2024 and beyond. In the Q1, IFF generated roughly $2,900,000,000 in sales. On a comparable currency neutral basis, sales increased 5% year over year. Our strong quarterly revenue performance was led by mid single digit volume growth with sequential improvements across most of our businesses, including scent, health and biosciences and Nourish.

Speaker 3

Pricing was modestly positive, inclusive of FX related pricing in emerging markets, in particular, the Argentine peso, where we like the industry have indexed pricing to U. S. And or euro exchange rates that drive pricing changes. Absent of this benefit, pricing would have been negative in the quarter, largely in line with our plan. We delivered strong profitability in the quarter with adjusted operating EBITDA of $578,000,000 This represents a 20% increase on a comparable year over year basis led by volume growth and the contribution from productivity initiatives.

Speaker 3

As a result, margins improved by approximately 310 basis points to nearly 20% adjusted operating margin in the quarter. Turning now to Slide 9, I'll dive deeper into the business performance across our segments. In Nourish, sales increased by 3% on a comparable currency neutral basis with strong double digit growth in flavors with improvements in both volume and price and we saw a very strong growth in our flavors business across nearly all markets. Functional ingredients volume was up low single digits, the first time since the Q4 of 2021. Overall, comparable currency neutral sales declined year over year due to our planned pricing actions.

Speaker 3

In terms of profitability, productivity gains and volume growth drove a 13% increase in comparable adjusted operating EBITDA with solid gross margin improvements in both flavors and functional ingredients. Our Health and Bioscience segment had another strong quarter with both top and bottom line growth. Solid performance in our H and B portfolio led by double digit sales growth in Cultures and Food Enzymes, Animal Nutrition and Grain Processing and mid single digit growth in Home and Personal Care drove a 6% increase in comparable currency neutral sales. Improved volume and productivity gains led to a 21% increase in year over year comparable adjusted operating EBITDA. Scent delivered another excellent quarter including 16% growth in comparable currency neutral sales driven by double digit growth in consumer fragrance and fragrance ingredients and mid single digit growth in fine fragrances.

Speaker 3

Segment also excelled in terms of profitability, primarily led by volume growth and productivity improvements, which delivered an outstanding adjusted operating EBITDA growth of 55% on a comparable basis. Lastly, in Pharma Solutions, while we saw some improvements from productivity initiatives, these were offset by lower volumes driven as expected due to continued destocking trends, which began late last year. It's worth noting that part of the destocking trend in the Q1 was market related and the other is due to Pharma Solutions initiative to reduce reliance on distributors and convert more of its core excipients business into a direct distribution model. We believe the shift to a more direct approach will enhance our customer relationships, reduce supply chain complexity and provide greater access to technical resources while also improving margins. Also, as mentioned, we agreed to divest the Pharma Solutions business as part of our portfolio optimization efforts and are confident the business will be positioned to thrive and succeed in partnership with Rocab.

Speaker 3

Now on Slide 10, I'd like to discuss our cash flow and leverage position. Cash flow from operations totaled $99,000,000 this quarter, while CapEx was $118,000,000 or roughly 4.1 percent of sales. In the Q1, normal seasonality impacted our free cash flow results. As a reminder, Q1 is usually the lowest cash flow quarter of the year as we make annual cash bonus payments in March. Our free cash flow position totaled negative $19,000,000 in the quarter versus negative $48,000,000 in the year ago period.

Speaker 3

We also paid $207,000,000 in dividends through the end of the first quarter. Our cash and cash equivalents totaled $764,000,000 including $32,000,000 in assets held for sale. IFF continues to make progress in our deleveraging efforts and reduced our gross debt by almost $1,000,000,000 versus year ago for a net debt to credit adjusted EBITDA ratio of 4.4 times at quarter end. Our trailing 12 month credit adjusted EBITDA approximately $2,200,000,000 Please note that the proceeds from the sale of LMC of $810,000,000 were received in April and consequently not reflected in the quarterly results. With the announced Pharma Solutions transaction, we are confident that we will achieve our net debt to credit adjusted EBITDA target of 3 times following the transaction close, which we expect will be completed in the first half of twenty twenty five.

Speaker 3

On Slide 11, I'd like to now turn to our outlook for 2024. Based on improved financial and operational performance in the Q1 and our expectations for the balance of the year, we remain cautiously optimistic about the year ahead. And as Eric mentioned, now expect results to trend towards the higher end of our previously announced guidance ranges. This reflects our belief that volumes will also be towards the high end of our previously announced 3% with improving trends across the majority of our portfolio. We also saw pricing increases due to FX related pricing in emerging markets in the Q1 and therefore raised our previously announced pricing guidance to approximately 1% for the full year 2024 versus previous expectation that pricing would decline approximately 2.5%.

Speaker 3

With these foreign exchange rate changes, we now expect currency will have an adverse impact of 3% to 4% versus 0% to 1% as previously expected on our sales growth, which is essentially offsetting the FX pricing contribution. On the bottom line for 2024, we are now trending towards the high end of our previously announced adjusted operating EBITDA guidance range of $1,900,000,000 to $2,100,000,000 This assumes continued improvements in volumes as well as strong productivity. While it is still early in the year, volume trends are encouraging and consequently we have increased confidence in our ability to achieve our full year guidance. For the Q2, we expect sales to be approximately $2,750,000,000 to $2,850,000,000 driven by improved volumes with an adjusted operating EBITDA of approximately $500,000,000 to $525,000,000 I'll now turn it back to Eric for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Glenn. Now as I shared at the top of the call, my first 90 days on team IFF have been energizing as I see so much potential. We have great talent and capabilities across our global teams and our solid top and bottom line results from the Q1 show that we are building positive momentum. And it's an honor to lead IFF during this transformative time and I am encouraged by our positive start to the year and our outlook. Yet, we still have a lot of work to do.

Speaker 2

As the market continues to be very competitive, we are committed to bringing products and innovation that differentiate us from our peers and give customers what they need to win and in turn helps them and us drive sustainable profitable growth. And with a solid start to the year, I'm excited to see what we can accomplish going forward. And with that, I'd like to now open it up for questions.

Operator

Thank Our first question comes from the line of Kevin McCarthy with Vertical Research Partners. Kevin, your line is now open.

Speaker 4

Thank you and good morning. This is Matthew Hetler on for Kevin. It's nice to see a strong start to

Speaker 2

the year. Eric, could you

Speaker 4

give us some yes, morning. Eric, could you give us some additional context in detail regarding how you've seen the individual businesses react to your new operating philosophy through the 1st 90 days?

Speaker 2

Yes. Thanks for the question, Matthew. As you probably know, I've been on a listening tour or a discussion tour since right after the January 11th announcement of the change, am I joining IFF. And it's been really great to hear from our employees all around the world and our customers all around the world. And what I've discerned from that is that we've had multiple companies coming together with different operating models, different philosophies and there was a significant uncertainty about the organization structure and how we were going to do things.

Speaker 2

And what we've done is the executive leadership team has come together very nicely. I'm very proud of the team. And we've been able to together clarify the structure and operational model that we have going forward and the 4 pillars that we're focused on to drive our performance. We've had town halls all around the world both live and by video. We've touched all our employees.

Speaker 2

We've spent a special time with our leadership. And I think we've gotten really clear on how we're moving the company forward. And what I love about it is I feel the engagement of our people around the world. I feel their energy growing. I think there's great acceptance and enthusiasm for the empowered business unit model, for the focus on customers that the job of all of us is to support our teams to win with customers and help us profitably grow our market share.

Speaker 2

And then also drive our innovation that we're at the core, we're an innovation company and we need to make sure that we have leading innovation that we're bringing to our customers that and it's innovation that customers value. And then finally, that we also have healthy productivity, productivity that helps us strengthen the company and invest more in growth and innovation. And doing that with smart productivity things like reducing consultants, reducing layers, driving functional shared service centers that where it makes sense, using technology information technology. So my feeling is that there's great capabilities, great people in this company and the executive leadership team is coming together to try and do all we can to unleash that full potential of our people all around the world. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nicola Tang with P&B Paribas. Nicola, your line is now open.

Speaker 5

Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. Firstly, Eric, you talked there about sort of the changed operating model. Can you talk a little bit about portfolio? And following the announcement to divest Pharma Solutions, do you intend to pursue any further divestments?

Speaker 5

Or is that it for now? And then if I could squeeze in another one for Glenn on cash flow. Are you still confident in your free cash flow target of $500,000,000 a year or $700,000,000 on an adjusted basis? And is there potentially upside given the upward revision or the high end that you see in terms of the EBITDA guidance? And could you explain what drove the increase in trade receivables in the quarter?

Speaker 5

Thanks a lot.

Speaker 2

Okay. I'll start and then hand it over to Glenn. And thanks for the question Nicola or the questions. So on the portfolio, first of all, the Pharma Solutions business will be with us for another year. And we see a lot of opportunity to further strengthen the performance of Pharma Solutions over the next year and then beyond that with ROCCAT.

Speaker 2

But then we have the other 4 business units that we're going to really focus on driving forward. So, of course, with Nourish, both the flavors and the functional ingredients, We have the scent business and we have the health and biosciences business. All our focus now is on supporting those businesses to perform well to drive profitable market share growth, to drive healthy productivity, to make sure that we're bringing leading innovation and deliver the best performance we can in the Q2, full year 2024, but do it in ways that strengthen us for 2025 and beyond. We're also going through a strategy review process for each of the businesses and we'll take a look at what it takes to win in each of those businesses in the coming years and what we have to do investment wise and making sure that each of the businesses has the right portfolio to win going forward. So you'll hear more about that in the coming quarters years.

Speaker 2

But right now, our focus is all on making sure we've got the right strategy, the right capabilities in each business, the right collaboration, culture across businesses and are winning with customers by bringing leading innovation.

Speaker 6

Glenn?

Speaker 3

Thanks, Eric. Thanks for the question, Nicola. We're actually trending more favorable in terms of our full year outlook for free cash flow and adjusted as well. As you mentioned, a combination of earnings momentum, actually working capital is actually performing better than planned and we expect actually some improvement. And then just some timing on taxes, we're probably going to be closer to $600,000,000 versus the $500,000,000 I would note that that also includes higher Reg G costs related to pharma.

Speaker 3

So we gave you a $200,000,000 number in Feb that did not include pharma for obvious reasons. The heavy lifting, as Eric mentioned, is the balance of this year separating systems, legal entities, etcetera. That's roughly about $100,000,000 So on an adjusted basis, $900,000,000 on a free cash flow reported basis, directionally $600,000,000 Thanks for the question.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Josh Spector with UBS. Josh, your line is now open.

Speaker 7

Yes. Hi, good morning. I wanted to ask on your expectations of volume cadence. I mean, clearly, very strong Q1, so congrats on that. But I think some of the comps on a year over year basis actually get a bit easier.

Speaker 7

So is there something you call out that you would say is a headwind we should consider or would you characterize your view as just conservatism? Thanks.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Josh. And let me start and then Glenn can give you more details. But as I see it, still fairly new coming into the company, clearly CPG company volumes are still soft in the U. S. And the EU.

Speaker 2

And so we can't expect a whole lot of market tailwind growth. I do think we've seen the end of most of the destocking outside of Pharma Solutions and Glenn alluded to the Pharma Solutions destocking both market destocking and our change in channel strategy. But bottom line is, we can't expect a lot of growth from the marketplace, although there are some emerging markets that we're going after that are seeing very attractive volume growth. But overall, our focus has to be growth through bringing leading innovation and winning business with customers. And I've heard a lot already about commercial projects that we're winning, but we're also going to increase the focus and understanding the projects that we didn't win.

Speaker 2

Why didn't we win them? What does it take for us to be even more successful with our customers and win even more projects and bring that leading innovation so that customers are growing their market share profitably and we're growing with them. Glenn?

Speaker 3

Thanks, Eric. Again, Josh, I think, as Eric mentioned, until we see a strengthening in the consumer environment, which has yet to appear and until we have a few more months underneath our belt, it's sort of hard for us to be sort of incredibly optimistic on the second half. As a reference point, the first half because of the aggressive destocking, was down 9% and the second half basically 1% to 2%. As a reminder, the first half of last year because of the aggressive destocking was down 9% and the second half down 5%. So a little bit of this is the lapping as well as we sort of think about providing guidance.

Speaker 3

But I think the end market, as Eric said, we need to see greater strength there before we're sort of more confident in higher volume growth in the second half.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mike Sison with Wells Fargo. Mike, your line is now open.

Speaker 8

Hey, good morning and really nice start to the year. When I think about the Q1 EBITDA run rate and EBITDA margins really good improvement to 20%. Our guidance would sort of imply that those levels fall sequentially. So any sort of one time positives during the Q1 that wouldn't reoccur? And just curious if demand and volume levels remain here, why wouldn't EBITDA margin stay sort of in this 20% range for the rest of the year?

Speaker 8

And congrats on retirement, Glenn.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Mike. I might actually come visit you in Cleveland when I retire by the way. So good question. So 20% for Q1, sort of the implied balance of year is around 18.5%. That 150 basis points of change, half of that's related to volume and mix, inclusive of LMC.

Speaker 3

So LMC, you take out about $12,000,000 per quarter and about $25,000,000 of revenue. So it's a relatively high margin. So everything normalized that gets you from the 20 down to basically 19.25. The residual 75 basis points really is a little bit more net price to cost realization in Q1 versus the forecast and then just some timing of expenses. But to answer your direct question, if volumes were to maintain, then we should be somewhere in the 19%, probably 19% plus range for the balance of the year.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Patrick Cunningham with Citi. Patrick, your line is now open.

Speaker 9

Hi, good morning. This is Eric Zhang on for Patrick. What are your expectations for price cost for the full year? The price guide seems to be a bit seems to be a small net positive if you net out FX. Are there any areas where you're getting structural pricing?

Speaker 9

Or is this just less give back than you expected? Thank you.

Speaker 3

Yes. Eric, you're right. I mean the full year we're expecting a small net positive as I mentioned little more biased towards Q1 than the balance of the year. Our pricing actions, which were largely givebacks this year, were highly focused in the functional ingredient space. We are tracking well against the expectations that we set for the year.

Speaker 3

We do believe that the improved performance in the business is in part related to these pricing actions on top of the other actions. And we don't see sort of any additional kind of pricing for the balance of the year at this point in time. And then in general, if we look at sort of the inflationary environment for the balance of the year, it's pretty stable. I'd say commodities are flattish to maybe a tad up. Generally, energy is trending down, particularly in Europe and logistics is trending slightly up, particularly ocean freight, given what's happening in the Red Sea.

Speaker 3

But generally stability and as we mentioned, a little more positive net price in the Q1 than the balance of the year. Thank you, Eric.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. David, your line is now open.

Speaker 2

Thank you. Eric, does the improvement in functional ingredients market turn in this business? And looking forward, can the entirety of this business return to prior levels of sales and earnings? Or is there some portion of business that will not due to low cost Asian competition? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thanks for the question, David, and glad to be back with you again after some years. Absolutely, it marks the beginning of improvement in the functional ingredients business and very pleased to see that after long tough spell. And what I would say is that we are putting more focus on the Functional Ingredients business and I'm very pleased to see the start of what the team are working really hard to make a sustained turnaround. And in addition to better execution, which is happening, we are doing a strategy refresh and looking at all the product families and our systems approach across the functional ingredients business. And we are focused very much right now on delivering a strong improvement in 2024, but also what it takes to make sure that that improvement continues into 2025, Starting with the Q2 2024 then the Q3, but the full year this year, but doing making sure that we're doing the right things to strengthen for 2025 and beyond.

Speaker 2

And you'll hear more about that in the coming quarters, but it is the start of a turnaround. I'm very pleased with the progress that the team is making, the actions they're taking both with customers and on productivity. And we'll see how good we can do in 2024 and then we'll focus on 2025, but making progress.

Speaker 3

Yes. I would just add to that, David, as we've mentioned in the past, we've stated, we didn't think we're going to get to sort of full recovery till 2025. We're pleased by the start of this year. A lot of the service elements are 100% back to where they should be. Pricing actions have been effective, more innovation in the pipeline.

Speaker 3

The last piece of the equation is on the cost side and we're going through a very extensive review of our question.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Adam Samuelson with Goldman Sachs. Adam, your line is now open.

Speaker 10

Yes. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I'd love to get your perspective on volume trends by region in the Q1. And if there's anything you would call out as notable areas of outside strength or weakness versus the portfolio as a whole at mid single digits?

Speaker 10

And I think we could probably exclude pharma from that discussion. And again, given that Q1 performance, is there anything where the regional performance would differ materially kind of over the balance of the year? Thank you.

Speaker 3

Hey, good morning, Adam. Good question. Regionally, we have seen greater strength in a combination of Asia and LatAm. So more of the emerging markets from a volume standpoint and sort of across the board generally a little softer in North America and in EMEA. That's probably not dissimilar than what others are seeing in the marketplace.

Speaker 3

If we look by business, scent had a phenomenal start to the year at 9% plus volumes, Nourish and H and B in the 4% range. As we think about the balance of the year, we're not planning on scent continuing at these very, very high levels. So some softening from these and then a little bit softer for H and B and Nourish and then pharma actually improving because they were down about 9% in Q1 and actually getting to flattish as we move into Q2 in the balance of the year. But generally where we're seeing the regional balance more emerging market, we're expecting that to continue at least through the Q2.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of John Roberts with Mizuho. John, your line is now open.

Speaker 6

Thank you and best wishes, Glenn. Thanks for all your help. Eric, IFF has had more opportunities

Speaker 1

than most companies to promote from within for the CEO

Speaker 6

and CFO positions. Do you think there's anything that needs to change in the organization to develop a deeper bench so the C suite transitions are smoother? Or is there just a culture on the board to look outside for C suite positions?

Speaker 2

Well, thanks for the question, John. And I think it's a really important one. To me, the most important thing we do as leaders is make sure that we have the right talent in the company that we develop the right talent and we give them the opportunities through promotion to continue to advance their careers. And so I always prefer internal promotions, but sometimes external talent needs to come in to fill gaps or when we don't have the right talent inside. But I can tell you that like at Syngenta, I very much want to have my successor come from inside when I do retire at some point.

Speaker 2

And also I'll just point out that the one significant executive leadership change that we've made so far was Ana Paula Mendoza being promoted to run the scent division as President of scent. And if you look at her background and if you talk to people across the company and customers, there was great enthusiasm for her promotion and I like that. So I will continue to work with the executive leadership team and with the Board to make sure that we're developing the right talent inside the company, to make sure that we promote from within wherever we can.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ghansham Panjabi with Baird. Ghansham, your line is now open.

Speaker 11

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everybody. I guess, Eric, first off on the as you sort of meet with And then just related to that in terms of scent, what did drive the first And then just related to that in terms of scent, what did drive the Q1 in terms of eye performance, especially consumer fragrances? Was that sort of share gains? And if it was, what was that driven by?

Speaker 2

Thanks, Laurence. It's also good to be back with you. We had some history that dates back quite a ways. The way I would say it is that in the businesses that are remaining, we've got a lot of great innovation capability and a lot of really terrific people that understand customers, have great consumer insight capability. So we have the people and the capabilities including the innovation capabilities to be very successful.

Speaker 2

And what I would say is even talking to our people, but also our customers, we haven't realized our full potential and that's what it's about. It's the leadership team working to unleash the full potential by making things decision making clear, by having businesses be end to end be able to drive clarity in their strategy and then clarity in their execution, but at the same time having a collaborative culture so that we can collaborate across businesses wherever it makes sense to enhance our ability to bring solutions to customers or to drive healthy productivity. And so I believe that we're doing well with that, but we've got a lot more potential to unleash. And I think if you talk to people across the company, I think you'll find a lot of enthusiasm about what IFF is doing and what more we can do going forward. Specifically on scent, I think scent has been a unit that has stayed focused largely on customers and that has brought a lot of innovation to customers.

Speaker 2

I've spent a lot of time with the perfumers in this company. We've got world class perfumers. And I just am so proud to be part of this company with such great perfumers that our customers value. I've spent time with CEOs of leading CPG companies that have named our perfumers by name, because they're so important to their success. And so making sure that we're bringing not only our perfumers, but the whole team around the perfumers to help co create great new fragrances and find fragrances or great new consumer products, whether they're shampoos or detergents, laundry detergents or dishwash detergents or floor cleaners or body wash whatever it is, the scent I've learned is such a critical part of the success of the consumer product and our great perfumers and the teams around them bringing great scent technology and great formulations to help the customers develop leading consumer products has really been what's driven the growth.

Speaker 2

So I expect under Anna's leadership and with the super team that she's got, I expect that continued strong performance to continue.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Salvator Tiano with Bank of America. Salvator, your line is now open.

Speaker 6

Yes. Thank you very much. If I remember correctly, you had talked about $150,000,000 productivity gains for the year. So can you talk a little bit, can you quantify what was the benefit in Q1? What do you expect for the rest of the year?

Speaker 6

And given obviously the strong gains in the Q1, is this number upside for the rest of the

Speaker 3

year? Good question, Salvator. We are trending at around $200,000,000 full year in terms of productivity and hence some of our commentary about guiding towards the higher range of our EBITDA guide. And that's about $50,000,000 per quarter. So it's fairly ratable in terms of kind of the achievement.

Speaker 3

I would note, as we've said in previous calls, we have made tremendous progress with our operations and procurement leadership teams in really driving a very disciplined approach taking cost out, everything from SKU rationalization to literally looking plant by plant in terms of best practices. And behind that and by the way, there's plenty of additional opportunities. As I mentioned, we're taking a zero paced approach to our ingredients platform, which will provide additional opportunities. And behind that, we've really been looking at opportunities within RSA that have been focused on leveraging our global shared services, really focusing on our indirect spend, so getting every dollar out we need, and then continuing to advance technology as a way to basically automate, eliminate work. So that piece of it's actually picking up speed as well.

Speaker 3

So we feel very good about 200. And I would suggest as we look out into the future, we're going to continue to deliver very strong productivity numbers. Thanks for the question.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Lisa Desnaive with Morgan Stanley. Lisa, your line is now open.

Speaker 12

Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Congratulations on the strong Q1. My first question, so with the announcement of the Pharma division, which is expected to complete in the first half of next year, can you just share where you see potential scope for optimizing your balance sheet position and maybe where you see some depth that could be reduced or be up for redemption or that may not require any refinancing? And then I'm going to sneak in a second question.

Speaker 12

So during the presentation, you mentioned that your finance and HR departments amongst others, are now directly feeding into your divisions. Can you shed some light on their compensation structure of the variable pay they may or may not receive? And what key KPIs they have to deliver on this? Thank you.

Speaker 3

Hey, Lisa, good morning. This is Glenn. So we're in the early innings of deciding sort of our liability management strategy. As you know, we will bring in circa net proceeds $2,400,000,000 from pharma. Coincidentally, we have maturities cumulatively for $25,000,000 and $26,000,000 that are $2,400,000,000 but we're actually taking a more holistic look and we're actually going to be balancing the trade off between interest cost savings, notional debt repayment.

Speaker 3

So how do we think about basically bringing in some of the cheaper debt as well as refinancing risk. So we'll think about bringing some towers down as part of that. So there'll be more to come as we get closer to finalizing the close of the deal. But we are sort of thinking about not just the immediate maturities, but how to optimize the structure going forward. So with that, Eric, I'm happy to take the next question.

Speaker 3

You want to take the next question?

Speaker 2

Yes. So on the functions feeding into the business units, reporting into the business units, it's clearly being done so that the business units can drive their performance. And there will be no changes to the 2024 plan because everybody is set and clear about it and we're not making changes. But effective in 2025, those functions that we're reporting corporately that we'll be reporting into the business units will be incentivized on the business unit performance as a large part of their incentive. They'll also of course continue to have a corporate element to encourage overall corporate performance and collaboration across business units.

Speaker 2

And the more senior level the people are the more their corporate component. But clearly what we want to drive is business unit alignment and everybody on that business team driving that business unit's performance, but also collaborating to enhance their business unit's performance and the total company performance. I would also say that they'll continue to be corporate functional leadership that ensure that we're doing functional best practices across the business units and that each of the functional people have great career opportunities across the company. So it will be a combination, but clearly each business unit is going to be highly incented to drive the performance of that business with collaboration that enhances their business performance and the business performance of the other businesses.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mark Astrachan with Stifel. Mark, your line is now open.

Speaker 13

Yes, thanks and good morning everybody. Two clarifications and a question. So it sounds like there was a lot of benefit in scent volumes in the quarter. I guess that partly explains the big EBITDA number and growth rate on a year on year basis. So is it fair to say that, that specifically the cent EBITDA growth will normalize as we head through the year?

Speaker 13

And I guess broader picture, same thing on the total business. And if you could maybe tell us how much you think the 1Q volume growth had to do with channel refill from the reversal of the destocking? And how much of it is really what your customers are ordering from you? That would be helpful. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Yes. So hard to your second question, Mark, hard to definitively understand kind of what's going on downstream in terms of the supply chain. However, I think in general, there was a little bit of volume that went from Q4 into Q1, but directionally probably less than half a point. We were reducing prices, as you know, in certain segments. So customers decided to push some orders into Q1, but I think it's fairly de minimis.

Speaker 3

In general, the feeling is that there's not any restocking in the marketplace. There's an absence of destocking, but there's no view I think generally in terms of the customers are restocking at this point in time. In terms of your question on scent volumes, scent had a very strong Q1. Note that it was stronger in consumer versus spine. So that as it makes that sort of mix neutral versus the enterprise from a standpoint.

Speaker 3

And as mentioned, we're not anticipating that those high single digit volume gains will continue through the balance of the year. So that is a piece that's basically reflected in our balance of the year guide being lower from a volume standpoint.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Lauren Lieberman with Barclays. Lauren, your line is now open.

Speaker 14

Great. Thanks. I had two questions. First was just on the Nourish performance in the quarter and volumes being up. Food industry volumes are still quite weak.

Speaker 14

So I was just kind of curious if you could square for us your performance outside of inventory rebuilding versus kind of what we're seeing in end market demand? And then the second thing was, Eric, very helpful to hear kind of the backwards question. The org structure that was in the process of being set up and Glenn you're obviously a part of that. I understand the notion that it's not it's being deemed not the right path forward, but there were surely merits to that plan. There were elements there that were going to bring something positive or there was an intention.

Speaker 14

So I'm just curious what if anything you think you kind of give up or forego in not pursuing that model and if there are ways to kind of bring that into the structure, Eric, that you're going to be setting up? If that didn't make sense, I can try to clarify. Thanks.

Speaker 2

Yes. No, no, I'll start and then Glenn can add to it. First of all, on the organization structure, the idea was to have market based organization structure. So for example, Health and Biosciences would have been split up into 4 different units. As we've come together as an executive leadership team and talked about it, the belief is that you gain the most by having making sure that your innovation, that your R and D engine is stays within the business and the manufacturing and the commercial, so that you have that end to end and you're going to customers with expertise that they can connect all the way back to R and D and what we call IC and D, the innovation, creation and design capabilities that we bring.

Speaker 2

That really needs to stay within a business and be there end to end. Now we have different businesses that hit the same markets. So Health excuse me, Home and Personal Care, both our biosciences business and our scent business have a lot in common with customers. So we'll continue to have a global key account leader for large accounts that will represent the company, but then we'll have experts from the business units coming into that account and working with that account, which is what the accounts want. They want both that overall IFF relationship, which by the way will include the presidents of the businesses, will include me and others, but that coordinated, but they want to see the experts that really know the innovation details that can bring that innovation to them.

Speaker 2

And that's what these end to end business units will enable us to bring.

Speaker 3

Yes. So if I can add, the original premise, which actually predates me, Lauren, was that combining flavors and ingredients would represent a significant revenue synergy opportunity through cross sell. And the access was put on synergies as opposed to how do you optimize the individual businesses. That is being shifted the other way, where reality is these businesses will run much, much better with a single focus either on flavors or ingredients. As Eric said, there are other mechanisms to help cross sell particularly with the global key accounts as a way to develop long term plans, etcetera.

Speaker 3

But we've seen it just firsthand in terms of the more that we get our ingredients team sort of focused on only ingredients, it does deliver results. So I think that's the big shift from 3 plus years ago when the deal was put together. And early to your first question, very early innings by the way, although cautiously optimistic. Our trends in terms of our flavors business were 4 plus percent volumes and the ingredients business were 3.5%. From what we can measure in terms of our competitive set on both sides of the house, we feel that we're at parity or gaining share based on the quarterly results.

Speaker 3

I would caution particularly on the ingredients business, it is early. There's a lot of remediation in that business, but it's encouraging that we're starting off relative to our peers in a good place.

Speaker 2

And what I would just add to that is, I think flavors, it was really a good pipeline that the commercial team was able to land. And in ingredients, it was a combination of a strengthening pipeline, but also pricing actions that led to regain of some share that was lost due to big overpricing increases and now we've recovered some of that with some price givebacks.

Operator

Okay, great. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. Laurence, your line is now open.

Speaker 6

Good morning. Just want to follow-up on the comments about sort of the inventory dynamics downstream. If you look a little farther out, what are you hearing from customers about either them shifting their innovation strategies and therefore having more demand pull for your product or longer term they're needing to reset inventory levels in terms of working capital days or other metrics? And then would that be a net tailwind or headwind for you from current levels?

Speaker 2

So in the last since I've joined, I think I've met with more than 20 customers, maybe 30 customers. And very consistently, what we're hearing back is that they're pivoting from being able to grow with price increases to now needing innovation, innovation being more important than ever. And that's a good part of why it's so important for us to have end to end business units that can bring that innovation quickly and aggressively because that's what our customers want so that they can continue to profitably grow their business. They have to have more innovation. That's what they're looking for.

Speaker 2

That's what they need and that's what we're going to deliver. So that's how they're going to grow and that's how we're going to grow.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Zekauskas with JPMorgan. Jeff, your line is now open.

Speaker 15

Thanks very much. Given your revenue forecast for the Q2, which at the midpoint is down about 5%. Are your April volumes down 5% or on a sequential basis that is? Or can you talk about what's happened sequentially? And then second, when you look at your first quarter performance versus your 4th quarter performance, your revenues were up about 200,000,000 dollars and your cost of goods sold was up, I don't know, maybe $30,000,000 Can you discuss what the dynamic is behind that?

Speaker 15

And which allowed your question to really Go

Speaker 3

ahead, Jeff. That's second part of your question was Q4 to Q1. What was the reference point?

Speaker 15

Yes, exactly right. Because there's not much change in cost of goods sold and revenues are up a couple of 100,000,000

Speaker 3

Yes, yes, yes. Well, there are a number of timing elements in the Q4 and sort of the mix of the business in the Q4 vis a vis Q1. Generally, the productivity and net price dynamics are very similar. So I'd say the fundamentals were, but you really have some mixed dynamics and then some one time items related to that as we think about Q4 to Q1. You referenced the I think the decline sequentially is about $100,000,000 from Q1 to Q2, About a quarter of that basically is associated with the absence of LMC in the mix.

Speaker 3

The other part is just sort of the outlook in the business, a little bit of seasonality in terms of the business as well. Versus prior year, to remind you, this time last year, we had Savory Solutions, we had FSI, we also had LMC in the mix. So there's a pretty substantial sort of reduction in revenue on a year over year comparison. Volumetrically, your question about what we're seeing in the Q2, we're obviously well into the middle of the quarter at this point. We're anticipating a 5% to 6% all in volume growth versus the 4% for Q1.

Speaker 3

April was extremely good month, but last year it was an extremely lousy month. So there's a bit of an overlap from standpoint. But May and at least the June book at this point is trending towards but that basically sort of call it 5% plus in terms of the performance for the quarter. Thanks, Jeff.

Operator

Thank you. There are no questions registered at this time. So I will pass the call back over to Eric for concluding remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you all for joining today. Let me just close with 2 comments. First of all, Glenn did announce his pending retirement, but I just want to make sure he's not leaving yet. There's lots more work to do and we're enjoying him as part of the ELT to executive leadership team to get us unleashing our full potential. 2nd point is, it's really great being part of team IFF.

Speaker 2

We've got terrific people, great innovation capabilities and we're going to do all we can to unleash our full potential and try to delight our customers, our employees and our shareholders. Thank you very much.

Operator

That concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your line.

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Earnings Conference Call
International Flavors & Fragrances Q1 2024
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