SLGN

Good day, welcome to the Silgan Holdings Q1 2026 earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Alexander Hutter, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning. Joining me on the call today are Adam Greenlee, President and CEO; Philippe Chevrier, EVP and COO; and Shawn C. Fabry, EVP and CFO. Before we begin the call today, we would like to make it clear that certain statements made on this call may be forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements are made based upon management's expectations and beliefs concerning future events impacting the company and therefore involve a number of uncertainties and risks, including, but not limited to, those described in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for 2025 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Therefore, the actual results of operations or financial condition of the company could differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements.

In addition, commentary on today's call may contain references to certain non-GAAP financial metrics, including Adjusted EBIT, Adjusted EBITDA, Free cash flow, and adjusted net income per diluted share or Adjusted EPS. A reconciliation of these metrics, which should not be considered substitutes for similar GAAP metrics, can be found in today's press release and under the Non-GAAP Financial Information portion of the Investor Relations section of our website at silganholdings.com. With that, let me turn it over to Adam.

Thank you, Alexander. We'd like to welcome everyone to Silgan's Q1 earnings call. Our Q1 results display the resilience of our business and the power of our diverse portfolio and continue to demonstrate the unique value of our critical packaging products and the strength of our long-term customer partnerships in the market. Our teams executed well during the quarter and adapted to dynamic operating and market conditions.

We're pleased to have delivered Q1 results that were at the high end of our estimated range, and we remain confident in our outlook for the balance of the year, despite the evolving macroeconomic and geopolitical environment. Our results in Dispensing and Specialty Closures were consistent with our expectations entering the quarter, despite significant weather events in North America that impacted both our and our customers' production and volumes during the quarter.

We delivered another quarter of double-digit organic volume growth in our fragrance and beauty products as a result of our market-leading innovation and customer partnership model. We continue to outperform the market in these high-value strategic growth products, and with the Weener portfolio now fully integrated and the power of the combined innovation engines of our legacy business and Weener, we see ample runway to continue to deliver organic growth well in excess of the market for many years to come in this business.

Our Metal Containers business started the year strong, with volume 2% higher than the prior year, as pet food products increased by 11% over the prior year, despite facing a more difficult year-over-year comp with the prior year quarter up 6% year-over-year.

Consumer demand for our customers' market-leading pet food products continues to grow at a mid-single-digit rate as our mainstream wet pet food products serve the fastest-growing segments of the pet food market for cats and small dogs. The strength we experienced in pet food in the Q1 was partially offset by the expected impact of pre-buy related volumes for fruit and vegetable markets.

In Custom Containers, our team continued to prove the value we provide as an innovative partner of choice in the unique small and medium run length portion of the market we serve, and our results were consistent with our expectations entering the quarter. As expected, our Custom Containers volumes were below prior year levels as customer destocking from the prior year carried into and concluded in the Q1 of 2026.

In addition, we continue to lap the volume impact of our cost reduction activities in 2025, which should become less impactful as we move through the quarters in 2026. We are pleased to have started 2026 on a positive note, and our business remains on solid footing as we move into the Q2 and look ahead at the second half of 2026.

While much has changed in geopolitics since our last earnings call and the economic landscape is less certain, the deliberate construct of our portfolio of products and end markets, our long-term partnerships with our customers, and our low-cost global manufacturing footprint continue to uniquely position Silgan to outperform through all stages of the economic cycle.

Turning now to our outlook, we are raising our 2026 earnings estimate to reflect the operational outperformance in the Q1. Our volume expectations for the remainder of the year remain largely unchanged. We continue to expect Dispensing and Specialty Closures organic volume mix to grow by a low to mid-single digit rate in 2026, driven by mid-single digit growth in our dispensing products.

Our Metal Containers volumes are on track to grow by a low single-digit percentage, driven by mid-single digit growth in pet food and stable volumes in human food. We continue to expect our Custom Containers volumes to be comparable to prior year levels as destocking in the Q1 and the exit of business to achieve cost reduction goals in the prior year weigh on first half volumes, while second half volumes are expected to grow as new business ramps up.

Our teams remain laser-focused on executing our plans for the year and the opportunities that lay ahead for the company in both the near and longer term, and we are confident in our ability to execute on our plan. With that, Shawn will take you through the financials for the quarter and our estimates for the Q2 and full year 2026.

Thank you, Adam. As Adam highlighted, we reported another quarter of strong financial performance in the Q1 of 2026, with results coming in towards the high end of the expected range due to strong operational EBIT performance and favorable interest expense, which was partially offset by higher corporate expense.

Net sales of $1.6 billion increased 6% from the prior year period, driven primarily by the contractual pass-through of higher raw material costs, mostly in our Metal Containers business and favorable foreign currency translation.

Total Adjusted EBIT for the quarter of $152 million was 4% below the prior year, with higher Adjusted EBIT in our Metal Containers segment offset by lower Adjusted EBIT in the Dispensing and Specialty Closures and Custom Containers segments and higher corporate expense. Adjusted EPS of $0.78 decreased $0.04 from the prior year period due to lower Adjusted EBIT and a higher tax rate, which was partially offset by lower interest expense. Turning to our segments.

Q1 sales in our Dispensing and Specialty Closures segment increased 2% versus the prior year, primarily as a result of the pass-through of higher raw material costs and foreign currency translation of 6%, which was partially offset by lower volume and less favorable mix. Volumes in the quarter were adversely impacted by severe weather events that curtailed production at our and our customers' production facilities, which also caused an adverse impact on the mix of products sold.

As expected, Q1 Dispensing and Specialty Closures Adjusted EBIT was below the prior year levels, in part due to the year-over-year impact of the benefit of selling through prior year inventory in an inflationary environment in 2025 as compared to the headwind of selling through higher cost inventory in 2026 for steel, food, and beverage products in Europe.

Strong growth in dispensing products for fragrance and beauty markets were offset by the adverse volume, mix, and cost impact of severe weather during the quarter in North America. In our Metal Containers segment, sales increased 15% versus the prior year quarter as a result of the contractual pass-through of higher raw material costs, principally related to steel and aluminum, and higher volumes of 2%.

Our volume growth in the quarter was largely the result of higher volumes for pet food markets of 11% as we continued to experience strong growth in this category. As expected, volumes for fruit and vegetable markets were below the prior year levels as a result of pre-buy activity in the Q4 of 2025 as certain customers purchased ahead of anticipated raw material inflation in 2026.

Metal Containers Adjusted EBIT was comparable to the prior year quarter as higher volumes for the pet food market were partially offset by the adverse mix impact of lower volumes for the fruit and vegetable markets due to the pre-buy.

In Custom Containers, our results were largely consistent with our expectations as sales decreased 10% compared to the prior year quarter as a result of lower margin business exited due to a planned footprint optimization to achieve the previously announced cost reduction goals and a continuation of destocking activities that concluded during the Q1 of 2026. Custom Containers Adjusted EBIT was below prior year levels as a result of the lower volumes.

Turning to our outlook for the Q2 of 2026, we are providing an estimate of adjusted earnings in the range of $0.92 to $1.02 per diluted share as compared to adjusted earnings of $1.01 in the prior year period. Q2 interest expense is anticipated to be in the range of $50 million with a tax rate of 25%-26%. From a segment standpoint, Q2 Dispensing and Specialty Closures Adjusted EBIT is expected to be comparable to the prior year period, with higher year-over-year volumes largely offset by significant inflation in the quarter.

Based on the current resin market, we are expecting approximately 50 million of incremental cost in this segment during the quarter related to the inflationary pressure from the Middle East conflict, which is anticipated to impact Adjusted EBIT by approximately $10 million in the Q2.

Metal Containers volume and Adjusted EBIT is expected to be below prior year levels as mid-single-digit growth in pet food products is expected to be offset by a normalization in the seasonal ordering patterns for the fruit and vegetable markets as this segment reverts to a more typical volume pattern following several years of volatility related to one of our customers. This normalization is expected to be predominantly impact the timing of orders between the Q2 and Q3s and does not impact our expectations for volumes for the year.

Custom Containers Adjusted EBIT and like-for-like volumes are expected to be modestly above prior levels in the Q2. For the full year of 2026, we are increasing our estimate of Adjusted EPS by $0.03 to the range of $3.73 to $3.93 as compared to $3.72 in 2025 to reflect the strong operational EBIT performance in the Q1.

This estimate includes corporate expense of approximately $50 million as increase, an increase of approximately $5 million from our prior estimate, which is offset by lower anticipated interest expense of approximately $200 million. Our 2026 estimate of Adjusted EPS continues to factor in an expected tax rate of approximately 25%-26% and a weighted average share count of approximately 106 million shares.

Our updated 2026 Adjusted EPS range now exceeds the prior record level of Adjusted EBIT and Adjusted EBITDA achieved in 2025 at the low end of the range. From a segment perspective, low to mid-single-digit % total Adjusted EBIT growth in 2026 is expected to be driven primarily by a mid-single-digit % increase in Dispensing and Specialty Closures Adjusted EBIT and a low single-digit % increase in Adjusted EBIT in the Metal Containers and Custom Containers segments.

The volumes in 2026 are expected to grow by a low to mid-single-digit % in Dispensing and Specialty Closures driven by a mid-single-digit increase in dispensing products. Metal Containers volumes are expected to grow by a low single-digit rate as a result of mid-single-digit growth in products for pet food markets, which represent more than half of the segment volume.

Custom Containers volumes are expected to be comparable to the prior year on a reported basis and above prior year levels on a like-for-like basis, excluding restructuring impacts.

As lower Q1 volumes, primarily due to destocking activities, are expected to be offset by growth in the subsequent quarters. Based on our current earnings outlook for 2026, we are confirming our estimate of free cash flow of approximately $450 million, which includes CapEx of approximately $310 million. We'll open the call for questions. Margo, would you kindly provide the directions for the question and answer session?

While we wait, we will take our first question from George Staphos with Bank of America.

Hi, this is Brad Barton on for George this morning. Good morning. Was just wondering if you could, looking at your M&A pipeline, you know, just discuss how you're reviewing the pipeline. Relatedly, when you view candidates, you know, can you discuss how you assess their capital and cash intensity relative to Silgan?

Yeah. Thanks, Brad. Appreciate the question. I think as you think about Silgan, one of the real strengths of the company over time has been capital deployment. Really nothing has changed regarding our approach to capital deployment or how we evaluate M&A. You know, one of the key hurdles that every acquisition that we evaluate has to clear is the other opportunity of, you know, buying back stock or paying down debt.

We continue to look at our opportunities on a cash-on-cash return basis, over a long period of time that factors in all the opportunities for the business, the capital that a business will require, any advantageous tax situations and the like. You know, nothing has changed about our return hurdles as well.

I think as you think about the M&A pipeline, we've said now for a number of quarters that the M&A pipeline remains active. We see a number of opportunities for assets that, you know, could be coming to market that would fit nicely in our strategy where we have been building out a portfolio of higher margin, higher growth businesses in the Dispensing and Specialty Closures laneway. Now, we look at everything that's rigid packaging for consumer goods, but I think that's kinda how you should think about our M&A pipeline and the way we look at M&A.

Great. Thank you. We'll leave it there. Hop back in the queue.

We'll take our next question from Matt Roberts with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Hey, Adam, Shawn, Alex, good morning. Appreciate the update today. I have a couple of questions on the volume outlook. Sound like not many changes there, just a couple puts and take by segment. Maybe I'll knock them off here all in a row. Maybe on Metal Containers, I think you called out 2Q timing. Any impact from weather, drought or fertilizer availability that could impact the pack season or what you're hearing from customers heading into 3Q on that, or if it's still too early?

Then on Dispensing and Specialty Closures, first, fragrance and beauties continues to see good gains. Are you seeing any impact from export out of Europe or shipping constraints? Dare I ask, given limited exposure, anything from a lower duty-free travel or no impacts there?

Lastly, on beverage, how did that perform in 1Q, maybe on a same-story basis without new contracts and anything you're seeing there in April into the summer season? Thank you for taking the questions.

Sure, Matt. Thanks for the questions. Maybe just kind of kicking them off in the order that you went through them. For Metal Containers, really the timing issue that we talked about, is the simple fact that, you know, one of our large fruit and vegetable customers now is in new ownership's hands. The profile of that credit essentially is different than it has been. You should probably think about those products being shipped and consumed and products being filled closer to the time that the product's packed in the field.

I think as we've talked a long time, you know, our manufacturing philosophy at Silgan is we basically make cans all year long, particularly for the packed products, and we sell them, you know, kind of 2Q, 3Q, and Q4. This is just moving the timing more to Q3, where products are picked and filled from the crop perspective. No change whatsoever to the full year with that customer and how that has played out in 2026.

As we move over to our Dispensing and Specialty Closures segment, the organic growth in fragrance and beauty has been terrific, and it's been strong and has been strong for quite a while now. The pipeline is very, very full, and the opportunities are in front of us.

I think we're winning simply because of our innovation and our customer partnership model. As we've talked before, it's a much longer developmental cycle than maybe some of our other products, call it in food and beverage or personal care. You know, here it is 2026, we're talking about certainly known product launches for 2027 and developmental ideas in 2028 and beyond.

Pretty good line of sight into how that business is going to continue to perform for us. Obviously, with the conflict in the Middle East, you know, there is potentially an impact on some luxury goods, we don't think it applies and our customers don't think it applies to the products that we sell in fragrance and beauty. We're a little bit on the lower end of the luxury scale.

I think one of the great ideas here is that our customers through the pandemic were able to identify and find new ways to reach their consumers. You know, particularly those duty-free and travel consumers, tourism consumers that you referenced. What we found is those consumers are continuing to buy the product, whether they're traveling or not.

They've found avenues to continue to consume those products. Finally, on the beverage side, Q1 performance right in line with expectations. You're right, we did have a new contractual win this year that has already been commercialized. That is part of our volume outlook for 2026.

I would say again, on the beverage side, I think we talked about this a little bit last time, you know, a fairly muted outlook from our perspective on market performance. You know, we're taking a conservative view on the market, adding in our contractual volumes and, you know, that's what's embedded in our guidance for 2026. We're not really at all subject to needing the market to grow in order to hit the guidance that we put forward.

Appreciate it, Adam. Thank you very much.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Michael Roxland with Truist. Please go ahead.

Hi, guys. This is Niko Buccino from Michael Roxland. Thanks for taking the questions. Just to start out, I think last quarter you mentioned that Weener is positioned to grow ahead of peers and then take kind of outsized portion of new product launches. Just wondering how that performed in 1Q, you know, how it went to perform versus peers, and what does the backlog look like for 2Q? How can you measure that, I guess, performance against peers and kinda tell with certainty that you're actually gaining shares?

Sure. Interesting question. I think, Niko, what I would say is it's the combination of Weener with our Dispensing and Specialty Closures business that drives kind of the commentary that you referenced. Really it's the combined portfolio now including Weener. I think, you know, the area I'd probably point you to directly is fragrance and beauty. We've had tremendous success in fragrance and beauty.

We've delivered another quarter in Q1 of double-digit growth. I feel confident that we're winning a higher percentage of the new product launches that are in the market and have been now for a couple of years in a row. I think that's how we really determine that we are continuing to garner a larger percentage, larger share of that market. To be clear, we are not at all competing on price.

This is about innovation. This is about partnership and helping our customers get new creative and innovative products into the market well into the future. Again, my comments from the last question were, you know, we're already working on commercializing 27 product launches and developing 28, 29 product launches right now. That is a core component to how we're gonna continue to grow out the business with our, I'd say, market-leading innovation pipeline and those products.

Got it. Thank you very much. If I could just do one follow on here. You know, you called out some incremental opportunities for long-term growth in Custom Containers, I think both with new and existing customers. Can you provide a little more detail on that? Maybe, if you can quantify how that could impact P&L or just, you know, some additional details on those wins.

Sure. I think maybe just going back, you know, we did exit a facility in 2025, as we were exiting some lower margin business. I think as we've talked historically, you know, the exit of volume doesn't always line up perfectly with the new volume coming on to replace it. I think what you see in 2026 is we've had really good success in the marketplace. Those volumes will be commercialized over the back half of the year, and that's when you sort of see the inflection point on a like for like basis where volumes turn positive in the back half of the year.

Got it. Thank you very much. I'll turn it over.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Gabe Hajde with Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead.

Adam, Shawn, Alexander, good morning. Wanted to ask about some of the healthcare applications that you guys have in the market. I think you kind of talked about over a medium term, 3 to 5-year basis trying to 2x that business. Anything that you can talk about that's been commercialized this year, maybe where capacity utilization sits or growing into some capacity that you've added in the past couple of years?

It's a core focus of where we're going, a big part of the growth profile of our Dispensing and Specialty Closures segment going forward. We've had tremendous success in our nasal and ophthalmic applications, and we see really good growth in both of those specific target areas. We have invested, as we've talked in the past, Gabe, to support that volume growth.

And we're seeing the growth that we expected right now. I think we had talked, call it a $200 million healthcare business at one point, and it's closer to $250 million now as we look into the rest of 2026. We're getting the growth that we had targeted. Again, it's really focused on nasal and ophthalmic applications.

I would say, Gabe, the application opportunities continues to expand within kind of that nasal and ophthalmic realm.

Got it. Thank you for that. I guess dimensioning what 2026 could look like. Going back to the M&A question, there was obviously some reports out there, pretty public about a competitor over in Europe. My question is less about that specifically and more about size scale. That would've been a fairly large transaction.

I know you can't dictate timing and when these things come available, but pushing the balance sheet a little bit, can you just talk around appetite for that? Maybe as you filter through some of the other opportunities, is there anything out there that strikes you as similar size and scale or that was probably on the high end of what you'd be looking at? Thank you.

Well, sure. Obviously we're not gonna comment on any rumors and I think, you know, what we'll say has been consistent with kind of where we've always been. I mean, I look at the scale of the company today versus maybe 10 years ago, Gabe, and it's in a much different position, just simply because of the profitable growth that we've added to the business.

You know, I look at the Weener acquisition, roughly just round numbers, a billion-dollar acquisition, where we actually did lever up and went outside of our target leverage range with a very clear plan to get back into that target leverage range within 15 months. We executed very well and delivered that target.

You know, a $1 billion-dollar acquisition on top of Silgan and being able to get back within our leverage guidance within 15 months is a pretty impressive feat as far as I'm concerned, as far as how the company's evolved over time. You know, you know, we like acquisitions of all size and scale.

I think, you know, with WestRock, with Albéa, with Weener, you know, we did go outside of our targeted range, but we've always had the ability to utilize the free cash flow of the business to delever quickly and that's really more the important point. I think what our businesses have shown is a tremendous ability to integrate and bring on board the acquisitions that we've executed upon.

I think what our team here at our corporate group has done is shown a real core competency in navigating the M&A landscape. You know, I'll say it again, I think we are advantaged in many ways as we look at assets and properties in this space. You know, we're excited about the opportunities that still sit out there in front of us.

Perfect. No, look, execution has been really solid the past 10 years. Thank you for the color.

Sure.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Hillary Cacanando with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Based on the double-digit volume growth in the fragrance and beauty segment, it seems like consumer remains bifurcated. Is that what you're continuing to see? You know, could you talk about how other products in the DSC segment, you know, like personal care and home care products have performed?

Great. First of all, Hillary, welcome to the call. It's nice to.

Oh, thank you.

We'll be taking questions from you on the first call, so welcome to the space.

Thank you.

Sure. Look, fragrance and beauty, we do think there continues to be evidence of a K-shaped economy. I think Silgan is a great example of where that plays out because of the diverse nature of our product portfolio. Fragrance and beauty, you're right, I mean, that's a luxury item. I think the high-end consumer continues to do fairly well.

Those purchase patterns with double-digit volume growth in those segments continue to show tremendous strength. Maybe on the other end of that K-shaped economy that we've talked about, you have the consumer that is more focused on value and is making decisions at the point of purchase.

I think you can look right at our food can business, and again, when you think about the consumer the food can typically is targeting, it's for folks that are looking for the greatest value to deliver the highest nutritional content for the lowest cost. That's what our food can products allow our customers to do for consumers. I think the low-end consumer is more focused on value and stretching those dollars, and the food can, I think, plays a really important part in that dynamic. We see the K-shaped economy continuing to play out.

Okay. How about in your, like, home care, you know, spray aerosol, the, you know, cleaning spray, any impact there since it's kind of, you know, I would say less, you know, not as elastic, inelastic, I guess?

Yeah. I think it's a really good point. I think, you know, you look at our portfolio of products and it's the vast majority of our products are consumer staples. We consider them to be non-discretionary. I do think in fairness there are pockets of strength and pockets of some slight weakness, but you would expect that across a diverse portfolio like ours. I think it's more about the consumer staples that we support our customers with that really are more protected than the discretionary spend items that consumers are dealing with.

Okay. Got it. Then just on, in the pet food category, you know, doing so well, we've heard, you know, all your peers touting their, you know, pet food performance. Are you seeing any competitive pressures there with, you know, everyone trying to increase their pet food business?

Well, I think, you know, for me, you know, as I look at our Metal Containers business, obviously, pet food's a large part of that, you know, so much of this business is under significant long-term contracts. That historically we've stayed out of the fray of the market.

As it relates to wet pet food specifically, you know, we are heavily over-weighted to that segment. I think with our largest customers, continuing to grow and drive the growth in that category, obviously we continue to win and increase our volume in that market. I think on maybe some of the private label side, there's other opportunity for smaller growth for some other folks.

You know, we're really focused on our largest customers driving that volume again, and we are focused on cats and small dogs and the portfolio of products that we take to market.

Got it. Great. Thank you very much.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Ghansham Panjabi with Baird. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. This is actually Joshua Vesely on for Ghansham. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe just piggybacking off of Hillary's question there, just maybe focusing more so on the, you know, your CPG end markets. Just on a high level basis, do you, do you guys get any sense that, you know, they're shifting philosophy at all from, you know, kind of the volume, you know, emphasis that they were talking about at the beginning of the year, right?

You know, just given the context of, you know, pricing for them across the board has been, you know, very high on a multi-year basis. Again, they, you know, started switching towards more, you know, constructive volume commentary at the beginning of the year.

You know, do you think they're gonna kind of revert back to, you know, maybe pushing pricing just, you know, in context of the inflationary backdrop we're in? Or, you know, or will they kind of stick to this, you know, volume dynamic just because, you know, of the pricing that's been in the past? Thank you.

Yeah. Very good question. I think that, you know, certainly as we came into the year, volume was the focus, and I think there was more promotional and price activity supporting volume growth. I think with the conflict in the Middle East and the impact on inflation, I think we're still now in deep conversations with our customers, trying to understand exactly how they're thinking about the rest of the year.

I would say even up through early part of April, promotional activity was still pretty good for most of the products that we were looking for. I think how that ultimately relates to Silgan, it's back to the comment I made earlier. I mean, really, you know, we look at market growth in a fairly muted lens for 2026.

You know, we're not expecting significant growth in markets to support the guidance that we've given. We've added a kind of our contractual wins to our volume outlook. Outside of that, you know, we're expecting pretty muted volume trends across the markets that we serve.

Okay. Great. That's super helpful. Then maybe just, you know, if I can sneak in one more, just, you know, on the input cost inflation component, obviously, you know, a lot of that's resin, and you have contractual pass-through mechanisms there. You know, how are you thinking about the inflation specific to maybe some other, you know, derivatives such as, you know, energy, freight, you know, coatings for cans, et cetera? Can you quantify that impact? Can you also remind us too, is that pass-through contractually as well? If not, how do you plan on offsetting that? Thank you.

Sure. Well, maybe I'll just start with kind of, you know, reminding everyone of Silgan sourcing strategy. I mean, look, what we like to do is we like to buy raw materials, we like to manufacture them, we like to sell all within one geography. You take some of the global influence out of the relationship with our customers. I think that's an important point to start with.

You're right, I think resin costs are probably the biggest item here to address, and we talked a little bit about it in Shawn's comments earlier. I think, you know, just for Q2, the inflation we're anticipating is something around $50 million in our Dispensing and Specialty Closures segment.

I think the net impact of that inflation with our lagged pass-through is gonna be something like $10 million. You know, I think it's embedded in our guidance. As we talked about earlier in the year, we planned for more unknown risk in 2026, so it really doesn't change our guidance. We're able to absorb that and still maintain our guidance. I'll maybe pass it to Shawn to talk a little bit about how we manage through the other inflation that we're experiencing as well.

Sure. You had specifically asked about freight and energy. I'll start with freight. Freight is a relatively small spend for us. It's under 3% of our cost of sales. Most of the freight in this business is FOB, from that perspective, doesn't really apply on the inflation side. What's left is predominantly pass-through based, different formulas, fuel surcharges, things like that.

We don't see a lot of exposure on the inflation side for freight. Similar comment on energy. It's again, you would think it might be larger than what it is, but it's still around 3% of our cost of sales. We have an active hedging program in place, we're well hedged for the balance of the year.

We don't see much risk there for 2026. If inflation does kinda linger here towards the back half of the year, we'll address that inflation with our customer base in the 2027 renewals. No real impact on either of those categories. I'd say modest headwinds, if anything.

Great. Thank you.

We'll take our next question from Anthony Pettinari with Citi. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. This is actually Bryan Burgmeier on for Anthony. Thanks for taking the questions. I appreciate the detail on dispensing and resin costs that you provided there. Is that $10 million drag in 2Q something that you would expect to recover in kind of 3Q or 4Q? Can you maybe just kind of remind us the timing of these pass-throughs? Just trying to frame rising resin costs versus raising the 2026 outlook seemingly with most of your assumptions unchanged.

Yeah, I mean, look, I think the rapid kind of unprecedented inflation that we've seen in resin is specifically what we're talking about. I think as you look at the indices for the remainder of the year, you know, there's expected to be some stability kind of mid to late year and then potentially pending on the resolution to the conflict in the Middle East, some recovery to lower costs of resin. You know, that's relatively unknown at this point, so we're not anticipating that happening. I think, you know, as we think about the net impact of that $10 million, you know, I mean, I think it's not immediately recoverable in Q2 or Q3.

I think as we're thinking about it today, it's, you know, as resin markets decline in the future, that's when that recovery would ultimately happen. It's gonna be spread over a longer period of time, and I would not anticipate that probably starting before potentially Q4 and well into 2027 as we think about the resolution to the conflict in the Middle East.

Okay. Got it. Got it. Yeah, just following up, maybe curious if there's anything that's maybe been better than expected that allows you to offset that $10 million drag. Maybe it's the 1Q result. And then just, you know, in press release, I think you mentioned you're now expecting Custom Containers EBIT to be, you know, up year-on-year when I think last quarter was kind of flattish year-on-year. Just curious what kind of drove that change in view.

I mean, look, I think our businesses continue to perform at a very high level. We had a very strong start to the year. You know, for the most part, you know, as we look at the balance of the year, nothing has really changed from our expectations. You mentioned Custom Containers.

You know, we continue to win in that market, we continue to commercialize new volume, that's really what's driving the growth in the back half of the year for Custom Containers. I think, you know, as we came into the year, again, those sort of muted market assumptions. A lot of stuff can happen, and we think we've factored that into our guidance for the year.

You know, with really nothing changing as far as our portfolio of consumer staple products, we're very confident in the remainder of the year and importantly, the performance of each of our businesses as we go forward.

Got it. Thanks for that detail. I will turn it over.

Thank you. We'll next go to Daniel Rizzo with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hey, thanks for taking my questions. With Weener, excuse me, fully integrated, I mean, can you provide color or just kind of some sort of numbers around what kind of revenue synergies you might see over the next two to 3 years? Or, I mean, what the runway is and how we should think about it.

Well, I mean, Dan, yeah, it is fully integrated. You know, you've got that innovation engine that we continue to talk about. You know, it's really difficult to say, you know, does that come from Weener or from our Dispensing Group? I think I would say, look at the growth rate that we have from a longer term perspective on this segment, and that's what supports that growth rate, is this very powerful innovation engine combining our business with Weener.

Okay. Then y-you mentioned a couple times about the muted beverage environment, which I understand, but what could trigger just some acceleration? I guess just improved consumer confidence? I guess you have to wait for your customers. How should we think about that, something that can provide some upside maybe in the back half of the year and into 2027?

Well, I think, you know, for us, Q1 was essentially flat in the beverage business and right in line with our expectations. Again, we are not expecting a tremendous amount of growth. I think if the market grows, that'd be a great thing and that would be upside for our company, but that's not what's embedded in our current guidance to the midpoint.

All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Arun Viswanathan with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks for taking our questions. Congrats on the strong results. I guess I'm just curious, you know, on the volume side, would you attribute a portion of some of the growth to customers kinda trading down from a, you know, towards maybe, you know, food can and some other of your products? Maybe you can just kinda comment on the bifurcated customer trends that you've seen in the past. I mean, are you seeing growth kind of continuing at the high end and the low end and maybe the middle kind of weakening? How would you describe kind of the consumer environment out there? Thanks.

I think maybe to summarize it, I would say yes, we continue to see that bifurcated consumer. I think you have some strength at the high end of the consumer portfolio, and I think you also have strength for us in the lower end consumer as well. I think the middle range consumer, what I would say is it's been relatively stable, and I think that's because of the portfolio of consumer staple products that we supply. Again, our feeling of a lot of our products being non-discretionary for that middle part of the consumer.

Going back to that high-end consumer, I mean, that's right where our fragrance and beauty products sit and, you know, delivering another quarter of double-digit organic growth in those market segments is really important to us and I think reflects the high-end consumer doing really well and the high-end consumer continuing to put those dollars to work.

I think when you look over at our Metal Containers business and think about food cans for a minute, you know, you get that consumer again that's looking to a value play for nutrition. We think we've got a wonderful vehicle to get nutrition to the folks that are stretching dollars that need it most. We think that's a bit what's driving our strength in our Metal Container segment as well.

We see it, and I think that middle consumer is struggling a bit, but, you know, with our consumer staples portfolio of products, we're protected to some degree.

Thanks for that. Then just on the pricing side, so obviously there is some inflation going through. I guess, you know, maybe you can just describe potential for demand destruction. You know, you know, I know that the question was asked about, you know, CPG companies wanting to not necessarily just yet pushing price, but do you see that foresee that happening, especially with, you know, potential increases in tariffs, you know, including on the tin plate side, but then also on resin as it relates to your closures business and Custom Containers? How do you see kinda demand destruction playing out here? Thanks.

Yeah. I think it's very early to try to make a final decision on that inflation, the level of inflation and how it's getting passed through to consumers. I think maybe a couple of things I would give you is just, you know, with the construct of our portfolio, you know, we can look back and talk about what happened during maybe COVID as an example, where there was significant inflation, particularly in metals that was passed through to consumers and we did not see much of an impact to demand.

I think in some of those more discretionary items, that's where you do see some general impact from pricing activities that do impact volume. I continue to firmly believe that our Metal Containers business is incredibly well-positioned for that scenario if it plays out that way.

I think the high-end consumer has shown for the entirety of our time in owning the dispensing systems business, shown an ability to continue to acquire and purchase the products at the high end of our product portfolio. Again, I think it's early, but I would say we've got a pretty good degree of confidence that history is not a bad example of what may happen if that situation plays out that you described.

Thanks.

We'll next go to Anojja Shah with UBS. Please go ahead.

Hey, everyone. Good morning. My question is about the guidance this year, just walking through the quarters on a year-over-year basis, it seems like you'll be down 4% on the EPS guide in the first half, which is of course understandable with the Middle East situation. On a year-over-year basis, the guide implies a 10% increase in the second half, quite a big swing from the first half.

I know we've talked a lot about it already on this call, like new wins, pass-throughs, other positive factors, maybe just to put it all in one place, can you frame out the top couple of drivers of strength that you expect to see in the second half that would, you know, let you hit the midpoint of your guidance?

Sure. You know, maybe just kinda going through the segments and trying to look at a high level, I would say, you know, Dispensing and Specialty Closures, you know, we're continuing to win and, you know, another quarter of double-digit growth in fragrance and beauty in Q1.

You know, we're expecting full-year growth in the mid-single digit kind of range for Dispensing and Specialty Closures products. It is new wins, and it's commercialization of new wins. You know, we're not expecting tremendous growth on the food and beverage side. It's, it's really driven by the high end of our portfolio that continues to show tremendous strength.

On the Metal Containers side, I think it's mostly related to the timing impact that we talked about, with one, you know, part of our portfolio in fruits and vegetables, that those customers are going to be buying the product more when they are harvested and filled. We've got a shift from Q2 to Q3 that is impacting our Metal Containers business.

Again, to be clear, no change on the full-year outlook for Metal Containers. Finally, in Custom Containers, again, we continue to win in that market. Contractual wins that are being commercialized in the second half of the year versus a prior year that had some destocking activity associated with it, particularly in Custom Containers. I'd say a little bit in DSC last year as well.

I think those are maybe the top drivers to why we're comfortable, because we've got pretty good line of sight into all of those items as we look at the back half of the year.

Anojja, the only other thing I'd add is if you know, look at the cadence of earnings through last year, right? The first half was incredibly strong. I think I believe up 17%. A lot of the headwinds that we faced materialized in the second half of the year. Some of those were self-inflicted, like the destocking impact in the Q4. I think just as you look at a year-over-year comp, when you're talking about 10% growth year-over-year, that impacts it as well to some degree.

Yes. That's very helpful. Thank you. In the release, you called out the severe weather volumes in the Q1, but that you were confident you would get it back later in the year. You know, I was just surprised that those orders weren't permanently displaced. Was the point that those orders are coming back or that new wins in that segment were sort of offset later in the year?

I think the general consensus is those orders will ultimately get refilled because it's not only impacted our business, it impacted our customers' production as well. I think the challenging part for some of those high value dispensing items that we're talking about specifically is that, you know, order books are full and, you know, lead times are, I don't wanna say stretched, but lead times are longer than for some of our other products.

Really the next time that we and our customers had open filling capacity probably gets you into Q3. I think it'll eventually be recovered in the course of the year, but it will not be recovered in Q2.

Okay, great. Thank you. I'll turn it over.

We'll next go to George Staphos with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hi, everyone. Good morning. Thanks for taking my follow-up or the team's follow-up. Congrats on the progress so far. You may have already covered this, if you have, apologies. Any sense, Adam Greenlee, in terms of whether there's any pre-buying affecting any of the volumes in your business as much as that, you know, you're passing along the inflation that you're feeling, and might that be an issue in terms of why lead times are stretched?

Second question. I'm not really sure necessarily whether the products themselves would lend themselves to this because it's more high end, and that seems to be doing well for you in relation to answering some of the other questions earlier in the call.

The inflation in resin, is that causing any of your customers at beauty, in fragrance to be considering other structures, other compositions that you'll need to deal with in terms of your business? Doesn't sound like it, but wanted to check on that. The last question, maybe this came up already. You raised the guidance a little bit, that's terrific. Given the uncertainty, why even do that at this juncture? You know, what do you want us to take away from your outlook for the business that even with the headwinds, you feel comfortable taking the numbers up a few percentage points? Thanks. Good luck in the quarter.

Thanks, George. You know, for pre-buy activities and impact, you know, it's something we're watching very closely right now, just given how much inflation that we're talking about. We're deep in conversations with all of our resin-based customers and think we have a pretty good understanding of what those activities are. We have not seen any yet.

We're working with customers to try to figure out, you know, the best path forward, you know, through these inflationary times. I think all of that is captured within the guidance that we've given for Q2. The lead time question, I think what I'd say there, George, is that's just more of a product mix perspective, right?

I mean, we're talking about 9, 10, 11 part sprayers that are a much more complex manufacturing system and assembly profile than maybe, you know, kind of our flat cap beverage closures as an example. Our lead times are typically longer anyway. I don't wanna say our lead times have gone out, it's just lead times are a bit longer, and the order books essentially full for Q2. That's when we'll see the recovery of those weather-related impacts.

Maybe on the high-end product, the luxury end of our fragrance and beauty products as well, with inflation, I'd just remind you that, you know, our product is a very small percentage of the cost of those products that consumers are purchasing at the luxury and premium level.

You know, obviously we're making our customers aware of the inflation. They understand that. I think in the grand scheme of things, that inflation is relatively small compared to the overall cost of that product. No, we are not seeing any look to diversify or change the product or anything at all. It's with the strength that they're seeing, it's just, it's continuing on the path that we've already laid out.

George, I'll just answer the question on the change in the full year forecast. Yes, we did increase our guidance about $0.03 for the full year at the midpoint. That's really about the operational beat on the unit line for the Q1 that we see holding for the balance of the year. Also some on the corporate expense side, it's a little bit higher in the quarter, primarily due to corporate development activities that we incurred, so we are calling that up about $5 million for the year.

We're also seeing favorable movement on the interest line. We had some versus our expectations, we were a little better in the quarter, so we're moving that down from $205 million to $200 million, primarily driven by some global treasury management initiatives we did.

Also we did do an amendment to our credit agreement that improved our pricing for the go-forward period.

Thank you, Shawn. Thank you, Adam. Good luck in the quarter.

Thanks.

Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. We'll pause for a moment. We have no further questions over the phone. I'd like to turn the call back over to our speakers for any closing remarks.

Great. Thank you, Margo, and thank you everyone for your interest in the company, and we look forward to reviewing our Q2 results in late July.

Thank you. This does conclude today's call. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.