Good morning and welcome to KP Tissue's third quarter 2024 results conference call. Today's call is being recorded for replay. All participants are currently in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be provided at the time for you to queue up for questions. If at any time you have difficulties hearing the conference, please press star followed by zero for operator assistance. I will now turn the call over to Doris Grbic, Director of Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.
Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to review Kruger Products' third quarter 2024 financial results. With me this morning is Dino Bianco, the CEO of KP Tissue and Kruger Products, and Michael Keays, the CFO of KP Tissue and Kruger Products. Today's discussion will include certain forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements due to known and unknown risks and uncertainties. A list of risk factors can be found in our public filing. In addition, today's discussion will include certain non-GAAP financial measures. The reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measure can be found in our MD&A. The press release reporting our Q3 2024 results was published this morning and will be available on our website at KPTissueInc.com. The financial statements and MD&A will also be posted on our website and on SEDAR+.
The investor presentation to accompany today's discussion can be found in the investor relations section of our website. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Dino Bianco. Dino?
Thank you and welcome, Doris. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our third quarter earnings call for fiscal 2024. Our business continued to perform well with double-digit revenue growth in the third quarter of 2024 on the strength of higher sales volume and favorable selling prices across our North American network. Despite higher bulk prices and other manufacturing costs year-over-year, we also generated solid adjusted EBITDA that was within our expectations. In the Consumer segment, we maintained strong revenue momentum through ongoing investments, innovation, and brand support. The resulting impact has been encouraging with our leadership position rising above 44% in the Canadian facial tissue market, combined with share gains in the bathroom tissue and paper towel categories on a year-over-year basis.
On the Away-From-Home front, sales volume slightly improved in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, while profitability was tempered by additional outsourcing activity. The operational highlight of the quarter was the completed construction of our manufacturing plant in Sherbrooke, including the successful startup of our LDC paper machine with added capacity of 60,000 metric tons. At maturity, the entire Sherbrooke site, which also contains the existing TAD facility along with the recently deployed facial tissue and bathroom tissue lines, will produce more than 130,000 metric tons of high-quality tissue products. The overall expansion project represents a remarkable achievement for our entire team. I would like to thank and congratulate everyone involved in this incredible project. On top of that, I would like to welcome the more than 140 new employees who have joined us.
Moving forward, we are fulfilling our vision of making Sherbrooke a major hub for tissue manufacturing in North America, enabling additional capacity, reducing our costs, and offering tissue products across all formats and quality tiers. Now, let's take a look at our quarterly numbers on slide six. Revenue growth of 10.1% in the third quarter of 2024 was mainly driven by higher sales volume across both our Consumer and AFH segments and favorable pricing year-over-year, along with a positive foreign exchange impact on U.S. dollar sales. Canadian revenues increased 5.5% in the third quarter, while the U.S. sales improved 16.1%, driven by both Consumer and AFH new and existing customers.
Adjusted EBITDA of CAD 65.7 million was in line with our expectations, down 9.3% year-over-year in the third quarter, primarily due to higher pulp prices and additional paper outsourcing activity, combined with rising freight rates and increased SG&A expenses. These factors were partially offset by a number of items, including higher sales volume, and Michael will provide you with the details in his financial review. On slide seven, Pulp average prices in Canadian dollars increased slightly in the third quarter of 2024 from the previous quarter, while year-over-year average prices for NBSK and BEK were up 38.5% and 49.4% versus Q3 2023. Market pulp prices have recently moderated, but they are expected to remain volatile in 2025, according to industry analysts. We are also closely monitoring the weakening Canadian dollar. Let's move on to our operations on slide eight.
Our new paper machine started ahead of schedule in September and already is exceeding the ramp-up curve. Our new facial tissue assets in Gatineau and Sherbrooke continue to perform well to meet robust market demand for facial tissue. Overall production rates at our facilities are on target, while North American industry utilization rates remain high. And finally, TAD paper machine and converting output remains favorable compared to last year, allowing us to meet heightened demand for premium tissue products. Let's turn to slide nine. We drove share growth in the third quarter through new marketing campaigns behind SpongeTowels with Nothing Absorbs Like It and Scotties Let's Get the Name Right. Both campaigns were humorous and playful, strengthening our position as the top choice for consumers seeking premium paper towel and facial tissue products. These creative spots ran across broadcast, social, digital, and streaming channels.
In Q3 2024, we also maintained support behind Bonterra, our brand targeting environmentally conscious consumers, including a new sharper marketing program to drive engagement at the store level. This brand continues to build distribution and steady sales growth. In addition, we initiated robust consumer activation behind Made in Canada and Tennis Canada omnichannel programs. On facial, we followed up with a distribution focus behind our new high-quality Scotties Ultra Soft and Ultra Soft with Lotion innovation and our Pocket Pack launch. Turning to slide ten, the data presented is taken from Nielsen. It shows branded market share over a 52-week period ended September 7th, 2024. We continued building our leadership position in facial tissue during the third quarter, with market share reaching 44.1% of the Canadian market.
In both bathroom tissue and paper towel, although we are seeing some timing decline, our Q4 activity on both these categories is expected to see improved share performance as we finish the year. Looking at the Away-From-Home segment on slide 11, sales volume slightly increased on a year-over-year basis and was stable sequentially. However, strong orders coupled with challenges in our paper supply hampered order fulfillment. As a result, our EBITDA performance in the third quarter was negatively affected by additional paper outsourcing activity compared to the third quarter of last year. Our new paper machine in Sherbrooke will provide additional internal paper to reduce such external requirements going forward. I will now turn the call over to Michael.
Thank you, Dino, and good morning, everyone. Please turn to slide 12 for a summary of our financial performance for the third quarter of 2024. As covered by Dino, we generated revenue of CAD 521.1 million and adjusted EBITDA of CAD 65.7 million in the quarter, which demonstrated continued strong performance that was aligned with our expectations. Net income, which increased CAD 5.1 million from CAD 12.9 million in Q3 2023, totaled CAD 18 million in the third quarter of 2024. The year-over-year growth can be attributed to several factors, including a higher FX gain of CAD 13.7 million and a lower income tax expense of CAD 2.1 million. These factors were partially offset by a lower adjusted EBITDA of CAD 6.7 million, greater depreciation expense of CAD 3.1 million, and a higher interest expense of CAD 1.3 million.
In the quarterly segmented view on slide 13, revenue from our Consumer business grew 10% year-over-year to CAD 429.2 million, mainly due to a stronger volume in the U.S., higher selling prices across our Consumer segment, and a more favorable FX impact on US dollar sales in the quarter. Consumer revenue increased in both Canada and the U.S. For the Away-From-Home segment, revenue improved 10.6% year-over-year to CAD 91.9 million for the same reasons as our Consumer segment, which is higher sales volume, increased selling prices, and a favorable FX impact. Consumer adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter totaled CAD 62.4 million compared to CAD 65.9 million in Q3 2023, with a margin of 14.5% versus 16.9% for the same period last year. On a sequential basis, Consumer adjusted EBITDA grew CAD 2.1 million from Q2 2024.
For our Away-From-Home business, adjusted EBITDA amounted to CAD 6.6 million in the third quarter compared to CAD 8.4 million in Q3 2023. On a year-over-year basis, AFH adjusted EBITDA decreased CAD 1.8 million with a margin of 7.2%, while sequentially, AFH adjusted EBITDA declined CAD 3 million from Q2 2024. Moving on to slide 14, we review consolidated revenue for Q3 2024, which grew by CAD 47.7 million or 10.1% year-over-year. The increase was primarily driven by higher sales volume in both Consumer and AFH segment, favorable selling prices across our network, and a positive FX impact. On a geographic basis, revenues in Canada rose CAD 14.6 million or 5.5% year-over-year, while U.S. revenues grew CAD 33.1 million or 16.1%. Next, on slide 15, we provide more details about our year-over-year profitability in the third quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA decreased by CAD 6.7 million to CAD 65.7 million in the quarter, resulting in a margin of 12.6% compared to 15.3% for the same period last year. Several factors account for the year-over-year decline in adjusted EBITDA, including higher pulp prices, additional outsourcing activity, rising freight rates, and increased SG&A expenses. These items were partially offset by a higher sales volume, increased selling prices, and lower manufacturing overhead costs. Now, if we turn to slide 16, where we compare Q3 revenue to Q2 2024, revenue increased CAD 11.3 million sequentially or 2.2%, mainly due to higher selling prices and sales volume. Geographically, revenue in Canada rose by CAD 3.2 million or 1.2%, while revenue in the U.S. grew by CAD 8.1 million or 3.5%.
On slide 17, our adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter improved sequentially by CAD 0.4 million to CAD 65.7 million, mainly due to lower manufacturing overhead costs, favorable selling prices, and higher sales volume. These were partially offset by increased pulp prices, higher marketing and SG&A expenses, as well as greater freight and warehousing costs. The adjusted EBITDA margin of 12.6% in the third quarter was marginally lower than Q2 2024 at 12.8%. If we now move to slide 18, our cash position reached CAD 111.2 million at the end of the third quarter, a decrease of CAD 16 million from Q2 2024. Long-term debt at the quarter end stood at CAD 997.5 million, which was down CAD 9.8 million sequentially, and net debt increased CAD 4.5 million.
For our net debt to last 12 months adjusted EBITDA, the ratio rose slightly to 4.1x in the third quarter versus 4.0x in the second quarter due to a minor increase in net debt and relatively lower adjusted EBITDA. When compared to Q3 2023, our leverage ratio improved from 4.3 x. Directionally, we also anticipate that our leverage ratio will decrease in 2025 as the Sherbrooke Expansion Project production continues to ramp up.
In terms of total liquidity, we had CAD 434.2 million available at the end of the quarter, and CAD 14.6 million of cash was held for the Sherbrooke Expansion Project. Following the quarter end, it's important to note that we did close a CAD 135 million offering for senior unsecured notes at a rate of 6.58%. Interest on the note is payable semi-annually on May 1st and November 1 st of each year, beginning on May 1st, 2025.
The majority of the proceeds were used to redeem the senior unsecured notes that were due in April 2025, with the remainder being used for general corporate purposes. This redemption was completed yesterday, on November 12, 2024. I will conclude my section by reviewing capital expenses on slide 19. CapEx for Q3 2024 totaled CAD 37 million, which included CAD 26.7 million for the Sherbrooke Expansion Project and after the first nine months of 2024, total CapEx has now reached CAD 137.4 million.
In terms of our full-year forecast, we are lowering our expected CapEx range for the year to between CAD 190 million and CAD 210 million compared to our previous range of CAD 200 million-CAD 220 million for 2024. Finally, our CapEx outlook for 2025 has been set to a range between CAD 40 million and CAD 60 million, and this outlook does exclude any remaining spend for the Sherbrooke Expansion Project that could shift into 2025.
Thank you for joining us this morning, and I will now turn the call back to Dino.
Thank you, Michael. Please turn to slide 21 for my closing comments. We benefited from strong top-line contributions in the third quarter, primarily driven by U.S. sales. Recent price increases across our North American network are offsetting increased costs. We will continue investing in our brands to enable long-term share growth. We expect our new paper machine in Sherbrooke will enable the reduction of purchased paper and provide more overall capacity. Our Away-From-Home segment continues to deliver against a sustainable profit model and benefit from internal paper from the new paper machine. Our leverage ratio will slightly improve in 2025 with the Sherbrooke Expansion Project mostly complete. And finally, we'll keep investing in our organization and culture to drive future growth. Now, let's turn our attention to the outlook for the fourth quarter of 2024. We expect adjusted EBITDA will be in the range of Q3 2024.
It's mainly based on higher selling prices and slightly lower input costs partially offset by higher manufacturing overhead spend. We will now be happy to take your questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, only analysts are permitted to queue up for questions. If you have a question, please press star one on your touch-tone phone. You will hear a prompt indicating your hand has been raised. If you do not wish to participate, please press star two . If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from the line of Sean Steuart of TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. A couple of questions.
Hello.
Thanks. A couple of questions on Sherbrooke. Dino, you indicated you're ahead of the ramp-up curve for the new machine, and I know you guys are usually reluctant to give numbers around these sorts of things, but can you qualify how far ahead you are of the expected ramp-up curve? Are there any figures you can put towards that assessment?
Yeah, Sean, I would say it's still early. I mean, when you start one of these machines up, you're obviously trialing different paper grades, so you get some ups and some downs. It's a little choppy over the first few months. So I don't have a steady trend, but I would say overall, when we look at the total numbers produced versus what we were expecting, we are above. I'm not going to give you a number. And quite frankly, this is just an indication of the quality of the team that we've got there. We had the same situation when we started up the TAD paper machine. So we really got a strong operational group there, and I expect that that will continue to be the case as we ramp up that machine.
Okay. Thanks for that. And then the CapEx guide, slight reduction to this year's forecast, which I assume is just timing related to the completion of all the Sherbrooke work. Can you give us a sense of what's left on that CapEx spend? Where is it going exactly? And I think we know how much you have left to go into 2025 with, but what exactly is the money going towards to finish that off?
Hi, Sean. This is Michael. So in terms of the Sherbrooke CapEx spend, really what's left at this stage since the paper machine did start up in September would be any closeout items. So last payments with various equipment providers, finishing up small details around the facility itself. So depending on the timing of that and our ability to complete those over the next two months, we could see a small portion spill into 2025, but I would expect that that number would be below CAD 20 million if it does go past December 31st.
Okay. That's all I have for now. Thanks very much, guys.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Hamir Patel of CIBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Dino, you'd previously announced a high single-digit Canadian consumer tissue hike. I believe it was effective in September. Can you speak to how implementation is going there? And just given the weakening CAD, does that maybe necessitate another increase?
Good morning, Hamir. Yeah, so we took the pricing in September. We started to see it really hit our P&L a little stronger in Q4. Obviously, September was a bit of a transition month with the new pricing. I would say that we are seeing that price reflected in market. So we're seeing it across the entire tissue category. Obviously, it was based on common costs. As we're seeing CAD come down, we're also watching what's going on with pulp. There has been some moderation. But what's happening now is we're looking at our—we're planning for 2025. We're seeing increased costs in other areas like freight and energy. So we're just watching the bundle of inputs, and we'll make the decision once we realize where do we sit on margin as we move into next year, incorporating all those factors, including the Canadian dollar weakening.
So it's part of our pricing model, Hamir. And one of the things I think I said on the last call is we're trying to adopt the model that keeps us closer to the cost curves, not just pulp, but other input costs. So it just helps provide a bit more of a shock absorbency, if you will, around up or down movements.
Okay. Fair enough. Thanks, Dino. And just thinking through potential U.S. tariffs, I think last time there was a bit of an impact for you because you had some Memphis TAD product coming into Canada. Now that you have Sherbrooke, how do we think about if you did see maybe a 10% tariff in the U.S., how that would impact where you ship product from the various mills?
Yeah. I wonder how long that question would take to come up, but I'm sure like any Canadian company that exports into the U.S., we're all running scenarios. We're running scenarios as well on our network. We're also running scenarios of what-ifs in terms of how we move production around. One thing I would say, and I'm not going to try to predict what Trump and the new president will do, but the U.S. is an importer of tissue. It needs imports to satisfy its consumers. And those imports come from Canada, Mexico, Asia. So to put a tariff would, I understand the tariff logic, but it would be detrimental, I think, to supply because the U.S. market cannot supply tissue for its consumers right now. So we'll see if it happens. I mean, we'll watch it.
Obviously, we have a great relationship with our U.S. customers, and we'll run a bunch of different scenarios. There's not much more I can say other than being aware of it and trying to be ready for whichever way this thing goes.
Fair enough. That's all I had. I'll turn it over. Thanks.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Zachary Evershed of National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Congrats on the quarter.
Thank you. Good morning.
So we're looking at the market share gains. Obviously, there's the effect of the departure of Kleenex from the market. What other market share gains do you think you're getting on top of that? Or is it primarily driven by that vacuum in the market?
I think certainly facial has been growing because of the exit of Kleenex, but also because of the work we've done in terms of innovation, distribution, communication, etc., that has helped us gain our share, equivalent of that. So I think that one has still got some room to go, particularly as we're working. It's been just over a year of their exit. So I think we still are building a stable position on growth in facial. I think bath is going to continue to be a very tough category. It's a very competitive category. So holding or slight increases would be great news for us. And paper towel, I think we have room to grow. We're number two. We have a very high-quality product on Towel that our Sherbrooke facility helps us compete in the marketplace. So I think we've got great opportunity to grow on Towel.
So Facial, number one, opportunity. Towel, number two, opportunity. And Bath, flat plus a little bit would be great.
Gotcha. Thanks. And then with.
You cut out, Zachary.
Can you still hear me? Can you still hear me?
Can you repeat that question from the beginning?
Yes, sir. So pulp prices are trending favorably, but we're seeing the weakening Canadian dollar, and you mentioned a basket of other inflation and input costs. How far down do you think pulp prices have to fall before you start to worry about pressure on tissue selling prices?
Yeah. I mean, it's never one month or one week. I think the market, you saw it kind of fall, particularly as it related to BEK or the hardwood. A lot of it driven by China, if you've been following the news. I would say, based on our experts that we rely on, the market's probably bottomed out, and it's either going to go sideways or start to increase again, and like I said, we're watching the basket of goods, not just pulp, because freight in 2022, we had a very difficult year. A big driver of that was the freight costs from going through the roof. We're starting to see that starting to creep up again, and then, yes, you said the Canadian dollar, so I think we're stable.
To answer that question dead on, I think our pricing is stable right now in terms of representing a pool, at least on the consumer side, because that's where we price the business, representing a pool of cost inputs. And we'll just keep watching it. I've always said that we can't predict where this market's going, but what we can do is be ready to change if it goes up or down to be able to be ready. So that's how we are approaching this.
Thank you very much. Great color.
Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question, please press star one on your touch-tone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. There are no further questions at this time. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Dino for final closing remarks. Please go ahead.
Great. I want to thank everyone for joining us on this call today. We look forward to speaking with you again following the release of our fourth quarter results. Thank you and have an amazing day.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.