Graphic Packaging Holding Company Jefferies Global Industrials Conference 2026

Well, good morning, everyone, and thank you to Jefferies for organizing this great conference, and thanks, Phil, for hosting us and inviting us. Before we get started with the fireside chat, I'd just like to say a couple of things about Graphic Packaging. We are one of the leading fiber-based packaging companies in the world. We create Graphic Packaging with designs. You may be interacting with us 10 times a day without knowing it, when you open your toothpaste box, when you're opening your favorite cereal brand, when you're getting your favorite value meal at the leading quick-service restaurant. Our brands are pretty much everywhere. We have a global operation, and we're a leader in sustainable consumer packaging. We have 5 mills, very large milling operations. Kalamazoo, Michigan, Waco, Texas, Macon, Georgia, West Monroe, Louisiana, and Texarkana in Texas.

We have 2 mills in Texas and pretty much one in the Midwest, and then a couple in the South. We have about 100 packaging converting facilities, and we have operations in 26 countries. We are actually not a commodity seller. We sell a very premium product in very close partnership, and we have over 3,000 patents. Some of our most famous patents are the Fridge Vendor, which is the fridge pack that you can get with maybe a Pepsi or a Coke or a Dr Pepper. So think about the fridge pack. We have KeelClip, which is a very innovative replacement of plastic for cans. A paper cover gives you new real estate to print graphics on. Boardio is a great technology we sell. And we have very strong relationships with the leading consumer packaged goods companies in the world. We're very diversified. We have businesses in the food industry, food service, pet food, beverages, household care, healthcare, wellness, and beauty, and we're basically in multiple corners of the store and we're in quick-service restaurants.

We are very well invested as a company. We have very competitively advantaged, I would say, packaging assets with a very deep bench of talent. So great operations organization, great operators across 26 countries. Now, why are we a very good company to invest in? We've been at a very heavy investment cycle. So we've invested heavily in our infrastructure. Most recently, we built the Waco recycled board mill in Texas, and we're very proud of that asset, and that's going to be a long-term, durable, competitive advantage in our recycled platform. We are now focused on generating cash, so the investment cycle is behind us.

We're going to be a free cash flow generative business for the years to come, and we're strengthening our commercial approach really focused on revenue management, so revenue growth management, and driving more profitable growth. We are also driving cost discipline, so a lot of productivity efforts, which include, earlier this year, a reduction in force, and really getting ahead of the inflation that's hitting all of us in this industry and in consumer packaged goods. We're implementing best practices as well, and we're streamlining our processes. A big part of the work we're doing is portfolio and footprint optimization. You've probably heard that this quarter we're closing 2 facilities and redividing the volume across our existing facilities, really driving cost transformation. Most recently, we've launched, I should say we've relaunched into uncoated recycled board, URB. We used to sell URB from Middletown, Ohio.

We've just got back in that business, and it's going ahead of schedule, and it's really helping us with filling the Waco asset and also driving cost absorption. Again, we're very pleased to be here, Phil. Thank you for inviting us, and I suggest we get into the Q&A for the fireside chat.

Thanks for your question. Yeah, I have been here 8 months.

Yeah. After about 30 years in consumer packaged goods.

I started in 1996 in Procter & Gamble, worked in Europe, worked in South America, in Caracas, worked in Cincinnati three times, based in Geneva. I worked in Central East Europe, Middle East Africa. Then went to Kimberly-Clark, where I spent a number of years in the U.S. and in Australia. Then joined PepsiCo Australia, New Zealand, and then ran Quaker Oats in Chicago. I was the President of Quaker Foods North America, and after that, I was the CEO of Primo Water and created Primo Brands, which is a big merger between two beverage companies. 30 years in CPG, and I found myself moving into the packaging industry as a former customer with all the insights that I had around the challenges I had with the consumer.

The first thing I would have said, Phil, is the business is very resilient. Our volume is on track, right? Also for the quarter, we are surprisingly resilient, and part of that is really how diversified we are, as I said, across food, beverage, food service, 26 markets around the world. The second one is that we have a really strong foundation.

Yeah. Especially after building Waco.

Waco was overspent, but now that we are beyond that, we actually are really enjoying the benefits of this incredible recycled platform that we have. We have a long track record of serving global customers, very strong relationships with those customers, and we can help them win. That is really what we are focused on right now through surety of supply, through our capabilities, our innovation, our speed to market, our lead times, and our well-distributed manufacturing network, converting network across the U.S., Europe, and international markets. The other observation I had was we have a very deep talent bench. We truly are a world-class packaging company, and we are the go-to company for a lot of the largest CPG companies that want to work with the best.