Ball Corp missed fourth-quarter revenue estimates, hit by a drop in demand for its beverage cans as customers tightened their purse strings.
The beer can maker saw weaker volumes in North America, especially in the mass beer segment, facing challenges beyond the impact of the Anheuser-Busch ad boycott issue.
However, Ball also benefited from the cost-reduction initiatives aimed at enhancing operational efficiencies as well as from moderating input, freight and warehousing costs.
North America beverage cans quarterly volumes were down 3.7%.
Fourth-quarter sales declined about 4% to $3.40 billion, falling short of estimates of $3.58 billion, as per LSEG data.
However, lower aluminium costs and cost-cutting initiatives helped the company to earn a profit of 78 cents per share, topping expectations of 74 cents.
Outlook
Daniel W. Fisher, chairperson and CEO of Ball Corp stated, "The resiliency of our team amid a major brand disruption in North America, challenging year-over-year comparisons in EMEA following the 2022 Russian business sale, hyperinflationary effects in Argentina and activities associated with the ongoing aerospace sale process was outstanding.
"Those actions coupled with sequential volume improvement, operational efficiencies and the planned deployment of aerospace sale proceeds to reduce leverage and accelerate share repurchases, position the business for continued diluted earnings per share growth, strong free cash flow generation and return of value to shareholders in 2024 and beyond."
In November of last year, the company missed third-quarter sales estimates, hurt by slowing demand for its beverage cans and business disruption at one of its largest customers in the US.
News by Reuters, additional reporting by ESM.
