Berry Global Reiterates Commitment to Value Creation; Provides Statement Regarding Ancora Holdings Group LLC Letter

Rhea-AI Summary

Berry Global Group, Inc. (NYSE: BERY) addressed a letter from Ancora Holdings Group LLC, affirming its commitment to shareholder engagement and long-term growth. The company emphasizes its strategic portfolio management and capital allocation strategies, which have led to consistent organic growth despite challenges posed by COVID, inflation, and supply chain issues. Berry reports steady cash flow, enabling share repurchases and investments. The management remains open to ideas that enhance shareholder value, while also acknowledging the forward-looking risks that could impact future performance.

Positive

• Achieved targets for third consecutive year of positive organic growth in fiscal 2022.
• Maintained stable cash flow, allowing for opportunistic share repurchases and strategic investments.
• Commitment to shareholder engagement indicated intentions to enhance shareholder value.

Negative

• Risks associated with substantial indebtedness and debt service.
• Vulnerabilities to raw material price fluctuations and inability to pass costs to customers.
• Potential labor issues, including shortages and strikes that could disrupt operations.

EVANSVILLE, Ind.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Berry Global Group, Inc. (NYSE: BERY) today issued the following statement regarding the letter publicly released by Ancora Holdings Group LLC (“Ancora”):

Berry Global’s Board of Directors and management team are committed to acting in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders, and our regular engagement with investors supports our goal of enhancing value. While it is the Company’s policy not to comment on interactions with specific shareholders, it is important to note that members of Berry’s management team have held several discussions with representatives of Ancora over the past year to better understand their views.

We have continued to focus on driving consistent and sustainable long-term growth through strategic portfolio management and a flexible capital allocation strategy while also working diligently to offset the challenges created by COVID, inflation, labor and supply chains. We have successfully achieved our targets over the past several years and expect to drive our third consecutive year of positive organic growth in fiscal 2022.

We continue to build and maintain our world-class, low-cost, manufacturing base, with an emphasis on investment in key growth markets and regions. Our robust, stable and dependable cash flow enables us to return capital to shareholders at favorable terms, while continuing to execute a flexible capital allocation strategy focused on additional opportunistic share repurchases, the paydown of debt and strategic acquisitions or value-enhancing strategic investments.

The Berry Board and management team remain committed to constructive engagement with all shareholders and are always open-minded to ideas that may enhance shareholder value.

About Berry
At Berry Global Group, Inc. (NYSE:BERY), we create innovative packaging and engineered products that we believe make life better for people and the planet. We do this every day by leveraging our unmatched global capabilities, sustainability leadership, and deep innovation expertise to serve customers of all sizes around the world. Harnessing the strength in our diversity and industry leading talent of 47,000 global employees across more than 300 locations, we partner with customers to develop, design, and manufacture innovative products with an eye toward the circular economy. The challenges we solve and the innovations we pioneer benefit our customers at every stage of their journey. For more information, visit our website at www.berryglobal.com.

Forward Looking Statements
Statements in this release that are not historical, including statements relating to the expected future performance of the Company, are considered “forward looking” within the meaning of the federal securities laws and are presented pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “believes,” “expects,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “seeks,” “approximately,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” “estimates,” “projects,” “outlook,” “anticipates” or “looking forward,” or similar expressions that relate to our strategy, plans, intentions, or expectations. All statements we make relating to our estimated and projected earnings, margins, costs, expenditures, cash flows, growth rates, and financial results or to our expectations regarding future industry trends are forward-looking statements. In addition, we, through our senior management, from time to time make forward-looking public statements concerning our expected future operations and performance and other developments.

Our actual results may differ materially from those that we expected due to a variety of factors, including without limitation: (1) risks associated with our substantial indebtedness and debt service; (2) changes in prices and availability of resin and other raw materials and our ability to pass on changes in raw material prices to our customers on a timely basis; (3) risks related to acquisitions or divestitures and integration of acquired businesses and their operations, and realization of anticipated cost savings and synergies; (4) risks related to international business, including foreign currency exchange rate risk and the risks of compliance with applicable export controls, sanctions, anti-corruption laws and regulations; (5) increases in the cost of compliance with laws and regulations, including environmental, safety, and climate change laws and regulations; (6) labor issues, including the potential labor shortages, shutdowns or strikes or the failure to renew effective bargaining agreements; (7) risks related to disruptions in the overall economy, supply chains and the financial markets that may adversely impact our business, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; (8) risk of catastrophic loss of one of our key manufacturing facilities, natural disasters, and other unplanned business interruptions; (9) risks related to the failure of, inadequacy of, or attacks on our information technology systems and infrastructure; (10) risks that our restructuring programs may entail greater implementation costs or result in lower cost savings than anticipated; (11) risks related to future write-offs of substantial goodwill; (12) risks of competition, including foreign competition, in our existing and future markets; and (13) the other factors discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors may not contain all of the material factors that are important to you. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on those statements. All forward-looking statements are based upon information available to us on the date hereof. All forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211130005448/en/

Investor Contact:

Dustin Stilwell

1+812.306.2964

ir@berryglobal.com

Source: Berry Global Group, Inc.

FAQ

What is Berry Global's strategy for shareholder engagement in 2022?

Berry Global is committed to constructive engagement with all shareholders and has held discussions with Ancora Holdings to understand their views.

What financial performance did Berry Global achieve in fiscal 2022?

Berry Global reported its third consecutive year of positive organic growth in fiscal 2022.

How does Berry Global plan to use its cash flow moving forward?

The company plans to use its stable cash flow for share repurchases, debt paydown, and strategic investments.

What risks does Berry Global face in its operations?

Berry Global faces risks from debt service, raw material price fluctuations, labor issues, and potential disruptions from COVID-19.

What is the stock symbol for Berry Global Group?

The stock symbol for Berry Global Group is BERY.