Greif, an industrial packaging products and services provider, has experienced a 60.1% decrease in net income of $44.4m in the second quarter (Q2) of financial year 2024 (FY24), compared with $111.2m in the same period in FY23.
The company’s diluted earnings per class A share reached $0.77 in Q2 FY24 compared with $1.90 in Q2 FY23.
During the quarter ending 30 April 2024, net sales of Greif saw a rise of 4.8%, reaching $1.37bn, up from $1.30bn in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.
Gross profit for the quarter was down, with Greif recording $270.1m compared to $311.8m in Q2 FY23.
The company's total operating profit for the quarter witnessed a significant drop of 45.8%, standing at $98.1m, a stark contrast to the $181.1m reported in the prior year's quarter.
Its total earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) followed a similar trend, decreasing to $165.1m from $235.1m year-on-year.
Total debt of Greif increased by $626.9m to $2.91bn over the quarter, primarily due to the funding of the Ipackchem acquisition.
Net income for the six months ending 30 April 2024 (H1 FY24) stood at $126.3m as against $209.1m in H1 FY23. Net sales remained flat at $2.57bn in H1 FY24.
Greif CEO Ole Rosgaard said: “We are excited to present another quarter of solid progress on our Build to Last Strategy, including completing our Ipackchem acquisition and achieving multiple other milestones on our Build to Last missions.
“These missions, enabled by operating excellence, are structurally improving our operating efficiency, creating significant operating leverage as we saw continued signs of demand improvement in many of our key regions and end markets during the quarter.
“On the demand side, our second-quarter results exceeded our expectations, however results were impacted by significant negative price or cost in our paper business from the continued delayed recognition of announced price increases.”
Looking ahead to the full year 2024, Greif anticipates adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $675m to $725m.
