Luxfer Holdings (LXFR) Q4 2024 earnings call transcript

Thank you, Beau, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to LUXFER's fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call. This morning, we'll be reviewing LUXFER's financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2024. I'm pleased to be joined today by Andy Butcher, our Chief Executive Officer, and Steve Webster, our Chief Financial Officer. Today's webcast is accompanied by a presentation that can be accessed at LUXFER. com. Please note any references to non-GAAP financials are reconciled in the appendix of the presentation. Before we begin, a friendly reminder that any forward-looking statements made about the company's expected financial results are subject to future risks and uncertainties. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Please refer to the Safe Harbor Statement on slide 2 of today's presentation for further details. During today's call, we will be providing adjusted fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results, excluding graphic arts business and legal recoveries or expenses from both 2024 and 2023.

Now, let me introduce LUXFER CEO, Andy Butcher. Please turn to slide three. Andy, please go ahead.

Thank you, Kevin. And good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I'd like to start by expressing my sincere appreciation to all LUXFER associates for their extraordinary efforts throughout 2024. Their dedication enabled us to achieve solid margin improvements despite a slight decline in revenue, to generate robust cash flow, to reduce our net leverage significantly, and to continue to return meaningful capital to shareholders through dividends, all while positioning LUXFER for sustainable long-term success. GUE4 was especially pleasing, with elevated revenues and gross margins, strong adjusted earnings per share of 29 cents, and very significant cash generation. Overall, 2024 was pivotal for LUXFER as we sharpened our focus on core competencies and took decisive steps to enhance operational efficiencies.

A strategic review in late 2023 identified key initiatives, including the planned sale of our graphic arts business, which no longer aligns with our margin and profitability targets. This sale remains on track for completion in the first half of 2025, enabling us to streamline our portfolio and concentrate on higher margin opportunities. We strengthened our manufacturing operations in 2024 by securing raw material supplies, and we finalized additional long-term agreements with customers.

We also remain attentive in assessing market conditions to maximize future shareholder value. I want to briefly remind you of some of the specific achievements of 2024. In 2004, we executed on our new SCBA cylinder contracts, navigated strong second-half cyclical demand in both our flameless Russian heaters and our powders businesses, completed the sale of our Lakehurst property, and benefited from critical operational consolidations. In particular, the amalgamation of our powders facilities has already driven higher efficiency and performance, and the simplification of our gas cylinders operations at one of our U. S. manufacturing sites has led to positive momentum.

All these operational improvements directly contributed to delivering adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.7% for the fall year, demonstrating our strong financial and operational execution.

As we enter 2025, we remain mindful of ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties, including geopolitical tensions, evolving trade policies, and changing tariffs, which could create demand and cost pressures. However, the strategic initiatives undertaken in 2024 have positioned us to remain flexible and responsive. Our deep industry expertise, ongoing investments in R&D, and commitment to delivering high-quality, specialised products will be critical as we address potential headwinds. While external variables remain a factor, we are confident in our ability to execute on new commercial opportunities and position LUXFER for sustainable, long-term success.

With that, I will hand the We will provide a more detailed review of our financials and share our 2025 guidance. Steve?

Thanks Andy and good morning everyone. Now let's turn to slide 4. In the fourth quarter we delivered strong results. Sales were $96 million with gross profit at $22.5 million, yielding a 23.4% gross margin. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $13.8 million, with a 14.4% margin, while adjusted EPS rose to $0.29, up 61% year-over-year.

Cash flow from operations was significant at $25.7 million, and net debt was reduced to $41 million, marking a reduction of $28.9 million in 2024. Looking at the sales bridge, revenue growth was driven by defence demand in Electron, including significant pull-ins of 2025 orders totalling over $3 million, while minor FX headwinds and softer alternative fuel volumes in gas cylinders provided a partial offset.

Turning to the profit bridge, adjusted EBITDA has improved from $9.5 million to $13.8 million, aided by net deflation and favorable volume and mix. We were particularly pleased with the EBITDA margin increase management as well as the impact of the market of two non-recurring items, being the recovery of historic legal costs and the proceeds of the land sale. You can find these financials along with full-year bridges in the appendix.

Now let's turn to slide 5 for a detailed review of Electron's fourth quarter financial performance. In the fourth quarter, Electron delivered robust performance with sales rising 31.6% year-over-year to $47.5 million. This uplift was propelled by strong demand for defence materials, especially MREs and flares, as well as ongoing growth in transportation sales for our automotive alloy.

While underlying sales dipped from the third quarter, the early 2025 order pull-ins helped offset some seasonal slowing in other end markets. Transportation sales increased overall, although automotive catalysis continued to face headwinds from competitive pressures and market weakness. Meanwhile, general industrial remained subdued, reflecting broader macro softness.

Adjusted EBITDA increased to $9.4 million, representing a 19.8% margin, up significantly from the prior year, and marking our fourth consecutive quarter of margin expansion. These gains were primarily driven by increased sales volumes and optimized product mix.

Turning briefly to the full year, Electron delivered further margin expansion supported by cost discipline and favorable product mix in key end markets. This performance highlights our ongoing commitment to driving sustainable profit improvement through operational efficiencies and targeted capital deployments.

Now, please turn to slide 6 for a detailed review of Gas Cylinder's fourth quarter financial results. Gas Cylinders ended the fourth quarter with $48.5 million in sales, down about 6% year over year, but up 14% from Q3, reflecting sequential gains across most product lines. Compared to a particularly strong prior year, defence first response and healthcare demand overall was relatively flat. General Industrial also remained stable, while transportation was weighed down by weaker alternative fuel sales in North America, partly offset by stronger aerospace revenues, as well as increased hydrogen mobility demand in Europe.

Adjusted EBITDA came in at $4.4 million, representing a 9.1% margin, down 350 basis points from Q4 last year, largely due to unfavourable mix and lower production leverage. Despite the margin pressure, contractual pricing improvements and operational efficiencies at our North America facilities helped mitigate the impact. For the full year, sales were essentially flat, with higher SCBA demand offset by a weaker alternative fuel market.

Nonetheless, we saw margin improvement from contractual renegotiations and leaner operations. Going forward, gas cylinders remain focused on disciplined cost management and targeted investments to support further operational efficiency gains, with long-term profitable growth coming from its alternative fuel segments.

Now please turn to slide 7 for full year 2025 guidance. As we enter 2025, economic uncertainties persist, but we remain focused on innovation and operational efficiencies from the LUXFER business system. positioning us to maintain margins and drive long-term profitability. While we anticipate revenue to remain flat compared to 2024, we project adjusted EPS in the range of 95 cents to $1.05, and adjusted EBITDA between $48 million and $52 million. Disciplined cost management and product mix optimization should support margin expansion over time. We remain committed to a strong balance sheet and expect free cash flow of $20 million to $25 million, reflecting the absence of 2024's one-time legal recovery and land sale benefits, alongside higher cash taxes and increased investments in efficiency and growth opportunities.

Our plan is to keep full-year net debt to EBITDA around 0.7 times, while maintaining current dividend and share buyback levels. Despite macroeconomic uncertainties, we are confident that our strategic focus, operational discipline, and commitment to innovation position LUXFER for long-term value creation.

Now I'd like to turn the call back to Andy for further comments on the outlook for 2025.

Thanks, Steve. Before we move on to the next slide, I firstly want to provide additional context on how we see 2025 shaping up. We anticipate relatively unchanged business performance over the full year, with some near-term headwinds. Within clean energy, market dynamics remain mixed. While Europe remains committed to hydrogen adoption, the pace of new program launches has slowed, leading to softer demand in the short term. In addition, zirconium autocatalysis continues to face pressure from lower-cost competitors, and the adoption of CNG-powered engines in North America is sluggish and has attracted new competitive cylinder capability, delaying our anticipated growth in that segment.

As a result of this, as well as the previously mentioned pull-forward of Q1 2025 orders into Q4 2024, we do expect this year's Q1 earnings to be softer than those in last year's first quarter. Despite those temporary near headwinds though our core business remains strong Electron continues to benefit from consistent demand for flameless ration heaters and other defence applications reinforcing this arena role as a steady contributor to growth At the same time we maintain a strong market position in SCBA where first responder and municipal agency funding has to date provided baseline stability and aerospace margins and volumes continue to improve As we navigate these market conditions, we are maintaining a disciplined focus on execution, operational efficiency, and long-term growth opportunities.

This brings me to an important point. While the near-term environment in clean energy is mixed, we continue to invest in the right technologies to be ready when demand accelerates. Please turn to slide eight. One of the ways we are ensuring long-term success is through the LUXFER business system, which continues to drive innovation, operational excellence, and strategic execution across our business.

A key example of this is our progress in hydrogen transportation solutions. While near-term hydrogen market adoption remains measured, we believe this sector will grow significantly over time, as global investments in clean energy infrastructure continue. By applying principles such as lean operations, standardized processes, and data-driven decision-making, we've successfully developed our GSTOR GO hydrosphere trailers and our GSTOR PRO bundle cylinder packs.

These next-generation modules have now cleared a critical step toward commercialization in Europe, gaining key certifications for bulk hydrogen storage. Our G-Store Pro bundle significantly outperforms steel-based solutions, storing a substantially greater amount of hydrogen in a lighter footprint. Meanwhile, our G-Store Go hydrosphere design reduces cylinder count and overall weight, translating into safer, more efficient transport as hydrogen adoption scales. We've already seen initial customer interest, reinforcing our confidence in the long-term revenue opportunities for these innovations.

I am pleased to confirm that we have recently completed, on schedule, the manufacture of our first 40-foot module in our expanded UK facility, as seen on this slide, hitting an important milestone in our clean energy journey and demonstrating how we bring advanced products to market efficiently and effectively.

Looking ahead, these award-winning next-generation transportation modules have the potential to be a key enabler of hydrogen adoption as the market evolves. Supported by the discipline and agility of the LUXFER business system, our clean energy strategy positions us to succeed in this space as the transition gains momentum in the coming years. As we close today's presentation, I want to take a few moments to summarize our progress in 2024 and how LUXFER is positioned for long-term success. Please turn to slide 9.

First, we continued to execute with discipline during 2024, driving strong cash generation and reinforcing our financial foundation. This stability allows us to invest in strategic initiatives while maintaining flexibility to adapt to evolving market conditions.

Second, we advanced clean energy innovation, securing critical European certifications for our GSTOR GO hydrosphere trailers, reinforcing our ability to serve the evolving hydrogen economy as demand develops.

Third, our focus on operational excellence continued to deliver results. We posted sustained margin improvements, demonstrating the efficiency and discipline embedded in our operations. Fourth, we made significant strategic progress, capitalising on our facility consolidations and remaining on track to complete the sale of our graphic hours business in the first half of 2025, allowing us to sharpen our focus on core growth areas.

Finally, as we enter 2025, we remain well positioned to navigate macroeconomic uncertainties. With a continued focus on innovation, disciplined execution, and strategic investments, we are confident in our ability to create long-term value for both our customers and shareholders. These achievements reflect our commitment to strengthening LUXFER for the future, balancing I will now turn the call back to the operator for the Q&A session. So, please go ahead.

Good morning, Steve. Yes, thank you. We are very pleased with 2024 and particularly Q4. The two specific pull forwards that we've quantified in our release at $3.4 million were both in defense and both initiated by customers. The largest was related to flameless ration heaters. There's been a strong award from the U. S. government under MRE, Meals Ready to Eat, 45. And so a pull forward was initiated by both the food packers and the military, such that some of that was shipped in 2024.

The second was a FLAIRS power export order. Those two together are the $3.4 million. Separately, we also identified some pull forwards and overstocking at alternative fuel customers in CNG, although we've not quantified that.

All correct, Steve. Despite the current slowing, I would say the potential growth in CNG in North America remains very, very exciting. Overall, our Class 8 truck market is expected to decline in 2025. There's a reduced fleet expansion and some high inventory levels. For example, preliminary Class A truck orders in January were down 50% year-on-year, and within that, conversion to CNG by new fleet operators I would describe as measured, careful, thoughtful, initial trials.

Nevertheless, as you mentioned, we've now seen three of the truck OEM brands offering trucks with the X15N CNG engine. So we've projected our related cylinder sales to be quite light in early 2025, and strengthening somewhat as we move later into the year. I guess the key takeaway is that this market is going to be lumpy and competitive for a while. But we've an approved lightweight product. It's been used by one of the major system providers, and we do expect to benefit as the market develops.

Yeah, thanks Steve, I'll take that. As I said, I think last quarter we were expecting to complete the sale in the first half of this year. Andy's confirmed that in the prepared remarks. I'm pleased to say that we're actually working on an exclusive basis with a buyer. We're quite excited. They'll be a good fit for graphic arts. They are working through their diligence now, and as I say, we are on track for a first half close.

Yeah, I'll take that one as well, Steve. So, yeah, I mean, clearly it's a very fast-moving situation. Trade policy hasn't fully developed. Neither have the responses that that may entail. We have put some data in the risk section of our 10K about the relatively minimal impact on our third-party sales, certainly in respect of those countries that have been highly prominent, such as Canada, Mexico, China. And it's relatively minimal. We're talking about sort of 20, 25 million dollars of sales either way. So that's small.

I suppose there is a potential to spread further. So between the US and Europe and the UK, clearly we have manufacturing operations in the UK and the UK electron business will export into the US. Cylinders tends to go the other way. So that could have a financial impact if we're unable to pass on those costs. That said, we're not significantly concerned about it at the moment, Steve.

Thanks, Steve. This is Andy. We were very pleased with our cash generation in 2024, both the underlying cash generation from the businesses, as well as some of those special projects that Steve talked about. So we're projecting CAPEX somewhere in the region of 30% to 40% higher this year, and we have a whole basket of projects related to that. Some of them are around growth and cost reduction, some around infrastructure and maintenance and restructuring. So we've got a nice basket of small but important capital investments, rather than any one or two prominent significant ones. But very pleased with the cash generation of business last year that's supporting that.

Thanks, Steve.

Thank you, Bo. And thank you for joining us today, everyone. As we reflect on 2024, it's clear that the strategic initiatives we've undertaken are delivering meaningful results. Our focus on operational excellence, combined with innovation and disciplined execution, has positioned us to navigate an uncertain macroeconomic environment with confidence.

Looking ahead, 2025 presents both opportunities and challenges. We remain committed to delivering value for our customers, shareholders, and employees by staying agile, improving efficiencies, investing in key growth areas like clean energy, and maintaining our financial strength. I would like to once again thank our associates around the globe for their hard work and dedication. They are the driving force behind LUXFER's success. We are excited about the path ahead and look forward to updating you on our progress in the coming quarters. Thank you for your continued support and confidence in LUXFER.