Matthews Memorialization segment reports 4Q of lower sales, improved EBITDA

November 27, 2023/Finance/

Here’s what Matthews International CEO Joseph C . Bartolacci had to say in this prepared press release about the company’s 4th Quarter (reflecting an October 1 Fiscal Year beginning) operations of their Memorial segment, “The Memorialization segment also performed well again in the fiscal 2023 fourth quarter, completing a very good year. Despite the continued decline in U.S. deaths (reflecting lower COVID-related deaths), the segment’s sales remained relatively stable compared to a year ago. In addition, adjusted EBITDA for the segment increased for the quarter and fiscal year reflecting improved price realization and continued emphasis on productivity improvements.”

For Matthews 4th Quarter of 2023 (July thru September) the Memorialization segment recorded $204.8 million in sales as compared to the 4th Quarter of 2022 when they recorded $206.2 million and for the fiscal year 2024 Matthews Memorialization recorded sales of $842.9 million as compared to sales of $840.1 for the 2022 fiscal year. Both 4th Quarter 2023 and FY 2023 were within 1% (up or down) to the sales number of the previous year.

However, Matthews International found a way to become more profitable on those almost identical sales as they recorded Adjusted EBITDA for the Memorialization segment for the 2023 fiscal year of $163.9 million as compared to $151.8 million in FY2022. . . .that’s an increase of 18.0%.

Bartolacci comments on Memorialization segment during Earnings Call — Here is a copy from Seeking Alpha of the company’s Earnings Call with analysts made on November 16 and a portion of what CEO Bartolacci said in reference to the Memorialization segment:

“. . . . .I would tell you that when it comes to Memorialization, the team has done an exceptional job and, what I would call, casketed deaths or the death rates are down materially from the peaks. Still had a few of those kind of off-normal kind of months throughout that period. But I would tell you, we’re substantially back. As I look forward, I think the key to this story as it relates to Memorialization is we’ve picked up some share, we’ve picked up some pricing, and we’ve improved our productivity.

And the last part of this, we’ve made several smaller acquisitions that have become extremely accretive to that overall business, and we have some strategies that we’re looking at, which we hope will continue to build on that. So I — again, I don’t think this is a business that’s going to grow double-digit top line or double-digit bottom line into the future, but we expect it to be a modest grower going into the future over the next 5 years.”

Matthews overall business — As you may know, Memorialization is one of three segments that Matthews International operates in. It is the largest by revenue and in fiscal year 2024 brought in $842 million of the company’s total of $1.8 billion in sales. . . .that’s about 44.8% of total company sales.

That is down, however, from the 47.7% of company sales in fiscal 2022. The big reason for that is Matthews burgeoning sales in their Industrial Technologies segment where according to the 4Q press release where CEO Bartolacci states, “2023 sales for this segment exceeded the $500 million target that we set at the beginning of the fiscal year, resulting in growth exceeding 50% over last year’s sales of $335.5 million. Interest in our solutions remains high as we continue to work with auto manufacturers and battery producers in their development of dry battery electrode (DBE) solutions.”

Matthews International website

Related — Falling battery prices will accelerate EV sales: Goldman. Yahoo Finance

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