Innovative Technologies.
Essential Solutions.

Company Initiated a Restructuring and Cost Savings Program

Highlights:

• Operating Margin of 9%, or 12.8% Excluding Special Items, Up 120 bps Sequentially
• Cash Flow from Operations: $79 Million Year-To-Date, More Than Double Prior Year
• Initiated $10 Million Cost Savings Program
• Announced Plan to Exit Talc Business
• Signed Agreement in Brazil to Deploy NewYield® LO Technology
• Published 15th Annual Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report
  

NEW YORK, July 27, 2023 – Minerals Technologies Inc. (NYSE: MTX) (“MTI” or “the Company”) today reported diluted earnings per share of $1.31 excluding special items for the second quarter ended July 3, 2023. Reported earnings per share were $0.82.

“We delivered a solid quarter with continued margin and cash flow improvement. This was driven by our team’s focused execution and the commitment to deliver on our targets. In addition, following our recent re-segmentation, we identified organizational efficiencies that will further streamline our cost structure,” said Douglas T. Dietrich, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

“Further, we announced our subsidiary, Barretts Minerals Inc., will exit from the talc market, and we initiated a sale process. We are also taking prudent steps to ensure that any liabilities associated with talc are dealt with effectively and efficiently,” said Mr. Dietrich.

Second Quarter 2023

Worldwide net sales were $552 million, up 1 percent sequentially and down 1 percent from the prior year. Foreign exchange had an unfavorable impact of approximately $8 million or 1 percentage point.

Operating income was $50 million. Excluding special items, operating income was $71 million, up 12 percent sequentially and 4 percent below the prior year as the Company continues to catch up on inflationary cost increases through higher pricing. Operating margin excluding special items was 12.8 percent, a 120 basis point improvement sequentially.

The Company recorded special items of $20.7 million, primarily consisting of severance costs of $6.6 million related to a restructuring program and $13.9 million of additional litigation costs. The litigation costs were incurred to defend against and restore its reserve for claims associated with certain talc products from the Barretts Minerals Inc. subsidiary. The Company previously announced that it will exit the talc business following a strategic review of its operations and amidst the backdrop of the talc-related litigation environment.

Consumer & Specialties segment sales were $290 million in the second quarter, down 2 percent sequentially and up 3 percent over the prior year.

Household & Personal Care sales were $126 million, down 3 percent sequentially and up 6 percent from the prior year as the impact from our pricing actions and continued strong demand for our pet litter products more than offset mixed demand conditions across other consumer end markets. Specialty Additives sales were $165 million, down 2 percent sequentially and flat over the prior year.

Segment operating income was $34 million, excluding special items, up 5 percent sequentially and 1 percent over the prior year. Operating margin excluding special items was 11.7 percent, up 90 basis points sequentially as the segment benefitted from pricing actions and strong demand for pet litter. Reported segment operating income was $19 million, or 6.7 percent of sales.

Additionally, the Company announced that it has entered into an agreement with a leading pulp and paper company to deploy MTI’s sustainable New Yield® LO Precipitated Calcium Carbonate (PCC) technology at an existing plant in Brazil.

The Consumer & Specialties segment provides technologically enhanced products to consumer-driven end markets, including mineral-to-shelf household products, as well as specialty additives that become functional components in a variety of consumer and industrial goods. This segment includes two product lines: Household & Personal Care and Specialty Additives.

Engineered Solutions segment sales were $261 million in the second quarter, up 5 percent sequentially, but 5 percent below the prior year.

High-Temperature Technologies sales were $183 million, an increase of 2 percent sequentially and 2 percent below the prior year driven by soft steel market conditions in Europe. Environmental & Infrastructure sales were $79 million, 12 percent higher sequentially but 10 percent lower than the prior year due to the weak commercial construction market conditions in North America.

Segment operating income was $38 million excluding special items, 9 percent higher sequentially, but 8 percent lower than the prior year. Operating margins represented 14.7 percent of sales, excluding special items. Reported segment operating income was $35 million and 13.5 percent of sales.

The Engineered Solutions segment provides advanced process technologies and solutions that are designed to improve our customers’ manufacturing processes and projects. This segment includes two product lines: High-Temperature Technologies and Environmental & Infrastructure.  

Company-wide cost savings program

MTI has initiated a cost savings program, primarily through workforce reductions. The annualized savings from the program will be approximately $10 million, beginning late in the third quarter of 2023 and achieving full run-rate in the first half of 2024. The Company will provide additional details in the coming quarters as part of its regular earnings reporting cycle.

-----------------
Minerals Technologies will host a conference call tomorrow, July 28, 2023, at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. The live earnings webcast can be accessed at https://investors.mineralstech.com/quarterly-results-conference-calls. A presentation for the call will be available at the same location at approximately 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on July 28, 2023.
-----------------

Read Full Press Release

Q2 Conference call event details

Transcript

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release may contain "forward‐looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations and forecasts of future events such as new products, revenues and financial performance, and are not limited to describing historical or current facts. They can be identified by the use of words such as “believes,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends,” “anticipates,” and other words and phrases of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on assumptions, estimates and limited information available at the time they are made. A broad variety of risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, as well as the inaccuracy of assumptions and estimates, can affect the realization of the expectations or forecasts in these statements. Actual future results may vary materially. Significant factors that could affect the expectations and forecasts include worldwide general economic, business, and industry conditions; the cyclicality of our customers’ businesses and their changing regional demands; our ability to compete in very competitive industries; consolidation in customer industries, principally paper, foundry and steel; our ability to renew or extend long term sales contracts for our satellite operations; our ability to generate cash to service our debt; our ability to comply with the covenants in the agreements governing our debt; our ability to effectively achieve and implement our growth initiatives or consummate the transactions described in the statements; our ability to successfully develop new products; our ability to defend our intellectual property; the increased risks of doing business abroad; the availability of raw materials and access to ore reserves at our mining operations, or increases in costs of raw materials, energy, or shipping; compliance with or changes to regulation in the areas of environmental, health and safety, and tax; claims for legal, environmental and tax matters or product stewardship issues; the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting preventative measures; operating risks and capacity limitations affecting our production facilities; seasonality of some of our businesses; cybersecurity and other threats relating to our information technology systems; and other risk factors and cautionary statements in our 2022 Annual Report on Form 10‐K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward‐looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.