3M Co (NYSE: MMM) Q1 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

3M Company (MMM) Q1 2020 earnings call dated April 28, 2020

Corporate Participants:

Bruce Jermeland — Vice President, Investor Relations

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Analyst:

Andrew Obin — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

Deane Dray — RBC Capital Markets — Analyst

Stephen Tusa — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Nigel Coe — Wolfe Research — Analyst

Julian Mitchell — Barclays — Analyst

Jeffrey Sprague — Vertical Research Partners — Analyst

Joe Ritchie — Goldman Sachs — Analyst

Scott Davis — Melius Research — Analyst

Andrew Kaplowitz — Citigroup — Analyst

Nicole DeBlase — Deutsche Bank — Analyst

John Walsh — Credit Suisse — Analyst

Presentation:

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the 3M First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded Tuesday, April 28, 2020.

I would now like to turn the call over to Bruce Jermeland, Vice President of Investor Relations at 3M.

Bruce Jermeland — Vice President, Investor Relations

Thank you and good morning everyone. Welcome to our First Quarter 2020 Business Review. With me today are Mike Roman, 3M’s Chief Executive Officer; and Nick Gangestad, our Chief Financial Officer. Mike and Nick will make some formal comments and then we’ll take your questions. Please note that today’s earnings release and slide presentation accompanying this call are posted on our Investor Relations website at 3m.com under the heading quarterly earnings.

Please turn to slide 2; before we begin, let me remind you of the dates for our upcoming 2020 quarterly earnings conference calls, which will be held on July 28th, and October 27th. Also, please note, given the uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have not set a date for an Investor Meeting later this year.

Please take a moment to read the forward-looking statement on slide 3. During today’s conference call, we will make certain predictive statements that reflect our current views about 3M’s future performance and financial results. These statements are based on certain assumptions and expectations of future events, that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Item 1A of our most recent Form 10-K lists some of the most important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from our predictions. Finally, throughout today’s presentation, we will be making references to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures can be found in the attachments to today’s press release. Please note, we have provided segment and total company adjusted EBITDA reconciliations for reference, in today’s press release attachments as part of our non-GAAP measures.

Please turn to slide 4, and I’ll hand it off to Mike. Mike?

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Bruce. Good morning, everyone. I hope you and your families are safe and I thank you for joining us. Let me also take this opportunity to say how much we appreciate and admire everything our heroic nurses, doctors and first responders around the world are doing to fight COVID-19, and I’d like to share this sentiment with our employees. In this unprecedented time, I could not be more proud of how you have stepped up to help protect those on the frontlines of this crisis. I would like to also recognize those 3Mers in our manufacturing and distribution sites, who in these most challenging circumstances, continue to work around the clock to accelerate production of respirators and other critical supplies. I thank all of our people for your tireless efforts and your incredible work.

At 3M, we have a unique and critical responsibility in pandemic preparedness and response. Our response throughout COVID-19 has been guided by our purpose as an enterprise, and shaped by these three principles; first an uncompromising commitment to the safety of our employees. Second, fighting the pandemic with urgency from all angles, including everything we’re doing to help protect healthcare workers and first responders. And third, maintaining business continuity, executing actions to deliver for our customers and shareholders and to lead out of the economic slowdown.

Please turn to slide 5; in January we mobilized 3M’s Crisis Action Team to coordinate our response to COVID-19. This team meets daily to ensure we are addressing our highest priorities, which as I mentioned, starts with protecting the safety and well-being of our people. Our learnings from China, which was impacted by the virus first, helped guide our actions worldwide, and made a significant difference in our ability to rapidly prepare and respond. We moved quickly to implement remote work where possible across the enterprise, and today, approximately half of our employees are working from home, including myself. In our plants and other facilities, were remote work isn’t feasible, we have instituted robust safety protocols. These include stringent cleaning and medical screening, along with staggering shifts and reorganizing how we work, to increase social distancing.

COVID-19 is impacting all of us, both professionally and personally, but for some, it’s much more serious than others. For 3Mers personally affected by the virus, we have implemented pandemic support policies to help protect their pay and benefits, and allow them to take care of themselves and their families. The situation is changing daily, sometimes hourly, and we will continue to assess the safety of our people and facilities, to ensure their well-being and comply with government directives.

Please turn to slide 6; as we protect our own employees, we continue to work urgently to protect the public, including healthcare workers and first responders. 3M is a long-time leader in personal safety, with a range of science-based solutions for respiratory, face, hearing, and fall protection, which goes to the heart of our vision of improving every life. This includes our N95 respirators, which 3M pioneered nearly 50 years ago and which we have continuously refined and improved ever since. Our largest production of N95 respirators is in the U.S. at two plants in South Dakota and Nebraska and we also manufacture them in Asia-Pacific, Europe and Latin America.

After SARS in the early 2000s, we made the decision to prepare for future crises by investing in significant surge capacity at each of our respirator plants around the world. This additional capacity has largely remained idle for the last two decades, except for emergencies such as H1N1, the Japanese tsunami, and wildfires in California and Australia. As you know, compared to prior emergencies, COVID-19 has caused an unprecedented explosion in demand. When the virus broke out, we were able to immediately activate our surge capacity and maximize production to support the public health response.

Beginning in January, 3M doubled our global output of N95 respirators to 1.1 billion per year, or about 100 million per month, including 35 million per month in the U.S. We’ve made additional investments and are also working with the Department of Defense to double annual production once again, to 2 billion by the end of this year, with additional capacity already beginning to come online. In the U.S., we will be producing N95 respirators at a rate of roughly 50 million per month in June, a 40% increase from current levels.

We are also partnering with other companies on innovative solutions to protect those on the frontlines. In collaboration with multiple sterilization companies, we have introduced new methods for hospitals to safely clean and reuse their N95 respirators. We are also working with Ford and Cummins to expand production of 3M’s powered air purifying respirators, with a plan to increase capacity by tenfold within the next 60 to 90 days. Protecting people in this crisis is not just a 3M challenge, it’s an industry-wide challenge. Even with 3M’s accelerated production, the stark reality is that global demand for respirators far outpaces the ability of the entire industry to deliver. That is why, as we urgently expand capacity, we are also prioritizing and triaging our supplies to the most critical needs. We moved quickly, within days of regulatory approval to redirect more than 90% of our respirators into healthcare, with the rest deployed to other critical industries, such as energy and food.

Within individual regions and countries, we are working with government agencies, such as FEMA and distribution partners to identify and serve hotspots. In addition, as the pandemic unfolds in different stages globally, we are working with governments to address trade restrictions and regulatory standards, so we can redirect supplies around the world. For example, in early April, 3M and the U.S.government announced a plan to import 166 million respirators, primarily from our plant in China. 20 million of these respirators have already shipped via the FEMA air bridge, with a total of 40 million expected by the end of this month. This would not have been possible without the partnership with the White House. I would like to thank the President and his team for their leadership. The FDA for extending its emergency use authorization, and FEMA for their work and expediting the import of product to the U.S. This plan is enabling us to maximize support for the U.S. and other areas in urgent need, including Europe, Central and Latin America and Canada. We also continue to aggressively fight fraud, price gouging and other illegal and unethical activity. 3M has not and would never raise prices as a result of this crisis, and we are executing a multi-pronged strategy to pursue and deter unscrupulous behavior that is causing real harm to the public. We created a fraud hotline, published our list prices for N95 respirators, and are collaborating closely with partners to ensure that supply chains are secure. While virtually all of those engaging in predatory practices have no relationship with 3M, we have in a few instances, terminated distributors in our industrial channel for acting unethically or in violation of their agreements. We have also filed multiple lawsuits and continue to make referrals to law enforcement, takedown counterfeit websites, and remove deceptive social media posts.

Beyond personal protective equipment, 3M science is leading the fight against COVID-19 in other significant areas as well. We are providing biopharma filtration and purification solutions to support the development of vaccines and therapeutics, including multiple drugs in current trials. Our advanced membrane technology is being utilized in blood oxygenation procedures and medical devices, vital treatments for some of the sickest patients. We are helping hospitals in New York City and elsewhere quickly connect their temporary facilities and are providing leading software and coding solutions at no cost during this critical period of time, enabling frontline workers to better manage the surge in patient volume. 3M has also donated $20 million to support healthcare workers, vulnerable populations and scientific research. In summary, I am proud of how 3M is helping lead the fight against COVID-19 and we have launched a comprehensive site on 3m.com with more details on our response and other valuable information.

Please turn to slide 7. 3M is leading from a position of strength, and in these challenging times, the benefits of our business model has never been clearer. We are a science and manufacturing powerhouse, with strong capabilities and brands across the world, with our greatest capabilities here in the United States. In the U.S., we have nearly 80 manufacturing plants and distribution centers anchoring communities in 29 states across the country. 3M has never left our home country, and has continuously expanded our U.S. capabilities. Over half of our research and development and capital investments are in the U.S., and every year we export $5 billion in goods to other nations from our robust U.S. manufacturing base. At the same time, over the decades, we have also built out robust capabilities around the world, to be close to customers and better serve the unique needs of regional and local markets. These global capabilities include plants and distribution centers in 54 countries, along with three global R&D centers in Asia and Europe. In this crisis, our model has enabled us to respond with agility and at scale, including the rapid deployment of personal safety equipment that we just talked about. It is also enabling us to maintain business continuity, continue to serve our customers, and ensure the integrity of our supply chain, which brings me to slide 8.

I am pleased how our team is managing through the pandemic and adjusting our operations to the realities of this fast-changing situation. This includes working closely with our customers to modify our supply and demand plans. Our critical sites are fully operational, though we have implemented some targeted plant or line shutdowns due to weak customer demand or government mandates. Overall, as of late April, roughly three quarters of our plants and distribution centers remain fully or partially operational, and to support 3Mers impacted by shutdowns, we have implemented a short-term paid furlough program. In this crisis, I’m especially encouraged with the benefits we are seeing from the new global operating model we rolled out at the start of this year. As part of our new model, we consolidated manufacturing, supply chain and customer operations into a seamless end-to-end enterprise operations organization. This team is enabling us to maintain strong customer service, streamline decision-making, and adjust faster than ever to the external environment.

As an example, we have reduced our production planning cycle times by 70% across our portfolio of businesses. In addition, our new Corporate Affairs Organization has increased our collaboration with governments around the world, while enhancing our employee and community engagement. Beyond our operations, we are also executing financial actions to deliver 2020, and set us up for success in 2021 and beyond. We are maintaining critical investments in organic growth through R&D, including in personal safety and other priority areas. At the same time, we are aggressively managing costs, a continuation of our relentless focus on efficiency and productivity improvements. We have already implemented sharp spending reductions, including a global hiring freeze, limiting our use of temporary contract workers, and cutting indirect costs across the enterprise. In total, we expect these reductions to result in cost savings of $350 million to $400 million in the second quarter.

We’re also adjusting capex plans, as we delay or experience slowdowns in certain projects, and we have suspended our share repurchase programs as of March 20th. Importantly, we remain committed to our dividend as a high priority for capital allocation. Overall, these steps will help protect our company, as we manage through this uncertain period, and we are prepared to respond with additional actions as needed.

Please turn to slide 9; given the diversity of our businesses, the financial impact of COVID-19 is mixed across 3M. Some areas of our portfolio are experiencing high demand, while others are facing steep declines. In the first quarter, we saw strong growth in personal safety, as well as in other areas such as home improvement, retail cleaning products, food safety and biopharma filtration. At the same time, we saw weak demand in several other end markets, with the biggest slowdowns in oral care, automotive, aerospace and general industrial. The slowdowns in these markets accelerated in the second half of March, as many countries began to shutdown their economies.

With respect to geographic trends, we saw mixed performance across Asia Pacific with significant declines early in the year and gradual improvement in March. The Americas held steady through most of the quarter, with the U.S. up 4%, though beginning in mid-March, we saw significant deceleration in both the Americas and EMEA. All in, we delivered organic growth companywide of 30 basis points, along with adjusted earnings of $2.16 per share. Solid margins of 21% and a double-digit increase in cash flow.

In summary, I’m confident in our ability to lead through this crisis and emerge even stronger. Our execution against our four strategic priorities, portfolio, transformation, innovation and people and culture, has positioned us well, leading into this downturn. Going forward, a continued focus on these priorities, combined with the actions we are taking will enable us to deliver even greater value for our customers, shareholders and all stakeholders, as the economy recovers.

That wraps up my opening comments, I’ll come back to discuss our guidance after Nick takes you through the details of the quarter. Nick?

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Mike and good morning everyone. I will start on slide 10 and review the first quarter P&L highlights. Company-wide, first quarter sales were $8.1 billion with adjusted operating income of $1.7 billion, and adjusted operating margins of 20.8%. On the right hand side of this slide, you see the components of our margin performance in the first quarter. Solid underlying productivity in the quarter, along with benefits from our Q2 2019 restructuring actions, contributed 40 basis points to the margins. This result includes COVID-19 related asset write-downs, which negatively impacted margins by 40 basis points. Acquisitions and divestitures combined reduced margins by 90 basis points. This impact is primarily due to the integration and amortization costs associated with our acquisition of Acelity.

Higher selling prices along with lower raw material costs, together contributed 40 basis points to first quarter margins. And finally, foreign currency, net of hedging impacts, reduced margins by 40 basis points. Let’s now turn to slide 11 for a closer look at earnings per share. First quarter adjusted earnings were $2.16 per share, down 3% year-over-year.

Looking at the components of our year-on-year earnings performance, solid productivity and benefits from Q2 2019 restructuring actions, increased first quarter per share earnings by $0.07. This includes a negative $0.04 impact from the asset write-downs related to COVID-19 mentioned on the prior slide. Acquisitions and divestitures reduced first quarter earnings by $0.05 per share versus last year, primarily due to the Acelity acquisition. Please note, that this result includes financing costs associated with the acquisition. Foreign currency, net of hedging, was an $0.08 per share headwind in the quarter.

Turning to tax rate; our first quarter adjusted tax rate was 20.6% versus 19.5% last year, lowering earnings per share by $0.03. And finally, average diluted shares outstanding declined 1% versus Q1 last year, adding $0.03 to per share earnings.

Please turn to slide 12 for a discussion of our balance sheet and liquidity. One of the hallmarks of 3M is our strong balance sheet, along with our time tested business model, which generates strong cash flow through economic cycles. As Mike mentioned, we have taken proactive steps during the first quarter to protect and enhance the company’s financial flexibility in this uncertain time.

With respect to our balance sheet, we had cash and marketable securities on hand of $4.5 billion as of the end of March. This includes $1.75 billion in additional liquidity from last month’s debt issuance. We are well capitalized to meet our two upcoming debt maturities, totaling $1.2 billion this year, one in May and another in August. Additionally, we have multiple sources of liquidity. First and foremost, a business that generates strong free cash flow. In the first quarter, we had adjusted free cash flow of approximately $900 million with adjusted free cash flow conversion of 74%. Also, we continue to expect the drug delivery divestiture to close in the second quarter, providing approximately $400 million in after-tax proceeds.

From a capital allocation perspective, our long-term strategy remains unchanged. Our first priority is to invest in our business, and second, maintaining our dividend, and lastly, flexible deployment for M&A and share repurchases. While we continue to invest in the business in the near term, we are taking actions in adjusting our 2020 capital allocation plans. As a result, we are lowering our full year capex budget to approximately $1.3 billion, from a range of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion previously. This expectation includes investing an additional $100 million to continue to expand our output of respirators. In addition, in March, we suspended our share repurchase program, and finally, we are aggressively managing discretionary spending to preserve financial flexibility.

That wraps up my prepared remarks. Please turn to slide 13 and I’ll hand it back over to Mike. Mike?

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Nick. I’ll start by providing an update on the market trends we’re seeing so far in April. On a geographic basis, we’re seeing ongoing improvements in Asia-Pacific, most notably in China, where the virus first emerged. However, we continue to experience significant downturns in the U.S., Europe and Latin America, areas that remain in the throes of the crisis. I can share that we are seeing a slowdown in growth during the first several weeks of Q2, with total company organic growth through late April down in the mid-teens. We anticipate continued strong demand for respirators, which we expect to contribute approximately 150 basis points to company-wide Q2 growth. At the same time, we expect ongoing weakness in other end markets through Q2, including oral care, automotive, office supplies, and general industrial.

Due to this end market uncertainty, at this time, we are unable to adequately quantify the impacts to our business for the remainder of the year. Therefore, we are temporarily withdrawing our 2020 guidance, until we have better visibility of the duration and impact of a slowdown. At this time, we believe Q2 results will be especially challenged, given the trends we have seen so far in April, with revenue and EPS declines year-over-year. In lieu of guidance, starting in May, we will provide monthly updates on how our business is performing and we will continue to provide this, until we are better able to forecast future performance.

Please turn to slide 14. To wrap up, our strong fundamentals and position with customers across industries provides a firm foundation during this time of uncertainty. We may not know the exact shape of the recovery, but we are well prepared for a wide range of scenarios and are taking actions to prepare us to lead out of the slowdown.

Before turning to Q&A, I’d like to once again thank all 3Mers for your tremendous work and for everything you’re doing in this unprecedented moment. I’m very proud to represent 3M and our people around the world. Going forward, we’ll continue to do all we can, to protect our employees, protect our enterprise, and help the world get through this crisis.

That concludes our remarks and we’ll now take your questions.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from the line of Andrew Obin with Bank of America. Please proceed.

Andrew Obin — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

Good morning.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Hey Andrew.

Andrew Obin — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

It was great to 3M finally doing what 3M always does. Congratulations.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Andrew Obin — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

First question just a big picture question, in terms of your capacity additions in non-wovens and specifically respirators, how do you think the industry will change, because you’re not the only ones adding capacity, lots of capacity added in China. All of a sudden, you have Honeywell showing up in North America and Europe. What does it mean for a competitive environment two years out?

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, Andrew. It’s a little hard to look two years out, but certainly as we think about capacity expansion that we’re doing today, a big part of that is — in that category of surge capacity for situations like we’re facing with COVID-19. There is going to be, we think, a significant tail to demand in this. You can look out, there is demand from governments, from healthcare and there is also ongoing demand in the industry as the industry comes back from economic slowdown. So we’re mapping all of that into our capacity, and then we’re working with governments and the Department of Defense in the U.S. to plan for capacity that will be dedicated to their needs in a COVID-like crisis. So I think it’s really lined up well with what we see as ongoing market and industry demand and we’re looking obviously broader than just our capacity, we’re looking at the marketplace, and the capabilities and it’s — and we’re focusing here on N95 and really respiratory solutions that meet those requirements.

So I think it has got to a view as far as we can see it. As we look out further beyond, you said a couple of years out, it’s going to depend on where we end up in those big end markets, healthcare and industrial.

Andrew Obin — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

And just on an unrelated topic, I think there were some news items, I think Bloomberg reported some sort of developments in the hearing protection lawsuits. Can you just — and it’s interesting, I guess the messages on pricing and disclosure. And I guess [Indecipherable] if you guys actually published lists for N95. But can you just comment, where you are in terms of this hearing protection lawsuit and any comment sort of on the Bloomberg article? Thank you.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Thank you, Andrew. Let me start here; 3M has great respect for the brave men and women who protect us around the world, and we have a long history of partnering with the U.S. military, and we continue to be committed to making safe products. We’ve worked in close coordination with them and 3M did not withhold information from the government about fit and use of this product. The narrative out there is misleading and really lacks context. So I think it’s — we will defend ourselves and we deny that our product was defectively designed. So I would just say that that narrative is very misleading.

Andrew Obin — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

Thank you very much and congratulations on the quarter.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Andrew.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Andrew.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Deane Dray with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Deane Dray — RBC Capital Markets — Analyst

Thank you. Good morning everyone.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Good morning Deane.

Deane Dray — RBC Capital Markets — Analyst

Hey, I’d also like to add my appreciation for all that 3M has done to help healthcare workers globally, and in my view, that’s exactly the kind of corporate citizen we’d expect 3M to respond, and so congratulations to everybody.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks Deane. Thank you.

Deane Dray — RBC Capital Markets — Analyst

A number of companies have, in lieu of considering suspending guidance, they have been offering some scenario analysis or sensitivity in terms of how the year could play out in terms of decrementals, margins. Can you take a stab at that and how might this all compare to the financial crisis of 2008-2009, if we use that as kind of a benchmark? Could we start there please?

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah Deane. I’ll take that one. First of all, of course we, like I think any other company, we’re going through a number of scenarios and while I don’t plan to share the different scenarios, because this is a dynamic situation. Couple of things I will share. First of all, we, as Mike noted, as we go through this quarter until we really see a reason to change that, we’re going to be providing monthly revenue to give you the insight of what’s going on with our businesses in different geographies. In addition, you heard my talk about the cost saving actions that we’ve implemented for Q2, and inclusive of that, we expect in the second quarter, that we will be seeing decremental margins between 30% and 40%, and now that’s inclusive of the $350 million to $400 million of cost saving actions. So between sharing the revenue each month as we see it, and our view on decremental margins, we think that gives you some insight as to what you can be expecting from us, from an earnings perspective, as we’re going forward.

Deane Dray — RBC Capital Markets — Analyst

That’s a helpful start. And then could you also clarify, since this is — and we appreciate getting the monthly revenue updates. You just suggested that we could be getting it by geography. Will you also be sharing — will it be organic, and also by segment?

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

We think organic is the best way to share this and that’s our plan right now. And we do plan to be providing insights of what’s going on by both business and geography.

Deane Dray — RBC Capital Markets — Analyst

Okay. That’s going to be really helpful. So, appreciate it. Just last question, it got cited but not clarified. What would the asset write-downs that were COVID related? You sized it, but what were the businesses and why?

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Those are — within our company we have, what we call New Ventures, where we’re investing venture capital in a number of places of emerging technologies that we think will complement to 3M business model. These were some mark-to-market actions. All are virtually — all were felt within the court miscellaneous aspect of our company.

Deane Dray — RBC Capital Markets — Analyst

But why were those COVID related?

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

As a result of changes in triggering events, in terms of the value of those companies that we saw that as COVID related.

Deane Dray — RBC Capital Markets — Analyst

Okay, thank you. Good luck to everyone. Stay healthy.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks Deane.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Steve Tusa with J.P. Morgan. Please proceed.

Stephen Tusa — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Hey guys, good morning.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning Steve.

Stephen Tusa — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Hey sorry if I missed this, busy earnings morning, but the $350 million to $450 million in costs in the second quarter, that’s a pretty big number. Does that — is there a kind of carry forward into the — sorry, in the second quarter. Does that carry forward like the third and the fourth, and how much of that is temporary, how much of that was from last year’s restructuring? Its just unclear to me, what’s included there. Sorry if I missed you detailing it earlier in the call, I am sure you did, but I might have missed that? Thanks.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. Steve, I will go through a few of those details. First of all, it is taking actions on a number of components of cost structure. The first and the biggest component is things what we internal to 3M call indirect costs, things that are not payroll or raw material cost related. So travel, external services, temporary workers, targeted ad merch, things like that, we are working on bringing that spending down, in line with what we’re seeing happen in the external market. We’ve also frozen any new hiring, and in the case of with employees, there’s some parts of the world where we had put employees on required mandatory use of vacation. So those are the things that are driving that.

In terms of carry forward into future quarters. I’d say, Steve, it’s just volatile now that, and flexible, that some of it or much of it may carry forward, depending on what we see, but not necessarily depending on the type of recovery, that 3M sees in the coming quarters.

Stephen Tusa — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Okay. So you have to see — kind of have yet to take structural action — incremental structural action beyond what you guys did last year, which is what most companies are doing, just by the way.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

That is correct, Steve.

Stephen Tusa — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Okay. And then one last one, just on how you’re approaching this environment. The inventories, a lot of companies are keeping a little bit of a buffer stock, have you guys maintained that buffer stock or have you continued to work down inventories from where they were last year?

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah Steve, one of the things I highlighted in my prepared remarks was the, how our enterprise operations, bringing together manufacturing supply chain and customer operations together into one organization that we launched at the beginning of the year. It’s really been benefiting us and this is another area where really — we continue to take down days of inventory outstanding. So we do have plans to reduce inventory, some of it in response to slower demand, some of it really taking advantage of that improved performance. So we have targeted significant inventory reductions on both of of those drivers.

Stephen Tusa — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Okay, great. Thanks a lot guys. Appreciate it.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks. Be safe.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nigel Coe with Wolfe Research. Please proceed.

Nigel Coe — Wolfe Research — Analyst

Thanks, good morning.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Nigel.

Operator

By the way, great idea — good morning. Great idea on the monthly sales and please continue that post COVID, it’s wonderful information to have. I am sure you won’t though. So looking at the April trends, and obviously a lot of companies are using April to anchor their expectations for 2Q and beyond, and then, using China as a sort of the lead indicator for what’s expected elsewhere. So just a two-part question here. One would be, can we use the mid-teens kind of pace hold up for April as a guidepost for 2Q, or are you seeing sequential deterioration through April, which indicates that [Indecipherable] will get better. And then in China, the strength that we’ve seen in April, which is obviously very encouraging, but how much of that is a restock versus the obviously the severe declines we saw in February?

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah Nigel, maybe I’ll take that. When you look at April, it’s what it is. Our April trends to-date. I led with our outlook description, very fast changing lot of uncertainty. So to look beyond that trend, part of the reason we’re going to give monthly updates is, it’s just — you can’t project April into May or June or any further than what we are seeing right now and I would — so we will update you as we go on that and give you better clarity month by month.

When you look at China, we are seeing improvements. We’re returning to growth in China. It’s pretty broad based across our portfolio, and for sure there is going to be some restocking, but we’re seeing the economy start to show signs of recovery broadly, and it’s not back to normal yet, but improving as we move through April.

Nigel Coe — Wolfe Research — Analyst

Okay, great. Thanks Mike. And then I think one for Nick, on the pricing, 40 basis points in the quarter. Are we confident that pricing remains positive this year? Are we seeing any growing signs outside of Asia on pricing? And then, [Indecipherable] market-to-market on where the raw material benefit is right now for FY ’20?

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah Nigel, we started the year seeing our price growth that we thought would be consistent with past trends and the 40 basis points that we saw in the first quarter is very much in line. As we look forward for the balance of this year, we’re not seeing any kind of material change in what we’re expecting for price growth for us. We think it will stay in the zone. In regards to raw materials, Nigel, we — at the beginning of the year, we said that we expected raw materials to be between flat to up to a $0.10 tailwind to us. Right now as we look at it, it’s going to be better than that. It’s going to be a more significant tailwind. I’m not going to quantify, because things are dynamic enough, but we’re seeing it go beyond that for benefit right now.

Nigel Coe — Wolfe Research — Analyst

Okay, thank you very much.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, thanks, Nigel.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Julian Mitchell with Barclays. Please proceed.

Julian Mitchell — Barclays — Analyst

Hi, good morning.

Bruce Jermeland — Vice President, Investor Relations

Hey Julian.

Julian Mitchell — Barclays — Analyst

Maybe — hey, maybe just a first question please around the healthcare division. Maybe just help us understand within that, what you have seen so far as the puts and takes from COVID? And it looks like underlying margins, excluding the acquisition impacts have been sort of flattish in Q1 and Q4. So just wondering, if and when healthcare sales recover alongside, say oral care coming back, should we expect good incremental margins, or is it just the healthcare, is it a higher kind of level of reinvestment for the near or medium term? Thank you.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah Julian. Maybe I’ll comment just on the business trends that we’re seeing. So we saw healthcare grow a little over 1% in the first quarter, it was led by medical solutions and food safety. As we got to March, we saw a significant slowdown in oral care, and we also saw an impact from elective surgeries and a slowdown in healthcare and in some of our medical solutions areas as well. So those are some of the trends we’re seeing behind that overall growth number. Maybe I’ll ask Nick to comment on the margin and your question around margins.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. Julian, of course, the biggest thing that we’re seeing from margins in healthcare right now, is from our acquisition of Acelity. And I think you will note in the appendix, we’re now providing EBITDA margins. We felt that would be helpful, given the acquisition of Acelity to give one more level of information on that. In terms of the margins that we’re seeing, it was absent Acelity pretty close to flat and we’ve seen some mix impact in the first quarter, as we’ve seen some parts of that business more impacted by COVID. And as Mike said, as we go into second quarter, we will continue to see impacts on elective procedures that will be having an impact both on our growth and on our margin. As those recover and as we see people going back to their oral care professionals and electing to do elective procedures, we’ve also seen that have a positive impact on our margin going forward.

Julian Mitchell — Barclays — Analyst

That’s helpful. Thank you. And then just my second question around the safety and industrial business, clearly some good tailwinds from all the work being done around respirators, but maybe focusing on the margin side, very good margin uplift in the first quarter. Do you think we’re now at a level in that business, where given the cost cutting actions some of the reorganization measures at 3M, once we see the sales side, improve in the second half or next year in industrial within that division, we should see very good operating leverage there, as well as good sales growth?

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Hey Julian, I’ll take that one. So we have been doing a number of actions within our our safety and industrial business to be enhancing the margins. The things that we’ve been doing to make that a more efficient productive operation and part of what we were announcing on our January earnings call. When we look in our margins, and in particular in the first quarter, that’s been impacting that. But I think even more importantly, we’ve had really good spending control going on in our safety and industrial business, and that’s been one of the big drivers of what you see in our first quarter margin. So yes, going forward, if there is — when we return to growth, we will be seeing some benefits, but we also are seeing an impact right now of really good, disciplined spending control in that business.

Julian Mitchell — Barclays — Analyst

Great, thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Sprague with Vertical Research Partners. Please proceed.

Jeffrey Sprague — Vertical Research Partners — Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Hey Jeff.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Good morning Jeff.

Jeffrey Sprague — Vertical Research Partners — Analyst

Just a little more granularity on the divisional stuff. If I could, excuse me — personal safety was up, looks like 7% in the quarter, $60 million or so. I guess I would have expected maybe to be even stronger than that. I guess the, the 1.5% benefit you are talking about for Q2, I think is relative to total company sales. So it looks like you’re looking for another kind of $120 million or so kind of lift on a year-over-year basis. Is that correct and would that be kind of indicative of what your kind of current run rate production is for that business?

Bruce Jermeland — Vice President, Investor Relations

Hey Jeff, this is Bruce. Organically, personal safety is up 14%. What you’re seeing for all-in sales growth, we had a divestiture impact from our gas and flame detection divestiture, which is impacting obviously, total sales growth.

Jeffrey Sprague — Vertical Research Partners — Analyst

That’s helpful. Thanks Bruce. And then, Nick, just thinking about sources and uses of cash, and thanks for your color there. What is your view on repo? Should we consider it’s off the table for the balance of the year, or is it something that you’ll be reconsidering as the year progresses, and is there going to be any requirement in pension, as you get towards the end of this year, looking into next?

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah Jeff, as I mentioned earlier, we continue to look at a number of scenarios and and manage accordingly for those. I think it would be fair to say that, it’s a dynamic situation, so I’m not going to put a timeline of when we would be possibly back in the market with a share buyback program. But I think it’s safe to say that we would want to have enough confidence in the future, that we can resume guidance of what we’re anticipating for our financial results, before we would be resuming our share buyback program.

In regards to the pension, we started the year with a well-funded pension and we took them, what I will call a minor hit in our pension funded status in the first quarter. And right now, we don’t foresee any changes in our capital allocation plans to our pension. We’ve been targeting around $200 million a year to our global defined benefit pension plans, and we don’t see any required — changes required in that pension funding going forward. So we don’t — for the foreseeable future at this point, we’re not seeing that change Jeff.

Jeffrey Sprague — Vertical Research Partners — Analyst

Great, thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question it comes from the line of Joe Ritchie with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.

Joe Ritchie — Goldman Sachs — Analyst

Thanks, good morning everyone. Hope you are all well.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning Joe.

Joe Ritchie — Goldman Sachs — Analyst

Just maybe touching on China to start off, looks like the rebound in April has been pretty strong. Is there any end market specific commentary that you can provide on what’s really driving the strength in April?

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Joe when I said it was broad based, we are seeing it across our businesses. Maybe I’d highlight, automotive is recovering and remember we had a big decline in Q1. So we’re coming off of a low point, but starting to see some recovery there. Electronics has been leading the way. Semiconductor, while manufacturing has been strong demand for us, consumer electronics off but not, not as much. We’re seeing healthcare and oral care recovering as we come into April and then broader industrial and consumer as well. So really broad based across the market, all the markets and businesses for us.

Joe Ritchie — Goldman Sachs — Analyst

Got it. And Mike, I may have missed this earlier, but as you’re kind of thinking about the guidance and clearly, we don’t have one now for the rest of the year. But like — as you’re kind of thinking about the trajectory for the US and Europe, how much are you using China as like a guidepost from a growth perspective for the rest of the company?

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I would say, back to this fast changing and lots of uncertainty, I think it’s encouraging what we’re seeing in China. But it’s as good as April to date for us, because it’s a pretty fast changing dynamic globally. We did see, as I mentioned, trends in the second half of March and in the Americas and EMEA down, and some of the businesses that we highlighted that were weaker oral care elective procedures in our medical solutions, automotive, general industrial, those are trends that we saw coming into the quarter. We will have to see how it plays out and get a little further before we can give you a better projection.

Joe Ritchie — Goldman Sachs — Analyst

Okay, good enough. Thank you guys.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks Joe.

Operator

Our next question it comes from the line of Scott Davis with Melius Research. Please proceed.

Scott Davis — Melius Research — Analyst

Good morning, guys.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Hey Scott.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Good morning Scott.

Scott Davis — Melius Research — Analyst

This comment here just says late April 75% plants and distribution centers fully or partially operational what, is there a sense of — how do you compare that to past cycles? Is that — given that you’d probably be shutting some stuff down or shifts declined and stuff like that, is that materially different than what you saw in late 2008? Is it something you expect to ramp up meaningfully over the summer? Just more color on that please.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Scott, I think the way to think about it is, look at our sales value of production. And we, as I talked about some of the benefits of our enterprise operations, we were operating, and we are able to adjust more quickly and and track with our demand and make sure our production plans are tracking with it. Remember Q1 last year was one of the things we’re working on adjusting to a slowdown in end markets. We are shortening our cycle times to do that. So our SVOP is tracking with what you saw in Q1. It’s tracking with what we’re seeing April year-to-date. That 75% number is kind of a view over a broader portfolio against the end demand and just how we’re managing the the factories in the middle of the COVID crisis.

So I think looking at SVOP is the way to look at it, and we can adapt quickly and we’ll adjust as we see changes in the marketplace.

Scott Davis — Melius Research — Analyst

Okay, good, Mike. But can you help us understand how that might compare to past recessions, if you were to — it doesn’t have to be explicit, but if you have a sense of where you were in late 2008, was it, 25% or is this…

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

I think the way I would probably think about it Scott is, I’d look at the magnitude of the slowdown and it’s probably similar, there might be a little faster reaction to it and adaption to it now than even then. But we, and living in 2009, we really managed our operations very quickly to — in line with what we are seeing in the slowdown and then back up again, as the markets recovered even in the second half of the year. So I think it’s similar and it’s one of the strengths of our model, being vertically integrated with our manufacturing that we can do this. So I do give our teams credit for reducing cycle times. But the strategy in the 3M model, the strength is there and 2009, it’s here again in 2020.

Scott Davis — Melius Research — Analyst

Okay, super helpful. Thanks. Good luck, guys and stay safe and we appreciate the monthly data too. So thank you.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Scott.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Andy Kaplowitz with Citi. Please proceed.

Andrew Kaplowitz — Citigroup — Analyst

Good morning guys, hope you’re well?

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Hey Andy.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks Andy.

Andrew Kaplowitz — Citigroup — Analyst

So you mentioned — Mike, you mentioned the impact from respirators in the business. Just following up on Jeff’s question a little bit. 150 basis points, but given you’re ramping to 2 billion of respirators a year would seem like your impact could be more than 150 basis points by the end of the year, especially for the total PPE business. You do make surgical mask, gowns, you’ve got safety now. So could you give us some more color on the sizing of overall PPE, anymore color there would be helpful?

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Well, I think 150 basis points is — that’s Q2, that’s the way we’d look at it in Q2, and we are adding capacity in the U.S. coming out of Q2 in late June, we’ll get to 50 million respirators a month. That’s up 40% from where we’ve been running coming into the quarter, and where we expect to run for much of the quarter. And then our increased capacity that we plan to bring on later in the year, and that’s likely to be a Q4 impact kind of kind of on the business results, it will give us additional additional supply into very strong demand. So we will see additional growth impact from that. I don’t have a number for you at this time. It’s not clear the demand and how exactly the timing of when that production comes on, but you can use that 35 million to 50 million in the U.S., which — the 35 million was part of 100 million worldwide. So you can kind of back into maybe a 15% increase on the worldwide N95 piece come out of Q2.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, Andy for reference, our disposable respirator business, which is largely the N95 pre-crisis was about 2% of our global revenue, slightly less than that, around $600 million.

Andrew Kaplowitz — Citigroup — Analyst

Got it. That’s helpful guys. And then Mike, I wanted to follow up on the comments on electronics, I mean you mentioned the recovery in China, it’s obviously more of a China based business for you guys. But has that business has been a little bit more resilient this cycle than expected? Could you give us some more color on what you’re — to the extent you can, on expectations moving forward between SEMICON? Obviously, you’ve got mobile devices in there. What do you see…

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

And Andy, even as we came into the year, we were starting to feel better about electronics, and it was really semiconductor manufacturing demand increasing. And that has held up. We’re seeing that and that’s part of that broader growth and return to growth in China. Consumer electronics has been — year-over-year, a bit of a slowdown. We continue to see that. But overall electronics is seeing a positive uptick as we come into Q2.

Andrew Kaplowitz — Citigroup — Analyst

So just pushing you a little bit, is it up year-over-year at this point in April?

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

April year-to-date or April month-to-date, yes.

Andrew Kaplowitz — Citigroup — Analyst

Okay. Thanks guys.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Andy, I want to just give a little — just go one level down that where we are seeing our most significant growth in electronics in China is around fluids and semiconductor, and less so on the consumer electronics side.

Andrew Kaplowitz — Citigroup — Analyst

Got it. Thanks, Nick.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question it comes from the line of Nicole DeBlase with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.

Nicole DeBlase — Deutsche Bank — Analyst

Yeah, thanks. Good morning guys.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning Nicole.

Nicole DeBlase — Deutsche Bank — Analyst

So just following up on some of the questions around cost cutting activities that you guys are doing this year. Does the 30% to 40% decremental margin assumption, I assume that also includes the carryover from payback on last year’s restructuring actions, is that correct?

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

When we say the 30% to 40%, that’s also including the year-on-year impact of taking those taking those actions last year. So that is part of us being able to deliver a 30% to 40% decremental in the second quarter. Yes, that’s part of it, plus the extra $350 million to $400 million of cost savings we are initiating in this quarter.

Nicole DeBlase — Deutsche Bank — Analyst

Okay, got it. Thanks Nick. And as my follow-up, if we think about the healthcare business, is there a way to quantify how much of the healthcare business is actually being impacted by elective surgeries not taking place? I’m just trying to get a sense of what part of the business has the potential to come back as COVID cases die down and elective surgeries return?

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Well, medical solutions, Nicole, is our largest business in healthcare and that’s being impacted by elective procedures. We also seeing that in our Acelity business, which is part of medical solutions. Oral care has been the more sharply impacted in demand slowdown, as we come out of March. So that’s — our second largest business in care. So that’s the bigger part of the impact, would say as we come into the quarter. But we would expect, as elective procedures come back and demand there increases, we’ll see the benefit of that, in that medical solutions business and so I think it’s both, is the answer and it’s — we expect it to recover, as elective procedures come back.

Nicole DeBlase — Deutsche Bank — Analyst

Thanks, I’ll pass it on.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from John Walsh with Credit Suisse. Please. Please proceed.

John Walsh — Credit Suisse — Analyst

Hi, good morning.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Good morning John.

John Walsh — Credit Suisse — Analyst

Kind of a specific question here, but just want to in the geography of where something live, looking at slide 22, when you talk about the sales by divisions. But it is interesting, I think in your prepared remarks you talked about respirator demand, government, industry, healthcare. I didn’t hear consumer. Just wondering, if we actually to see some different behavior from consumers, and where that would show up? Does that actually hit the consumer segment through some type of healthcare, or would that go through the different segment and then ultimately end up in the consumer’s hand?

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

And John, thank you for catching me on that, because consumer is an important part of where we do supply respirator solutions, that reaches a broad range of customers. Some of them in through our DIY channel and small construction companies are strong customers for that. But we do expect to see demand from consumers, as we move forward as well and that will show up in the results of our consumer business.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah John. The biggest impact we’re seeing is in our stationery and office business currently, as people have gone — work remotely from home, on the negative side, along with obviously schools shutting down.

John Walsh — Credit Suisse — Analyst

Yeah, no, thank you. That’s helpful. And then there’s kind of a lot of excitement that we might see some manufacturing return to the U.S.? obviously you highlighted on PP&E, there has been some discussion around lifesciences. Just curious, what you’re hearing or seeing from some of your folks that are doing pharma filtration. I’m thinking about, you know, if they’re actually starting to get quotes or see an uptick activity for some of those solution that you sell to that manufacturing process?

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah John, maybe I’ll start there. We have seen some increased demand in our biopharma filtration. I highlighted as one of the stronger demand, stronger growth in Q1 and even as we come into April. When talking about manufacturing and having supply in the U.S., we are a company that as we took our model overseas, we never left the U.S., we continue to manufacturer in the U.S. for the demand we have in this marketplace and then some. We take advantage of our strong base here in our technology in the U.S. and we do export as well. So our strategy — and it’s true around the world, but especially true in the U.S., our strategy is to locate our manufacturing and supply chains close to customers, to be able to serve them regionally, and that’s true of respirators and it’s true of of healthcare products, and it’s true of biopharma.

John Walsh — Credit Suisse — Analyst

Great, thank you for the color.

Nicholas C. Gangestad — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, John.

Operator

Thank you. That concludes the question and answer portion of our conference call. I will now turn the call back over to Mike Roman for some closing comments.

Michael F. Roman — Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

To close, I am incredibly proud of how our people are helping lead the response to COVID-19 and managing through this uncertain time. Going forward, we will continue to be guided by the three principles I laid out at the beginning of my remarks; protecting our employees, fighting the pandemic from all angles, and maintaining business continuity, while positioning 3M to lead out of the slowdown and deliver for our employees, customers and shareholders. Thank you for joining us.