Ball Corporation (BALL) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Ball Corporation (NYSE: BALL) Q4 2025 Earnings Call dated Feb. 03, 2026

Corporate Participants:

Brandon Potthoff — Head of Investor Relations

Ron Lewis — CEO & Director

Daniel Rabbitt — CFO

Analysts:

Ghansham Panjabi — Packaging and Coatings Equity Research Analyst

Anthony Pettinari — Citi

George Staphos — Anlayst

Jeffrey Zekauskas — Analyst

Edlain Rodriguez — Analyst

Arun Viswanathan — Analyst

Michael Roxland — Analyst

Stefan Diaz — Analyst

Philip Ng — Analyst

Matthew Roberts — Analyst

Anojja Shah — Analyst

Gabe Hajde — Analyst

Presentation:

operator

Greetings and welcome to the Ball Corporation full year and fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press Star0 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Brandon Potoff, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you sir. You may begin.

Brandon Potthoff — Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Christine. Good morning everyone. This is Ball Corporation’s conference call regarding the Company’s full year and fourth quarter 2025 results. During this call we will reference our fourth quarter 2025 earnings presentation available through this webcast and and our website@investors ball.com the information provided during this call will contain forward looking statements. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied. We assume no obligation to update any forward looking statements made today. Some factors that could cause the results or outcomes to differ are described in the company’s latest Form 10K, other SEC filings and in today’s earnings release and earnings presentation.

If you do not already have our earnings release, it is available on our website@ball.com information regarding the use of non GAAP financial measures may also be found in the Notes section of today’s earnings release. In addition, the release includes a summary of non comparable items as well as a reconciliation of comparable net earnings and diluted earnings per share calculations. References to net sales and comparable operating earnings in today’s release and call do not include the company’s former aerospace business prior year to date. Net earnings attributable to the corporation and comparable net earnings do include the performance of the company’s former aerospace business through the sale date of February 16, 2024.

I would now like to turn the call over to our CEO Ron Lewis.

Ron Lewis — CEO & Director

Thank you Brandon. Today I’m joined on our call by Dan Rabbit, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I will provide some brief introductory remarks and discuss full year and fourth quarter 2025 financial performance and our outlook for 2026. Dan will touch on key metrics and then we’ll finish up with closing comments and a question and answer session. With this being my first call as the CEO of Ball Corporation, I would like to take a minute to share my background and our vision for our company. I grew up on a farm in Central Montana working alongside my mom and dad and that’s where I learned the value of hard work, teamwork and treating everyone with dignity and respect.

Values that define Ball. Today I spent 20 years in the Coca Cola system leading supply chains and buying cans from Ball. And over those years I was asked several times to join ball and six and a half years ago I did. And since then I’ve led our EMEA business, served as our coo, and most recently led our global supply chain and operations. I’m honored to step into this role because I believe in Ball and I believe BALL is well positioned to win. Not only do I believe this, but the numbers back it up. It starts with the fundamentals of the beverage packaging market.

Packaged liquid volume continues to grow globally and aluminum cans are taking share as consumers, customers and retailers favor a package that is convenient, functional and increasingly aligned with sustainability goals. This backdrop creates a long Runway of demand for our products within that growing market. BALL is outperforming across our regions. We are consistently outpacing the can market in shipped volumes, supported by strong customer partnerships, innovation and formats and a commercial and operational footprint that is unmatched. Our long term volume range remains intact and in 2025 we exceeded it. We pair that commercial momentum with financial strength.

In 2025 we delivered record adjusted free cash flow and record comparable diluted EPS. We also returned more than $1.5 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends. Our disciplined capital allocation remains rooted in eva, deploying capital only where it earns returns above our cost of capital. And operationally we’ve never been stronger. Our plants are executing at a high level, driving meaningful improvements in profit per can through cost management and standardization. Our utilization rates across our business are as strong as they have been in multiple years, and our unmatched global scale is a competitive advantage. While we’ve made meaningful progress, we continue to see significant opportunity for further improvement.

That opportunity is energizing our teams and provides additional operating leverage and and cost performance upside as we look ahead. When you combine industry tailwinds, commercial outperformance, financial discipline and the operational excellence through our Ball Business system, the result is a company that is exceptionally well positioned to win today and over the long term. As I’ve met with dozens of customers and investors since assuming my role, I’ve been asked a lot about what will change. I want to reinforce that our strategy is intact and it is working. It’s about executing every day, staying close to our customers, accelerating the substrate shift to aluminum, and managing complexity to our advantage.

And we are doubling down on profitable growth. This will be a significant focus for us in 2026 and beyond. We execute our strategy through our operating model, the Ball Business System. The Ball Business System is simple and powerful. First, are we listening to our customers? Are we their indispensable business partner? Are we the easiest can maker to do business with? You can see that our commercial excellence agenda is working as we’re growing faster than the market across all of our regions. Second is our laser focus on operational excellence. Every shift, every day, in 67 plants around the world, we are bringing stability and standardization to our business so that we can all continuously improve.

Then we are leveraging these efficiencies and our scale to fuel our growth. This allows us to reinvest back in our business to compete and win in the marketplace and purposefully. At the center of the Ball business system is our people and our culture. I’m privileged to have the opportunity to drive and lead this company because our culture is one where we are not only focused on what we do, but also how we do it. This is a low ego high collaboration environment where we are focused on empowering our people to work shoulder to shoulder to help our customers and our company to win.

I believe that the team with the best people and the most motivated people is the team that wins. In short, people matter and leadership matters. And while the ball business system is the backbone of our operating model, EBA remains our North Star. It’s more than a metric, it’s a mindset that ensures disciplined capital allocation and returns above our cost of capital. This focus underpins our long term algorithm. 10/plus percent annual Comparable diluted EPS growth, strong free cash flow and consistent returns to shareholders through the Ball business system and our EBA mindset. We will continue to work as a team to leverage our scale, strengthen customer partnerships and create fuel for growth.

These principles position us to deliver sustainable results in 2026 and beyond and maximize value for our shareholders. Now let me turn to our performance on slide 8. 2025 was a record year for Ball. Reflecting the strength of our strategy and disciplined execution, we delivered strong volume growth across our global aluminum packaging businesses. With fourth quarter global shift volumes up 6% and full year growth of 4.1%. We achieved record earnings per share of $3.57, an increase of 13% from 2024. Adjusted free cash flow reached $956 million, a new high watermark for our company and up 2.4 times year over year.

We returned significant value to shareholders through $1.54 billion of combined share repurchases and dividends and we are also pleased to close late last week on the previously announced acquisition of two benefact beverage can facilities. These European plants enhance our regional footprint and strengthen our ability to serve growing customer demand in both the near and long term while remaining fully aligned with our disciplined EBA based approach to capital allocation. Looking ahead to 2026, we expect another strong year where we deliver our financial algorithm of 10 +% comparable diluted EPS growth. With that outlook in mind, I’ll let Dan walk you through the details of our fourth quarter and full year financial performance and provide more color on our expectations for 2026.

Before I turn it over, I want to congratulate Dan on being named cfo. This was my first leadership decision as CEO and it was an easy one. Dan’s extensive knowledge of Ball and the industry coupled with his financial expertise and strong leadership made him the clear choice for this role. Over to you Dan.

Daniel Rabbitt — CFO

Thank you very much Ron. Like you, I’m also humbled by and ready for this role. Two important mentors earlier in my career, Ray Seabrook and Scott Morrison, served as Ball CFO and I’m honored to sit in the same seat as they did. Let’s walk through our strong full year and fourth quarter 2025 results beginning on slide 10. Fourth quarter comparable earnings were up 6.8% and full year 2025 increased by 5.6% and as Ron mentioned, our comparable diluted EPS of $3.57 is a 13% increase and a record for our corporation in north and Central America segment.

Comparable operating earnings increased 12% in the fourth quarter and 3.3% for the full year 2025. High single digit percent volume growth in the fourth quarter and 4.8% growth for the full year was led by continued strength in energy drinks and non alcoholic beverages. Our team is executing at a high level, successfully meeting elevated demand, navigating the complexities of Section 232 tariffs and mitigating risk for us and our customers in a volatile environment. We remain vigilant in monitoring the evolving geopolitical landscape and tariff developments and we are actively managing these dynamics to protect our business and support long term growth for Ball and our customers.

In 2026 we expect volume to grow at the low end of our long term 1 to 3% range as we bring new capacity online in Millersburg, Oregon to support contracted growth. We anticipate startup costs to begin in the back half of the year consistent with what we’ve historically seen when commissioning new plants. Additionally, we expect some direct tariff cost in 2026 as we work to domesticate some ends productions in the United States. These costs combined are approximately 35 million in 2026 and while these temporary costs will be a headwind this year, they reflect our commitment to growing and delivering long term operating leverage.

In EMEA segment, comparable operating earnings increased 36.7% in the fourth quarter and 19% for the full year in 2025. High single digit volume growth in the fourth quarter and 5.5% growth for the full year is indicative of the favorable demand trends we continue to see across the region. The work our team has done in EMEA is world class. We are thrilled to add the benefact assets to our best in class European footprint and we welcome our new colleagues. These two plants will give us ample opportunity to grow volumes in the coming years as well as operating leverage as we fill the facilities up with volume.

With the BENE pack assets, we expect to deliver volume growth above the top end of our long term 3 to 5% growth range and deliver operating leverage of 2 times in 2026. In South America segment, comparable operating earnings increased 1% in the fourth quarter and 10.5% for the full year 2025. High single digit percent volume growth in the fourth quarter resulted in 4.2% growth in the full year 2025. Our teams across the region continue to execute well, positioning us for sustained momentum into 2026 where we expect volume growth at the low end of our long term range of 4 to 6% and operating leverage of two times across the businesses.

Our team has done a tremendous job of growing volumes and increasing profitability on a per cam basis. Since 2019 our EMEA and North American businesses have expanded profit per can by more than 30% with EMEA reaching an all time record. We achieved this through disciplined cost management and operational excellence, focusing on stability, standardization and ensuring every plant is executing at a high level. I’m proud of the work our team delivered in 2025. This is one of our best years in Ball’s history. That strength is reflected across our financials. We achieved record adjusted free cash flow of $956 million, a 2.4 times increase year over year and delivered significant shareholder returns.

Net debt to EBITDA ended the year at 2.8 times in line with our expectations. We are focused on getting net debt to EBITDA to 2.5 times in the coming years while still returning value to shareholders through share repurchases of 4 to 6% of our shares outstanding per year. We purchased 1.32 billion of shares in 2025, reducing shares outstanding to 265 million, a 16% reduction over the past two years. Our strong Balance sheet, disciplined capital allocation and operational execution give us confidence in our ability to sustain growth and maximize shareholder value. Our future is as bright as any point in my 20 year history at Ball and we are well positioned to deliver on our commitments in 2026 and beyond.

Focusing on modeling details for 2026 as Ron noted, we expect to be on track with our algorithm of 10% plus comparable diluted EPS growth. We anticipate free cash flow of greater than 900 million in 2026. Our 2026 full year effective tax rate on comparable earnings is expected to be slightly above 23% full year 2026 interest expense is expected to be in the range of 320 million. Capex is expected to be in line with GAAP depreciation and amortization in 2026 full year 2026 reported adjusted corporate undistributed costs recorded in other non reportable are expected to be in the range of 160 million.

We anticipate year end 2026 net debt to comparable EBITDA to be around 2.7 times and we will purchase at least 600 million of shares which will bring our total capital return to shareholders to 800 million in 2026. And last week Ball’s board declared its quarterly cash dividend. With that, I’ll turn it back to ron.

Ron Lewis — CEO & Director

Thanks Dan. 2025 was one of the strongest years in Ball’s history. We exceeded long term volume growth ranges globally, delivered 6% comparable operating earnings growth and achieved 13% EPS growth in line with our commitments throughout the year. We also marked another year of EVA growth reflecting disciplined capital allocation and operational efficiency. Looking ahead to 2026, our focus is clear. Leverage our customer partnerships and footprint to grow in line with long term volume ranges, deliver record volumes, operating earnings and EPS and continue to ride the global substrate shift to aluminum. We will maintain EVA as our core financial lens with capital spending aligned to depreciation growth, capex backed by long term agreements and continued cash returns to shareholders.

These priorities position Ball to deliver profitable and sustainable growth and maximize shareholder value in 2026 and beyond. Lastly, and most importantly as we close a record year, let me thank those who made it possible. Our customers, our suppliers, our shareholders and our Ball team who make a difference every day. Thank you. And with that Christine, we are ready for questions.

Questions and Answers:

operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question question, please press Star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press Star two. If you would like to remove your question from the queue for participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Ganchen Punjabi with Baird. Please proceed with your question.

Ghansham Panjabi

Thanks operator. Good morning everybody and congrats again on your new roles. I look forward to working with you both. For the beverage, you know, North American Central America segment, you know the volume growth in 2025 of 4.8% that really follows three consecutive negative years for that segment. How would you disaggregate that improvement between industry growth last year versus the three years prior and then specific initiatives on your end? And also, what are you embedding for volume growth in 2026 for this segment and the other two segments as well?

Ron Lewis

Hi Ganchem, thanks for the question and thanks for the congratulatory remark as it relates to North America volume growth 2025 we grew 4.8% and as far as we know from the published data the can industry grew about 2%. So the can is growing, which is fantastic and we are growing faster than the can industry and I credit that really to all of the customers in our customer portfolio have that’s just really unrivaled. We have excellent customers in every category be it energy, soft drinks or in the beer category and those customers won and we feel like we help them to win as they drive innovation.

But be it different liquid or different can size that we have the opportunity to provide for them. So really it’s our unrivaled network, our ability to serve them with different, different size packages, different kinds of packages and we’re happy and proud to be a part of their, their ecosystem.

Ghansham Panjabi

Then as it relates to the outlook for 2026 for volumes for the 3 segments.

Ron Lewis

Yeah, thank you for the, that further follow up question in 2026 for North America specifically, quite frankly, we’re sold out and we are capacity constrained until we can get our Millersburg asset up and running. So we think the can industry will continue to grow in a similar low single digit percent and we’ll be towards the bottom end of our 1 to 3% long term growth algorithm that we share with you and all of our people that cover us. So that’s where we’ll be until we get Millersburg up and running. As it relates to the categories, I really can’t speculate too much on where the categories will be this early in the year, but so far we started the year really well, and we’re happy and we’re on plan.

Ghansham Panjabi

Okay, fantastic. Best wishes for the future.

Ron Lewis

Thank you. Thank you very much.

operator

Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Pettinari with Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Anthony Pettinari

Good morning, Ron. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about Benefact and. How that fits into the existing European footprint and anything you can kind of share in terms of customer exposure, can sizes, maybe profitability versus the existing business. And if you could compare it to Florida can, which was obviously another acquisition.

Ron Lewis

Sure. Thank you, Anthony, for the question. We’re really excited about closing on our Benefact acquisition late last week which we’re announcing here on the call today. You know, the plants are in Belgium and Hungary where we don’t have plants today. So we think this is really a great opportunity for us to plug those two facilities into our European manufacturing network. And, and it really further optimizes our network and supports our long term volume projections and growing our EBA dollars. We were able to acquire these assets at a really attractive price, you know, certainly at a price below where replacement costs are.

And so we have a great long Runway for strong utilization of these plants in the future. Quite frankly, we were on the top end of our range even before we made this acquisition. So where we say we’ll be in the 3% to 5% growth range, we exceeded that in 2025 in EMEA and we would be towards the top end of that range even before we made this acquisition. So quite frankly, it’s a great opportunity for us to lean into some great customer, some great customers which are quite frankly right in line with our most important strategic customers.

That’s who, who will serve from those assets. And just like Florida can, we plug Florida can in early last year and it’s up and running as a part of our network 24 7. And we’re really, really pleased with that asset as well.

Daniel Rabbitt

Yeah, go ahead. Sorry, go ahead.

Anthony Pettinari

No, no, I was just wondering in terms of sort of profitability, I mean, very roughly, is there a time frame. You know, are you pretty close to being there or maybe a few quarters. Or just how you think about profitability. Versus the existing business?

Daniel Rabbitt

Yeah. This acquisition is similar to Florican in that we are buying two newer facilities that have never run continuously that will require improvement to ramp up. So think of it as we have two plants where we’ll spend the year really getting the labor and the procedures put in, operational procedures put in place. This year. We think it’s going to do around about a billion seven of 1.7 billion, excuse me, of volumes and operating earnings. The comparable operations are really projected to be pretty close to flat. So it’s not going to contribute a lot on that. And we really see it as an important part of our 2027 go forward here.

The EVA for this looks terrific though. We’re getting it at a very good value that’s similar to Florida can and we know these markets really well. So from a customer and labor and really optimistic about it.

Anthony Pettinari

Okay, that’s very helpful. I’ll turn it over.

Ron Lewis

Thanks, Anthony.

operator

Our next question comes from the line of George Staphos with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

George Staphos

Thanks very much. Hey Ron. Hey Dan. Congratulations again as well. Look forward to working with you. And also thanks for the slide deck. It’s a nice help here. You mentioned during your formal remarks that you want to double down on profitable growth and you know, certainly all companies want to do that. Why do you make a point of emphasizing that given that should be always what you’re working on. And related to that point, we appreciate the guidance on the European and South American earnings for next year in terms of the leverage given the startup costs.

We appreciate you calling that out. Could we see north and Central America actually sort of flattish to down? That wouldn’t be a surprise to us, but just want to sort of put some stakes in the ground there in terms of ebit growth for 2026.

Ron Lewis

Okay, thanks George and thanks for the congratulatory remarks. We look forward to working with you as well. Maybe I’ll tackle the first question and then we’ll take it from there. Why are we calling out the doubling down on our driving profitable growth? Well because quite frankly we’re seeing the growth in our algorithm again. Our long term growth algorithm is the 2 to 3% volume growth and doubling that from a operating leverage perspective, buying back 4 to 6% of our shares and that gets us to our 10 plus percent EPS. That is our long term algorithm.

We, we are confident we will deliver that in 2026, the 10 percent EPS. But the fact of the matter is we need to really focus on getting to the 2x operating leverage. So I’m happy to have shared that color with you on the prepared remarks. But that strategy that we’re executing, being close to our customers, executing with excellence every day, riding and driving the substrate shift change from other packaging substrates to aluminum, which continues at pace and managing complexity, that’s how we’re going to deliver that driving profitable growth. It’s just A rallying cry and a focus for our business to really focus on our strategy and how we’re going to execute that strategy and how we’re going to execute that strategy is through that ball business system, our operating model excellence and execution every day, every single plant, every single shift.

So that’s how we’re guiding ourselves as well as our EBA mindset.

Daniel Rabbitt

George, this is Dan. I just wanted to overlay that. You know we did call out that there’s around 35 million of ramp up cost to get the system, the North America system in particular reconfigured with the ends and then more importantly the Millersburg plant started up. So I think you are thinking about the North America segment right with your with how you positioned it.

George Staphos

Thanks Dan, appreciate that. Just one follow and then a question on volume and I’ll turn it over. So in the fourth quarter again you’re in line, maybe a bit ahead of our numbers but nonetheless the leverage wasn’t there in north and Central America. Can you comment a bit in terms of whether it was a tariff related headwinds or something else? What was preventing you from getting that leverage given the volume growth you saw in fourth quarter quarter in north and Central America and then as we look to 2026 I realize it’s going to be all of the above but in particular whether it’s World Cup Mini can something else in terms of innovation, what from an end market or idiosyncratic event for 26 drives the volume outlook and the optimism.

Thanks and good luck in the quarter.

Ron Lewis

Thank you George. So for the fourth quarter we are really proud of our results. We delivered high single digit volume growth in North America in the fourth quarter and our operating earnings growth was 12% so we were sequentially better on an operating leverage perspective in the quarter. It was our strongest volume quarter in the year and it was our strongest operating leverage quarter in the year. So we did great and we were just shy of that two times operating leverage. And yes, the fact of the matter is we had some incremental tariff cost that if it weren’t for that bringing ends into the US from across the border we would have hit our 2x operating leverage and it’s just a very minor amount of money that we missed it by.

So that’s the first answer. On the second answer. Yeah, we’re really excited about not only World cup and it will depend on who gets to the finals obviously and how well each country performs. We’re hoping for Brazil to do really well and I can hope for America to do really well. But if they don’t, let’s hope for maybe England or Germany to do well. And I don’t think we should forget that this is America’s 250th birthday. There are going to be an amazing amount of celebrations throughout the summer coming and I can imagine that will also be at the very least neutral.

And I bet it will be slightly positive for all of us that sell beverages or help to sell beverages in the U.S. thank you, George.

George Staphos

Thanks so much.

Ron Lewis

Christine, do you have another question for us?

operator

Jeffrey, your line is live. Perhaps you’re on mute.

Jeffrey Zekauskas

Thanks very much. Natural gas prices in Europe have sharply elevated. Is this something that you can easily. Pass through in the coming six months?

Ron Lewis

Yeah, hi, thank you for the question. The answer is yes. We are broadly a pass through business. Our contracts allow for us to pass through inflationary cost pressures and we also where we can have the ability to hedge our gas pricing which to the extent that we can do that in any given country or plant, we do. So we don’t view that as any major headwind for us in 2026.

Jeffrey Zekauskas

Are you experiencing any inflation in beverage can coatings or is that raw material. Relatively flat for you?

Ron Lewis

We have a long term contract all of our input costs including beverage can coatings and there are inflationary mechanisms in those or deflationary mechanisms in those contracts. But it’s all very manageable. And again this is all part of our both of our buying and selling contractual relationships where we largely pass on all of those costs. There could be some timing issues here and there, but we pass on these costs.

Jeffrey Zekauskas

Thank you very much.

operator

Our next question comes from the line of Mizuho. Please proceed with your question.

Edlain Rodriguez

Thank you. Good morning everyone. Again, congrats on the new worlds guys. In terms of Europe, your operating leverage there was extremely high. I mean as you say 37% profit up on high single digit volume growth. Can you talk about what drove that big jump and how should we think of that leverage in 2026?

Ron Lewis

Thank you for the question, Elaine. Appreciate your congratulatory remarks as well. Yeah, we’re really proud of our European business. It has been an incredibly stable business for us for many years and it continues to be a land of opportunity for us. Can penetration is relatively low in some categories and that’s why we continue to see see us and others achieving the high end of the range from a volume perspective. So while we grew above algorithm in the year more than 5%, we intend to do that again this year. Especially with the acquisition of our Business.

Now that’s a part of our benefact as it relates to 2020, 2026 and operating leverage. All I can say is, you know, when we have the capacity, which we have and we grow into that capacity, that’s when you see real operating leverage. And that’s what we’ve got. We’ve got. We had some capacity to grow into in Europe. We did that in 2025. That helped us to deliver the amazing operating leverage. We used up our capacity even faster than we had intended. And that’s why we’re buying these benefact can plants. So you can expect us to deliver at least the 2x operating leverage on the volume that we will sell in Europe in, in 2026.

Edlain Rodriguez

Okay, great. And also Ron, I mean now that you are the CEO, should we expect any change or deviation in strategy at Ball? Like what’s your primary focus, what’s your big focus and anything you plan on doing differently?

Ron Lewis

Yeah, thank you for the question. So the great news is, and I said this in our prepared remarks, but our strategy is intact and it is working again. It’s about excellence and execution every shift, every day in all 67 plants we have around the world. It’s about staying close to our customers and really helping them to win by solving big opportunities for them. We continue to see the overall aluminum can industry grow and that will continue at pace. And we have the most enviable network and we have the most enviable SKUs and portfolio of cans to offer to our customers.

So that strategy isn’t changing. What we are doubling down on again is how can we operate even more effectively so that we can squeeze out the fuel to grow our business through our, through our Ball business system and our operational excellence journey and our commercial excellence journey. So that’s really what you should see from us is a maniacal focus on just running our business extremely well.

Edlain Rodriguez

Okay, great. Thank you and good luck.

Ron Lewis

Thank you.

operator

Our next question comes from the line of Roon Viswanathan with rbc. Please proceed with your question.

Arun Viswanathan

Great, thanks for taking my question and congrats on the new roles as well. So I guess, you know, I just wanted to get your thoughts on. You mentioned tariffs in the prepared remarks. So I guess how are you managing through that? And then also the rising aluminum price environment. What are your customers saying there? I know it’s a pass through in North America for you, but obviously at some point they’re going to have to raise prices or deal with that in some way. So I guess what are you hearing on Those two fronts. Thanks.

Ron Lewis

Thank you, Barum, and thanks for your congrats. We’re really proud to be and humbled to be in these roles and we’re really proud of the results we’ve delivered in 2025. Tariffs are certainly something that every company is monitoring. But as we sit here today, like there’s no direct impact from on our business beyond the ends piece that we’ve mentioned. And it is a pass through as you say, the where it shows up for us is in the Midwest premium. That’s what has really spiked for all of the aluminum industry. So we’re watching this. But so far the US Consumer has been able to continue to keep buying our package.

The can, as we said in 2025 in the US grew at roughly 2% where all other substrates declined by more than 2%. So the can is, is a value in any sort of economic environment. And that’s what we’re hearing from our customers. They’re continuing to lean into selling multi packs of cans because it represents real value for the consumer.

Arun Viswanathan

Okay, thanks for that. And if I could just ask a follow up on the category mix. So you know, obviously Energy had a really strong 25 and I think you saw growth in some of your other verticals as well. But maybe you can kind of give us your thoughts on, you know, how you face those tough comps. I know you’re sold out in North America, but do you see the energy market kind of continuing to outpace the rest of the can market? And what do you kind of see for, you know, beer and CSD and some of the other categories as well? Thanks.

Ron Lewis

Thanks, Varun. We love all our customers and we’re focused on helping them to win regardless of category. And the other thing I think it’s important to know here is all of our customers are. It’s blending and turning into much more of a total beverage company. You hear that from all of our customers, regardless of where they, where they began as it relates to energy specifically, we continue to see innovation, we continue to see different can sizes, we continue to see, you know, a shift to functional elements of those products and you name it. So I expect that they’ve been winning for a long time and we expect them to continue to keep winning and we’re really happy to keep supporting them.

Arun Viswanathan

Great. Thanks a lot.

operator

Our next question comes from the line of Mike Rocksland with Truist. Please proceed with your question.

Michael Roxland

Thanks Ron, Dan, Brandon and Davis for taking my questions and I’ll just echo what everybody else has said and congrats Ron and Dan on the rolls. My first question is to the extent you can comment, can you talk about any potential changes in customer relationships? Business wins the company experience really as a result of the recent management changes and or going back to basics with the customer.

Ron Lewis

Thanks for the question, Mike. I appreciate your comment. Look, I’m really, we’ve said we want to focus on supporting our customers and helping them to win and we’re really happy with that. And I’ve had amazing customer interactions before, had this role and even more so now it’s one of the funnest parts of this job is learning about their businesses. The other thing I think it’s important to know is like not only are we kind of sold out in 2026, we are well contracted into 2027 and in some cases with our strategic customers out into the next decade.

So we’re really pleased with our long term strategic partnerships with our anchor customers.

Michael Roxland

Got it. And just one quick follow up regarding the ball business system. How much of the $500 million in savings have you realized thus far and are you still on track to complete that by year end one year earlier than you initially targeted? And have you basically sounds like you’ve standardized operating practices across your plans globally. But I just want to confirm that that’s what has been accomplished thus far. Thank you.

Ron Lewis

Thank you, Mike. That’s a, that’s a question that’s near and dear to my heart. We will deliver the $500 million of cost savings that we projected. That is the fuel for growth for our business in the three year timeframe versus a four year timeframe. So that was 2024, 2025 and 2026. So more than two thirds of it has been delivered. Quite frankly, more like 3/4 of it has been delivered in the first two years. But we’re not going to stop there. We’re going to keep working as again as a part of us focusing on getting our operating leverage.

That means we have to run even better. And that’s what our 67 plants and the overwhelming majority of the people that work in this business are focused on. So yes, every single one of those plants has rolled out the ball operational excellence platform. And it’s really exciting for us and it’s really energizing for us. So maybe someday we’d love to take you to a plant and show it to you, Mike.

Michael Roxland

I’ll definitely take you up on that offer, Ron. Thank you.

Ron Lewis

Go to Rome, Georgia. Let’s go.

operator

Our next question comes from the line of Stephan Diaz with Morgan Stanley Please receive with your question.

Stefan Diaz

Hi Ron. Hi Dan. Congrats on the promotions and looking forward to working together. Can you please talk to the year to date? Trends across all regions and then maybe specifically North America? Has the winter storm at all helped some of the volumes here early in the year?

Ron Lewis

Hi Stefan, thanks for, thanks for your comments and we appreciate reading your material. Thank you for it. Honestly, the year, the first month of the year, it started as planned, more or less across all the regions. Small puts and takes here and there, but generally as planned. North America, you know, you see the, you published the data this morning so I could read back to you what you published, but it’s really, really quite. And I wouldn’t say anything other than it’s a good start to the year and it’s kind of as we planned and better to start the year this way than in a hole and it’s pretty good.

So we appreciate it. We’ll go from there.

Stefan Diaz

Great, thanks. And then does, I guess, does ABI repurchasing their stake in Metal Container Corp mean anything to the industry? And maybe just thinking, you know, taking a step back, what are the chances that, you know, brewers and beverage CPGs, you know, start to backward integrate a bit?

Ron Lewis

Yeah, this, honestly, them buying back their portion of their vertical really has no impact on the, on us or the industry because that capacity was there before and we’re really happy that they did that quite frankly. And they’re a great customer and we work with them very closely so it really doesn’t have any impact. And it was sort of a non event and they kept us informed all along the way what their plans were. So we’re really happy with them as a customer and really happy with them and working with them as it relates to backward integration, quite frankly, I don’t think anybody’s really focused on that or we see, we see any of our customers wanting to deploy their capital to expand massively, the desire to make cans.

I think they’re really focused on innovating and marketing and selling their products and hopefully they’re relying on us as a great supply partner to them.

Stefan Diaz

Thank you.

operator

Our next question comes from the line of Phil Eng with Jeffreys. Please proceed with your question.

Philip Ng

Hey guys. Ron, Dan, congratulations on the role and Ron, your tone and excitement is clear to everyone on this call. There’s a lot of mention around Eva and staying close to the customer and just doubling down on execution side of things. You certainly have had your hand on the operations front and been successful. But what are some of the tangible things that you want to share with us in terms of what that actually means in terms of, you know, doubling down on costs. Are you retooling the layers in the organization? Reshuffling leadership, Realigning incentive? What are you doing? Just give us like one or two examples on the cost and execution front.

How are you guys going to approach it perhaps a little differently and then getting closer to the customer.

Ron Lewis

Thanks Phil. Appreciate the congratulatory comments and I look forward to working with you as well. I appreciate reading your material. Look, in my first 90 days in this job I certainly have had top to top conversations with the top of the leadership of all of our major customers. So I would say certainly more than 75% of what we sell I have either met with in person or had extensive conversations with. And that as I said, is really exciting for us. Now what does it mean as it relates to how are we going to, how are we going to run our business better? It starts first with like being really disciplined and repeatable manufacturing fundamentals in our plants.

Second, how do we leverage our network more efficiently so that we have production closer to demand? That’s what Millersburg is about. That’s what buying these two assets from Benefact is about. And then we’re going to be really deliberate about how we, how we run those plants and how we flex capacity. The third thing is, you know, our operating model is at the very core about our people and the culture and the people of this business are what make a difference for us. So you wanted some a specific example in every single fall plant everywhere around the world at 6am, at 8.30am, at 1pm and then do the do the opposite of that because we’re on 12 hour shifts.

We have a shift handover meeting, we have an operations meeting and then we have a pulse check meeting. And our entire leadership team got to witness that last week when we went to one of our plants. And it’s really impressive and inspiring to see. You know, our goal is, is to keep reinvesting in our business. That’s what Florida can was about. That’s what Millersburg is about. That’s what Benefact is about. Because when we’re making those investments, we are committing to return at a returns higher than what we can get in our EBA model. And that’s how we become a serial compounder and just continue to generate cash and then allocate that to the right places in our business.

Philip Ng

Super great color. Back to old school ball waves in terms of uea. So that’s Great to hear a question for Dan. I think last quarter perhaps, maybe misinterpreted, but I think there was some commentary perhaps that, you know, the operating leverage of that North America business could perhaps improve in the back half of 2026 and put you guys in a really good position for 2027. Do I have that right? Just because some of the commentary today, I thought you kind of pointed to startup costs perhaps be more back half weighted in 26. So is that perhaps a push out on timing side of things? And then I think you mentioned there’s some, you know, can in dynamics in Mexico around tariffs.

You’re going to reshuffle capacity. Can you give us a little more color on, you know, the timing of that and what that could transpire to in terms of profitability?

Daniel Rabbitt

Sure, I’d be happy to. You know, we do see more of the startup costs really being in the back half of the year. So I think you said it right in your question and it does really become an opportunity to start to show improvement in 2027 for the operating leverage. As far as the question about tariffs, really the thing we might have called out is that we are moving in production, some, some, some smaller amounts of in production out of Mexico into the United States. A lot of that is happening in the first half of the year, but the Millersburg is the, is the bigger contributor to the, to, to the headwinds that we’re talking about.

Philip Ng

Okay, helpful and just one last quick one on the Latin America, Brazil side, certainly excitement around the World Cup. But Ron, any on the ground color in terms of what you’re seeing there in terms of your customers and any shifts in consumers just given in past cycles when the macro is a little more choppy, there might be some trade down to refillable glass. I’m just curious what you’re seeing on that front.

Ron Lewis

Thanks, Phil. For sure, we grew high single digits in the quarter and in 2025 we delivered on the low end but we delivered on our volume algorithm in South America and we delivered more than the 2x operating leverage and we intend to have confidence in and plan to deliver exactly the same in 2026. We’ll deliver in that 4 to 6% volume range and we’ll deliver on the 2x operating leverage at a minimum. You know, it’s early days to know how big it will be, but we’re excited about it and the consumers are excited about it.

We’re going to get a chance to go see our colleagues there in a couple of weeks and learn more. But we’re really hopeful for a great tournament.

Philip Ng

Okay, super. Thank you so much.

operator

Our next question comes from the line of Matt Roberts with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Matthew Roberts

Hi Ron, Dan, Brandon, good morning. I’ll echo everyone else’s positive sentiments on the rolls. Congratulations. If I may, somewhat related to Phil’s prior question, can you parse out, I believe you call it 35 million cost headwind. Is that still 10 to 15 in first half from the tariffs and the. Remainder from Millersburg and second half or any changes on the ends cost impact. Additionally any other considerations for cost in 26 from PPI resets and lastly in EMEA as benefactor ramps should that operating leverage improve sequentially throughout the year or any timing consideration when you expect to. Get that full can benefit from Benefact. Thank you for taking the questions.

Daniel Rabbitt

Sure. Thank you, Matt. As far as the 35 million, I think it’s safer to think of more of that in the back half of this year and then really setting us up nicely for the following year in North America. And I would say that the EMEA question regarding Benefact is, is similar in many regards. We just closed on it. We’re setting we were competitors. So really the work starts now and so I think you’re going to see a back half kind of ramp up and it really more about next year as well. So they both look very similar to me in many respects.

Matthew Roberts

Excellent. Thank you, Dan.

operator

Our next question comes in the line of Josh Specter with ubs. Please proceed with your question. Hi everyone, Good morning.

Anojja Shah

It’s Anoja Shah sitting in for Josh. I just wanted to ask about capital deployment in 2026. You were pretty clear about capital, about share repurchases and dividends. But are there any other priorities besides capital returns like maybe more bolt on M and A in one of the regions?

Daniel Rabbitt

Yeah. Well, let’s just start and talk about how we filter everything. We’re filtering all of our opportunities with our cash flow and investments through the EVA lens. First of all. This is a year where we really are balancing all of our levers. We’re building a new plant out. We are still going to continue to buy back shares. We made the investment in Benefact and really with all of that, we’re going to keep our leverage and even bring it down a little bit as the guide down to 2.7 times. So we’re looking at all the levers, always, always looking at what’s the best EVA returns. And right now we see opportunity in all of them.

Matthew Roberts

Thank you. That’s Great.

Daniel Rabbitt

Oh, go ahead, Christine.

Ron Lewis

We’ll take one more question, if you don’t mind.

operator

Thank you. Our final question comes from the line of Gabe Hodgie with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your question.

Gabe Hajde

Ron. Dan, congrats. Good morning. Trying to get a little surgical on North America. I’m trying to reconcile kind of the commentary. Low end growth of the 1 to 3% target and we’re coming off a 4.8. First question, is the Florida can acquisition, is that for eight an organic number or would we say half was kind of from Florida can and half was organic? And then did we see any evidence or have you seen any evidence of pull forward by customers? We’ve asked this in the past. I recognize it’s not customary for customers to inventory cams, but it’s also not customary for aluminum cost to be up 30, 40%.

And then I guess to be clear on kind of the guide for 26 and NACA, are you taking into account any benefit from World cup and recovery in beer? Could you tap into maybe any sort of latent capacity in south of the border to service that if possible?

Ron Lewis

Thanks for the question. So Florida can, as it relates to the volume in 2025, there was a small element of that, that was Florida can of the 4.8%. That’s, that’s for sure. That’s not all the organic number, but it was not immaterial, but it was relatively small. Did we see any pull forward in 2025 in Q4? No is the answer. And you can see it in the, I guess you can see it in the published data. The can market continues to grow in the first, first month of the year and we’re no different than that.

We’re seeing kind of on plan what we expected. And you know, I just think the opportunity south of the border, given the amount of tariffs, the cost of bringing those cans into the US is so prohibitive that I don’t really see that as an opportunity for us. And that’s why, quite frankly, we’ve, we’ve given you the lower end of our volume range because we, we absorbed all of the latent capacity for the most part that we had in North America, in the US anyway in 2025 with the 4.8% growth, we’re really happy that we bought Florida can because it allowed us to grow that much.

And Millersburg will make a big, big difference. So until we get that up and running, we’re a bit capacity constrained. So thanks for that question.

Gabe Hajde

Real quick follow up, Ron. The contribution from the Oregon facility If it’s sort of operational mid year, I’m assuming we’re kind of counting on maybe 2 billion units ish, which would equate to about 4%. Are we really talking about it again taking into account the startup cost contribution coming in 27 and it was one of the other analysts that kind of put this out there. But is it possible then kind of operating earnings is flattish in North Central America and then we see a pretty big acceleration in 27.

Ron Lewis

Yeah, I think you’re thinking about it the right way. The volume will be relatively immaterial in 2026 with the startup and the earnings as well that we won’t have earnings. In fact we have the startup costs. The only thing I would say is it’s a one line plant, it’s not a two line plant. So you could expect more like a billion cap hands out of that facility until we really ramp into it. And that would be actually probably aspirational in 2027. Let’s see how we started up. So thanks for the question and Christine, I think that’s all the questions we have time for today.

I just want to thank everybody for your interest in us. We appreciate it. We look forward to talking to you more, sharing our story. We are excited about what we did in 2025 and we’re even more excited about what we’re going to do in 2026 and beyond. So 2026 and beyond. So thank you very much for your time and look forward to seeing you and talking to you soon.

operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and have a wonderful.