Apr 28, 2010
Executives
Amanda Butler – Director of IR William Hickey – President and CEO David Kelsey – SVP and CFO
Analysts
George Staphos – Bank of America Ghansham Panjabi – Robert W. Baird Rosemarie Morbelli – Ingalls & Snyder Sara Majers – Wells Fargo Mark Wilde – Deutsche Bank Richard Skidmore – Goldman Sachs Claudia Hueston – JPMorgan Peter Ruschmeier – Barclays Capital Al Kabili – Macquarie George Staphos – Bank of America Stuart Shaw – Standard & Poor’s Mark Wilde – Deutsche Bank
Operator
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Sealed Air conference call discussing the company’s first quarter 2010 results. This call is being recorded.
Leading the call today William V. Hickey, President and Chief Executive Officer and David H.
Kelsey, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After managements’ prepared comments, they will be taking questions.
(Operator Instructions) And now, at this time, I would like to turn the call over to Amanda Butler, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Ms.
Butler.
Amanda Butler
Thank you and good morning everyone. Before we begin our call today, I would like to remind you that statements made during this call stating managements’ outlook or predictions for the future are forward-looking statements.
These statements are made solely on information that is now available to us. Our future performance may be different due to a number of factors.
Many of these factors are listed in our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-K which you can find on our website at sealedair.com. And now, I will turn the call over to Bill Hickey, our CEO.
Bill.
William Hickey
Thank you, Amanda. Good morning, everyone.
I am Bill Hickey, President and CEO of Sealed Air Corporation. With me on the call today in addition to Amanda, we have Dave Kelsey, our Chief Financial Officer.
During today’s call, I will be highlighting our business performance for the first quarter. Dave will then discuss details of our financial results.
After Dave’s remarks, we will take your questions both from the phone lines and via text on our webcast. This morning, we reported a 9% increase in our first quarter adjusted earnings per share of $0.36.
This figure excludes a $0.01 charge related to our global manufacturing strategy program, which we highlighted in our press release this morning. We are pleased with our earnings growth as we recognize that we are in the early stages of an economic recovery and we are managing through higher resin prices both on a prior year and a sequential basis.
Additionally, we generated comparable gross and operating profit margin versus last year. We achieved this to the benefits of not only favorable foreign exchange translation, but of higher volumes in new and existing products, strong growth in developing regions, stringent controls on operating expenses, and productivity improvements, which offset both on favorable resin costs and price mix.
Looking at the top line, first quarter sales increased 1% on a constant dollar basis. However, volume growth was a major contributor which increased 4% overall, largely driven by 8% increase in our protective packaging segment in North America, a 4% increase in our food packaging segment in North America, and a 10% increase in Latin America in food packaging as well.
Across all of our businesses, volume growth improved through the course of the quarter ending with solid March results. For example, using our protective packaging business, our sales in January were 99.6% of January 2009 as we still had not crossed the breakeven line in our recovery of the decline in sales from last year.
February sales were a 103% of the comparable month into 2009 and March sales were 109% of comparable sales in March 2009. We announced a price increase to be effective April 1st, so we didn’t wonder whether some of the March increase resulted from the price increase.
And we look at our April sales month to date and we are tracking a 108% of April 2009. And I am pleased to say that we were expecting this type of trending to continue for the rest of the year.
Looking at volume trends in more detail, food packaging volumes increased 2%, largely driven by the 4% increase in North America and a 10% increase in Latin America that I previously mentioned. Our performance in both of these regions was above local animal production rates due to incremental volumes from new and existing customers and from new product expansion.
In North America, most products benefited from positive volume growth. And interestingly, the primary volume driver was a 43% increase in equipment as customers started to reinvest in replacement equipment during the first quarter.
Western European volumes remained weak due to prolonged economic weakness and very low consumer confidence levels. But on a bright note, we did see ongoing growth in Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia, where we achieved double-digit volume increases.
Food solutions had similar regional results led by a 6% increase in North America due to strong poultry case ready sales and ongoing product expansion, including a new star fresh film for fresh fish which was launched at a large multinational retailer in the first quarter. Additionally, food solutions had an 18% increase in the Asia-Pacific region due largely to growth in case ready and ready meals.
Like our food packaging business, the food solutions team deserved the onset of recovery in all the regions, except Western Europe, where conditions remained weak. We did see strength in developing regions, again with very solid sales growth of greater than 50% in Russia due to strong case ready program in that country.
Our vertical pouch packaging sales increased 2% which included 4% of favorable foreign exchange. On a constant dollar basis, vertical pouch packaging sales held relatively flat in North America and Latin America as we expanded into bakery and deli applications, while the restaurant industry starts to stabilize and recover.
Before I touch upon our protected packaging results, I would like to mention that our food businesses continue to be recognized for their innovation that targets measurable value for customers and consumers. In the quarter, the 2010 Flexible Packaging Association Achievement Award recognized our marinated on-demand package with the highest achievement award and the Gold Flexible Packaging Achievement Award for Technical Innovation.
This marks the second consecutive year that our Cryovac brand has received this award. Additionally, the team earned the Food Processing Magazine Readers’ highest accolade for the seventh consecutive year and they were awarded the Readers’ Choice Award as the Gold Supplier of Packaging Materials.
Moving onto the protective packaging segment, this business drew more than half of the volume growth in the quarter, largely benefiting from improving economic conditions. When looking at their 8% volume growth versus the prior year, I am pleased to report that volumes were up in all regions, including 8% in North America, 3% in Europe, and double-digit increases in the developing regions with 10% growth in Latin America and 25% growth in Asia Pacific, where the modest recovery of export market and the manufacturing sector in countries like Mexico contributed to the increase.
Volumes were also driven by good buy-in of our new products including the new CT-301 Shrink Film and our new paper base PackTiger Solution, FasFil. I should also note that although it’s anecdotal, one our Midwest sales reps mentioned to me that he has noticed fuller parking lots at some manufacturing customers in the Midwest.
He is having a harder time finding a parking space which indicates a real sense of pickup in that region which is also very encouraging for the economy. And in maintaining the pace for continued growth to protect the packaging launched Recycled Content Bubble Wrap, which uses a minimum of 50% pre-consumer recycle content.
This product now offers the highest minimum recycle content for air, cellular cushioning products on the market. Although, we usually don't talk about equipments separately, investors usually ask us about equipment trends as an indicator of future outlook and of customer confidence.
Our numbers for the first quarter are good. Equipment sales are up approximately 14% in the first quarter over a very low first quarter 2009.
Also, equipment backlog that is orders for equipment not yet built and shipped is up 90% from the depths of the recession at the end of the first quarter of 2009. Looking at consolidated price mix, we did see a $27 million or 3% decline in the quarter versus the prior year, which impacted all reportable areas.
As we mentioned in our press release, price mix reflected the lag timing of food packaging contract price adjustments and a challenging year-over-year comparison. In most of our businesses the first quarter 2010 selling prices reflected lower late 2009 resin cost.
This compares to first quarter 2009 selling prices which were higher reflected late 2008 peak risen prices. As resin prices rose again in the first quarter of 2010, our businesses quickly responded by announcing various price increases in North America and Europe, as well as targeted price increases in other parts of the world.
These price increases focused on recovering the additional resin cost that we incurred and varied from 4% to 9% depending on the product and the region. Most of these price increases generally went into effect on April 1st and we expect to start seeing the benefits by the end of the second quarter 2010.
To wrap up before I hand the call to Dave, I would like to reaffirm our EPS guidance for the full year, which is $1.48 to $1.68 per share on a reported basis or $1.50 a share to $1.70 a share if adjusted to exclude a $0.02 charge related to our global manufacturing strategy program. As we navigate through the second quarter, we are continuing to show goods sales momentum and are benefiting from volume gains and a leaner cost structure.
Combined with the expected future benefit of resin cost recovery, seasonality, the ongoing adoption of new products by our customers, the incremental volume that we have recently signed on, and our investments in growth, we continue to feel positively about the year ahead. As such, we continue to expect the full-year average constant dollar sales growth in the range of 4% to 6% of which volume will be the primary driver.
Our release outlines our updated assumptions for resin cost increases. But as we noted, we feel that we are able to offset these increases with the benefits I noted a moment ago.
Of course, volume and raw material price fluctuations are the primary factors that will influence how we perform within our range. And now, I am going to turn the call over to Dave Kelsey to review some additional details of our financial performance and our liquidity position.
Dave?
David Kelsey
Thank you, Bill. As presented in the financial statements that accompanied our press release, sales were $1.100 billion for the quarter.
Gross profit for the quarter increased 5% or $14 million to $300 million. Excluding favorable foreign currency translation of $14 million, gross profit would have been flat compared with 2009.
In the quarter, we experienced the positive impact of a $42 million increase in volumes across all of our reporting segments along with an estimated $15 million of benefits from supply chain productivity improvements including $2 million of incremental benefit from GMS like sourcing volumes from lower cost facilities in our developing regions. The offsets were in approximate $30 million increase in resin costs and an unfavorable price mix of $27 million.
As Bill just noted, we faced a challenging year-over-year comparison in the first quarter. Both list price increases and formula price adjustments are amongst the actions to offset these higher resin costs.
First quarter marketing, administrative and development expenses increased to 6% or $9 million to $176 million. Excluding unfavorable foreign currency translation of $7 million, the expenses would have increased $2 million and remained flat as a percent of sales.
Operating profit was $124 million or 11.7% of revenue. After adjusting for $7 million of favorable foreign currency translation, operating profit would have been relatively flat compared with 2009.
On a reportable segment basis, our protective packaging segment reported a 16% increase in operating profit as compared to prior year, which was offset by a combined 5% decline in operating profit in our food businesses. Interest expense increased by $6 million in the quarter compared to 2009, reflecting additional interest of $11 million on two first half of 2009 note issuances.
The 7-7/8% notes issued note issued in June 2009, which contributed to $8 million to the increase and the 12% notes issued in February 2009, which contributed $3 million. Partially offsetting this additional interest expense was the reduction of $6 million resulting from the redemption of our 3% convertible notes in July 2009, which contributed $4 million and the maturity of the 6.95% notes in May 2009, which contributed $2 million.
As mentioned on last quarter’s call, we are expecting interest expense to be approximately $160 million for the year. This amount reflects a full year of accrued interest related to the W.
R. Grace Settlement.
There is still no date certain for the funding of the settlement. However, if we were to fund the Grace Settlement on June 30th, we would expect our interest expense to be approximately $20 million less or an adjusted a $140 million for the full year.
Other income increased by $7 million in 2010 as compared to 2009. This increase includes net foreign currency exchange gains of $6 million, primarily resulting from the favorable impact of the strengthening of some foreign currencies when we remeasured our intra-company loans in our intra-company receivables and payables.
As a reminder, the US dollar was very strong a year-ago attributable to the flight-to-safety in global currency markets. I will conclude with some key cash flow and balance sheet items.
Cash and cash equivalents declined $67 million in the first quarter to $628 million at March 31st. During the quarter, we repaid amounts outstanding on our European credit facility, paid our accrued 2009 annual incentive compensation, made an annual cash contribution to our profit sharing, and paid $19 million in dividend.
Our receivables declined to $25 million from December 31st, 2009. Excluding $3 million of foreign currency translation, receivables would have decreased $22 million or 16%.
This decline was largely in Europe and North America primarily due to our normal first quarter sales seasonality. As the economy recovers, we are continuing to focus on our credit and collections efforts and have successfully maintained the quality of our global accounts receivable portfolio.
Inventory investment increased $33 million during the quarter with little impact of foreign currency translation. In the quarter, inventory levels were higher in North America and Europe mainly in our food businesses reflecting a buildup of inventories in anticipation of normal second quarter seasonality.
Yet, net of cash and cash equivalents at March 31st was $955 million, down slightly from December 31st, 2009. Also at March 31st, we had no amounts outstanding under our global or European credit facilities or our accounts receivable securitization program.
Our annual committed borrowing capacity was $750 million at March 31st. As shown in the supplementary information furnished with the financial statements, we generated $97 million of free cash flow in the first quarter of 2010.
This compares with a $160 million last year. The $63 million decline in free cash flow was primarily due to a decline in cash flow generated from working capital items.
We still anticipate free cash flow to exceed $300 million this year. Capital investment in the first quarter was $9 million lower than 2009 as work is largely completed on our three new plants opened in developing regions as part of our GMS program.
In today's press release, we did announce the investment in a new facility in Brazil for expanded capacity in that developing market. Approximately, $11 million for this investment will be included in our second quarter of 2010 capital investment.
We anticipate additional modest investments next year and in 2012 related to this facility. Our total capital investments for 2010 is still expected to be in the range of $80 million to $100 million to be used for a combination of maintenance and growth projects.
This range includes our recent investment in Brazil and is consistent with our annual investment before commencing our GMS projects in 2006. Our current available liquidity and our rejected free cash flow positions us to fund both our day-to-day operations and the W.
R. Grace Settlement should have become payable in the next 12 months.
And now, I will turn the call back to Bill and to your questions.
William Hickey
Great, thank you Dave. Operator, I would now like to open up the call to any questions from the participants and we will follow-up with any text questions that come in from our webcast participants as well.
Operator
Thank you very much. (Operator Instructions).
Once again, as a reminder, we ask that you limit yourself to one question and a brief related to follow-up question, so that more questions can be taken during the call today. And your first question comes from the line of George Staphos with Bank of America.
George Staphos – Bank of America
Thanks. Hi everyone, good morning.
A couple of questions on food. First of all, can you give us the latest update Bill on herd sizes and how that might trend over the next two years and what it might mean for your demand within Cryovac?
And the related question would be – and maybe you mentioned it earlier in the call, I had missed it, I was jumping on a couple of different calls, what’s the latest trend in case-ready, specifically within North America and then more broadly around the world. Thank you.
William Hickey
OK, sure let me handle your (five star) item is cattle market is up about 1.4% and all the animal prices have been increasing that still hasn’t heard to the cattle market. However hog markets has cut back and is really down greater than 4% in the first quarter, and is expected to be down for the year 2010.
Back to beef, we do see supply tightening in the second quarter but the second half of the year off to be better and I think the last numbers I saw for the full year were about 2%, 2.1% up on an annual basis. So that would suggest that the cattle market has a better second half, (inaudible) it will probably be lower for the year and primarily driving that as I understand the corn harvest quality has been poor with all the rains we’ve had and had some high moles, so it really is making the animals kind of lighter and taking them longer to get to the market.
So that’s kind of a little bit of color on what’s happening on the herd sizes. As far as the case ready North America, the numbers are really up about, it’s about 2% overall down on a global basis but that’s really 3% up in North America.
Europe is a soft spot, we’re really down high single digits and the European weakness goes across both food businesses. The North American case ready was up about 3%, primarily on the poultry side as I mentioned in my comments, Europe is down high single digits and that’s primarily in the Southern half of Europe where particularly Spain where we have a very large case ready customer at they are experiencing some of the problems that are happening in the Spanish market.
We are seeing renewed interest in the US from some major retailers, not the major retailer that people think about but one of the second or third major retailers looking to do a new movement on case ready which we’re extremely positive about and should hit stores sometime in second quarter.
George Staphos – Bank of America
OK, thanks Bill. I’ll turn it over.
Operator
And your next question comes from the line of Ghansham Panjabi with Robert W. Baird.
Ghansham Panjabi – Robert W. Baird
Hi guys, good morning.
William Hickey
Good morning.
David Kelsey
Good morning.
Ghansham Panjabi – Robert W. Baird
In the past you priced yourself to the company and not pricing according to movements in the price of (inaudible) but rather charge according to the value you provide and now it looks like you are starting to change your pricing strategy a bit with protected factoring lower during the back half of last year and now price increases in place. Is this sort of a reflection of your change in the pricing philosophy of the company Bill?
William Hickey
While I think Ghansham , you were one of the people that we’re recommending that we sort of take another look at how we price and the volatility to market and with the volatility of the market sometimes you should just look differently at how you’ve always done things. The market seems to be much more responsive to changes because every is recognizing the cycle.
Most of the industry are responding much quicker than they historically have and the changes have been much more dramatic than they historically have. Going up 8, 9, 10, $0.11 in a quarter is a pretty big move for most of these materials over the historical trend.
So continue to learn new ways to do things, continue to adopt a business model and try to make the numbers better.
Ghansham Panjabi – Robert W. Baird
I’m glad you’re reading our research Bill.
William Hickey
Thanks Ghansham.
Ghansham Panjabi – Robert W. Baird
Thank you.
Operator
And your next question comes from the line of Rosemarie Morbelli with Ingalls & Snyder.
Rosemarie Morbelli – Ingalls & Snyder
Good morning all. If I could ask two questions, which are not necessarily related to one another.
On the equipment side, the backlog that you are seeing, is that for replacement of old equipment or is it actually new equipment for new business.
William Hickey
It’s probably a little bit of both, if I look at kind of where its coming from, I’d say about a third of it I can tell just looking at the particular items are new equipments, the other two-thirds I’d probably fair amount of that’s replacement.
Rosemarie Morbelli – Ingalls & Snyder
OK. And then could you touch on the internet sales whether they are going growing with the rest of packaging or whether they are lagging, can you give us a better picture of what is going on there?
William Hickey
Yes, I think I can tell you that they are up, I mean I was actually out this earlier this week at looking at the introduction of one of our new paper packaging machines which has just hit the market and it’s clearly aimed at wholesale distributor, e-commerce distributor. So I mean I really pretty honestly don’t have the right number of how much of that 8% is in internet sales but I’d say it’s probably in the same range, I mean we’re seeing the growth right now across the business.
Rosemarie Morbelli – Ingalls & Snyder
OK. Thanks I’ll get back in the queue.
Operator
And your next question comes from the line of Sara Majers with Wells Fargo.
Sara Majers – Wells Fargo
Good morning, given the strength of demand in the quarter, could you help us understand why revenue guidance remained the same, and I guess just a follow-up on that, given the current European distillation and I guess in addition to that but the current read that situation, how is that going to impact further growth for your optimization plans there?
William Hickey
Let me answer the first part of question first, I may ask you to repeat the second part.
Sara Majers – Wells Fargo
OK.
William Hickey
In terms of the growth, I mean I was hopefully reasonably deliberated my comments about the North America and Latin America and Asia and really didn’t indicate much about Europe except an answer to the one of the questions on what was happening in the market. There is a page that we distribute as part of our press release, its posted on the website but you see the European business is really down 2%, and you probably heard me say earlier that its up and protective a couple of percent.
So that the number is down in food are mid to high single digits and that is very, very impacted by the European economy. The consumer confidence level in Europe is extremely low, the Euro as you know is dramatically down over the last several months, particularly customers and those troubled economies Spain, Portugal, Greece.
Food consumption is really tailed back to the basics. Much more eating at home, much more cutting back on the expense of (inaudible) and we’re actually seeing a decline and that has essentially Europe is 26% of our business overall and that’s had a significant impact on bringing down the base.
We would say we’re seeing good growth in North America, 4, 5% depending on the business aid and protective. We’ve seen double-digit growth in the Brazils and Asia is other world, but the big 26% of our business at the Europe is down and that’s really sort of held us back for the quarter.
Sara Majers – Wells Fargo
OK.
William Hickey
I’d like to ask you to repeat the second part of the question.
Sara Majers – Wells Fargo
Yes, I’m just wondering given the current (inaudible) demonstration and how it’s impacting Europe right now. How that might, impact your gross outlook for Europe or European optimization plans.
William Hickey
Our European optimization plan is essentially in its final stages and essentially what we’ve actually done is we move manufacturing East, which is what you would expect to do, so essentially we are beginning to serve those markets better as I mentioned our sales in Russia on the food side of the business are up over 50% and the investments we’ve made have been in Eastern Europe and in Russia. So I think we are positioned correctly and we’re hopeful that the European economy begins to recover but if I look at recovery on a global basis, I could Europe brining up the rear so to speak.
Sara Majers – Wells Fargo
OK, thank you.
Operator
And your next question comes from the line of Mark Wilde with Deutsche Bank.
Mark Wilde – Deutsche Bank
Good morning Bill.
William Hickey
Good morning.
Mark Wilde – Deutsche Bank
Could you just walk us through kind of how these price hikes are likely to roll through the business, I think you mentioned on April 1 price hike and you said it to be pretty much in place by the end of the second quarter?
William Hickey
Right. So there are various as I say has used the number 4 to 9%, I know it’s different business in different parts of the world.
There is one of our business that has a May 1 increase. The others are mostly April, they generally will roll through over a quarter probably the May 1 may roll through into July of 10.
Some of the food packaging contracts adjust over a 45 day periods of that maybe a little bit different in terms of quarter versus monthly versus. So our feeling is that I’d say the vast majority of that will roll through in second quarter, you will see some slowly continued impact into the third quarter.
Mark Wilde – Deutsche Bank
OK, and just sort of given what you see in the resin market right now, would you see a need to do anything else or will these hikes make you haul?
William Hickey
We’re continuing to watch it Mark, we’re continuing to watch it, I mean the expectations from the experts, the consultants in the field of forecasting price as people like chemical manufacturers association and they are generally projecting a slight decline in prices through the rest of 2010 after peaking some more in March, April period. If that happens we expect to be OK, if that doesn’t happen will obviously have to reassess whether we do anything else.
Mark Wilde – Deutsche Bank
OK, that’s helpful. Thanks Bill.
Operator
And your next question comes from the line of Richard Skidmore with Goldman Sachs.
Richard Skidmore – Goldman Sachs
Good morning.
William Hickey
Good morning.
Richard Skidmore – Goldman Sachs
Bill, can you just maybe provide a little bit more detail around the guidance in terms of what the key assumptions are, I know you mentioned 4 to 6% revenue growth but what’s embedded in the low end assumption and the high end assumptions either for volume, price, resin.
William Hickey
OK, let me ask Dave Kelsey. Dave has worked up the number so.
David Kelsey
For starters just looking at the volume range of 4 to 6%, that 2% swing can have something on the ballpark of a $0.10 impact on our EPS. So that’s going to be the biggest factor.
As you know from the call today, when we look at the cost side of things we are expecting resin cost to move up from that mid-single digit to the low-double digit range. The price increases that we spent some time talking about both in our prepared remarks and the Q&A are in place to get us back in line with our guidance expectations by the end of the year.
So the – with those two big factors we are still in that range that we communicated in January. The other area where we’re seeing quite a bit of volatility that’s more in my backyard is foreign exchange while the Europe which we hung out there is toward the benchmark for our basket of currencies has clearly weekend against the dollar and based on the latest headlines may have further to go.
The other currencies particularly in commodity and resource driven economies in many of the emerging markets have actually strengthened against the dollar more than we expected. So when we net those both out, we really are not seeing an overall impact much different than our original assumptions when it comes to currency.
On the spending side through our fixed cost areas, we are continuing to maintain the discipline that we’ve had in prior years don’t see any change in our assumptions there, don’t see any change in our free cash flow assumption. We are right on target in the first quarter with our free cash flow generation to meet our goals exceeding $300 million for the year.
Richard Skidmore – Goldman Sachs
And Dave, just a follow-up on the free cash flow as you generate the $300 million that you’re targeting or above, how should we anticipate the use of that free cash flow?
David Kelsey
We’ve historically had a balanced approach. We do not have any debt service obligations on the horizon other than the potential settlement of the Grace situation, beyond that we have already earmarked CapEx and taken that out of free cash flow, so that does leave us opportunities for investment in acquisitions and other programs that can help drive the top line, again with the focus being on innovation and on emerging markets.
Richard Skidmore – Goldman Sachs
Great, thank you.
William Hickey
Okay.
Operator
And your next question comes from the line of Claudia Hueston with JPMorgan.
Claudia Hueston – JPMorgan
Thanks very much. Good morning.
William Hickey
Good morning.
Claudia Hueston – JPMorgan
Just sort of building off maybe your thoughts on outlook. I was curious what your expectations are for volumes in Western Europe, given sort of the – I guess start here.
And then you had equipment sales in North America being quite strong on the food packaging side, do you have much exposure to that in Western Europe and has there been much of a change there?
William Hickey
On the Europe sales that you see in the first quarter, except for the protective business, the food business was basically a negative for the quarter. We are hopeful for a recovery in Europe.
I would say coming, lagging behind the US and the emerging markets, but to be single-digit positive by the end of the year has contributed to our growth and that does Eastern Europe as part of Europe. So our Europe includes Eastern Europe as well.
So when I say, single-digit growth low-to-mid single digit that includes what is going to be double-digit in the Eastern European side and also the protective business which is positive. I think on the food side, the hope is that we essentially get back the positive numbers compared to the prior year.
And hopefully the EU will resolve the Greek issue and whether there is a Portugal issue following that. But it’s really weighing heavily on consumer confidence.
On the equipment business in North America, the order book looks good, looks better than it has been in probably eight or nine quarters. I don’t necessarily see any reason to change that trend.
And obviously, I think, you see a little bit of a bump on people get some more confidence. A lot of it will be depending on how solid the recovery is.
I think as everyone said, this is clearly not a V-shaped every recession. I think we have concluded is not really an L either.
Someone actually compared to more like Nike swoosh, where we were down pretty quick, but it takes a little longer to go up the other side. So equipment is probably to follow that trend.
Claudia Hueston – JPMorgan
Okay. And what’s the lead time like on those equipment sales?
William Hickey
Maximum, the maximum I think is 18 weeks.
Claudia Hueston – JPMorgan
Okay.
William Hickey
We are a short as a couple of weeks and a maximum 18 weeks.
Claudia Hueston – JPMorgan
Okay, great. Thanks so much.
Operator
And your next question comes from the line of Peter Ruschmeier with Barclays Capital.
Peter Ruschmeier – Barclays Capital
Thanks, good morning, Will.
William Hickey
Good morning.
Peter Ruschmeier – Barclays Capital
My question is related to your Asia-Pacific exposure and I was curious if you could share with us – I don’t know that you have disclosed this in your filings, but roughly what percent of revenues is Asia PAC today? And I think you mentioned protective packaging up 25%, food solutions up 18%.
I am really curious as to what you see is the drivers? How much is easy comps, how much is growth, how is new products?
Anything you can do to elaborate would be very helpful.
William Hickey
Sure, sure. Let me do.
Asia PAC is actually one of the supplements that we handout, it’s the last page of the press release package. And Asia PAC is about 14%, 14% or so of the business, and that number has been climbing over the years.
I remember not too long ago, it was 9%, and so it’s run up to 14%. And I think, let me say there are a three or four factors.
One is I would say on the protective side, the principal driver has been recovery sort of comps is that this time of last year I remember being in China and visiting some customers whose business was primarily export. And they were running less than 30% of their lines, because the export market to the US had pretty much dried up.
So the protective side is primarily a favorable comp situation and an economy recovery of exports out of Asia to the West. The food side of the business is primarily new products and penetration into what is still basically a much less developed protein distribution market.
Those are the kind of the principal drivers. And as I say, food and industrial are coming from slightly different places.
Peter Ruschmeier – Barclays Capital
And so, I guess there have been some concerns about the region in general in terms of it overheating. I am just curious in your visibility and confidence in the staying power of the trends that you are seeing there.
William Hickey
I pick up the same news every morning, you probably pickup too, real estate in China is pretty heavy right now. Prices are going up, single digits monthly.
But on the industrial side, you don’t see that same effect. So, although, there could be a correction on the residential and the housing side, the industrial business is still primarily export driven.
And you know the Chinese are working and have a number of programs to develop more of a domestic market and reduced reliance on exports, but that’s a multiyear process. So I think housing is probably an area that may – maybe a bubble.
We don’t play in that space. We basically serve industrial and food processing companies that either sell to the domestic market or export.
So we keep up clearly with the news. But right now, we haven’t seen an impact on our business.
Peter Ruschmeier – Barclays Capital
That’s very helpful. I will turn it over, but if you care to comment, I would just like your pizza indicator and what conclusions if any you drew off on that?
William Hickey
Well, the pizza indicator is still okay. I mean the unemployment is still pushing 10%.
And I will say my crystal ball is a little cloudy, because we have got this new film. But the pizza indicator is way up in Europe.
Peter Ruschmeier – Barclays Capital
Okay, thanks very much.
Operator
And your next question comes from the line of Al Kabili with Macquarie.
Al Kabili – Macquarie
Hi, good morning, thanks guys. Just in the earnings release, you mentioned productivity improvements and management of expenses is also going to be part of what helps you kind of offset the resin prices.
Did that suggest you need some of that in addition to the price increases to offset that the price increases aren’t enough at this point. And if so, what are we looking for in terms of productivity this year?
Thanks.
William Hickey
The implication is not that the price increases are not being set to recover resin cost. We just pointed out in the first quarter when those price increases were not yet contributing, we did benefit from our cost productivity programs in terms of leveling out the impact and being able to match last year’s margins.
The key driver of productivity is a volume per employee and we see two factors that work there Al. First of all, our employment levels at the end of first quarter are down about 3% globally from where they were at March 31st last year.
And we are starting to see additional volume particularly on the protective side and later this year on the food side come back into the plants. One way, we are positioned to get profitability with the new capacity we have put in place, with our ongoing investment in technology is to be able to get that additional volume through our supply chain organization without a commensurate increase in headcount and cost.
So there is a – I think the term is often referred to as operating leverage. So we see an opportunity for significant operating leverage as we move towards that 4% to 6% expected year-over-year increase.
Al Kabili – Macquarie
Okay. But again – and then on the pricing, in terms of catching up to resin, what percentage of the pricing have you got and what percent do you need in order to catch up to where our current resin prices are.
And then given the weakness in Europe, what’s your confidence and the ability to get some of that pricing in Europe? Thanks.
William Hickey
Well on a – on the global basis, particularly in North America, where we have the most formal approach, the intent is to recover those amounts on a going forward basis. The first quarter is history, so these price increases are not geared to recoup historical resin prices, but more to match cost on a going forward basis.
In terms of Europe, it’s a country-by-country, customer-by-customer situation. We have talked on previous calls about a very deep dive.
We have taken to look at customer productivity. Actually going back three or four years now in our protective business and two years in our food business, and we are continuing to execute on that program to make sure on a country-by-country, customer-by-customer basis, our prices are set to generate an appropriate return on our business levels with those customers.
Al Kabili – Macquarie
Okay. So again – and just again to clarify, in April, you got a lot of pricing in April.
It sounds like you need some in May. Can you just talk about the level of price increases you are looking for in May?
William Hickey
I think what was said in our earlier remarks Al is that we have announced a number of price increases in various geographies and in various of our segments. They go into effect anywhere from April 1st to deeper in the quarter, depending on the specific price increase.
If you want to call Amanda later in the day, I am sure she can give you a little bit more flavor for what – for what we have put in play there.
Al Kabili – Macquarie
Okay, we will follow-up. Thank you.
William Hickey
Okay, thanks. Operator, I would like to take the questions from text that have come in from our webcast.
The first question from our webcast is, what industry in the protective packaging segment is in the increased demand coming from? And what was the cash from operations for the quarter as well as the dividends paid for the quarter?
Let me answer the first part of it first. On the protective packaging segment, it’s pretty much across the board.
I was out with a couple of sales managers earlier this week and we got something like 12 or 13 geographic regions in our protective business around the country. And something like a 11 of those 13 or on or ahead of our plan for 2009-2010.
So that – and that covers the industrial Midwest, that covers the tech sector on the West Coast, that covers the e-commerce type of operation. So it’s pretty well spread across the board.
Cash flow from operations for the quarter, I think we mentioned in our press release, free cash flow which is for this case we are reasonable surrogate for cash flow from operations, which was about a $100 million or about $0.10 for every dollar of our sales. Dividends paid, I think Dave mentioned that is $19 million for the quarter.
So that was one question from the webcast. Second question from the webcast is given the price increases in place to recover resin, when do you expect to be back to a normalized raw material spread assuming resins stay stable with April levels?
I think that I sort of addressed that a little bit earlier on one of the earlier calls. We would expect a lot of that to roll through by most of it by the end of the second quarter.
There will be a carryover into the third quarter. So clearly sometime during the third quarter, we should be kind of normalized, assuming everything stays the same.
But in the resin market these days, that’s a pretty strong assumption. Those were the two questions operator from the webcast.
So if you have any left on the phone here in a couple of minutes we have left.
Operator
Sir, you have a follow-up question from the line of George Staphos with Bank of America.
George Staphos – Bank of America
Thanks. Hi guys.
One short-term question, I just want to clarify. When we talk about ultimately Europe recovering at least from your vantage point.
You were not saying, Bill, that you expect Europe to be up for the entire year, low-to-mid single digit. I think I was interpreting is that it should be up one of these quarters towards the end of the year by that amount.
Is that a correct assessment?
William Hickey
I think I mentioned that for food. On the industrial side, we are already up, George.
So, food, the answer is to turn positive before the end of the year, yes.
George Staphos – Bank of America
So, hopefully in aggregate Europe might even be up year-on-year for the whole year when you combine protective and food?
William Hickey
In aggregate, it might be yes.
George Staphos – Bank of America
Okay.
William Hickey
And as of first quarter, it’s not.
George Staphos – Bank of America
Understand, understand. Taking a step back and maybe doing more of a bigger picture, the company thus far has been performing relatively well.
Again, kudos to you on the free cash flow. Certainly you are not immune to a lot of the factors that hit you or hit the industry, whether it’s resin or Europe and you are managing accordingly.
Is your appetite to do something more strategic – late 80s leverage recap, any greater than perhaps where it’s been over the last 10 years such that you can use the cash generation of the business to drive your performance less susceptible to the (inaudible) whether to resin or geography the company has been susceptible through the last 10 years?
William Hickey
George, I think I mean I think the desire we have had first of all is to put the grace issues behind us. And I think –
George Staphos – Bank of America
Understand that.
William Hickey
And that – I think we will – they do (inaudible) happens before we look at other things.
George Staphos – Bank of America
But assuming that does happen in our working career, is your appetite go up from where it would have been otherwise, say if this was 5 or 10 years ago?
William Hickey
I mean I do think – I mean Sealed Air has always tried to find ways to use our cash flow to benefit shareholders and we will continue to do that.
Operator
And we have question from the line of Stuart Shaw with Standard & Poor’s.
Stuart Shaw – Standard & Poor’s
Do you see any impact from the ban in Japan on exports of Kobe Beef due to foods now produced?
William Hickey
The market, the U.S. Japanese market on trade has been fraught with issues, Stuart over the last of couple years.
Going back four or five years, there have been tit for tats between the U.S. and Japan about opening the border and closing the border.
But by and large, it really doesn't matter much in the overall business. Obviously, if it’s open it helps, if it’s close, it hurts but the numbers are relatively modest on an overall basis.
But U.S. exports are up about 20% but that's kind of globally to Japan.
Operator
And we have a follow-up question from the Rosemarie Morbelli with Ingalls & Snyder.
Rosemarie Morbelli – Ingalls & Snyder
Just two quick questions. You said, Bill, that consultants see risen prices go down in the second half of the year but what do you hear from your own suppliers?
Do you happen to agree with the consultants? Have you done some crosschecking?
William Hickey
Rosemarie, I always like people that tell me resin prices are going to go down.
Rosemarie Morbelli – Ingalls & Snyder
Right and do you believe it?
William Hickey
Of course, suppliers always wish they go up. So it’s a – you have to kind of balance it.
But I do believe that after many, many years of delay, a lot of the Middle East capacity is coming on stream. And interestingly enough, a lot of that Middle East capacity is being shift over to China.
And China had been large customer for the U.S. resin markets.
So although it’s probably not as likely that Middle Eastern resin will have a major import into the U.S., Middle Eastern resin going to China and other export markets that had been the purview of U.S. suppliers will help moderate pricing in the U.S.
I think that's about all I will say on that.
Rosemarie Morbelli – Ingalls & Snyder
Okay, now that is very helpful. And if I may, could you bring us up to date on the medical part of your business.
So you have been very quiet about it for the past couple of quarters.
William Hickey
Okay. Well, medical numbers were relatively good.
Sales volumes were up, I think we said in the press release that medical volumes were up totally about 18%. Some of that was prebuying by our customers in China where our license renewal is in process.
So they wanted to be sure they had enough product on hand during the license renewal process. But the – still even if you take that number out, our resin – our medical sales are still up over double digit.
And interestingly enough, sales in Europe on medical are actually up. So that's a good sign for Europe is that we are really holding our own and penetrating some of the opportunities in Europe.
So, yes, we feel good about the medical business. It’s going the right away.
The numbers are positive and thank you for asking.
Rosemarie Morbelli – Ingalls & Snyder
Are those numbers in line with your expectations, above, below, how do they turn out versus what you are expecting?
William Hickey
Well, we – the medical business given our size and the projects we have been working on should grow in the double digits. 18% is a good number, I am happy with it.
Operator, one more question please before we wrap up.
Operator
Yes sir. And your last question will come from the line of Mark Wilde with Deutsche Bank.
Mark Wilde – Deutsche Bank
Bill, I wondered just kind of taken a step back from things, when you think about growing the company, how important is the issue of kind of diversifying kind of your end markets more? Seems like if you go back 20 years ago, Sealed Air was really quite diversified and that – with the acquisition of Cryovac made you much more dependent on the food and especially the fresh meat markets in a way that you had never been concentrated before?
William Hickey
Well, an interesting, Mark. I would actually sort of suggest it maybe 20 years ago we were much – our diversification was less, we were primarily industrial packaging.
And if you look at the Sealed Air business 20 years ago, 100% of the business depended on industrial packaging. And part of the moves we made in the 90s were to begin to reduce our reliable on industrial packaging as we went through some of the earlier recessions, knowing the impact that the industrial business is much more affected by the industrial.
So it was a couple of decisions we made is one was to diversify the end markets and two is become more global with being at the markets around the world, create opportunities in other segments. We recognized food early on as a diversification opportunity, starting with our interesting acquisition in the 80s where we obtained dry-lock absorbent pad for meat trays which really gave us a flavor of what happened in the food business, followed it up in the 90s with the acquisition of Trigon, which got us into the protein packaging business primarily in Asia Pacific and Europe, followed with Cryovac in 1998.
And as we look for further end market opportunities, again using core technologies and core manufacturing capabilities, we see kind of the diversification into the medical business as being another logical step for couple of reasons. One being the aging population and the increase in demand for healthcare by older population, and two the more emphasis on healthcare in the emerging markets.
So we see that as a growth opportunity and the opportunity has really been focused from our core competencies and basically Polymer Science and extrusion and the manufacturing. We may have a lot of end markets but a lot of the inputs and processes are similar.
We continue to look about whether there is something else beyond industrial, food and medical, but right now we are focusing on the portfolio we have but thanks for asking the question. Okay, operator, I think we are about wrapped up.
So I would like to thank everyone for your participation of the call today. As we continue to perform through the second quarter, we remain optimistic that the modest recovery we saw last quarter will continue to provide growth opportunities for us in the year ahead.
This recovery combined with our growth strategies, our lean and expansive international network ongoing innovations and expanding customers relationships position us to accelerate our growth rates, expand margins and continue to deliver measurable value for our customers and stockholders. And again, I would like to say I am really proud to be a Sealed Air shareholder and thank you for taking the time to listen to us today.
Operator
Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This concludes the presentation.
You may now disconnect. Good day.
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