Reynolds Consumer Prods Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Reynolds Consumer Prods (NASDAQ:REYN) reported third-quarter financial results on Wednesday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.

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Summary

Reynolds Consumer Prods reported third-quarter net revenues of $944 million, up from $931 million the previous year, with retail revenues slightly increasing to $865 million.

The company has been focusing on pricing strategies to counter commodity inflation, resulting in some volume elasticity, but has seen strong pricing and revenue growth.

Reynolds continues to invest in brand innovation, digital capabilities, and new product launches, while expanding its aluminum processing capabilities through the acquisition of Owlshead Alloys.

The full-year 2026 guidance remains unchanged, with expected net revenues increasing by 1% to 3% and adjusted EBITDA projected to be between $660 million and $675 million.

Management highlighted the resilience of core categories, ongoing productivity improvements, and strategic investments in digital and omnichannel capabilities as key operational focuses.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Greetings and welcome to the Reynolds Consumer Prods third quarter 2026 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a 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 star-zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Jill Coval, Director of Investor Relations.

Thank you, Jill. You may begin.

Jill Coval (Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Reynolds Consumer Prods third quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Scott Huckins, our Chief Executive Officer, and Nathan Lowe, our Chief Financial Officer. Scott will begin with highlights from the third quarter, and Nathan will follow with a detailed look at our financial results and outlook. We’ll then open the call for a brief question-and-answer session. Before we begin, a few housekeeping items. Today’s call is being webcast, and a replay, along with our earnings release and investor presentation, will be available on the Investor Relations section of our corporate website at reynoldsconsumerproducts.com. Our discussion today will include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described today.

Please refer to the Risk Factors section of our SEC filings for additional information. The company does not intend to update or alter these statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after the call. We will also reference certain non-GAAP or adjusted financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are available in our earnings release, investor presentation, and Form 10-Q on our Investor Relations website.

With that, I’d like to turn the call over to Scott.

Scott Huckins (Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you, Jill, and good morning, everyone. Our third quarter performance demonstrated the resilience of our brands and the agility of our organization in a dynamic environment. We led pricing across our categories to recover commodity inflation, and we delivered results at or above our outlook while continuing to invest behind our brands. As expected, higher prices led to some volume elasticity layered on top of a challenged consumer and a backdrop of increased competitive activity.

Our commercial teams drove innovation and distribution gains, and we continue to meet consumer needs across the value spectrum. Our work across our supply chain continued to deliver productivity gains despite higher input costs and facilitated ongoing investment in our brands, innovation, and digital capabilities. For me, all of this is an important proof point of our strategy. Over the last two years we have built a more agile and resilient Reynolds with stronger pricing and RGM capabilities, improved operations and supply chain efficiencies, and disciplined investment behind the opportunities with the greatest potential return. The dynamic operating environment over this time period has certainly tested these capabilities, but the business has gotten stronger each quarter.

We remain confident in our strategy and in our full-year outlook. Turning to the consumer, household budgets remain under pressure, and we continue to see that reflected in purchasing behavior across our categories. Consumers are seeking value in a number of ways, such as purchasing more on promotion, moving toward opening price point items, or choosing larger value-seeking pack sizes. We continue to see the consumer increasingly shopping across mass, club, and e-commerce channels, and shopping is increasingly organized around occasions as retailers and delivery platforms bring tools that let shoppers plan by meal or event in addition to shopping by individual product categories.

Our insights teams are staying close to these trends, and we are focused on meeting consumers wherever and however they shop. Today, we deliver the value, performance, and quality consumers expect from our brands while providing them with a wide range of price points to fit their household budgets. When consumers choose store brands, our portfolio allows us to serve that need as well. Our ability to serve consumers across the value spectrum is a meaningful advantage, particularly in the current environment.

At the same time, we continue to invest behind where the consumer is going, too. Shopping is increasingly omnichannel, with an estimated 94% of grocery shoppers now buying both online and in store. Our categories fit this behavior well, as these are products consumers use and replenish regularly, making them a natural fit for both online ordering and reordering through subscription platforms. What matters most to us is not just that more purchases are moving online, but that the discovery process is changing.

Consumers now find products in more places than ever, whether on the shelf, through retailer search, social platforms, or AI-enabled shopping tools. Our job is to make sure Reynolds and Hefty are present and easy to find wherever that discovery happens. Therefore, digital is becoming an increasingly important growth channel for our categories, and we are seeing encouraging results from our investments. Turning to our business units, within Reynolds Cooking and Kitchen Essentials, the foil category continued to reflect the impact of significant commodity-driven pricing. Our pricing actions were necessary to recover substantially higher aluminum costs. As expected, higher price points created demand elasticity. Despite this, we saw double-digit retail dollar takeaway growth in the category and for Reynolds Wrap. This demonstrates the essential nature and resilience of the category and the strong equity in the Reynolds brand.

In the fourth quarter, Reynolds Cooking and Kitchen Essentials will be focused on driving volume through strong merchandising and display execution. Q4 is an important seasonal quarter for our business, supported by holiday-driven demand and significant merchandising activity. We are focused on executing against those opportunities and finishing the year strong. Given the importance of the season, we have strengthened our plans for 2026 with new display vehicles and sharper promotional price points.

These are designed to drive category growth, reinforce our leadership position, and maintain brand loyalty during the holiday season. At the same time, we continue to find opportunities beyond the core foil business. Parchment benefited from increased velocities, and our seasonal innovation continues to create incremental consumer engagement with the Reynolds brand. As you might have seen in the release, we also completed the acquisition of Owlshead Alloys in October, whose aluminum processing capabilities further vertically integrate our aluminum foil business and complement our manufacturing network. Our M&A agenda has several pillars, all oriented toward growth, and acquiring capabilities that support growth are one important part of that agenda. We certainly welcome the nearly 300 employees of Owlshead Alloys to the Reynolds family.

Hefty Waste and Cleanup delivered a solid quarter in a dynamic environment. We led pricing in the category to address higher input costs. Elasticity was in line with our expectations, and strong commercial execution and innovation helped mitigate some of the competitive inelasticity challenges. We continue to be particularly pleased with consumer response to our scent and color innovation. This includes our recent launch of Hefty Ultra Strong Fabuloso Peach and Hefty Ultra Strong Tea Tree and Eucalyptus, both of which we plan to scale nationally in 2027.

Research shows that in home care, more than half of consumers across generations say scent influences their interest in new products, and we’re seeing that in our scented Hefty offerings. By pairing the strength Hefty is known for with scents consumers love, we’ve built meaningful growth platforms for the brand. Colored waste bags are a smaller but fast-growing part of the category, up more than 40%, and our Hefty Color series is leading that growth across the category.

Our success in building innovation platforms for waste was certainly an element in delivering 10 points of distribution growth, and we picked up several points of digital penetration. Competitive intensity remains high, and we will continue to balance consumer value, retailer performance, and profitability as we manage the business. Within Hefty Home and Tableware, market conditions remained challenging during the third quarter. As a reminder, tableware is our most discretionary category, where the majority of usage occasions are for daily convenience. Despite that, we delivered growth and share gains in key areas such as Hefty party cups and cutlery. We are also seeing an opportunity around gatherings, and we’re designing innovation with those occasions in mind. For example, we recently launched coordinated Halloween sets that bring together themed plates, cups, and cutlery, making it easier for consumers to shop for the entire occasion.

Hefty is also extending beyond traditional at-home occasions with the launch of Chill2Go Cups, addressing consumer demand for portable, convenient drinkware and expanding the brand into on-the-go usage occasions. Our objective remains straightforward: strengthen the portfolio, innovate against occasion-based shopping trends, and expand into away-from-home consumer needs while continuing to drive productivity and operating performance across the business.

Third quarter performance in our Hefty Storage and Organization business reflected lower volumes due in part to some timing shift between quarters, following 8% volume growth in the second quarter that benefited from some successful promotional activity. On a year-to-date basis, the business has delivered growth and share gains despite private-label dual-sourcing headwinds, which have been the most pronounced in this segment. We continue to onboard new businesses well, demonstrating the strength of our innovation and value proposition across both Hefty and store brands.

As we enter the final quarter of the year, we continue to operate in a dynamic environment. Commodity costs remain elevated, consumers remain under pressure, and competitive and promotional activity remains high. These conditions reinforce the importance of staying focused on what we can control. As we have done all year long, we will continue to manage pricing with agility, drive productivity across our supply chain with particular emphasis on manufacturing, invest behind our brands, innovation, and digital capabilities, and work closely with our retail partners to deliver the performance and value consumers are looking for.

The third quarter demonstrated the continued progress we have made in building a more resilient Reynolds. Our focus remains on disciplined execution, staying agile as conditions evolve, and continuing to deliver against our core priorities. I am very proud of our team for what we have accomplished thus far in 2026, providing continued leadership across our categories while growing earnings against a very dynamic backdrop. I will now turn the call over to Nathan to walk through our financial results and outlook in more detail.

OPERATOR

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a 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. Our first question is from Peter Grom with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Peter Grom (Analyst)

Great. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Hope you’re doing well. So, Scott, you touched on the progress that the business has made, but I was hoping to get some more perspective on innovation. You mentioned continued investments in innovation. Can you maybe unpack that a bit more and share what you are doing differently today?

Scott Huckins (Chief Executive Officer)

Good morning, Peter. Thanks for the question. Happy to start with this one. So I think, to reground, innovation has always been a core focus for us at Reynolds Consumer Prods, and if anything, I think that’s been amplified by having the opportunity, through our productivity initiatives, to have more capacity to reinvest back in the business. I’d say this year has been quite a bit about two things: one, deepening our consumer insights across all of our categories in the business; and emphasizing quicker speed to market and more agility. And we think that that agility and speed to market is quite relevant in this climate where consumers’ needs are certainly evolving.

I’d say, lastly, we’re really focused this year on three things, and I’ll give some examples. The first is invest behind proven winners. A perfect example of that would be in our Color Scents portfolio in the waste bag business. Second would be to invest in and innovate against new usage occasions. A good example of that would be the away-from-home or on-the-go cups business in tableware. And then the third would be complementary innovation that drives interest in that innovation but also back to that core or existing category.

A good example of that would be in Fun Foil. And so I think, as we reflect on what we accomplished this year, we’re certainly pleased with that progress.

Peter Grom (Analyst)

Great. And then second, just on the fourth quarter, a relatively wide range, particularly on the top line. So can you maybe help us understand what would put you at the high end relative to the low end? And then just related, any early thoughts on how we should be thinking about this exit rate as we begin to think about ’27? Thank you. Great. Thank you so much. I’ll pass it on.

OPERATOR

Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question is from Rob Ottenstein with Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your question.

Rob Ottenstein (Analyst)

Great. I was just wondering if you can talk about your thoughts on pricing, how sort of a level of urgency there, how retailers are thinking about it in terms of their private label, and any updated assessments on elasticity, maybe just focused on bags and foil. Thank you.

Scott Huckins (Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah. Good morning, Rob. Thanks for that question. I guess the first place I’d start is we feel really good about pricing strategy and execution. And I make that comment from two places. We’ve certainly dimensionalized the amount of commodity headwinds, and then second, we’ve consistently said that we’re generally seeing elasticities inside the range that we would expect. And those certainly don’t contradict the strategy. I think proof points would be, as we look at your request against some of the categories, we’ve generally taken either dollar share or volume share, or both, against the other competing brands in the categories, again, depending on which one you’re talking about. But I think you also asked about foil. I think we’re seeing strong resilience in the category. When we look at year-to-date Q3, virtually any time period, we still see double-digit retail dollar takeaway growth in consumer foil.

And that’s true for the category and our business. And so we continue to be vigilant and look for opportunities to make surgical adjustments, but I think, taken as a whole, I think we’re pleased with the outcome that we’ve delivered.

Rob Ottenstein (Analyst)

Great. And if I can slip one more in, you know, in part of the introduction, I think you spent more time than in the past talking about how digital and, I guess, AI and agentic are changing the field of competition, both with competition, relationship with retailers, engaging with the consumer. So two things on that. One, do you feel—excuse me—do you feel that you’ve made the necessary investments to be fully competitive there and if not, how much incremental investment is needed?

And then maybe just one example or so of things that you’re doing differently now given that new dynamic. Thank you.

Scott Huckins (Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks again. It’s a good question. So I think when we reflect on the broad subject of digital, fundamentally we’re doing two things in terms of investing. We’re investing in talent and we’re investing in developing further capability. So that’s the investment side, and I guess the way we think about it, Rob, we’re trying to deliver four outcomes. First outcome is make sure that our products are easy to discover regardless of the source, you know, the research or desire for insights into the products or categories. Second is to convert that discovery into purchase, so high conversion rates. Third is using that information in those cycles to continue to invest smarter, meaning ROI mindset as we think about where we invest to drive growth in digital. And then the fourth is scale, so take all of those learnings and capabilities and make sure we’re scaling those efficiencies.

So I do feel like we’re making the right investments. And, frankly, we continue to see runway here as a further growth vehicle into the future as more and more product discovery is taking place online and with AI.

Rob Ottenstein (Analyst)

And if I can just follow up again, this may be kind of like the most obvious question and answer, but obviously you want your products to be easier to discover, right? So what is, you know, what can you do along that line to make that happen, that may be different, or a way in which you’re advantaged in that because you know everybody’s going to be trying to do that? So I don’t know if there’s anything that you can add to that. And then I’ll move over to the next question.

Thank you.

Scott Huckins (Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, so I think there’s two points there. The first would be, you know, our observation is that our core categories really lend themselves to digital shopping. They are typically high-repeat items persistently bought through the year. That, in turn, then facilitates the potential usage of subscription models and platforms for those consumers who want that convenience. I think in terms of how to make the products more available, discoverable online, A, it’s the more macro ad spend or top-of-funnel investment, whether that be in traditional media or digital media. I think, two, as we think about innovation opportunities, bringing those quickly to market through a digital platform in some instances makes a lot of sense because the ability to narrate around the product’s features and benefits and use cases, I think, in some instances can actually be more robust online.

So those would be the two thoughts on that follow-up question.

Rob Ottenstein (Analyst)

Terrific. Very clear and helpful. Thank you.

OPERATOR

Our next question is from Brian McNamara with Canaccord Genuity. Please proceed with your question.

Brian McNamara (Analyst)

Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. First off, volumes were down across the portfolio in Q3, naturally. So I’m curious, where are those volumes going? Is it private label, perhaps other substitutes? Or are consumers simply skipping a trip and doing without? Or maybe pantry destocking? Thanks.

Scott Huckins (Chief Executive Officer)

Good morning, Brian. Thanks for the question. I guess as we think about the categories, taking them as a whole, we’re generally only seeing low-single-digit changes in retail takeaways, so we don’t see wholesale shifts. I’d say we’ve seen a little bit of an increment in private label share gains across the portfolio, but I emphasize the word a little bit. Take some examples. Some of the big categories in our Hefty waste bag business, we’re inside of a point. You look at the Reynolds Wrap business year to date, we’re somewhere just over a point of share change. So I would consider those relatively modest in light of the quantum of pricing and the resulting elasticities.

And I guess the last question is, you know, where’s the volume going? I’d probably say, taken as a whole, we probably see the consumers who are more marginal participants in the categories probably more exiting private label. And I’ll give you a very specific example. If you look at the cups category, category is down 4 or 5%, something like that year to date. Our business is actually up. We’ve grown volumes, we’ve grown dollar retail takeaways, and we’ve grown share.

And so that would be a good example of a case where that marginal consumer is actually exiting the private label portion of the category.

Brian McNamara (Analyst)

Great, that’s helpful. And then I guess secondarily and related, how would you characterize both promotional activity today relative to three months ago and also consumer health? Like has consumer health gotten worse compared to three months ago or has it stayed relatively consistent?

Scott Huckins (Chief Executive Officer)

I’ll take them in reverse order. I think the consumer continues to be challenged at the macro level, probably a little bit of deterioration in each of the quarters as we’ve moved throughout the year, in part because we’ve seen more and more commodity inflation broadly throughout the year. So that just creates incremental costs for that consumer, whether it’s in our categories, whether it’s at the pump in fuel, et cetera. I’d say the promo environment, probably the steepest or strongest in the bags categories, plural—so in both waste and storage. My analysis would be that the level of promo would be up versus a year ago but down sequentially. So Q3’s promo activities would be, I think, a bit down from Q2. However, it’s important to keep in mind that some of those promotions ultimately become permanent everyday price points. So I’d conclude that the environment is still elevated.

But as we reflect on our performance in those two categories, we’ve either taken dollar share, volume share, or both, again depending on which of those categories we’re talking about. So I feel like our strategy has proven effective. Notwithstanding, we certainly acknowledge there’s been elasticity taking us all across the categories.

Brian McNamara (Analyst)

Great, thanks. I’ll pass it on.

OPERATOR

Our next question is from Nick Modi with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Nick Modi (Analyst)

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Scott, just a couple questions. Sorry if I missed this. I was on and off the call. Out of home versus in home—maybe if you could just provide any thoughts on what you’re seeing there. We’re hearing that out of home into home is kind of accelerating as the year has progressed, just given some of the inflationary pressure, so just love to get your thoughts on that. And then the bigger-picture question is, going back to your comments about occasion versus category, how willing or open are the retailers in terms of rethinking how they actually shelve their aisles? We are hearing of some kind of radical rethinks in certain categories, but I’m just curious if you’re seeing any of that take place or being tested in any of your categories. Thanks.

Scott Huckins (Chief Executive Officer)

Good morning, Nick. Thanks for both of those questions. So I think on your first one, at home versus away from home, what we’re getting at there is we’re finding that there is certainly a segment of consumers who are looking for solutions generally in the categories we participate, but that usage occasion may be outside the home. So I gave an example in prepared remarks of Chill To Go cups as a very specific example of meeting that consumer need.

So I think the takeaway is we want to be thoughtful about driving innovation against use occasions, whether they be in the home or away from home. I think it’s going to continue to be something that we’ll focus on. I think your second question is around this notion I’ve commented on about shopping by occasion picking up some steam relative to shopping for product and category. We do see evidence of that. I think the retailers are each in different places in that journey, but we certainly do see some retailers developing platforms and delivery mechanisms to facilitate that because, again, I think if you combine that—there’s more and more digital discovery of items and consumers are more and more shopping for an occasion—that creates a basket or portfolio that typically meets that need state.

So I think all of us, suppliers and retailers, are working on how do we best fulfill that need in a convenient, affordable, effective way, with the quality that our consumers come to expect from Reynolds Consumer Prods.

Nick Modi (Analyst)

Great. Thank you so much. I’ll pass it on.

OPERATOR

We have reached the end of the question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Scott Huckins for closing comments.

Scott Huckins (Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you, operator, and appreciate everyone’s time and interest in Reynolds Consumer Prods this morning. Certainly on behalf of our 6,000 teammates, we appreciate that interest and wish everybody a great rest of your day.

OPERATOR

This concludes today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company’s SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants’ and analysts’ statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.