John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call February 21, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Kedric Meredith - Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations

Brian Deck - Chief Executive Officer

Matt Meister - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Walt Liptak - Seaport Research

Lawrence De Maria - William Blair

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to JBT Corporation's Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2022 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Chris, and I'll be your conference operator today. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] After the speakers’ remarks there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]

I'll now turn the call over to JBT's Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations, Kedric Meredith to begin today's conference.

Kedric Meredith

Thank you, Chris. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our fourth quarter and year-end 2022 conference call. With me on the call is our Chief Executive Officer, Brian Deck and Chief Financial Officer, Matt Meister.

In today's call, we will use forward-looking statements that are subject to the safe harbor language in today's press release and 8-K filing. JBT's periodic SEC filings also contain information regarding risk factors that may have an impact on our results. These documents are available in the Investor Relations section of our website.

Also, our discussion today includes references to certain non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measure can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website.

Now I'll turn the call over to Brian.

Brian Deck

Thanks, Kedric, and good morning, everyone. JBT captured double-digit growth on the top and bottom line for 2022, notwithstanding the much-discussed challenges associated with rapid inflation and supply chain disruptions.

In each quarter, we realized sequential margin improvement at both FoodTech and AeroTech. And we ended the year on a strong note, especially as it relates to profitability and orders at FoodTech. While there remains a level of caution among our food customers, it is clear they need to invest in capacity, automation, optimization of yield and uptime and sustainability.

During 2022, we completed two strategic acquisitions. As I'll talk about later, they are highly complementary to our FoodTech solutions and are quickly adding value. At AeroTech, margin improvement continued to progress, albeit at a slower pace than originally planned. At the same time, the demand side remains robust, positioning the business for a great 2023.