Energizer Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ENR) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call February 6, 2024 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Jon Poldan - VP, Treasurer and IR
Mark LaVigne - President and CEO
John Drabik - EVP and CFO
Conference Call Participants
Lauren Lieberman - Barclays
Bill Chappell - Truist Securities
Nik Modi - RBC Capital Markets
Rob Ottenstein - Evercore
Andrea Teixeira - JPMorgan
Hale Holden - Barclays
Carla Casella - Morgan
Brian McNamara - Canaccord Genuity
Jon Poldan
Good morning, and Welcome to Energizer's First Quarter Fiscal 2024 Conference Call. Joining me today are Mark LaVigne, President and Chief Executive Officer; and John Drabik, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
A replay of this call will be available on the Investor Relations section of our website, energizerholdings.com. In addition, a slide deck providing detailed financial results for the quarter is also posted on our website.
During the call, we will make forward-looking statements about the Company's future business and financial performance among other matters. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties which may cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. We do not undertake to update these forward-looking statements. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements are included in reports we file with the SEC.
We also refer in our presentation to non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP measures is shown in our press release issued earlier today, which is available on our website. Information concerning our categories and estimated market share discussed on this call relates to the categories where we compete and is based on Energizer's internal data, data from industry analysis and estimates we believe to be reasonable. The battery category information includes both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce retail sales. Unless otherwise noted, all comments regarding the quarter and year pertain to Energizer's fiscal year, and all comparisons to prior relate to the same period in fiscal 2023.
With that, I would like to turn the call over to Mark.
Mark LaVigne
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our fiscal 2024 first quarter earnings call.
We started the fiscal year with the same priorities as we had in FY '23, improving margins, generating free cash flow and paying down debt. In our first quarter, we delivered on our outlook and made great progress in each of these areas. Gross margin improved to 39.5% for the quarter as a result of the benefits from Project Momentum. We generated free cash flow over 21% of net sales and paid down $78 million in debt, solidifying our path to achieve below 5 times debt to EBITDA by the end of the fiscal year.