John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 21, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Kedric Meredith - VP of Corporate Development and IR

Brian Deck - CEO

Matt Meister - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Lawrence De Maria - William Blair

Walter Liptak - Seaport Research

Mig Dobre - R.W. Baird

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to JBT Corporation's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Audra, and I will be your conference operator today. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. At this time, all lines have been placed on mute, to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]

I will 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, Audra. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our year end 2023 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 yesterday'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.

A lot has occurred since our last call a few months ago, so let me dive in. As you know, JBT announced its intention, to pursue a merger with Marel. We believe this merger would be transformative, for our customers and shareholders, bringing together two exceptional providers of food and beverage solutions, with synergistic products, great technology, and globally recognized brands.

I'll provide more color on that, but first about our financial performance. We are very pleased with JBT's strong results in 2023. On a 5% increase in full year revenue, adjusted EBITDA increased 20%. We also generated strong free cash flow with a conversion well over 100%. Moreover, we introduced financial guidance for 2024, which reflects further revenue growth and continued margin expansion.