Avery Dennison Corporation (AVY) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the 2021 Annual Meeting of Avery Dennison Corporation Stockholders. I would like to introduce the first presenter, Mr. Mitch Butier, Chairman, President and CEO of Avery Dennison.

Thanks, Dawn. Let's bring the meeting to order. Welcome to our 76th Annual Meeting of Stockholders. We are joined by the members of our Board of Directors; and Greg Lovins, our Chief Financial Officer; Ignacio Walker, our Chief Legal Officer; Vikas Arora, our Corporate Secretary; Lori Bondar, our Treasurer and Chief Accounting Officer; and Andy Wilcox, our independent inspector of election for the meeting. Due to the continued public health concerns about in-person gatherings given the COVID-19 pandemic, today's meeting is being held virtually, allowing the opportunity for a greater number of stockholders to attend via the web portal. As is our custom, we will conduct the business portion of our meeting first and answer questions after the meeting is adjourned. Only validated stockholders may ask questions in the designated field on the web portal. Although we may not be able to answer every question, we will do our best to respond to as many questions as possible, and we'll address any unanswered questions on our website shortly after the meeting. This meeting is being held pursuant to the notice mailed or made available on March 8, 2021, to all stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 22, 2021, the record date fixed by our Board. The purposes of this meeting are to: one, elect 9 directors to serve for a 1-year term expiring at next year's annual meeting; two, approve, on an advisory basis, our executive compensation; and three, ratify the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as our independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal year 2021. I would now like to ask Vikas to give the secretary's report.

Thanks, Mitch. I have on file an affidavit from Broadridge Financial Solutions confirming that on March 8, 2021, notice of this meeting was mailed or made available to stockholders of record as of the February 22 record date. Notice was properly given. The official list of stockholders entitled to vote at the meeting is available for inspection on the virtual meeting platform. There were 75,845,266 shares represented immediately prior to the commencement of the meeting in person or by proxy, representing approximately 91% of the 83,019,456 shares of issued and outstanding stock of the company entitled to vote. A quorum is present, and the meeting is lawfully convened to transact the business for which it was called. The minutes of the 2020 Annual Stockholder Meeting are also available on the virtual meeting platform for review by stockholders.

Thanks, Vikas. If you have already voted by telephone, over the Internet or by mail, you do not need to cast your vote at this meeting. You can vote at this meeting only if you are a registered stockholder or a beneficial stockholder with a legal proxy, have logged into the virtual meeting platform using your control number and have not already voted or wish to change your previously submitted proxy. If you would like to vote at this meeting, please do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions provided. [Voting]

Since there are no [indiscernible] portal, I now declare the polls closed. Before we move to the election of directors, I'd like to recognize and thank Peter Barker for his 18 years of service on our Board and previous leadership of both our Audit and Finance Committee and our Governance Committee. We have all benefited greatly from his wise counsel and thank him for his dedicated service. Bradley Alford, Anthony Anderson, Mark Barrenechea, Ken Hicks, Andres Lopez, Patrick Siewert, Julia Stewart, Martha Sullivan and I were nominated by the Board for election to serve as directors for a 1-year term ending at next year's annual meeting. The Board has recommended the election of each of the 9 director nominees. I declare the nominations closed. The remaining 2 items to consider are approval on an advisory basis of our executive compensation, and ratification of the Audit and Finance Committee's appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as our independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal year 2021. Mike Brandmeyer, Avery Dennison Global Engagement Partner; and Mike Ruble, Director, are present to answer questions. The Board has recommended a vote for each of the other 2 proposals. I'll now ask Vikas for a preliminary report on voting.

The proxies and ballots have now been preliminarily counted by the inspector of election duly appointed by the Board of Directors. At least 45,903,549 shares, representing approximately 64% of the voted shares, have voted to elect each of the director nominees for director. Each of them has been elected. 69,109,630 shares, representing approximately 96% of the voted shares, have voted to approve on an advisory basis our executive compensation. The compensation has been approved. 70,736,608 shares, representing approximately 94% of the voted shares, have voted to ratify the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers. The appointment has been ratified. Final voting results will be filed with the SEC on Form 8-K by April 28.

Thanks, Vikas. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the business portion of the meeting, which is now adjourned. Now before we get to Q&A, I'd like to notify everyone in attendance that this morning, we announced a 10% increase in our quarterly dividend rate from $0.62 per share to $0.68 per share. The second quarter dividend is payable on June 16, 2021, to all stockholders of record on June 2, 2021.

So now we'd like to open it up for any questions. Please note that we will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, but only questions that are germane to the meeting will be addressed. Since there are no questions at this time, Mitch, I'll turn the call back over to you.

Thank you for attending, everyone, and for your continued support of Avery Dennison.

Thank you. The annual meeting for Avery Dennison has now [indiscernible]. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.