About Gael Touya
Gael Touya, President of Aptar Pharma at Aptargroup, has been discussing the company's performance and market conditions in recent interviews. Touya stated that the company's numbers reflect inventory adjustments following the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that while consumer demand remains, growth rates in fragrance and other segments have slowed from pandemic-era highs. He described tariffs as "neutral" for AptarGroup, citing the company's philosophy of serving regions from within the region)Skip. Touya also noted that the Chinese market has not seen the vigorous rebound some expected, but that Chinese brands are supplying the market and Asia remains a positive region for the company.
Touya highlighted strong demand in the pharmaceutical sector, particularly for nasal sprays, inhalers, and sinus rinses, and said the company has invested over $180 million in capacity for biologic drugs including GLP-1 drugs. He identified weakness in the U.S. food and personal care home care segments, attributing it to changing consumer patterns and retailers working down COVID inventories. Touya noted that labor force issues have abated)Skip, and that the company's business is 75% outside the U.S., with travel retail driving growth in beauty and high-end fragrances. He described China as an important market and said the company is not in geopolitically sensitive areas.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Gael Touya's recent appearances.
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Transcript (6 segments)
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Interviewer0:01
Consumer products and it was also our mystery chart. Shares hitting all-time highs in the back of an earnings beat, but the company missed on the top line and the Q4 guidance came in a bit light. Joining me is the President and CEO of AptarGroup. Good to see you again. I actually want to start on a broad question, more policy-related, having to do with tariffs because we got manufacturing in lots of places around the world. If we see more tariffs in the next administration across the board, is that on balance good or bad for AptarGroup?
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Gael Touya0:36
Great to be back, John. I would say for us it's really neutral, but we are very much having a philosophy of serving the region from within the region. And of course, what higher tariffs do is they further regionalize supply chains and create friction to ship across, which for some low-cost competitors would create a bigger issue. On the other hand, they're inflationary, so they will ultimately end up with the consumer, so for us, it's neutral.
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Interviewer1:11
What's the impact of the slowdown that we have seen in the cosmetics business reflected in multiple places recently?
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Gael Touya1:16
Part of this is really a supply chain effect coming out of COVID. Our customers launched like crazy, growth rates of 20% and more in fragrance. Now the sell-through rate for the retail was not at those levels, more like 5%, 6%. Part of what you see in our numbers is an adjustment. Consumers are still there, and when you talk about China, it's not the consumer, but the growth isn't there that everybody expected. A vigorous rebound after COVID has not happened, and our clients are still hopeful the Chinese consumer will be more vigorous. On the other hand, Chinese brands are bringing in the market in China and supplying those as well. Asia is not too bad for us.
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Interviewer2:00
The thing that blows my mind about this company and your product is everything from, like, soap dispensers and ketchup squeezers to pharmaceutical dispensing, which is wild. But in a sense, does that create an innovation chain where certain technologies flow through to others, and what's your attitude now about investing in that given the cost of capital?
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Gael Touya2:26
Yeah. Look, I know it sounds like a very broad portfolio, but I invite you to visit any of our factories. They all do the same thing. They're a high-speed assembly, can lug the assembly that Elon uses with his batteries. We have been doing this for decades, so the technology we can leverage across and all customers together in innovation workshops. They want to look at everything. They can have this pharma device over here and in beauty, what we came up with here, and in food, in the dermal cosmetic space. We create a consumer experience and create drug delivery. Our capital is relatively reasonable.
