UNITED PARCEL SERVICE INC
For the period ended Sep 30, 2024. Filed Nov 6, 2024.
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A company's report for each of its first three quarters. The financial statements are not audited. It shows how the business has moved since the last annual report, and what management says changed.
Sep 30, 2024 · Filed Nov 6, 2024
Contents
Supplemental Information - Items Affecting Comparability
We supplement the reporting of our financial information determined under generally accepted accounting principles in the United States ("GAAP") with certain non-GAAP adjusted financial measures. Management views and evaluates business performance on both a GAAP basis and by excluding costs and benefits associated with these non-GAAP adjusted financial measures. As a result, we believe the presentation and discussion of these non-GAAP adjusted financial measures better enables users of our financial information to view and evaluate underlying business performance from the same perspective as management.
Non-GAAP adjusted financial measures should be considered in addition to, and not as an alternative for, our reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Our non-GAAP adjusted financial measures do not represent a comprehensive basis of accounting and therefore may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Non-GAAP adjusted amounts reflect the following (in millions):
| Three Months Ended September 30, | Nine Months Ended September 30, | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-GAAP Adjustments | 2024 | 2023 | 2024 | 2023 |
| Operating Expenses: | ||||
| Transformation Strategy Costs: | ||||
| Transformation 1.0 | $— | $(3) | $— | $(10) |
| Spans and Layers | — | — | — | (86) |
| Business Portfolio Review | (34) | (2) | (29) | (31) |
| Financial Systems | (12) | (12) | (41) | (30) |
| Other Initiatives | — | (1) | — | (3) |
| Transformation 2.0 Total | (46) | (15) | (70) | (150) |
| Fit to Serve | (108) | (76) | (157) | (76) |
| Total Transformation Strategy Costs | (154) | (94) | (227) | (236) |
| Gain on Divestiture of Coyote | 156 | — | 156 | — |
| One-Time Payment for International Regulatory Matter | — | — | (88) | — |
| Goodwill and Asset Impairment Charges | — | (117) | (48) | (125) |
| One-Time Compensation Payment | — | (61) | — | (61) |
| Expense for Regulatory Matter | — | — | (45) | — |
| Total Adjustments to Non-GAAP Operating Expenses | $2 | $(272) | $(252) | $(422) |
| Three Months Ended September 30, | Nine Months Ended September 30, | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other Income and (Expense): | 2024 | 2023 | 2024 | 2023 |
| Interest Expense Associated with One-Time Payment for International Regulatory Matter | — | — | 6 | — |
| Total Adjustments to Non-GAAP Other Income and (Expense) | $— | $— | $6 | $— |
| Total Adjustments to Non-GAAP Income Before Income Taxes | $(2) | $272 | $258 | $422 |
| Income Tax (Benefit) Expense: | ||||
| Transformation Strategy Costs: | ||||
| Transformation 1.0 | $— | $1 | $— | $2 |
| Spans and Layers | — | — | — | 21 |
| Business Portfolio Review | 8 | 1 | 7 | 7 |
| Financial Systems | 3 | 3 | 10 | 8 |
| Other Initiatives | — | — | — | — |
| Transformation 2.0 Total | 11 | 4 | 17 | 36 |
| Fit to Serve | 27 | 19 | 38 | 19 |
| Total Transformation Strategy Costs | 38 | 24 | 55 | 57 |
| Gain on Divestiture of Coyote | (4) | — | (4) | — |
| One-Time Payment for International Regulatory Matter | — | — | — | — |
| Goodwill and Asset Impairment Charges | — | 14 | 13 | 16 |
| One-Time Compensation Payment | — | 15 | — | 15 |
| Expense for Regulatory Matter | — | — | — | — |
| Total Adjustments to Non-GAAP Income Tax (Benefit) Expense | $34 | $53 | $64 | $88 |
| Total Adjustments to Non-GAAP Net Income | $(36) | $219 | $194 | $334 |
The income tax impacts of these items are calculated at the statutory tax rates applicable in each tax jurisdiction.
Transformation Strategy Costs
We supplement the presentation of operating profit, operating margin, income before income taxes, net income and earnings per share with non-GAAP measures that exclude the impact of charges related to activities within our transformation strategy. Programs within our transformation strategy have been designed to fundamentally change our organization structure, processes, technologies and the composition of our business portfolio. Various circumstances have precipitated the projects and initiatives under these programs, including identification and reprioritization of investments as a result of executive leadership changes, developments and changes in competitive landscapes, inflationary pressures, consumer behaviors, and other factors including post-COVID normalization and volume diversions attributed to our 2023 labor negotiations. We do not consider the related costs to be ordinary because each program and its initiatives and projects involve separate and distinct activities that may span multiple periods and are strategic in nature as opposed to operational efforts to drive incremental profitability. These initiatives are in addition to ordinary, ongoing efforts to enhance business performance.
Our transformation strategy has included the following programs and initiatives:
Transformation 1.0: In the first quarter of 2018, we announced and began implementation of a multi-year, enterprise-wide program contemplating a reduction in non-operations management personnel, investments impacting global direct and indirect operating costs, and changes in processes and technology, which were undertaken and completed as multiple discrete initiatives (such projects, collectively, “Transformation 1.0”). In 2018, we announced that we expected to achieve approximately $1.0 billion in savings, which would benefit earnings, from Transformation 1.0. On a cumulative basis and net of amounts reinvested into the business, we had substantially achieved the expected benefits associated with Transformation 1.0 as of the second quarter of 2020. Transformation 1.0 was substantially completed in 2022.
Transformation 2.0: Based on a number of factors including evaluating efficiencies gained as a part of Transformation 1.0, and in connection with changes in our executive leadership in 2020, we identified and reprioritized certain then-current and future investments, including additional investments in our workforce, portfolio of businesses and technology (such projects, collectively, “Transformation 2.0”). Specifically, we undertook an organizational structure review designed to identify opportunities to reduce spans and layers of management, began a review of our business portfolio and identified opportunities to invest in certain technologies, including financial reporting and certain schedule, time and pay systems to reduce global indirect operating costs, provide better visibility, and reduce reliance on legacy systems and coding languages. Our organizational structure review indicated an opportunity to realize initial savings of approximately $400 million with potential opportunities to save up to an additional $240 million through the reduction of spans and layers of management with an anticipation that these savings would be recurring. The business portfolio review was expanded in 2022. As a result thereof, we determined to exit certain businesses that were not aligned with our corporate strategy and determined to make new investments into certain businesses, including healthcare-focused businesses, better aligned to our strategic targets. In connection therewith, we incurred costs primarily consisting of outside professional fees related to these reviews and other costs associated with these transactions. Lastly, our review of our systems and technologies identified certain areas of our business that were reliant on outdated technologies. Our reviews determined that continued use of these legacy technologies would likely increase maintenance costs and that investments into new technologies would enhance our ability to leverage our data and allow us to establish a more flexible system architecture. As of December 31, 2023, we substantially completed our initiatives to reduce spans and layers of management and achieved savings in line with our anticipated benefits. Our ongoing efforts under Transformation 2.0 include initiatives related to our financial systems and our business portfolio review. As of September 30, 2024, we have incurred $785 million of costs as part of Transformation 2.0. Transformation 2.0 initiatives are expected to conclude during 2025 with anticipated remaining costs of approximately $115 million primarily related to completion of our technology initiatives. Costs associated with Transformation 2.0 have primarily consisted of compensation and benefit costs related to reductions in our workforce and fees paid to third-party consultants. Additional detail relating to the projects, initiatives and timing of costs as a part of Transformation 2.0 are contained in the table above. Investments in technology are expected to provide enhanced quality of reporting for both internal and external purposes in part through simplification and standardization of data to better enable migration into cloud-based tools and automation of manual activities, including transitioning its general ledger, consolidation, and planning tools along with U.S. payroll from older programs and software supporting our freight forwarding business. These efforts to enhance our technology are expected to reduce the need for future investments; we expect to begin to realize benefits therefrom in 2025. Investments in our business portfolio review are expected to lead to better alignment of our businesses in support of our corporate strategy. We are realigning businesses within Supply Chain Solutions to better execute our strategy; the operational performance of these businesses is included in our GAAP and non-GAAP adjusted results.
Fit to Serve: In 2023, a number of factors, including macroeconomic headwinds and volume diversion resulting from our labor negotiations with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, contributed to volume declines in our U.S. Domestic
Package business. In addition, our International Package and Supply Chain Solutions businesses were also negatively impacted by a number of challenging macroeconomic conditions during 2023. In response to these factors, we announced and began to undertake our Fit to Serve initiative with the intent to right-size our business to create a more efficient operating model that was more responsive to market dynamics through a workforce reduction of approximately 12,000 positions throughout 2024. We have incurred total costs of approximately $370 million under Fit to Serve, which primarily consist of compensation and benefit costs related to reductions in our workforce. We expect to complete this initiative during 2025 with expected remaining costs of approximately $100 million to be incurred primarily during the fourth quarter of 2024 and first quarter of 2025. We have achieved savings of $625 million under Fit to Serve for the nine months ended September 30, 2024, and expect to realize savings of approximately $1.0 billion for the full year 2024 through reductions in our compensations and benefit expense. Incremental savings of approximately $100 million are expected when Fit to Serve is completed.
For more information regarding transformation strategy costs, see note 17 to the unaudited, consolidated financial statements.
Gain on Divestiture of Coyote
On September 16, 2024, we completed the previously announced divestiture of Coyote. In connection therewith, we recorded a pre-tax gain of $156 million ($152 million after tax) during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024. The gain was recognized within Other expenses in the statements of consolidated income. We supplement the presentation of operating profit, operating margin, income before income taxes, net income and earnings per share with non-GAAP measures that exclude the impact of this gain as it is not a component of our ongoing operations and is not expected to recur. For more information regarding the gain on divestiture of Coyote, see note 18 to the unaudited, consolidated financial statements.
One-Time Payment for International Regulatory Matter
In the second quarter of 2024, we made a payment of $94 million of previously restricted cash to settle a previously-disclosed challenge by Italian tax authorities to the deductibility of Value Added Tax payments by UPS to certain third-party service providers, a review of which was launched in the fourth quarter of 2023. We supplement the presentation of operating profit, operating margin, interest expense, total other income (expense), income before income taxes, net income and earnings per share with non-GAAP measures that exclude the impact of this payment. We do not believe this is a component of our ongoing operations and we do not expect this or similar payments to recur.
Goodwill and Asset Impairment Charges
We supplement the presentation of operating profit, operating margin, income before income taxes, net income and earnings per share with non-GAAP measures that exclude the impact of noncash goodwill and asset impairment charges. We believe excluding the impact of these charges provides management and investors with a measure that increases the comparability of underlying operating results. For more information regarding goodwill and current year asset impairment charges, see note 8 to the unaudited, consolidated financial statements.
One-Time Compensation Payment
We supplement the presentation of operating profit, operating margin, income before income taxes, net income and earnings per share with non-GAAP measures that exclude the impact of a one-time payment made to certain U.S.-based, non-union part-time supervisors following the ratification of our labor agreement with the Teamsters in 2023. We do not expect this or similar payments to recur.
Expense for Regulatory Matter
We supplement the presentation of operating profit, operating margin, income before income taxes, net income and earnings per share with non-GAAP measures that exclude the impact of an accrual for a regulatory matter that we consider to be unrelated to our ongoing operations and that we do not expect to recur. For more information regarding this regulatory matter, see note 11 to the unaudited, consolidated financial statements.
Non-GAAP Adjusted Cost per Piece
We evaluate the efficiency of our operations using various metrics, including non-GAAP adjusted cost per piece. Non-GAAP adjusted cost per piece is calculated as non-GAAP adjusted operating expenses in a period divided by total volume for that period. Because non-GAAP adjusted operating expenses exclude costs or charges that we do not consider a part of underlying business performance when monitoring and evaluating the operating performance of our business units, making decisions to allocate resources or in determining incentive compensation awards, we believe this is the appropriate metric on which to base reviews and evaluations of the efficiency of our operational performance.
Defined Benefit Pension and Postretirement Medical Plan Gains and Losses
We incur certain employment-related expenses associated with pension and postretirement medical benefits. These pension and postretirement medical benefits costs for company-sponsored defined benefit plans are calculated using various actuarial assumptions and methodologies, including discount rates, expected returns on plan assets, healthcare cost trend rates, inflation, compensation increase rates, mortality rates and coordination of benefits with plans not sponsored by UPS. Actuarial assumptions are reviewed on an annual basis, unless circumstances require an interim remeasurement of any of our plans.
We recognize changes in the fair value of plan assets and net actuarial gains and losses in excess of a 10% corridor (defined as 10% of the greater of the fair value of plan assets or the plan's projected benefit obligation), as well as gains and losses resulting from plan curtailments and settlements, for our pension and postretirement defined benefit plans immediately as part of Investment income and other in the statements of consolidated income. We supplement the presentation of our income before income taxes, net income and earnings per share with adjusted measures that exclude the impact of these gains and losses and the related income tax effects. We believe excluding these defined benefit pension and postretirement medical plan gains and losses provides important supplemental information by removing the volatility associated with plan amendments and short-term changes in market interest rates, equity values and similar factors.
For additional information, see note 7 to the unaudited, consolidated financial statements.
The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.