Special Charges

12 Months Ended

Nov. 30, 2023

SPECIAL CHARGES

In our consolidated income statement, we include a separate line item captioned “Special charges” in arriving at our consolidated operating income. Special charges consist of expenses, including related impairment charges, associated with certain actions undertaken to reduce fixed costs, simplify or improve processes, and improve our competitiveness and are of such significance in terms of both up-front costs and organizational/structural impact to require advance approval by our Management Committee, comprised of our senior management, including our President and Chief Executive Officer. Upon presentation of any such proposed action (generally including details with respect to estimated costs, which typically consist principally of employee severance and related benefits, together with ancillary costs associated with the action that may include a non-cash component, such as an asset impairment, or a component which relates to inventory adjustments that are included in cost of goods sold; impacted employees or operations; expected timing; and expected savings) to the Management Committee and the Committee’s advance approval, expenses associated with the approved action are classified as special charges upon recognition and monitored on an ongoing basis through completion. Certain ancillary expenses related to these actions approved by our Management Committee do not qualify for accrual upon approval but are included as special charges as incurred during the course of the actions.

The following is a summary of special charges recognized for the years ended November 30 (in millions):


	2023		2022		2021

Employee severance and related benefits in the income statement	$	34.4	$	33.8	$	10.5
Other costs in the income statement
Cash	24.6		7.4		18.7
Non-Cash	2.2		24.0		17.2
Total special charges	$	61.2	$	65.2	$	46.4
Gain on sale of exited brand	—		(13.6)		—
Special charges included in Cost of goods sold	—		—		4.7
Total special charges	$	61.2	$	51.6	$	51.1

The following is a summary of special charges by business segments for the years ended November 30 (in millions):


	2023		2022		2021
Consumer segment	$	35.8	$	23.9	$	36.3
Flavor solutions segment	25.4		27.7		14.8
Total special charges	$	61.2	$	51.6	$	51.1

As of November 30, 2023 and 2022, reserves associated with special charges of $25.2 million and $26.7 million respectively, are included in "Other accrued liabilities" in our consolidated balance sheet.

We continue to evaluate changes to our organization structure to reduce fixed costs, simplify or improve processes, and improve our competitiveness.

During 2023, we recorded $61.2 million of special charges, consisting principally of $42.8 million associated with our GOE program, as more fully described below, $8.7 million associated with the transition of a manufacturing facility in EMEA, as more fully described below, and streamlining actions of $8.8 million in the Americas region, and $0.9 million in the EMEA region.

During 2022, we recorded $51.6 million of special charges, consisting principally of $23.3 million associated with the exit of our consumer business in Russia, as more fully described below, $21.5 million associated with the transition of a manufacturing facility in EMEA, as more fully described below, and streamlining actions of $8.0 million in the Americas region, and $7.1 million in the EMEA region, and $5.6 million associated with a U.S. voluntary retirement program, as more fully described below. These charges were partially offset by a $13.6 million gain on the sale of our Kohinoor brand, discussed below, as well as a reversal of $2.2 million of estimated costs associated with the exit of our rice product line in India upon settlement of a supply agreement related to that product line.

In 2022, our Management Committee approved the GOE program. The GOE program included a voluntary retirement plan, which included enhanced separation benefits to certain U.S. employees aged 55 years or older with at least ten years of service to the company. This voluntary retirement plan commenced in November 2022 and participants were required to submit their notifications by December 30, 2022. As of November 30, 2022, we had accrued special charges of $5.6 million consisting of employee severance and related benefits. Upon all eligible employees submitting their notifications by the end of December 2022, we accrued an additional $19.7 million during the first quarter of 2023. All related payments were made in fiscal year 2023 as all of the affected employees retired from the company in 2023. Other special charges recognized during the year ended November 30, 2023, under our GOE program included $13.4 million in severance and related benefits costs and $9.7 million of third-party expenses and other costs.

In 2022, our Management Committee approved the exit of our consumer business in Russia. As a result, during the year ended November 30, 2022, we recognized $23.3 million of special charges. These special charges included a non-cash impairment charge of $10.0 million associated with the Kamis brand name to reduce its carrying value to its estimated fair value, $3.3 million of employee severance and $2.1 million of other related exit costs directly associated with the exit plan, and a non-cash $7.9 million reclassification of the cumulative translation adjustment previously reflected in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) to earnings associated with the exit of our business in Russia.

In 2022, our Management Committee approved an initiative to consolidate our manufacturing operations in the United Kingdom into a net-zero carbon condiments manufacturing and distribution center facility with state-of-the-art technology. We expect to execute these changes to our supply chain operations and improve profitability, from a combination of lower headcount and non-headcount costs, by consolidating our operations into a scalable platform while expanding our capacity. We expect the cost of the initiative to approximate $40 million—to be recognized as special charges in our consolidated income statement through 2024. Of that $40 million, we expect the costs to include employee severance and related benefits, non-cash accelerated depreciation, equipment relocation costs, decommissioning and other property related lease exit costs, all directly related to the initiative. During 2023, we recognized $1.6 million in accelerated depreciation and $7.1 million in third party expenses and other costs. During 2022, we recognized $12.6 million in severance and related benefits costs, $6.2 million in accelerated depreciation, and $2.7 million in third-party expenses and other costs.

During 2021, we recorded $51.1 million of special charges, of which $46.4 million was recognized in Special charges and $4.7 million was recognized in Cost of goods sold on our consolidated income statement. Special charges in 2021 consisted principally of $19.5 million associated with our exit of our rice product line in India, as more fully described below, $6.2 million associated with the transition of a manufacturing facility in EMEA, streamlining actions of $10.3 million in the Americas region, $4.8 million in the EMEA region and $0.8 million in the APAC region, and $0.8 million related to our Global Business Services (GBS) operating model initiative, together with a non-cash asset impairment charge of $6.0 million associated with an administrative site that was sold in conjunction with our decision to employ a hybrid work environment.

In 2021, we recorded a total of $19.5 million of special charges related to the exit of our Kohinoor rice product line in India. This action principally relates to the discontinuance of Kohinoor's rice business consistent with our focus on higher margin products to enable the business to focus on both its flavor solutions and non-rice consumer business. As a result of the Kohinoor rice product line exit, we determined that an impairment of the Kohinoor brand name had occurred in 2021 and recorded a non-cash impairment charge of $7.4 million reducing its carrying value to zero. Also, as a result of this action, we determined that the value of our customer relationship asset in India was also impaired as a result of the lower level of anticipated sales and recorded a non-cash impairment charge of $3.8 million. We also recognized $3.6 million of employee severance and other related exit costs associated directly associated with the exit plan. In addition, as a result of the Kohinoor product line discontinuance in 2021, we recognized a $4.7 million charge in cost of goods sold, which represents a provision for the excess of the carrying value of rice inventories over the estimated net realizable value of such discontinued inventories and a contractual obligation associated with terminating a rice supply agreement. During 2022, we sold the Kohinoor brand name for $13.6 million net of costs associated with the sale of $1.4 million and reflected the gain of $13.6 million associated with this sale within special charges.