The news release and Financial Information Release contain disclosures about free cash flow, a non-GAAP liquidity measure that we define as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, less cash capital expenditures, less investment in unconsolidated joint venture, plus any proceeds from sales of property, plant, and equipment, less payments on vendor-financed capital expenditures, less the purchase of long-term investments associated with our Rabbi Trust, plus proceeds from the sale of long-term investments associated with our Rabbi Trust, and plus or minus the effects of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents. Details of these calculations and a reconciliation to information from our GAAP financial statements are set forth in the news release and Financial Information Release. Management believes the disclosure of free cash flow provides useful information to investors because it measures our available cash flow for potential debt repayment, stock repurchases, dividends, and additions to cash and cash equivalents. We note, however, that not all of the company’s free cash flow is available for discretionary spending, as we may have mandatory debt payments and other cash requirements that must be deducted from our cash available for future use. In operating our business, management uses free cash flow to make decisions about what commitments of cash to make for operations, such as capital expenditures (and financing arrangements for these expenditures), purchases of inventory or supplies, SG&A expenditure levels, compensation, and other commitments of cash, while still allowing for adequate cash to meet known future commitments for cash, such as debt repayment, and also for making decisions about dividend payments and share repurchases. For forward-looking non-GAAP information, the comparable GAAP and reconciling information is not available without unreasonable efforts, and its significance is similar to the significance of the historical information.

The news release and Financial Information Release contain disclosures about return on capital. The news release contains information for the entire company and the Financial Information Release contains information for both the entire company and for individual business segments. We now define return on capital as adjusted operating income (measured on a trailing twelve months basis and excluding certain non-recurring charges and credits) divided by average capital employed (excluding goodwill and intangibles and obligations related to acquisitions at the divisional level only). Operating income excludes certain non-recurring charges, and average capital employed is calculated over rolling five fiscal periods, depending on which quarter is being presented. Details of these calculations and a reconciliation to information from our GAAP financial statements are set forth in the news release and Financial Information Release. We believe return on capital is an accepted measure of earnings efficiency in relation to capital employed, but it is a non-GAAP performance measure that is not defined or calculated in the same manner by all companies. This measure should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to net income or other performance measures, but we believe it provides useful information to investors by comparing the operating income we produce to the asset base used to generate that income. Also, operating income on a trailing twelve months basis does not necessarily indicate results that would be expected for the full fiscal year or for the following twelve months. We note that, particularly for return on capital measured at the segment level, not all assets and expenses are allocated to our operating segments, and there are assets and expenses at the corporate (unallocated) level that may provide support to a segment’s operations and yet are not included in the assets and expenses used to calculate that segment’s return on capital. Thus, the average return on capital for the company’s segments will generally be different from the company’s overall return on capital. Management uses return on capital to evaluate the company’s earnings efficiency and the relative performance of its segments.

The Financial Information Release contains disclosures about our Adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP performance measure that reflects net income excluding tax expenses and net interest expense, as well as depreciation and amortization expense and stock-based compensation expense. This measure also excludes restructuring and related charges and credits as well as other non-recurring charges and credits associated with our business. Details of these calculations and a reconciliation to information from our GAAP financial statements are set forth in the Financial Information Release. We believe presentation of Adjusted EBITDA is useful to investors because earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, and similar performance measures that exclude certain charges from earnings, are often used by investors and financial analysts in evaluating and comparing companies in our industry. We note, however, that such measures are not defined uniformly by various companies, with differing expenses being excluded from net income to calculate these performance measures. For this reason, Adjusted EBITDA should not be viewed in isolation by investors and should not be used as a substitute for net income calculated in accordance with GAAP, nor should it be used for direct comparisons with similarly titled performance measures reported by other companies. Use of Adjusted EBITDA as an analytical tool has limitations in that this measure does not reflect all expenses that are necessary to fund and operate our business, including funds required to pay taxes, service our debt, and fund capital expenditures, among others. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA to help it analyze the company’s earnings and operating performance, by excluding the effects of expenses that depend upon capital structure and debt level, tax provisions, and non-cash items such as depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation expense that do not require immediate uses of cash.