NYSE:LW Lamb Weston Q1 2024 Earnings Report $51.46 -0.66 (-1.26%) Closing price 08/8/2025 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$52.22 +0.75 (+1.46%) As of 08/8/2025 06:00 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast Lamb Weston EPS ResultsActual EPS$1.63Consensus EPS $1.08Beat/MissBeat by +$0.55One Year Ago EPS$0.75Lamb Weston Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$1.67 billionExpected Revenue$1.62 billionBeat/MissBeat by +$41.59 millionYoY Revenue Growth+48.00%Lamb Weston Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2024Date10/5/2023TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateThursday, October 5, 2023Conference Call Time10:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsLamb Weston's Q1 2026 earnings is scheduled for Tuesday, October 7, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 10:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by Lamb Weston Q1 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrOctober 5, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways We raised our FY2024 net sales target to $6.8–7.0 billion and increased earnings guidance after a strong start to the year. Price mix was up 23% in Q1, and we expect full-year price mix growth of low double digits to offset input cost inflation. Volume declined mid-single digits as we exited lower-margin contracts, but we anticipate sequential improvements in the second half as new higher-margin business ramps up. Potato crops in North America and Europe are projected to be in line with pre-pandemic historical averages, supporting stable supply levels. We maintain a strong liquidity profile with over $1 billion in cash, a net leverage ratio of 2.3×, $335 million in operating cash flow, and $100 million of opportunistic share repurchases. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallLamb Weston Q1 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xThere are 11 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good day, and welcome to the Lamb Weston First Quarter Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the Speaker 100:00:15Good morning and thank you for joining us for Lamb Weston's Q1 2024 Earnings Call. This morning, we issued our earnings press release, which is available on our website, lamweston.com. Please note that during our remarks, we'll make some forward looking statements about the company's expected performance Please refer to the cautionary statements and risk factors contained in our SEC filings for more details on our forward looking statements. Some Some of today's remarks include non GAAP financial measures. These non GAAP financial measures should not be considered a replacement for and should be read together with our GAAP results. Speaker 100:00:57You can find the GAAP to non GAAP reconciliations in our earnings release. With me today are Tom Warner, our President and Chief Executive Officer Bernadette Madriada, our Chief Financial Officer. Tom will provide an overview of the current operating environment. Bernadette will then provide details on our Q1 results As well as our updated outlook for fiscal 2024. With that, let me now turn the call over to Tom. Speaker 200:01:21Thank you, Dexter. Good morning and thank you for joining our call today. We delivered a strong start to the year as we continue to execute on our strategies to drive sustainable profitable growth. Our integration of our EMEA operations is progressing well. Our capacity expansion in China is now up and running And our other expansion and modernization efforts around the globe remain on track. Speaker 200:01:44Our supply chain teams continue to drive productivity savings And our commercial teams remain focused on serving our customers and driving innovation across all channels. While our volume was We should see our year over year volume trends improve as the year progresses as we begin to lap and backfill exited volumes with higher margin business. Overall, we feel good about the health of the category, our Q1 financial results and our operating momentum and have raised our sales and earning targets for the year. Let me now turn to the current operating environment. The global frozen potato category continues to be solid with overall demand and supply balanced. Speaker 200:02:34Fry attachment rates, which is a rate at which consumers order fries when visiting a restaurant or other food service outlets Across our key markets have remained largely steady and above pre pandemic levels. Restaurant traffic in our key markets was generally solid. In the U. S, overall restaurant traffic was flat versus the prior year quarter as QSR traffic growth offset further traffic declines in full service restaurant channels. Call over to Steve. Speaker 200:03:01We believe that this is the cumulative effect of inflation and other macro pressures on the consumer over the past few years While overall traffic growth did slow sequentially from about 1% in our physical 4th quarter as quick service restaurant traffic growth cooled, Much of that weakness was in June and we're encouraged that both QSR and full service restaurant traffic trends improved as the quarter progressed. In Europe, restaurant traffic grew in many of our key markets. In the U. K, traffic was up mid single digits with growth in both QSR and full service restaurants. Growth was also solid in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Speaker 200:03:50In Asia, China restaurant traffic growth was very strong, We suspect that restaurant traffic trends will be volatile in the near term as high interest rates, high inflation and uncertainty continues to affect consumers. That said, frozen potato demand has proven resilient during the most challenging economic times and we continue to be confident presentation to the mid to high single digits, largely driven by higher contract prices for potatoes, including a 20% increase in North America And a 35% to 40% increase in Europe. Much of our inflation driven pricing across our channels has either already been announced or included Customer contracts representing about 20% Our North American business are in the process of being finalized and we feel good in the aggregate about the likely pricing and terms. Over the long term, we continue to expect pricing actions and supply chain productivity improvements will be the primary levers to offset inflation. We'll also continue to drive improvements in product and customer mix to benefit sales growth and profitability. Speaker 200:05:18Now with respect to the upcoming potato crop, We are harvesting and processing the crops in our growing regions in both North America and Europe. And we believe the crops in the Columbia Basin, Idaho, Alberta In the Midwest are in line with pre pandemic historical averages. In Europe, we believe that the crop will also be in line with historical averages As a result of improved growing conditions, we'll provide our final assessment of the crop, including how it performs out of stores When we report our 2nd quarter results in early January. So in summary, we delivered Solid results in the Q1 and continue to have good operating momentum. The overall category remains healthy with demand and supply largely balanced. Speaker 200:06:05And finally, at this time, we believe the potato crops in our growing regions in North America or in Europe will be in line with pre pandemic averages. Let me now turn the call over to Bernadette. Speaker 300:06:16Thanks, Tom, and good morning, everyone. I want to start off by thanking the entire Lamb Weston the present team for the strong start to the year. Our performance speaks for itself and it's a testament to the passion and dedication of our entire Lamb Weston team. We recognize that we're operating in a challenging macro environment, but the strong first quarter performance has allowed us raise our fiscal 2024 financial targets. Let's start with reviewing our Q1 results. Speaker 300:06:46Compared with the prior year, sales increased $540,000,000 or 48 percent to about 1,700,000,000 About $375,000,000 or 70 percent of the increase was attributable to the incremental sales from acquisitions, With most coming from our EMEA business. We lapped the Argentina acquisition this quarter, but we'll continue to receive the incremental benefit from the consolidation of the call over to EMEA operations in the 2nd 3rd quarters. As a reminder, since we began to consolidate EMEA sales beginning in the Q4 of fiscal 2023. Those results are included in our last year's sales baseline. Excluding the incremental sales from our acquisitions, net sales grew 15%. Speaker 300:07:35Price mix was up 23 As we benefited from the pricing actions taken in fiscal 2023 in both our North America and International segments note that our press release will be posted Speaker 400:07:48on the call to counter input and manufacturing cost inflation. Speaker 300:07:49Mix was also favorable as we continue to strategically manage our product and customer portfolio. In addition, we estimate the price mix in the quarter benefited by a couple of percentage points From lower than expected trade spending associated with pricing actions that we began implementing in the last month of fiscal 2023. This may be largely timing related and as a result could be a slight headwind as the year progresses. The trade spend benefit in the quarter, however, was mostly offset by a roughly 2 point headwind related to lower freight charges passed on to customers As transportation costs have come down from the prior year period. As a reminder, our goal is to match freight charge to our customers And lower margin contracts as part of our revenue growth management initiatives and to a lesser extent continued inventory destocking by certain that the customers in international markets and in select U. Speaker 300:09:08S. Retail channels also impacted volume. Call over to Mr. President. We believe the effect of these destocking actions is largely behind us and should have little impact, if any, on our results going forward. Speaker 300:09:23It's important to note that volume elasticities or the amount of volume lost in response to inflation based pricing actions As we lap the volume we exited and backfill volume with higher margin business. Moving on from sales. Gross profit in the quarter, excluding comparability items, increased $213,000,000 to 490,000,000 Nearly 3 quarters of the increase was driven by the cumulative benefit of pricing actions, the timing of trade spending, Mix improvement and supply chain productivity in our legacy Lamb Weston business, which more than offset higher input and manufacturing cost per pound And the impact of lower volumes. The remaining roughly 1 quarter of the increase was attributable to incremental earnings from consolidating EMEA. Including the dilutive impact of the EMEA acquisition, our gross margin percentage excluding comparability items Increased 480 basis points to 29.4%. Speaker 300:10:37While first quarter margins have historically been our lowest margin quarter, We estimate that the timing of trade spending that I mentioned earlier accounted for approximately 200 basis points of the increase, Which would put our normalized first quarter gross margin, including acquisitions, approaching 28%. Input costs continued to increase mid to high single digits on a per pound basis. The increases were largely driven by A 20% increase in the contracted price for potatoes in North America, higher prices for open market potatoes due to poor yields from the 2022 crop And continued increases in the cost of labor, energy and ingredients for batter coatings. The increase was partially offset by SG and A excluding comparability items increased $45,000,000 to 160,000,000 More than half of the increase was from incremental SG and A with the consolidation of EMEA. The remainder was largely driven by higher expenses And higher advertising and promotion expenses. Speaker 300:11:59All of this led to adjusted EBITDA increasing 76% With the remainder attributable to incremental earnings from consolidating EMEA. Moving to our segments. This is the Q1 that we operated in our 2 new reporting segments, North America and International. Beginning with our North America segment, which includes sales to customers in all channels in the U. S, Canada and Mexico, Sales were up 19% in the quarter. Speaker 300:12:37Price mix was up 24%, which was driven by the carryover benefit of pricing actions That took effect in fiscal 2023 across each of our primary sales channels, the timing of trade spending And favorable mix as we benefit from our revenue growth management initiatives. Lower freight revenue partially offset the increase. Volume in North America declined 5%. This primarily reflects our decision to exit volume related primarily note the 2 lower priced and lower margin contracts that largely began to impact our sales in the 2nd and third quarters of fiscal 2023. To a lesser extent, inventory destocking by certain customers in retail channels also pressured volumes. Speaker 300:13:25We don't anticipate further effects from the retail destocking after the Q1. North America segment adjusted EBITDA increased note that we're going to be conducting a few minutes to discuss the The timing of trade spending and favorable mix more than offset higher cost per pound and the impact of lower volumes. Conference over to our International segment, which includes sales to customers in all channels outside of North America. Sales grew $360,000,000 or 2 12 percent and included $375,000,000 While price mix was up 18%, driven by the carryover benefit of pricing actions taken in fiscal 2023, As well as favorable mix, lower volume and freight revenue offset the increase. As expected, volume excluding Speaker 500:14:42note that the company's press Speaker 300:14:43low margin accounts that largely began to impact our international sales volumes in our fiscal Q4 of 2023. To a lesser extent, continued inventory destocking also impacted volumes in the quarter. But as I mentioned earlier, we believe the effect of Talking is largely over. Despite a 27% decline in our international segment volume, Segment adjusted EBITDA increased $57,000,000 to $90,000,000 Incremental earnings from the consolidation of EMEA's financial results as well as favorable price mix drove most of the increase, more than offsetting the impact of higher cost note that the balance sheet is being recorded. Moving to our liquidity position and cash flow. Speaker 300:15:32We continue to maintain a solid balance sheet with ample liquidity and a low leverage ratio. We ended the quarter with more than 100 the $1,000,000,000 of cash and no borrowings under our $1,000,000,000 U. S. Revolver. Our net debt was about $3,300,000,000 Which puts our leverage ratio at 2.3 times. Speaker 300:15:55We generated about $335,000,000 of cash from operations $40,000,000 of cash to our shareholders, including $41,000,000 in dividends. Most of the cash return was from repurchasing $100,000,000 of shares. That's more than double what we repurchased in all of 2023 As we acted opportunistically based on our stock price performance during our August open trading window. While our share buyback program is targeted to offset annual equity compensation dilution, we will continue to be opportunistic based on other capital allocation needs Turning to our updated fiscal 2024 outlook. Based on our strong Q1 performance, we raised our financial targets for the year. Speaker 300:17:13While we continue to expect macro operating conditions to remain challenging, the overall current demand and pricing environment remains solid. In addition, as Tom mentioned, we believe the potato crops in our growing regions in North America and Europe will be consistent with pre pandemic historical averages. And we're generally pleased with how the discussions to renew remaining contracts are progressing in aggregate. Specifically, we continue to expect strong net sales gains for the year and have increased our annual net sales target to $6,800,000,000 to $7,000,000,000 Which is up from our previous target of $6,700,000,000 to $6,900,000,000 This includes $1,100,000,000 to $1,200,000,000 This represents a 6.5% to 8.5% net sales growth, excluding acquisitions. For the year, We're targeting price mix to be up low double digits, which means that we expect price mix will slow sequentially From the 23% increase that we delivered in the Q1, as we begin to lap some of our price actions that we began implementing in the Q2 of last year. Speaker 300:18:32While the overall potato category continues to be solid, due to the timing of contract openers, We're targeting our full year volume, excluding acquisitions, to be down mid single digits compared with the prior year. And we expect year over year volume trends will continue to improve as the year progresses as we lap some of the significant low margin, low product note that we chose to exit in the second half of last year and as we gradually backfill the exited lower margin business with more profitable business. Speaker 500:19:04Call over to the operator for the call over to the operator for the call. Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Speaker 300:19:07Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Speaker 300:19:09Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Thank you. Our next question comes from 1 $620,000,000 up from our previous estimate of $1,450,000,000 to 1 $525,000,000 Using the midpoint of this updated range implies growth of about 26% or about $330,000,000 We left our target for SG and A unchanged at $765,000,000 to $775,000,000 While our Q1 run rate suggests a lower target, we continue to anticipate spending will build as the year progresses. Speaker 300:19:49We reduced our interest expense target by $10,000,000 to $155,000,000 as we expect to partially offset cash interest With more capitalized interest associated with our capacity expansion. Our other financial targets remain the same, Including depreciation and amortization expense of approximately $325,000,000 and capital expenditures of $800,000,000 to 900,000,000 In summary, we're executing our strategies to deliver strong top and bottom line growth. And driving productivity savings across our supply chain. Volume elasticities in response to inflation based pricing actions have been generally low And we expect volume trends to improve as the year progresses. While we remain cautious about the effect of inflation on the consumer, We feel good about the start of the year and the health of the category, which gives us the confidence to raise our full year sales and earnings targets. Speaker 300:20:57And with that, let me now turn it back over to Tom for some closing comments. Speaker 200:21:01Thanks Bernadette. We delivered a strong quarter and our operating momentum As well positioned to deliver another year of solid sales and earnings growth. In addition, we're confident in the health of the global category And finally, as you may know, we will be hosting an Investor Day on Wednesday, October 11th at the New York Stock Exchange. During the presentation, we'll discuss our view of the industry, Our strategies for growth and our long term financial targets and capital allocation policies. If you haven't already, please register if you plan on attending in person Thank you for joining us today. Speaker 200:21:50Now we're ready to take your questions. Operator00:22:08And we'll take our first question from Peter Galba with Bank of America. Speaker 600:22:15Hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. Speaker 200:22:17Good morning. Speaker 100:22:19Good morning. Speaker 600:22:21Tom and Bernadette, thank you both very much for the color around price mix and volume for the year. Tom, I was hoping to ask maybe a 2 part question on volume. 1, just maybe help us a little bit with cadence on when some of these backfill higher margin customers potentially start to come online for you. And then Bernadette, I know you kind of gave order of magnitude on international, but if there's anything more a finer point on volumes between just what was intentional walk away versus the destock impact in the quarter would be helpful. Thanks very much. Speaker 200:22:55Yes. So Peter, it's Tom. So as Bernadette alluded to, it was limited to 4 accounts and you know it was important for us to maintain our pricing discipline. 1 of the accounts in international specifically we're losing money on. So it was time just to part ways and that had a big impact on our international volume. Speaker 200:23:18So it was a measured Disciplined action we did. And the thing in terms of your the first part of your question, We have line of sight to backfilling that volume. It does take time. It's not a linear match when you walk away. Been through this before, but we have a great commercial team that has you know volume is going to be sequentially getting better over the next quarter and the back half of the year. Speaker 200:24:06To note that we expect the categories and really it's in good shape. So between organic growth And some things that we have identified, I feel great about where we're at and how we're going to execute And continue to grow the volume in the back half of the year and over the course of the next several quarters. Speaker 300:24:29Yes. And Peter, just second question. So the second question you asked that those volume exits started impacting our international sales in our fiscal Q4 of 2023 and the business that we chose to walk away from, I'd say about 90% of that relates to that in terms of volume decline you know with the remainder being the destocking. Speaker 600:24:52Got it. Very helpful. Thank you. And then Tom, one question I've just been getting On the crop itself, obviously, the crop in your main regions has come in pretty well. I think there's been some issues in the East Coast Canada crop. Speaker 600:25:07Just Curious kind of how you think that might impact the overall category here over the course of the next year in terms of industry tightness? Thanks very much. Speaker 200:25:17Yes. Peter, I think the crops and we'll have a as we do every January in our earnings call kind of a debrief on how we're feeling about Overall crop and storage, crops in great shape worldwide. So I don't expect any impacts in any region in terms of Operator00:25:44call over to Tom Palmer with JPMorgan. Speaker 400:25:51Good morning and thanks for the questions. I wanted to ask on the guidance boost. I would assume some flow through of the higher EMEA sales, but the Also the increase on earnings seems to be more related to the gross margin outlook. Is this mainly a reflection of pricing Or a lower compensation outlook. I realized there might have been some conservatism in the prior number, but just trying to understand the moving parts. Speaker 300:26:18Yes. So we feel good about the operating momentum that we've had. It's been primarily related to pricing. You know, we think that those financial targets are really prudent given the macro environment that we're facing, as well as just uncertainty regarding consumer health. So most of that's pricing and still really good about the operating momentum of the business. Speaker 500:26:40Call over Speaker 400:26:41to Steve. Okay. Thank you. I mean, I wanted to just follow-up on that gross margin piece. Traditionally, we've seen 2nd quarter gross margin come in above the Q1 and then Q3 come in above the Q2. Speaker 400:26:55Is this cadence reasonable when we think about the build for this Speaker 300:27:01Yes. So you're right. Typically, we do see a sequential step up in Q2. I think we'll still see a sequential step up, but it may be more muted because we're going to be lapping some of those pricing actions Speaker 400:27:21Understood. Thank you. Speaker 100:27:23Yes. Hey, Tom, remember that what Bernadette mentioned before, yes, we printed 29.4, you know But if you take away some of the timing impacts of that trade spend, probably a little bit south of 28 As a base. Yes. Speaker 300:27:38That's right, Tom. So when I'm speaking to the step up, I'm speaking up to more normalized 28% Speaker 200:27:45call over to you. Speaker 100:27:48Okay. Understood. Thanks. Speaker 300:27:52Thank you. Operator00:27:55We'll now take our next question from Adam Samuelson with Goldman Sachs. Speaker 100:28:00Call over Speaker 700:28:00to Steve. Speaker 800:28:01Yes. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Speaker 200:28:03Good morning. Speaker 800:28:04Good morning. So I guess the first question is Related maybe to mix and clearly you're making some conscious decisions on moving away from low margin from some lower margin business. But just more broadly, can you speak to maybe the if we try to cut your volumes between kind of more traditional straight run fries versus some of the more upgraded products and battered and coated and the like that you're now producing. Can you help quantify kind of what that represents as a proportion of the business today and where that can be getting to whether it's with some of these know that the mix has been a very powerful margin driver for the business and trying to dimensionalize how much more of this are to Speaker 300:28:59go. Yes. Adam, strong price mix performance was the key driver of our better than expected financial results. As it relates to mix and how that relates to growth going forward, we'll be covering that in our industry investor call next week. And so we'll cover that more then. Speaker 300:29:19But again, strong price mix was the key driver of our better than expected performance. Speaker 100:29:25Okay. And then if I could Speaker 800:29:26just ask the second one. I know you talked about the kind of customer trends in Europe. What And the increased revenue contribution in EMEA, is that a more positive volume outlook, more positive price mix outlook or both? Speaker 300:29:49Yes. So we feel really good about the EMEA performance. We have not given the prior year comp because as you know, the EMEA Sales were not recorded in the prior year in our sales number. It was recorded in our equity method earnings. But our estimate is largely in line for the remainder of the year at the presentation. Speaker 300:30:08The segment is largely in line for the remainder of the year at the run rate that we saw for EMEA in Q4 and Q1 note from a sales perspective of about $360,000,000 Speaker 800:30:22Okay. All right. I appreciate that color. I'll pass it on. Operator00:30:31Call back over to Matt Smith with Stifel. Speaker 200:30:34Call over to Steve. Hi, good morning. Speaker 500:30:37Good morning. Speaker 200:30:37I want Speaker 900:30:38to ask about the impact of walking away from low margin contracts in this mix management you've been Pursuing this weight on volumes over the past couple of quarters and you mentioned that the actions in the international segment and the U. S. Segment will be fully lapped by the Q4. So do you expect to be in a position to be growing volumes as you exit this year, meaning you've lapped those You've laughed at the drag from walking away from those contracts and you've made some progress on the backfill with higher margin business? Speaker 200:31:12Yes, Max. I fully expect, as I said earlier, that in the back half of the year, we should start to And that's a function of lapping the exit of business, but also we have to line of sight to additional business that we're going to start to backfill with and that takes time. But I fully expect based on how we've got the business forecast and the opportunities we have that we're going to start seeing positive volume trends in the back half. Call Speaker 500:31:48back over to Mark. Okay. Speaker 900:31:49Thank you for that. And maybe if I could ask one more question here. You mentioned that the capacity in China came online in the quarter. Do Give any update to the timing for the American Falls facility. Is that still expected to be on time for beginning production early in 2024? Speaker 200:32:06Yes. We still expect in the late spring of 2024 early summer For American Falls to transition to a vertical start up and it takes some time to get the plant up and running, but Absolutely. Late spring, early summer. Speaker 900:32:28Thank you, Tom. I'll leave it there and pass it on. Speaker 100:32:32Call over to Paul. Thanks. Operator00:32:34We'll now take our next question from Rob Dickerson with Jefferies. We'll now move on to Robert Moskow with TD Cowen. Speaker 1000:33:11Hi, there. Thanks for the question. Speaker 900:33:14Good morning. Speaker 1000:33:15I hate to keep the magnifying glass on volume. Tom, when you talk about positive volume in the back half, the way we have modeled it was that the easy comparisons to the volume you walked away from really started in size in 4th and not in 3rd. So is that correct? And if so, can we expect positive volume in 3rd as well, Even though that the volume walked away from may not have been as much. Speaker 300:33:52Yes. As it relates to the volume in our North America segment, I think I alluded to the fact that we started to walk away from that in 3rd and 4th quarter. In our International segment, we started to see the effect of what we exited in the Q4 of last year. So as we said, we do expect to see volume continue to improve, both as we lap that business we exited and as we bring on New Business. Speaker 1000:34:20Okay. So is it premature to start dicing it up by quarter? And just Should we just think of it as the second half or could we say 3rd quarter off as well? Speaker 300:34:31Yes. So I would just think of it as the second half of the year. Okay. Speaker 1000:34:36Got it. And then my other question is, I was hoping you'd give a little more color on like what Percent of your contracts come up for renewal seasonally and also as it relates to like I think a lot of the industry is on 3 year contracts instead of 1. So like how much is up for grabs in the next 3 to 6 months, Roughly speaking, is there a way to quantify that? Speaker 200:35:03Yes. Sure, Robert. In our remarks, we got about 20% in play. We feel confident about where we're at, where we're at in those discussions, how things are progressing for us this year. So we'll get through all that you know over the course of the rest of this year. Speaker 200:35:22And at a later time, As we always do, we'll give some color on what we've got coming up in terms of contracting for our next fiscal year and how that's progressing. But right now, we're through most of it. Feel good about where we're at. Obviously, it's all baked into our guidance. We have 20% in play, feel good about where it's at. Speaker 200:35:47Commercial team is executing at a high level, great discussions and more to come on that. And then the next like we do usually in our July call, we'll talk about What's coming up for contract renewal in the next fiscal year? Speaker 1000:36:04Yes. Sorry, I was on the ConAgra call. So 20% in play And is it all kind of How did that go? Pardon me? Speaker 200:36:12Nothing for us. Speaker 1000:36:15All right. Is it all in the first half or is Speaker 200:36:27start late spring through early fall when we start the contracting discussions. Speaker 1000:36:33Early fall. Okay. All right. Thanks so much. Speaker 500:36:38Call over to Eric. Operator00:36:38Thanks, Robert. We'll now take our next question from Johnny Chamour with Barclays. Speaker 500:36:45Call over to Andrew Lazar. Speaker 700:36:46Great. Thanks. Hey, guys. It's Andrew Lazar. Hope all is well. Speaker 700:36:50And I joined late as well, so I apologize if some of this was covered. I think Tom, I remember, I think last quarter you started to talk a little bit about the plan sort of pivot, right, to a little bit more of a focus turn the call over to Steve. On profit dollars going forward, as that's the way you obviously grow the business and you kind of have this significant margin recovery, you know kind of much of which has already taken place, and that kind of makes sense, right, as you think about what you're looking to do. But I think there was some confusion and maybe Some might have taken that to mean that as you move towards profit dollars that somehow you were expecting sort of ongoing or structural margin erosion Going forward as some of the new capacity comes online and that you'd have to sort of go after lower margin business know somehow to fill that capacity. I was just hoping you could maybe and maybe look into this a lot more obviously next week, but maybe just clarify a little bit of that, because I do think there was some confusion around that. Speaker 700:37:50I logically understand, right, the shift now that margins have kind of recovered too much more of a profit dollar focus. Thanks so much. Speaker 200:37:58Yes, Andrew. We're going to stay disciplined with our revenue growth management Initiative. And so as we think about opportunities going forward, we are going to look at maintaining our margin profile and we're going to stay disciplined. And a testament to that is our decision to walk away from some of this lower margin business that we've been talking about. So it's all about maintaining the discipline and what note that we're going to focus on, we've worked really hard to rebuild our margin profile in this business and we're going to continue to focus on that Operator00:38:53call over to Rob Dickerson with Jefferies. Speaker 200:38:58Call over to Tom. Great. Thanks so much. I was on mute. I guess a quick question for you Tom, just I guess with respect to the China plant, like this up and running, maybe coming back to Andy's question a little bit, but ask the question, Lea. Speaker 200:39:15I'm just curious, exiting this business back in Q4, but now you have a new facility. Is there now this conversation that you've been having to be activated kind of with the sales force such that you say, okay, there's opportunity here, right, you know, it's up maybe off a lower base, it's still up. There's not real demand destruction you know going forward, it sounds like really expected, such that that sales force can actually go try to take you know material share, let's say, even non U. S. Market just kind of given the new facility? Speaker 200:39:57First question. Yes. So the China facility, we're in early stages of our start up. So it takes some time to get it up and running. We are running production there today. Speaker 200:40:10It's going to be specifically targeted for that market. You know we've got things identified in the China market from an opportunity business standpoint, But it takes some time to get the plant up and running and efficient and kind of work the kinks out, but We're early on. So it's going to be several more quarters before we see the impact of that coming online. Speaker 500:40:43Call back over to Steve. Speaker 200:40:44All right. Fair enough. And then I just think you said correct me if I'm wrong that traffic was up I believe mid single digit In Europe, Speaker 400:40:53I Speaker 700:40:54remember that was just QSRs, but I Speaker 200:40:56know traffic was up in Europe, sounds like better than the U. S. Maybe just any kind of general perspective as to why that might be the case kind of market vis a vis market? Speaker 100:41:08Call over to Rob. It's probably a little bit of might have a little bit of softness last year you know coming out of COVID and everything like that. But overall trends seem to be pretty good. I think, with inflation still factor, but it's cooling or at least a little bit better than we were expecting at least from the energy cost standpoint. So I think it was just a disposable income helping Speaker 200:41:36All right. Great. And then just quickly, to know harvest coming in line with historic averages coming off 2 bad years. Maybe As a reminder, kind of when we start to see that 35% of COGS maybe starts to disinflate or let's call it deflate Year over year. It sounds like that might be what's like a back half fiscal 2025 dynamic? Speaker 200:42:03Yes, Rob. So just a reminder, our cost and contract raw input Structure is baked. So wherever the crop yields and all that comes out, it really isn't going to impact our Overall input costs for the balance of this fiscal year. So it's you're not going to see Any decline in our cost structure because the crop is great. It's just we agreed to a contract last A year ago and it is what it is. Speaker 300:42:42Yes. I think that's right, Tom. And the only piece that's different in the end market is that generally will contract for about 75%, whereas there's the open market for the remaining 25%. Then we've seen of late that the open market prices have started to come down. Speaker 200:43:01Right. But as we're I'm thinking all the way forward to, let's say, the end of back half of next fiscal year, right? I'm assuming as we go into these contract negotiations toward the end of this calendar year, right? Harvest is good this year, probably puts you in a pretty good position in the discussion. We're not going to comment on negotiating discussions publicly, we don't do that. Speaker 200:43:32And it will be we'll let it play out the way it plays out. We'll be disciplined in the process. We follow every year. And at the appropriate time when we come to some agreement as we always do And the market knows, you'll see what our raw price is going to be for the next year. All right, great. Speaker 200:43:54Thank you. See you next week. Speaker 100:43:55Thank Speaker 500:43:57you. Operator00:44:03Call back over to William Reuter with Bank of America. Speaker 900:44:09Hi. Just quickly to make sure on the last question. You contract for 75% in Europe, but that's 100% in North America. Is that right? Speaker 300:44:19That's correct. Speaker 900:44:20Okay. And then, you have 20% of your contracts that are up for renewal. How does that compare to where you would have been last year or Speaker 300:44:32Yes. Typically, we have about 25% up for renewal, so slightly down, but around average. Speaker 900:44:41Okay. And then just lastly for me, the elevated CapEx of $800,000,000 to 900 How should we think about that CapEx number over the next handful of years? Speaker 300:44:54Yes. So CapEx fluctuates year to year. As we've discussed them in past, we had a pent up demand after COVID where we've had a couple of years of higher spending. I'm going to speak more to that during Investor Day in terms of how to think about that over the next few years. So I'll go ahead and leave it for Investor Day. Speaker 900:45:13I assume that might have been the answer. Okay. That's all for me. Thank you. Operator00:45:19And that does conclude our question and answer session. I'd like to hand the conference back over to Mr. Congolay for any additional or closing comments. Speaker 100:45:26Call back over to the operator. Thanks for joining the call today. If you do plan on or want to come to our Investor Day, please shoot me an e mail and I can send you the invite if you If you have gotten it and you do want to attend, since it's at the New York Stock Exchange, you do have to register in advance, So we could put you on the list to get in. Any questions on the call today or kind of going forward, Operator00:46:02And once again that does conclude today's conference. We thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Lamb Weston Earnings Headlines3 Small-Cap Stocks We Steer Clear OfAugust 6 at 5:38 AM | finance.yahoo.comCritical Analysis: Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) versus SunOpta (NASDAQ:STKL)August 4, 2025 | americanbankingnews.comAlex’s “Next Magnificent Seven” stocksThe original “Magnificent Seven” turned $7K into $1.18 million. Now, Alex Green has identified AI’s Next Magnificent Seven—seven stocks he believes could deliver similar gains in under six years. His full breakdown is now live. | The Oxford Club (Ad)Brokerages Set Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) PT at $67.40July 30, 2025 | americanbankingnews.comLamb Weston Holdings Inc (LW) Faces Legal Scrutiny Over ERP System Implementation | LW stock newsJuly 29, 2025 | gurufocus.comLAMB WESTON ALERT: Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. is Investigating Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. on Behalf of Long-Term Stockholders and Encourages Investors to Contact the FirmJuly 29, 2025 | globenewswire.comSee More Lamb Weston Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Lamb Weston? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Lamb Weston and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Lamb WestonLamb Weston (NYSE:LW) Holdings, Inc. produces, distributes, and markets frozen potato products worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Global, Foodservice, Retail, and Other. It offers frozen potatoes, commercial ingredients, and appetizers under the Lamb Weston brand, as well as under various customer labels. The company also provides its products under its owned or licensed brands, such as Grown in Idaho and Alexia, and other licensed brands, as well as under retailers' own brands. In addition, it engages in the vegetable and dairy businesses. The company sells its products through a network of internal sales personnel and independent brokers, agents, and distributors to chain restaurants, wholesale, grocery, mass merchants, club and specialty retailers, businesses, educational institutions, independent restaurants, regional chain restaurants, and convenience stores. Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1950 and is headquartered in Eagle, Idaho.View Lamb Weston ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Airbnb Beats Earnings, But the Growth Story Is Losing AltitudeDutch Bros Just Flipped the Script With a Massive Earnings BeatIs Eli Lilly’s 14% Post-Earnings Slide a Buy-the-Dip Opportunity?Constellation Energy’s Earnings Beat Signals a New EraRealty Income Rallies Post-Earnings Miss—Here’s What Drove ItDon't Mix the Signal for Noise in Super Micro Computer's EarningsWhy Monolithic Power's Earnings and Guidance Ignited a Rally Upcoming Earnings SEA (8/12/2025)Cisco Systems (8/13/2025)Alibaba Group (8/13/2025)Applied Materials (8/14/2025)NetEase (8/14/2025)Deere & Company (8/14/2025)NU (8/14/2025)Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras (8/14/2025)Palo Alto Networks (8/18/2025)Home Depot (8/19/2025) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. Start Your 30-Day Trial MarketBeat All Access Features Best-in-Class Portfolio Monitoring Get personalized stock ideas. Compare portfolio to indices. Check stock news, ratings, SEC filings, and more. Stock Ideas and Recommendations See daily stock ideas from top analysts. Receive short-term trading ideas from MarketBeat. Identify trending stocks on social media. Advanced Stock Screeners and Research Tools Use our seven stock screeners to find suitable stocks. Stay informed with MarketBeat's real-time news. Export data to Excel for personal analysis. Sign in to your free account to enjoy these benefits In-depth profiles and analysis for 20,000 public companies. Real-time analyst ratings, insider transactions, earnings data, and more. Our daily ratings and market update email newsletter. Sign in to your free account to enjoy all that MarketBeat has to offer. Sign In Create Account Your Email Address: Email Address Required Your Password: Password Required Log In or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google Forgot your password? Your Email Address: Please enter your email address. Please enter a valid email address Choose a Password: Please enter your password. Your password must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least 1 number, 1 letter, and 1 special character. Create My Account (Free) or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google By creating a free account, you agree to our terms of service. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
There are 11 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good day, and welcome to the Lamb Weston First Quarter Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the Speaker 100:00:15Good morning and thank you for joining us for Lamb Weston's Q1 2024 Earnings Call. This morning, we issued our earnings press release, which is available on our website, lamweston.com. Please note that during our remarks, we'll make some forward looking statements about the company's expected performance Please refer to the cautionary statements and risk factors contained in our SEC filings for more details on our forward looking statements. Some Some of today's remarks include non GAAP financial measures. These non GAAP financial measures should not be considered a replacement for and should be read together with our GAAP results. Speaker 100:00:57You can find the GAAP to non GAAP reconciliations in our earnings release. With me today are Tom Warner, our President and Chief Executive Officer Bernadette Madriada, our Chief Financial Officer. Tom will provide an overview of the current operating environment. Bernadette will then provide details on our Q1 results As well as our updated outlook for fiscal 2024. With that, let me now turn the call over to Tom. Speaker 200:01:21Thank you, Dexter. Good morning and thank you for joining our call today. We delivered a strong start to the year as we continue to execute on our strategies to drive sustainable profitable growth. Our integration of our EMEA operations is progressing well. Our capacity expansion in China is now up and running And our other expansion and modernization efforts around the globe remain on track. Speaker 200:01:44Our supply chain teams continue to drive productivity savings And our commercial teams remain focused on serving our customers and driving innovation across all channels. While our volume was We should see our year over year volume trends improve as the year progresses as we begin to lap and backfill exited volumes with higher margin business. Overall, we feel good about the health of the category, our Q1 financial results and our operating momentum and have raised our sales and earning targets for the year. Let me now turn to the current operating environment. The global frozen potato category continues to be solid with overall demand and supply balanced. Speaker 200:02:34Fry attachment rates, which is a rate at which consumers order fries when visiting a restaurant or other food service outlets Across our key markets have remained largely steady and above pre pandemic levels. Restaurant traffic in our key markets was generally solid. In the U. S, overall restaurant traffic was flat versus the prior year quarter as QSR traffic growth offset further traffic declines in full service restaurant channels. Call over to Steve. Speaker 200:03:01We believe that this is the cumulative effect of inflation and other macro pressures on the consumer over the past few years While overall traffic growth did slow sequentially from about 1% in our physical 4th quarter as quick service restaurant traffic growth cooled, Much of that weakness was in June and we're encouraged that both QSR and full service restaurant traffic trends improved as the quarter progressed. In Europe, restaurant traffic grew in many of our key markets. In the U. K, traffic was up mid single digits with growth in both QSR and full service restaurants. Growth was also solid in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Speaker 200:03:50In Asia, China restaurant traffic growth was very strong, We suspect that restaurant traffic trends will be volatile in the near term as high interest rates, high inflation and uncertainty continues to affect consumers. That said, frozen potato demand has proven resilient during the most challenging economic times and we continue to be confident presentation to the mid to high single digits, largely driven by higher contract prices for potatoes, including a 20% increase in North America And a 35% to 40% increase in Europe. Much of our inflation driven pricing across our channels has either already been announced or included Customer contracts representing about 20% Our North American business are in the process of being finalized and we feel good in the aggregate about the likely pricing and terms. Over the long term, we continue to expect pricing actions and supply chain productivity improvements will be the primary levers to offset inflation. We'll also continue to drive improvements in product and customer mix to benefit sales growth and profitability. Speaker 200:05:18Now with respect to the upcoming potato crop, We are harvesting and processing the crops in our growing regions in both North America and Europe. And we believe the crops in the Columbia Basin, Idaho, Alberta In the Midwest are in line with pre pandemic historical averages. In Europe, we believe that the crop will also be in line with historical averages As a result of improved growing conditions, we'll provide our final assessment of the crop, including how it performs out of stores When we report our 2nd quarter results in early January. So in summary, we delivered Solid results in the Q1 and continue to have good operating momentum. The overall category remains healthy with demand and supply largely balanced. Speaker 200:06:05And finally, at this time, we believe the potato crops in our growing regions in North America or in Europe will be in line with pre pandemic averages. Let me now turn the call over to Bernadette. Speaker 300:06:16Thanks, Tom, and good morning, everyone. I want to start off by thanking the entire Lamb Weston the present team for the strong start to the year. Our performance speaks for itself and it's a testament to the passion and dedication of our entire Lamb Weston team. We recognize that we're operating in a challenging macro environment, but the strong first quarter performance has allowed us raise our fiscal 2024 financial targets. Let's start with reviewing our Q1 results. Speaker 300:06:46Compared with the prior year, sales increased $540,000,000 or 48 percent to about 1,700,000,000 About $375,000,000 or 70 percent of the increase was attributable to the incremental sales from acquisitions, With most coming from our EMEA business. We lapped the Argentina acquisition this quarter, but we'll continue to receive the incremental benefit from the consolidation of the call over to EMEA operations in the 2nd 3rd quarters. As a reminder, since we began to consolidate EMEA sales beginning in the Q4 of fiscal 2023. Those results are included in our last year's sales baseline. Excluding the incremental sales from our acquisitions, net sales grew 15%. Speaker 300:07:35Price mix was up 23 As we benefited from the pricing actions taken in fiscal 2023 in both our North America and International segments note that our press release will be posted Speaker 400:07:48on the call to counter input and manufacturing cost inflation. Speaker 300:07:49Mix was also favorable as we continue to strategically manage our product and customer portfolio. In addition, we estimate the price mix in the quarter benefited by a couple of percentage points From lower than expected trade spending associated with pricing actions that we began implementing in the last month of fiscal 2023. This may be largely timing related and as a result could be a slight headwind as the year progresses. The trade spend benefit in the quarter, however, was mostly offset by a roughly 2 point headwind related to lower freight charges passed on to customers As transportation costs have come down from the prior year period. As a reminder, our goal is to match freight charge to our customers And lower margin contracts as part of our revenue growth management initiatives and to a lesser extent continued inventory destocking by certain that the customers in international markets and in select U. Speaker 300:09:08S. Retail channels also impacted volume. Call over to Mr. President. We believe the effect of these destocking actions is largely behind us and should have little impact, if any, on our results going forward. Speaker 300:09:23It's important to note that volume elasticities or the amount of volume lost in response to inflation based pricing actions As we lap the volume we exited and backfill volume with higher margin business. Moving on from sales. Gross profit in the quarter, excluding comparability items, increased $213,000,000 to 490,000,000 Nearly 3 quarters of the increase was driven by the cumulative benefit of pricing actions, the timing of trade spending, Mix improvement and supply chain productivity in our legacy Lamb Weston business, which more than offset higher input and manufacturing cost per pound And the impact of lower volumes. The remaining roughly 1 quarter of the increase was attributable to incremental earnings from consolidating EMEA. Including the dilutive impact of the EMEA acquisition, our gross margin percentage excluding comparability items Increased 480 basis points to 29.4%. Speaker 300:10:37While first quarter margins have historically been our lowest margin quarter, We estimate that the timing of trade spending that I mentioned earlier accounted for approximately 200 basis points of the increase, Which would put our normalized first quarter gross margin, including acquisitions, approaching 28%. Input costs continued to increase mid to high single digits on a per pound basis. The increases were largely driven by A 20% increase in the contracted price for potatoes in North America, higher prices for open market potatoes due to poor yields from the 2022 crop And continued increases in the cost of labor, energy and ingredients for batter coatings. The increase was partially offset by SG and A excluding comparability items increased $45,000,000 to 160,000,000 More than half of the increase was from incremental SG and A with the consolidation of EMEA. The remainder was largely driven by higher expenses And higher advertising and promotion expenses. Speaker 300:11:59All of this led to adjusted EBITDA increasing 76% With the remainder attributable to incremental earnings from consolidating EMEA. Moving to our segments. This is the Q1 that we operated in our 2 new reporting segments, North America and International. Beginning with our North America segment, which includes sales to customers in all channels in the U. S, Canada and Mexico, Sales were up 19% in the quarter. Speaker 300:12:37Price mix was up 24%, which was driven by the carryover benefit of pricing actions That took effect in fiscal 2023 across each of our primary sales channels, the timing of trade spending And favorable mix as we benefit from our revenue growth management initiatives. Lower freight revenue partially offset the increase. Volume in North America declined 5%. This primarily reflects our decision to exit volume related primarily note the 2 lower priced and lower margin contracts that largely began to impact our sales in the 2nd and third quarters of fiscal 2023. To a lesser extent, inventory destocking by certain customers in retail channels also pressured volumes. Speaker 300:13:25We don't anticipate further effects from the retail destocking after the Q1. North America segment adjusted EBITDA increased note that we're going to be conducting a few minutes to discuss the The timing of trade spending and favorable mix more than offset higher cost per pound and the impact of lower volumes. Conference over to our International segment, which includes sales to customers in all channels outside of North America. Sales grew $360,000,000 or 2 12 percent and included $375,000,000 While price mix was up 18%, driven by the carryover benefit of pricing actions taken in fiscal 2023, As well as favorable mix, lower volume and freight revenue offset the increase. As expected, volume excluding Speaker 500:14:42note that the company's press Speaker 300:14:43low margin accounts that largely began to impact our international sales volumes in our fiscal Q4 of 2023. To a lesser extent, continued inventory destocking also impacted volumes in the quarter. But as I mentioned earlier, we believe the effect of Talking is largely over. Despite a 27% decline in our international segment volume, Segment adjusted EBITDA increased $57,000,000 to $90,000,000 Incremental earnings from the consolidation of EMEA's financial results as well as favorable price mix drove most of the increase, more than offsetting the impact of higher cost note that the balance sheet is being recorded. Moving to our liquidity position and cash flow. Speaker 300:15:32We continue to maintain a solid balance sheet with ample liquidity and a low leverage ratio. We ended the quarter with more than 100 the $1,000,000,000 of cash and no borrowings under our $1,000,000,000 U. S. Revolver. Our net debt was about $3,300,000,000 Which puts our leverage ratio at 2.3 times. Speaker 300:15:55We generated about $335,000,000 of cash from operations $40,000,000 of cash to our shareholders, including $41,000,000 in dividends. Most of the cash return was from repurchasing $100,000,000 of shares. That's more than double what we repurchased in all of 2023 As we acted opportunistically based on our stock price performance during our August open trading window. While our share buyback program is targeted to offset annual equity compensation dilution, we will continue to be opportunistic based on other capital allocation needs Turning to our updated fiscal 2024 outlook. Based on our strong Q1 performance, we raised our financial targets for the year. Speaker 300:17:13While we continue to expect macro operating conditions to remain challenging, the overall current demand and pricing environment remains solid. In addition, as Tom mentioned, we believe the potato crops in our growing regions in North America and Europe will be consistent with pre pandemic historical averages. And we're generally pleased with how the discussions to renew remaining contracts are progressing in aggregate. Specifically, we continue to expect strong net sales gains for the year and have increased our annual net sales target to $6,800,000,000 to $7,000,000,000 Which is up from our previous target of $6,700,000,000 to $6,900,000,000 This includes $1,100,000,000 to $1,200,000,000 This represents a 6.5% to 8.5% net sales growth, excluding acquisitions. For the year, We're targeting price mix to be up low double digits, which means that we expect price mix will slow sequentially From the 23% increase that we delivered in the Q1, as we begin to lap some of our price actions that we began implementing in the Q2 of last year. Speaker 300:18:32While the overall potato category continues to be solid, due to the timing of contract openers, We're targeting our full year volume, excluding acquisitions, to be down mid single digits compared with the prior year. And we expect year over year volume trends will continue to improve as the year progresses as we lap some of the significant low margin, low product note that we chose to exit in the second half of last year and as we gradually backfill the exited lower margin business with more profitable business. Speaker 500:19:04Call over to the operator for the call over to the operator for the call. Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Speaker 300:19:07Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Speaker 300:19:09Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Thank you, operator. Thank you. Our next question comes from 1 $620,000,000 up from our previous estimate of $1,450,000,000 to 1 $525,000,000 Using the midpoint of this updated range implies growth of about 26% or about $330,000,000 We left our target for SG and A unchanged at $765,000,000 to $775,000,000 While our Q1 run rate suggests a lower target, we continue to anticipate spending will build as the year progresses. Speaker 300:19:49We reduced our interest expense target by $10,000,000 to $155,000,000 as we expect to partially offset cash interest With more capitalized interest associated with our capacity expansion. Our other financial targets remain the same, Including depreciation and amortization expense of approximately $325,000,000 and capital expenditures of $800,000,000 to 900,000,000 In summary, we're executing our strategies to deliver strong top and bottom line growth. And driving productivity savings across our supply chain. Volume elasticities in response to inflation based pricing actions have been generally low And we expect volume trends to improve as the year progresses. While we remain cautious about the effect of inflation on the consumer, We feel good about the start of the year and the health of the category, which gives us the confidence to raise our full year sales and earnings targets. Speaker 300:20:57And with that, let me now turn it back over to Tom for some closing comments. Speaker 200:21:01Thanks Bernadette. We delivered a strong quarter and our operating momentum As well positioned to deliver another year of solid sales and earnings growth. In addition, we're confident in the health of the global category And finally, as you may know, we will be hosting an Investor Day on Wednesday, October 11th at the New York Stock Exchange. During the presentation, we'll discuss our view of the industry, Our strategies for growth and our long term financial targets and capital allocation policies. If you haven't already, please register if you plan on attending in person Thank you for joining us today. Speaker 200:21:50Now we're ready to take your questions. Operator00:22:08And we'll take our first question from Peter Galba with Bank of America. Speaker 600:22:15Hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. Speaker 200:22:17Good morning. Speaker 100:22:19Good morning. Speaker 600:22:21Tom and Bernadette, thank you both very much for the color around price mix and volume for the year. Tom, I was hoping to ask maybe a 2 part question on volume. 1, just maybe help us a little bit with cadence on when some of these backfill higher margin customers potentially start to come online for you. And then Bernadette, I know you kind of gave order of magnitude on international, but if there's anything more a finer point on volumes between just what was intentional walk away versus the destock impact in the quarter would be helpful. Thanks very much. Speaker 200:22:55Yes. So Peter, it's Tom. So as Bernadette alluded to, it was limited to 4 accounts and you know it was important for us to maintain our pricing discipline. 1 of the accounts in international specifically we're losing money on. So it was time just to part ways and that had a big impact on our international volume. Speaker 200:23:18So it was a measured Disciplined action we did. And the thing in terms of your the first part of your question, We have line of sight to backfilling that volume. It does take time. It's not a linear match when you walk away. Been through this before, but we have a great commercial team that has you know volume is going to be sequentially getting better over the next quarter and the back half of the year. Speaker 200:24:06To note that we expect the categories and really it's in good shape. So between organic growth And some things that we have identified, I feel great about where we're at and how we're going to execute And continue to grow the volume in the back half of the year and over the course of the next several quarters. Speaker 300:24:29Yes. And Peter, just second question. So the second question you asked that those volume exits started impacting our international sales in our fiscal Q4 of 2023 and the business that we chose to walk away from, I'd say about 90% of that relates to that in terms of volume decline you know with the remainder being the destocking. Speaker 600:24:52Got it. Very helpful. Thank you. And then Tom, one question I've just been getting On the crop itself, obviously, the crop in your main regions has come in pretty well. I think there's been some issues in the East Coast Canada crop. Speaker 600:25:07Just Curious kind of how you think that might impact the overall category here over the course of the next year in terms of industry tightness? Thanks very much. Speaker 200:25:17Yes. Peter, I think the crops and we'll have a as we do every January in our earnings call kind of a debrief on how we're feeling about Overall crop and storage, crops in great shape worldwide. So I don't expect any impacts in any region in terms of Operator00:25:44call over to Tom Palmer with JPMorgan. Speaker 400:25:51Good morning and thanks for the questions. I wanted to ask on the guidance boost. I would assume some flow through of the higher EMEA sales, but the Also the increase on earnings seems to be more related to the gross margin outlook. Is this mainly a reflection of pricing Or a lower compensation outlook. I realized there might have been some conservatism in the prior number, but just trying to understand the moving parts. Speaker 300:26:18Yes. So we feel good about the operating momentum that we've had. It's been primarily related to pricing. You know, we think that those financial targets are really prudent given the macro environment that we're facing, as well as just uncertainty regarding consumer health. So most of that's pricing and still really good about the operating momentum of the business. Speaker 500:26:40Call over Speaker 400:26:41to Steve. Okay. Thank you. I mean, I wanted to just follow-up on that gross margin piece. Traditionally, we've seen 2nd quarter gross margin come in above the Q1 and then Q3 come in above the Q2. Speaker 400:26:55Is this cadence reasonable when we think about the build for this Speaker 300:27:01Yes. So you're right. Typically, we do see a sequential step up in Q2. I think we'll still see a sequential step up, but it may be more muted because we're going to be lapping some of those pricing actions Speaker 400:27:21Understood. Thank you. Speaker 100:27:23Yes. Hey, Tom, remember that what Bernadette mentioned before, yes, we printed 29.4, you know But if you take away some of the timing impacts of that trade spend, probably a little bit south of 28 As a base. Yes. Speaker 300:27:38That's right, Tom. So when I'm speaking to the step up, I'm speaking up to more normalized 28% Speaker 200:27:45call over to you. Speaker 100:27:48Okay. Understood. Thanks. Speaker 300:27:52Thank you. Operator00:27:55We'll now take our next question from Adam Samuelson with Goldman Sachs. Speaker 100:28:00Call over Speaker 700:28:00to Steve. Speaker 800:28:01Yes. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Speaker 200:28:03Good morning. Speaker 800:28:04Good morning. So I guess the first question is Related maybe to mix and clearly you're making some conscious decisions on moving away from low margin from some lower margin business. But just more broadly, can you speak to maybe the if we try to cut your volumes between kind of more traditional straight run fries versus some of the more upgraded products and battered and coated and the like that you're now producing. Can you help quantify kind of what that represents as a proportion of the business today and where that can be getting to whether it's with some of these know that the mix has been a very powerful margin driver for the business and trying to dimensionalize how much more of this are to Speaker 300:28:59go. Yes. Adam, strong price mix performance was the key driver of our better than expected financial results. As it relates to mix and how that relates to growth going forward, we'll be covering that in our industry investor call next week. And so we'll cover that more then. Speaker 300:29:19But again, strong price mix was the key driver of our better than expected performance. Speaker 100:29:25Okay. And then if I could Speaker 800:29:26just ask the second one. I know you talked about the kind of customer trends in Europe. What And the increased revenue contribution in EMEA, is that a more positive volume outlook, more positive price mix outlook or both? Speaker 300:29:49Yes. So we feel really good about the EMEA performance. We have not given the prior year comp because as you know, the EMEA Sales were not recorded in the prior year in our sales number. It was recorded in our equity method earnings. But our estimate is largely in line for the remainder of the year at the presentation. Speaker 300:30:08The segment is largely in line for the remainder of the year at the run rate that we saw for EMEA in Q4 and Q1 note from a sales perspective of about $360,000,000 Speaker 800:30:22Okay. All right. I appreciate that color. I'll pass it on. Operator00:30:31Call back over to Matt Smith with Stifel. Speaker 200:30:34Call over to Steve. Hi, good morning. Speaker 500:30:37Good morning. Speaker 200:30:37I want Speaker 900:30:38to ask about the impact of walking away from low margin contracts in this mix management you've been Pursuing this weight on volumes over the past couple of quarters and you mentioned that the actions in the international segment and the U. S. Segment will be fully lapped by the Q4. So do you expect to be in a position to be growing volumes as you exit this year, meaning you've lapped those You've laughed at the drag from walking away from those contracts and you've made some progress on the backfill with higher margin business? Speaker 200:31:12Yes, Max. I fully expect, as I said earlier, that in the back half of the year, we should start to And that's a function of lapping the exit of business, but also we have to line of sight to additional business that we're going to start to backfill with and that takes time. But I fully expect based on how we've got the business forecast and the opportunities we have that we're going to start seeing positive volume trends in the back half. Call Speaker 500:31:48back over to Mark. Okay. Speaker 900:31:49Thank you for that. And maybe if I could ask one more question here. You mentioned that the capacity in China came online in the quarter. Do Give any update to the timing for the American Falls facility. Is that still expected to be on time for beginning production early in 2024? Speaker 200:32:06Yes. We still expect in the late spring of 2024 early summer For American Falls to transition to a vertical start up and it takes some time to get the plant up and running, but Absolutely. Late spring, early summer. Speaker 900:32:28Thank you, Tom. I'll leave it there and pass it on. Speaker 100:32:32Call over to Paul. Thanks. Operator00:32:34We'll now take our next question from Rob Dickerson with Jefferies. We'll now move on to Robert Moskow with TD Cowen. Speaker 1000:33:11Hi, there. Thanks for the question. Speaker 900:33:14Good morning. Speaker 1000:33:15I hate to keep the magnifying glass on volume. Tom, when you talk about positive volume in the back half, the way we have modeled it was that the easy comparisons to the volume you walked away from really started in size in 4th and not in 3rd. So is that correct? And if so, can we expect positive volume in 3rd as well, Even though that the volume walked away from may not have been as much. Speaker 300:33:52Yes. As it relates to the volume in our North America segment, I think I alluded to the fact that we started to walk away from that in 3rd and 4th quarter. In our International segment, we started to see the effect of what we exited in the Q4 of last year. So as we said, we do expect to see volume continue to improve, both as we lap that business we exited and as we bring on New Business. Speaker 1000:34:20Okay. So is it premature to start dicing it up by quarter? And just Should we just think of it as the second half or could we say 3rd quarter off as well? Speaker 300:34:31Yes. So I would just think of it as the second half of the year. Okay. Speaker 1000:34:36Got it. And then my other question is, I was hoping you'd give a little more color on like what Percent of your contracts come up for renewal seasonally and also as it relates to like I think a lot of the industry is on 3 year contracts instead of 1. So like how much is up for grabs in the next 3 to 6 months, Roughly speaking, is there a way to quantify that? Speaker 200:35:03Yes. Sure, Robert. In our remarks, we got about 20% in play. We feel confident about where we're at, where we're at in those discussions, how things are progressing for us this year. So we'll get through all that you know over the course of the rest of this year. Speaker 200:35:22And at a later time, As we always do, we'll give some color on what we've got coming up in terms of contracting for our next fiscal year and how that's progressing. But right now, we're through most of it. Feel good about where we're at. Obviously, it's all baked into our guidance. We have 20% in play, feel good about where it's at. Speaker 200:35:47Commercial team is executing at a high level, great discussions and more to come on that. And then the next like we do usually in our July call, we'll talk about What's coming up for contract renewal in the next fiscal year? Speaker 1000:36:04Yes. Sorry, I was on the ConAgra call. So 20% in play And is it all kind of How did that go? Pardon me? Speaker 200:36:12Nothing for us. Speaker 1000:36:15All right. Is it all in the first half or is Speaker 200:36:27start late spring through early fall when we start the contracting discussions. Speaker 1000:36:33Early fall. Okay. All right. Thanks so much. Speaker 500:36:38Call over to Eric. Operator00:36:38Thanks, Robert. We'll now take our next question from Johnny Chamour with Barclays. Speaker 500:36:45Call over to Andrew Lazar. Speaker 700:36:46Great. Thanks. Hey, guys. It's Andrew Lazar. Hope all is well. Speaker 700:36:50And I joined late as well, so I apologize if some of this was covered. I think Tom, I remember, I think last quarter you started to talk a little bit about the plan sort of pivot, right, to a little bit more of a focus turn the call over to Steve. On profit dollars going forward, as that's the way you obviously grow the business and you kind of have this significant margin recovery, you know kind of much of which has already taken place, and that kind of makes sense, right, as you think about what you're looking to do. But I think there was some confusion and maybe Some might have taken that to mean that as you move towards profit dollars that somehow you were expecting sort of ongoing or structural margin erosion Going forward as some of the new capacity comes online and that you'd have to sort of go after lower margin business know somehow to fill that capacity. I was just hoping you could maybe and maybe look into this a lot more obviously next week, but maybe just clarify a little bit of that, because I do think there was some confusion around that. Speaker 700:37:50I logically understand, right, the shift now that margins have kind of recovered too much more of a profit dollar focus. Thanks so much. Speaker 200:37:58Yes, Andrew. We're going to stay disciplined with our revenue growth management Initiative. And so as we think about opportunities going forward, we are going to look at maintaining our margin profile and we're going to stay disciplined. And a testament to that is our decision to walk away from some of this lower margin business that we've been talking about. So it's all about maintaining the discipline and what note that we're going to focus on, we've worked really hard to rebuild our margin profile in this business and we're going to continue to focus on that Operator00:38:53call over to Rob Dickerson with Jefferies. Speaker 200:38:58Call over to Tom. Great. Thanks so much. I was on mute. I guess a quick question for you Tom, just I guess with respect to the China plant, like this up and running, maybe coming back to Andy's question a little bit, but ask the question, Lea. Speaker 200:39:15I'm just curious, exiting this business back in Q4, but now you have a new facility. Is there now this conversation that you've been having to be activated kind of with the sales force such that you say, okay, there's opportunity here, right, you know, it's up maybe off a lower base, it's still up. There's not real demand destruction you know going forward, it sounds like really expected, such that that sales force can actually go try to take you know material share, let's say, even non U. S. Market just kind of given the new facility? Speaker 200:39:57First question. Yes. So the China facility, we're in early stages of our start up. So it takes some time to get it up and running. We are running production there today. Speaker 200:40:10It's going to be specifically targeted for that market. You know we've got things identified in the China market from an opportunity business standpoint, But it takes some time to get the plant up and running and efficient and kind of work the kinks out, but We're early on. So it's going to be several more quarters before we see the impact of that coming online. Speaker 500:40:43Call back over to Steve. Speaker 200:40:44All right. Fair enough. And then I just think you said correct me if I'm wrong that traffic was up I believe mid single digit In Europe, Speaker 400:40:53I Speaker 700:40:54remember that was just QSRs, but I Speaker 200:40:56know traffic was up in Europe, sounds like better than the U. S. Maybe just any kind of general perspective as to why that might be the case kind of market vis a vis market? Speaker 100:41:08Call over to Rob. It's probably a little bit of might have a little bit of softness last year you know coming out of COVID and everything like that. But overall trends seem to be pretty good. I think, with inflation still factor, but it's cooling or at least a little bit better than we were expecting at least from the energy cost standpoint. So I think it was just a disposable income helping Speaker 200:41:36All right. Great. And then just quickly, to know harvest coming in line with historic averages coming off 2 bad years. Maybe As a reminder, kind of when we start to see that 35% of COGS maybe starts to disinflate or let's call it deflate Year over year. It sounds like that might be what's like a back half fiscal 2025 dynamic? Speaker 200:42:03Yes, Rob. So just a reminder, our cost and contract raw input Structure is baked. So wherever the crop yields and all that comes out, it really isn't going to impact our Overall input costs for the balance of this fiscal year. So it's you're not going to see Any decline in our cost structure because the crop is great. It's just we agreed to a contract last A year ago and it is what it is. Speaker 300:42:42Yes. I think that's right, Tom. And the only piece that's different in the end market is that generally will contract for about 75%, whereas there's the open market for the remaining 25%. Then we've seen of late that the open market prices have started to come down. Speaker 200:43:01Right. But as we're I'm thinking all the way forward to, let's say, the end of back half of next fiscal year, right? I'm assuming as we go into these contract negotiations toward the end of this calendar year, right? Harvest is good this year, probably puts you in a pretty good position in the discussion. We're not going to comment on negotiating discussions publicly, we don't do that. Speaker 200:43:32And it will be we'll let it play out the way it plays out. We'll be disciplined in the process. We follow every year. And at the appropriate time when we come to some agreement as we always do And the market knows, you'll see what our raw price is going to be for the next year. All right, great. Speaker 200:43:54Thank you. See you next week. Speaker 100:43:55Thank Speaker 500:43:57you. Operator00:44:03Call back over to William Reuter with Bank of America. Speaker 900:44:09Hi. Just quickly to make sure on the last question. You contract for 75% in Europe, but that's 100% in North America. Is that right? Speaker 300:44:19That's correct. Speaker 900:44:20Okay. And then, you have 20% of your contracts that are up for renewal. How does that compare to where you would have been last year or Speaker 300:44:32Yes. Typically, we have about 25% up for renewal, so slightly down, but around average. Speaker 900:44:41Okay. And then just lastly for me, the elevated CapEx of $800,000,000 to 900 How should we think about that CapEx number over the next handful of years? Speaker 300:44:54Yes. So CapEx fluctuates year to year. As we've discussed them in past, we had a pent up demand after COVID where we've had a couple of years of higher spending. I'm going to speak more to that during Investor Day in terms of how to think about that over the next few years. So I'll go ahead and leave it for Investor Day. Speaker 900:45:13I assume that might have been the answer. Okay. That's all for me. Thank you. Operator00:45:19And that does conclude our question and answer session. I'd like to hand the conference back over to Mr. Congolay for any additional or closing comments. Speaker 100:45:26Call back over to the operator. Thanks for joining the call today. If you do plan on or want to come to our Investor Day, please shoot me an e mail and I can send you the invite if you If you have gotten it and you do want to attend, since it's at the New York Stock Exchange, you do have to register in advance, So we could put you on the list to get in. Any questions on the call today or kind of going forward, Operator00:46:02And once again that does conclude today's conference. We thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by