Kraft Heinz Q1 2024 Prepared Remarks Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 1, 2024

There are 3 speakers on the call.

Operator

Hello. This is Anne Marie Maguilla, Head of Global Investor Relations at The Kraft Heinz Company. I'd like to welcome you to our Q1 2024 business update. During the following remarks, we will make forward looking statements regarding our expectations for the future, including related to our business plans and expectations, strategy, efforts and investments and related timing and expected impacts. These statements are based on how we see things today and actual results may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties.

Operator

Please see the cautionary statements and risk factors contained in today's earnings release, which accompanies these remarks, as well as our most recent 10 ks, 10 Q and 8 ks filings for more information regarding these risks and uncertainties. Additionally, we will refer to non GAAP financial measures, which exclude certain items from our financial results reported in accordance with GAAP. Please refer to today's earnings release and the non GAAP information that accompany these remarks, which are available on our website at ir. Kraftheinzcompany.com under News and Events for a discussion of our non GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the comparable GAAP financial measures. Today, our Chief Executive Officer, Carlos Abrams Rivera, will provide an update on our overall business performance and Andre Maciel, our Global Chief Financial Officer, will provide a financial review of the Q1 and will discuss our 2024 outlook.

Operator

We have also scheduled a separate live question and answer session with analysts. You can access our question and answer session at ir. Krafhinescompany.com. A replay will also be available following the event through the same website. With that, I will turn it over to Carlos.

Speaker 1

Well, thank you, Anne Marie, and thank you all for joining us today. At Kraft Heinz, our strategy is working. We delivered 1st quarter results in line with our expectations, with growth across our strategic pillars and continued sequential volume recovery despite a softening away from home market in the U. S. We continue to successfully unlock gross efficiencies leading to adjusted gross profit margin expansion of 170 basis points in the quarter.

Speaker 1

We are suddenly on our way to our target of $2,500,000,000 in efficiencies by 2027. We continue to reinvest these efficiencies with a meaningful step up in marketing, R and D and technology investments, while at the same time growing adjusted operating income and expanded margins. These investments are powering innovation, brand superiority and further productivity to drive growth. As a result, we are reiterating guidance for 2024 and remain on track to deliver our long term algorithm in the Q4 of this year. Looking at Q1 2024 results, we expected our Q1 organic net sales performance to have a similar profile to Q4 2023 with sequential volume improvements and continued adjusted gross profit margin expansion.

Speaker 1

Organic net sales performance in Q1 was slightly better than Q4 of 2023, improving 20 basis points sequentially. Our volumes also improved by approximately 120 basis points from down 4.4 percentage point in the Q4 of 2023 to down 3.2 percentage points in the Q1 of 2024. And finally, we continue to unlock efficiencies at a greater pace than inflation, contributing to adjusted gross profit margin expansion of approximately 170 basis points versus the Q1 of 2023. As you recall, our path to deliver consistent profitable growth is centered around driving the top line by unlocking efficiencies and reinvesting in the business to power our superior brands. We continue to execute across each of these building blocks.

Speaker 1

So let's start with the top line. Organic debt sales for our 3 strategic pillars grew year over year. Volume continues to improve sequentially since Q2 of 2023. Our portfolio roles are deploying the strategies we outlined a couple of months ago at CAGNY. And finally, we're either gaining share or recovering share across all segments versus 2023.

Speaker 1

Let's go through each of these accomplishments in more detail. Starting with our 3 strategic pillars, organic net sales for our North American retail accelerate platforms, which include our priority spaces, taste elevation, easy ready meals and substantial snacking grew 0.5% versus the prior year. As a reminder, in this platform, we look to drive outsized top line growth and generate higher gross margins compared to our other platforms. We expect to deliver low single digit organic net sales growth for the full year 2024. Moving toward our away from home business, our strategy here is to drive growth through global brand activations, entering new channels and innovation.

Speaker 1

Global away from home organic net sales growth was relatively flat in the Q1, up 0.1% versus the prior year. These results were impacted by softening markets in the U. S. Especially for restaurants as well as 2 planned business exits that will result in a positive mix impact. The declines in the U.

Speaker 1

S. Were offset by continued growth in the rest of the world, which grew high single digits. In Global Away From Home, we expect to deliver low to mid single digit organic net sales growth for the full year 2024. Andrey will provide more detail into Q1 results and expectations for the year to go. And finally, we grew organic net sales 5.5% in emerging markets versus the prior year.

Speaker 1

In emerging markets, we continue to capture growth through our go to market model, the brand equity of Heinz and our away from home business. As anticipated in the Q1, we lapped shipments timing in the prior year in Brazil. We expect to deliver double digit organic net sales growth for the full year 2024. Moving to volume, in the beginning of 2023, we laid out a series of action plans to address market share and volume declines. They worked and are continuing to drive further improvements.

Speaker 1

Total Kraft Heinz volumes mix declined 3.2 percentage points in the Q1, an improvement of 120 basis points from the 4th quarter. This marks the 3rd consecutive quarter of improvements. Turning now to our portfolio roles. At CAGNY, we discussed how we define our priorities based on market attractiveness and our right to win across the portfolio, refining roles that guide our investment decisions and market strategy. Total Kraft Heinz or guided net sales growth was driven by our Accelerate platforms, which grew 2% in the quarter.

Speaker 1

As we continue to prioritize investments across our taste elevations, easy ready meals and substantial snacking platforms. For example, we invested in cream cheese across retail in the back half of last year. We increased marketing and executed joint business plans to rebuild displays. As a result, we grew both organic net sales and expanded adjusted gross profit margin by mid single digits in the Q1. Our strategy across our Protect platforms is to protect profit margins and invest at a healthy level, which we're doing across our desserts and hydration businesses.

Speaker 1

Jell O is a great example of this. Last year, we revealed our first renovation in a decade of the 126 year old 0.5 percentage points as a result. This year, we are launching Jell O's first innovation in over 5 years with 2 new pudding flavors, Turfro Delicioso and Mango Saborosa. And finally, our balanced platform, where our strategy is to balance performance and profitability and to invest to maintain our brand footprint. In the Q1, while organic net sales declined, we grew adjusted gross profit dollars and improved profitability generating cash to fund investments.

Speaker 1

Now, let's move on to share performance. Looking to our share performance, compared to 2023, we are gaining or improving share across all three of our business segments and in U. S. Away from home. In North America retail, our accelerated platforms are driving the improvement with approximately 55% of revenue growing or holding share in the Q1.

Speaker 1

And despite the challenges we are seeing in the restaurant industry, we continue to outpace the industry and capture share in U. S. Away from home. In the quarter, we gained 40 basis points of share, primarily driven by our performance in non commercial channels. We are recovering in developed markets with a 50 basis point improvement from 2023 as our price gap versus competition have narrowed.

Speaker 1

In emerging markets, we are gaining 90 basis points of share, a 60 basis point improvement from 2023 as we continue to capture wide space through distribution gains. Turning to efficiencies, our new ways of working through agile scale and our approach to strategic partnerships are key ingredients in our success to improve productivity. In the Q1, we unlocked approximately $173,000,000 in growth efficiencies, contributing to 170 basis points increase in adjusted gross profit margin. We are expanding Agioscale globally, bringing solutions from North America to international, a goal of strengthening our strategic partnerships and implementing technology led solutions across the organization. In the Q1, with the adjusted gross profit dollars gain, we continue reinvesting in the business, And we're making the right investments to grow organically, increasing SG and A by $70,000,000 or 8% and CapEx by $28,000,000 or 10% versus the prior year.

Speaker 1

These investments are powering our superior brand through innovation $2,000,000,000 incremental net sales from innovation and we are doing this through big bold disruptive innovation fueled by our agile ways of working. As we continue to step up our investments in R and D, we are developing disruptive platforms with exclusive intellectual property like 360 Crisp and Heinz remix. Our next planned 360 Crisp product launch for 2024 is our deli Mexi Protected Chicken Quesadilla, with 4 additional launches to come out of the platform this year. The Heinz remix is the world's 1st smart sauce dispensing machine that lets consumer customize their flavor choices. I am excited to announce that Burger 5 is taking part in the sales revolution by being the 1st restaurant to debut the Heinz remix.

Speaker 1

They are showcasing at their Fort Lauderdale location and will add 4 more locations this year. We are also evolving our core offerings to meet changing consumer needs and taste. For example, we are bringing the flavor of restaurant favorites to their tables with high quality ingredients by launching Primal Kitchen's first ever dipping sauces. And we continue to grow Heinz beyond ketchup. In the kitchen, we have launched a line of cooking and pasta sauces, all with the tomato at the center.

Speaker 1

Our Heinz pasta sauce gained 5 percentage points of share in the 1st year and we are expanding to 5 markets in 2024. We are continuing to expand partnerships like NOPCO and Taco Bell to accelerate against global trends. Our partnership with Nautco isn't just about stepping into the plant based game, it's about using Nautco's revolutionary AI technology to deliver delicious taste and texture for those who have dietary restrictions or those looking for foods that's better for you. After our Kraft Nut Mac and Cheese, which was launched in November, quickly became the top selling plant based mac and cheese, we decided to launch KD nutmacandcheese in Canada. Given the rise in demand for plant based offerings in Canada, we are now providing our fans with more ways to enjoy KD.

Speaker 1

Mexican is currently the number one international cuisine in the United States and growing internationally. So we have teamed up with Taco Bell to launch the first ever Crunchwrap Supreme and Chipotle Chicken Quesadilla craving kits, allowing consumers to recreate their favorite Taco Bell menu items at home. Velocities on the craving kits continue to accelerate and have already outpaced the full year target by over 30%. And finally, we are leveraging our iconic brands to move at the speed of culture with limiting additional products like we did with Heinz barbecue sauce in a creative partnership with Mattel and Heinz with the Godfather pasta sauce in a launch with Paramount Pictures. Our Heinz lovers asked and we delivered by creating a phone case perfectly sculpted to hold a single condiment packet covering all their SaaS needs on the go.

Speaker 1

We have been on a journey to build a world class culture of creativity, raising the bar to deliver for our customers and consumers. We are cultivating collaboration using agile scale capabilities to accelerate the pace of innovation. That's why I'm thrilled that Kraft Heinz has been named to Fast Companies' Analyst of the World Most Innovative Companies of 2024. Last year, we hadn't yet cracked the top 50 and now we're number 26. Momentum breeds momentum and the external world is taking notice.

Speaker 1

As we announced earlier this year, we are actively deploying our new brand growth system, a systematic methodology and discipline across the organization to measure, monitor and build our brands. It works hand in hand with our disruptive marketing and innovation to drive brand superiority. Turning to the next slide, you can see that like many companies, we continue to navigate through short term volatility, A pressure of consumer, persisting inflation, headwinds from SNAP, industry softness in away from home and rising supply chain risk are some of the common themes the industry is currently facing. Despite this evolving environment, Kraft Heinz is well positioned to address these challenges and we remain confident in our ability to execute on our strategic agenda. We're well positioned because we have a portfolio of leading iconic brands that provide value across multiple price points and channels.

Speaker 1

Our investment in agile scale help us to continue to unlock end to end efficiencies, mitigating volatility and unpredictable changes. We also have a disruptive innovation engine that is gaining momentum and driving incrementality. And our superior marketing is engaging customers at the speed of culture. We've had great success in marketing, but now we're institutionalizing our philosophy of building superior brands on a global basis. And finally, we now have an enhanced organizational structure that enable us to move globally with agility.

Speaker 1

This enhanced organizational structure works because it supports our strategy with our global team providing centralized expertise and resources. We've reduced complexity and now have fewer layers, bringing our leaders even closer to the business. Our confidence is rooted in our conviction that we have the right strategy, the right structure and the right people to drive growth across our superior brands. We continue to see momentum across the business and we're excited for what the future holds. With that, let me hand it over to Andrew to provide more details on our Q1 financial results and to discuss our 2024 outlook.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Carlos. This quarter is the 1st quarter that reflects the change to our segment reporting. In addition to total Kraft Heinz, we will now disclose financials for North America, International Developed Markets and Emerging Markets, which is a combination of our West and East Emerging Markets and Asia Emerging Markets operating segments. Not only does the change align to our improved structure, but it also provides greater visibility into our financials. I hope you find the increased transparency helpful.

Speaker 2

In the Q1, organic net sales declined 0.5% for total Kraft Heinz. Price was up 2.7 percentage points and volume mix declined 3.2 percentage points, in line with historical elasticity levels. As expected, we saw sequential volume improvement of approximately 120 basis points relative to the Q4 of 2023. In North America, organic net sales declined 1.2%. This was a result of stronger than expected retail consumption despite anticipated SNAP headwinds, partially offset by performance in U.

Speaker 2

S. Away from home. We expect the headwinds related to the decline in SNAP benefits to begin to dissipate in the 2nd quarter. In Away From Home, even though we continue to gain share, sales were negatively impacted by industry softness and 2 planned business exits in the U. S.

Speaker 2

The top line impact of the business exits was approximately $50,000,000 in the first quarter and we expect a similar quarterly impact through the rest of the year. We are expecting to see a positive impact on profitability as we free up the capacity to focus on higher margin business. Additionally, our strategy to expand into higher growth, higher margin non commercial channels like Travel and Leisure is serving us well as we have seen solid growth in this areas. In international developed markets, organic net sales declined 1.3%. While we are losing share in developed markets, we are seeing improvement as price gaps narrow.

Speaker 2

Unfavorable volume mix was driven in part by our retailer inventory reduction in Australia. In Emerging Markets, organic net sales grew 5.5%, which was in line with expectations as we lapped shipment time in the prior year in Brazil. We continue to see volumemix growth as we gain share in retail and grew top line in away from home. As a reminder, we expect double digit growth from emerging markets to come from both volume and price. Turning to adjusted operating income, total Kraft Heinz grew 1.7% and our adjusted operating income margin increased 50 basis points as the expansion in gross margins more than offset increased investments in SG and A.

Speaker 2

In North America, adjusted operating income grew 4% and adjusted operating income margin increased 40 basis points with expansion driven by productivity gains. In International Development Markets, adjusted operating income grew 27.7% and adjusted operating income margin increased 3.50 basis points, with expansion primarily driven by the lapping of Cyclone, Gabriel in New Zealand. As a result of the inventory rebuild following the cyclone, Q2 will include an approximate $8,000,000 headwind linked to fixed COGS absorption benefits in the prior year. In emerging markets, adjusted operating income and adjusted operating income margin declined as we are ramping up investments across people, logistics and product development in the first half of the year to support our go to market strategy. In the second half of the year, as these elevated investments are lapped, we expect to see growth and higher profitability.

Speaker 2

We continue our disciplined approach to both pricing and promotions. We have already implemented the majority of price for 2024 in North America and International Developed Markets and pricing will still be needed in emerging markets to offset inflation particularly in hyperinflationary countries. We remain surgical in our pricing approach targeting specific parts of the portfolio where commodities have increased recently such as dairy, sweeteners and coffee. On the promotional front, we continue to see a rational environment. In the Q1, volume sold on promotion was higher than last year as expected and 4% lower than the Q1 of 2019.

Speaker 2

Our investments in technology allow us to leverage digital tools to generate higher ROIs with opportunities ahead to improve lift and profitability. We are expanding gross margins through supply chain efficiencies, which allow us to invest more in the business and drive long term growth. This quarter, adjusted gross profit margin expanded 170 basis points primarily driven by supply chain efficiencies, allowing us to increase investments in marketing by 13%, R and D by 25% and technology by 20% versus the prior year. Turning to cash flow and profitability. We generated year to date free cash flow conversion of 56%, a 30 percentage point improvement versus prior year.

Speaker 2

This improvement was primarily driven by a 57% reduction in working capital as we were rebuilding our inventories and improving service levels in the Q1 of 2023. At the same time, we have been increasing investments for growth with CapEx spend increasing by $28,000,000 or 10% versus the prior year. In terms of adjusted EPS, we grew 1.5% versus the prior year. This was primarily driven by a positive impact from results of operations and share repurchase partially offset by a higher tax rate. We continue to strengthen our balance sheet while at the same time returning capital to stockholders.

Speaker 2

With our capital allocation strategy in place, we are prioritizing stockholder return through disciplined capital deployment. In the Q1, we returned $636,000,000 to stockholders while maintaining our target net leverage ratio of approximately 3 times. $486,000,000 of this was through our competitive dividend and we repurchased $150,000,000 worth of shares leaving about 2.6 $1,000,000,000 remaining of our $3,000,000,000 authorization. As we look ahead to the remainder of the year, we are reiterating our outlook for 2024. We continue to expect organic net sales growth of 0% to 2%, adjusted operating income growth of 2% to 4% and adjusted EPS growth of 1% to 3% versus the prior year.

Speaker 2

For adjusted gross profit margin, we are increasing the expected year over year expansion to a range of 50 to 100 basis points from a prior range of 25 to 75 basis points. Now let me take you through the shape of the year. Looking specifically at the 2nd quarter, we expect the North America retail and emerging markets to improve performance versus Q1, given the lapping of SNAP headwinds and the shipment timing in Brazil. We expect the global away from home to continue to be impacted by industry softness in the U. S.

Speaker 2

And the planned business exits mentioned earlier. We also had to temporarily shut down one of our plants for unplanned maintenance. This factory produces many of the products for our North America away from home business. We have resumed operations and we expect the impact associated with the shutdown to be approximately 50 basis points to 100 basis points to total Kraft Heinz organic net sales growth and to be isolated to the 2nd quarter. If this impact comes in towards the lower end of the range, we would expect total Kraft Heinz Q2 organic net sales to be similar to Q1.

Speaker 2

Moving to the second half of the year, we continue to expect to trend towards our long term algorithm. We are anticipating North America retail to improve from fully lapping the reduction of SNAP benefits as well as an accelerated ramp up in innovation and renovation. We expect emerging markets to be on algorithm. And finally, we expect a recovery of global away from home, which is a function of gradual industry recovery, confirmed new business wins and expected full recovery from the temporary plant shutdown. With that, let me pass it back to Carlos for some closing comments.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Andre. Let me reiterate that our strategy is working. We delivered 1st quarter results in line with our expectations. We continue to unlock growth efficiencies and reinvest in the business and we are powering innovation, brand superiority and further productivity to drive growth. This is why I am confident in and excited about the future of Kraft Heinz.

Speaker 1

Thank you for your time and interest.

Powered by Quartr

Key Takeaways

  • Q1 results in line with expectations, with organic net sales down 0.5% offset by sequential volume recovery and a 170 basis point expansion in adjusted gross profit margin from unlocked efficiencies.
  • The company’s three strategic pillars delivered growth: North America Accelerate platforms rose 0.5% in organic net sales, Global Away From Home was flat at +0.1%, and Emerging Markets grew 5.5%, with share gains across all segments.
  • Kraft Heinz unlocked approximately $173 million in efficiencies in Q1—outpacing inflation—and reinvested savings in marketing (+13%), R&D (+25%) and technology (+20%) to drive innovation and brand superiority.
  • Free cash flow conversion reached 56% year-to-date, and the company returned $636 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases while maintaining net leverage around 3×.
  • 2024 outlook reiterated: targeting 0–2% organic net sales growth, 2–4% adjusted operating income growth, 1–3% EPS growth and 50–100 basis points of gross profit margin expansion.
A.I. generated. May contain errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Kraft Heinz Q1 2024 Prepared Remarks
00:00 / 00:00