Utz Brands Q1 2025 Earnings Report

Utz Brands EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.16
• Consensus EPS: $0.16
• Beat/Miss: Met Expectations
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.14

Utz Brands Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $352.08 million
• Expected Revenue: $345.44 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$6.64 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +1.60%

Utz Brands Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 5/1/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, May 1, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 9:30AM ET

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) engages in manufacture, marketing, and distribution of snack foods. It offers a range of salty snacks, including salty snacks, including potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, cheese snacks, pork skins, veggie snacks, pub/party mixes, tortilla chips, salsa and dips, ready-to-eat popcorn, and other snacks under the Utz, Zapp's, ON THE BORDER, Golden Flake, Boulder Canyon, Hawaiian, TORTIYAHS!, etc. The company sells its products to wholesale and other distributors, grocery stores, convenience and drug stores, discount stores, mass merchandisers, membership club stores, hard discounters, and specialty and e-commerce retailers. Utz Brands, Inc. was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

Utz Brands Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Reported Q1 net sales were flat year-over-year while delivering 3% organic growth driven by strength in untracked channels and improved throughput from the new Rice Distribution Center, with no revenue pulled forward.
• The bonus pack promotion boosted volumes but created a ~300 basis point price headwind; the program is now winding down into summer as the company reverts to standard merchandising and marketing plans.
• Boulder Canyon was a standout growth driver, posting strong velocity and distribution gains across natural, club and discount channels, fueled by new innovations like Canyon Poppers, wavy chips and tortilla chips, with significant white-space remaining.
• The company maintained volume share in core markets while achieving outsized share gains in expansion geographies, leveraging distribution expansion of Boulder Canyon, On the Border and Zapp’s alongside targeted promotional support.
• Untracked channels (natural/organic, hard discount and club) remained key growth engines, while the convenience channel is beginning to recover but still trails, prompting renewed focus on distribution, planograms and tailored innovation.

Presentation

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Desiree, and I will be your operator for today's call. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Odds Brands Inc. First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise.

[Operator]

After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer I would now like to turn the conference over to Kevin Powers, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

[Kevin Powers, SVP, IR at UTZ Brands]

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our live Q and A session on our first quarter twenty twenty five results. With me on today's call are Howard Friedman, CEO and Ajay Khattaria, CFO. I hope everyone has had a chance to listen or read our prepared remarks and also view our presentation, all of which are available on our Investor Relations website. Before we begin our Q and A session, I just have a few housekeeping items to review.

[Kevin Powers, SVP, IR at UTZ Brands]

Please note that some of our comments today will contain forward looking statements based on our current view of our business and the actual future results may differ materially. Please see our recent SEC filings, which identify the principal risks and uncertainties that could affect future performance. Today, we will discuss certain adjusted or non GAAP financial measures, which are described in more detail in this morning's earnings materials. Reconciliations of non GAAP financial measures and other associated disclosures are contained in our earnings materials and posted on our Web site. Now operator, we are ready to open up the line for questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw a question, press 1 again. If you are called upon to ask your question and are listening via speakerphone in your device, And our first question comes from the line of Andrew Lazar with Barclays.

[Operator]

Your line is open.

[Andrew Lazar, Managing Director at Barclays]

Great. Thanks so much. Good morning, everybody.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Good morning, Andrew. Good morning.

[Andrew Lazar, Managing Director at Barclays]

I was hoping maybe to start off with you could just explain the difference between sort of flat overall retail sales and the 3% organic sales growth that you reported this quarter. Just trying to get a sense of how much of that difference, if any, is sort of timing related that may reverse in future quarters or if it was simply unmeasured channels and the like?

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Yes. I appreciate the question, Andrew. Look, think broadly, I think what you see

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

in our results is a lot of

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

the benefits of some of the opportunities that we continue to have as you think about expansion in our expansion geographies as well as, obviously, in our core. Specifically to the bridge between net sales and consumption is exactly what you said, which is we have a have had some significant strength in our untracked channels. Natural channel is doing quite well for us, discount and club. We also have the benefit now of the Rice Distribution Center being open. So we are seeing much better throughput through that facility as we consolidate six warehouses down to one.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

And so we're getting our shipments out a little bit earlier. So there's a little bit of revenue recognition, which we'll expect to continue. But there is nothing in these results that were pulled forward in the quarter. And it's we're obviously quite pleased with how the volumes have responded.

[Andrew Lazar, Managing Director at Barclays]

That's helpful. And then I know you had anticipated some volume share gains, but some value share contraction in core markets in the near term. Is that simply the bonus pack efforts? And if so, how do you balance the volume outcome with the return on such programs as we think about sort of the sustainability of the approach?

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Yes. So you'll recall when we met in December 23 at our Investor Day, one of the things that we've said pretty consistently is that we want to be able to hold up share in our core while we're growing in expansion geographies. And this has largely held true as we continue to grow our volume shares. The core obviously is a little bit more competitive naturally because we are in a lot of cases the number two player. And so it's we're a little bit more exposed to where the category looks.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

But I think what you see right now is a couple of things. I think first, you do see the benefit of bonus packs. Second, you do you're seeing incremental distribution in Boulder Canyon and on On the Border, which is also helping. And so I think a lot of it is things that we're trying to just get into balance as we go forward. But really, I think what you'll expect to see is sort of a little bit more normalized volume to value relationship as we go forward as bonus packs wind down.

[Andrew Lazar, Managing Director at Barclays]

That's helpful. Thanks for that. And I appreciate you putting the case study that you did in the slide deck. That was actually real helpful around what you're seeing in expansion markets. And Ajay, thanks so much for all of your help and wish you all the best going forward.

[Andrew Lazar, Managing Director at Barclays]

Thanks.

[Ajay Kataria, Executive VP, CFO & Principal Accounting Officer at UTZ Brands]

Thank you, Andrew.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Thanks, Andrew.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Peter Galbo with Bank of America. Your line is open.

[Peter Galbo, Director - Equity Research at Bank of America]

Hey guys, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. Howard, I had to do a double take on Slide four. I thought you had snuck in a photo of Kev as a final send off to the slide deck there. But unfortunately, it was not him.

[Peter Galbo, Director - Equity Research at Bank of America]

We'll have to get that in the future. I just wanted to follow-up maybe on Andrew's question on the bonus pack impact. I think on Slide 23 of the deck, guys lay out that the impact to price was about 300 basis points. Just is that kind of the similar offset in terms of all mix? I didn't see if there was a contribution number for what bonus packs actually contributed to all mix in the quarter.

[Peter Galbo, Director - Equity Research at Bank of America]

So just any additional help there would be appreciated.

[Ajay Kataria, Executive VP, CFO & Principal Accounting Officer at UTZ Brands]

Yes. So the short answer is yes. I'll leave it at that. And as you saw, most of our price was related to bonus pack. There was about 60 bps that was not bonus pack related.

[Ajay Kataria, Executive VP, CFO & Principal Accounting Officer at UTZ Brands]

And that's the true price cap investment that we are we made in the quarter and that flowed through down the P and L.

[Peter Galbo, Director - Equity Research at Bank of America]

Okay. All right. Got it. Helpful. And then Howard, on Boulder Canyon, look, like it's obviously been a tremendous growth driver.

[Peter Galbo, Director - Equity Research at Bank of America]

I'm not even sure if some of the tracked channel data is picking up some of the new product yet. But just what's kind of been the early reception to some of the new category expansions with Boulder Canyon? How much of what we're seeing in the Nielsen or Surcana data is just existing distribution being pushed out more? And should we kind of start to see that accelerate as the new products start to hit shelves as well? Thanks very much.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Yes. So look, we're very pleased with the performance of Boulder Canyon. It's a great product. And for consumers who are looking for non seed oil offerings, it's a product that delivers great taste, seed oil, in a lot of cases, GMO. And we're very pleased with, obviously, the consumer and reception to it.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Obviously, it's a huge driver, as you saw, in our untracked channels, in the natural channel as well as we are now gaining retail distribution in traditional channels as we move into food. But a lot that gain is still in front of us. We've gotten the distribution. And so you'll continue to see that business continue to grow in more measured channels. Specifically to reception, we've launched Canyon Poppers last year, which is performing quite well in the cheese ball competitive set.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

And we also launched incremental flavors. We have a wavy product that's out. And then obviously, most recently in March, we launched our tortilla chip. Tortilla chips are still a little bit early to see in the read, but the rest of the business and the innovation is readable. And the last thing I'll say is while distribution is growing and we're quite pleased with it, what is giving us a lot of optimism on this brand is that velocity is also growing quickly.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

So it's sort of the best combination that you could hope for, gaining distribution, growing velocity in an on trend segment where consumers are headed. So we're quite pleased with it, and we look forward to continuing to drive that business longer term.

[Peter Galbo, Director - Equity Research at Bank of America]

Great. Thanks very much. And thanks to Ajay as well for the partnership over the years. Appreciate it guys.

[Ajay Kataria, Executive VP, CFO & Principal Accounting Officer at UTZ Brands]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Lavery with Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

[Michael Lavery, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies]

You. Good morning.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Hey, Mike. Good morning.

[Michael Lavery, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies]

Dave, when you preannounced the nice sales by section and just some of non branded or partner brands versus the rest and how they've been growing. Can you just give us a sense of what you expect going forward? And for partner brands, maybe how you can manage those? Or if and how much you control kind of how they flow through and what the growth outlook or declines might look like going forward?

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

So a couple of things. Obviously, on our non branded, non salty piece of the business, dips and salsa continues to be a business that we would expect will have some near term pressure on it as we continue to lap prior year, and then we expect it to start to inflect and become more stable as we get into the end of Q2. With respect to Partner Brands, what Partner Brands are by their nature brands that we carry on our our IOs carry and deliver for route averages and to make sure that they're delivering what the retailer and what our customers ultimately want. We don't really control them. What we do try to do is make sure that over time that as our brand grows that we actually get more of our products on every truck and that those businesses will naturally get a little bit smaller.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

But we would expect them to continue to decline, although we don't expect them to be as negative as we go forward.

[Michael Lavery, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies]

Okay. That's helpful. And you called out the new flavored on the border tortilla chips. Maybe can you just give a sense of how far that brand could go or how big a flavored opportunity might be? And what if any other white spaces you see as opportunity?

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Yes. So obviously, we're quite pleased with On the Border. It was an acquisition that we made a couple of years back and it has continued to grow nicely as we continue to expand distribution. I still think that there's a distribution gain opportunity in our expansion markets much like there is for the rest of our portfolio. And then with respect to innovation, look, we know that unflavored tortilla chips is a great place for on the border.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

We would expect that we can also bring flavors in. It's a piece of the category that is growing that continues to grow, and it's a place where we think that there's a fair bit of white space. I think longer term, just like any other business Boulder or on the border rather, has got opportunities in additional flavors. Potentially, there are other formats that we can introduce. And as consumers indicate their interests in different product experiences, we think that brand has got a lot of legs to stretch.

[Michael Lavery, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies]

Okay, great. Thanks.

[Operator]

Next question comes from the line of Robert Moskow with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

[Robert Moskow, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Hi, thanks. The bonus pack program, I think you're talking about it in terms of a limited time offer. Is that right? And how will you evaluate how long to keep it in the market? Does it depend on competitive dynamics or just the category kind of response to it?

[Robert Moskow, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Thanks.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Yes. Well, a couple of things. You're correct. The intention was for this to be an opportunity for us to try and test different ways to deliver value to consumers, right? And so one thing that we have certainly seen on bonus packs, obviously, the consumer response was very positive, and we feel really good about how we're we kind of play different roles in different places, to be perfectly honest.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

In expansion geographies, it was also a great trial vehicle. So we were able to as we are getting product into new markets, it's giving consumers an opportunity to opt in and try it. And then in our core, it was obviously a way to deliver a different way to deliver value. The one thing I would say though is we're doing that across the entire portfolio. Obviously, you can see Boulder Canyon in the natural channel as well as in club and then also obviously in with the rest of our portfolio in the discount channels.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

So I think our expectation was that if we would do it for a brief period of time, it would flow in and flow out. And we continue to expect that to be true as we transition into the merchandising plans that we have for the summertime.

[Robert Moskow, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Okay. Does that mean as you transition, might be pulled back pulled out in the summer? And then I have a quick follow-up.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Yes. So yes, our expectation is that, that program is winding down now. And as we transition into the summertime, we have pretty normal commercial plans to go to support our innovation, increased marketing and making sure that our pricing is correct in the market as we go through the peak selling seasons for us.

[Robert Moskow, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Okay. And then maybe broadly speaking, how should we think about pricemix compared to volume for the rest of the year? Should we expect pricemix to continue to be negative? Can you balance out those two in your sales forecast?

[Ajay Kataria, Executive VP, CFO & Principal Accounting Officer at UTZ Brands]

Yes. So we should be normal course from here on out. So you should expect about a point of price investment going forward.

[Robert Moskow, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Okay. Great. All right. Thanks, Ajay, and best wishes.

[Ajay Kataria, Executive VP, CFO & Principal Accounting Officer at UTZ Brands]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Rupesh Parikh with Oppenheimer. Your line is open.

[Erica Eiler, Associate - Equity Research at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.]

Good morning. This is actually Erica Eiler on for Rupesh. Thanks for taking our questions.

[Erica Eiler, Associate - Equity Research at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.]

So I guess first,

[Erica Eiler, Associate - Equity Research at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.]

I wanted to touch on natural organic. So we've obviously seen tremendous momentum across the natural inorganic space. You've seen great results in Boulder Canyon. So maybe you could just talk about the further opportunities that you see to capitalize on this trend, whether it's accelerating initiatives in Boulder Canyon or through M and A, would just love to get your thoughts there.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Yes. So, agreed. We're quite happy with how Boulder Canyon has been doing in the natural and organic class of trade. And what you're seeing right now is we are extending innovation. So we're entering into new segments of the category, talk a little bit about Canyon Poppers and some of our flavors, tortilla chips launching right now.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

I think the opportunity also more broadly for us specifically to Boulder is to actually start telling us the story. So we're working on ways to make investments in the brand equity and drive its overall awareness. But I think in the near term, what you're going to continue to see is distribution gains supported by shopper and consumer support and innovation as we go forward. So I think we got a lot of runway left. It's growing quite nicely.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Right now, consumer response has been excellent. And we would continue to see opportunities to drive that momentum further.

[Erica Eiler, Associate - Equity Research at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.]

Okay. That's super helpful. And then

[Erica Eiler, Associate - Equity Research at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.]

just on the channels, I mean, you called out, I think, natural hard discount and dollar again in your scripted remarks. We think about channels, I mean, particularly in light of the current backdrop that we're seeing and those obviously, a couple of those channels, hard discount dollars, cater that value seeking behavior. Are there any other new shifts of note from a channel perspective lately?

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Look, think so a couple of things. One, we obviously we use Surcana and MULO C plus with convenience as the read, which actually helps, we think, understand our business. And so some of what you see in the bridge is really just a question of like what's tracked versus what's not. So obviously, we continue to see good support and strong momentum in Food. Our mass channel is doing is also performing.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

But really, what we see right now is as consumers seek value, they're seeking value across the spectrum from premium to merchandising support, promotional support and different classes of trade. So I think that's, I think, really the kind of the story of our print. You continue to see that value seeking reaction, and consumers responding well to what we're doing and what we're offering across the spectrum.

[Erica Eiler, Associate - Equity Research at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.]

Okay, great. Thanks. I'll pass it along.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Jim Salera with Stephens Inc. Your line is open.

[Jim Salera, Research Analyst at Stephens Inc]

Howard. Hey, J. Thanks for taking my question. Howard, I wanted to maybe drill down a little bit on potato chip subcategory. Obviously, that's where your growth saw kind of

[Jim Salera, Research Analyst at Stephens Inc]

the most stark outperformance driven by

[Jim Salera, Research Analyst at Stephens Inc]

both Boulder and us, which is interesting because, you know, Boulder is kind of a premium offering where us, particularly with the the bonus bag is, I would use, more of a value offering. Can you just kind of walk us through the the dynamic at play there and how, you know, we're seeing household growth both at the kind of premium and at the value side?

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Yes. So I think there's a couple of things. One, I think we believe that consumers are seeking value broadly, right? And as you look at Boulder Canyon, Boulder Canyon obviously is the most is a premium priced chip and is delivered into different classes of trade. And I think to your point on us, us is really we're quite proud of the brand and we're quite proud of the consumer response to it.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

But the opportunity for us was really in the stat expansion market distribution gains and the perimeter display activity that we were able to get that our IOs were able to deliver behind the bonus pack. So kind of different reasons for their outperformance, right? Bolder distribution gains, us a little bit more merchandising support are really what's driving that difference.

[Jim Salera, Research Analyst at Stephens Inc]

Okay. And then are there any significant distinctions between like, when we think about an UTS household versus the Boulder household, I mean, is there a lot of overlap there? Or is there kind of unique characteristics that you can assign to each and you find that there isn't a ton of cross pollination?

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

I'm not sure we've ever actually shared sort of the overlaps. I would be a little cautious on thinking that they would be exclusive households. It just doesn't it wouldn't necessarily be what I would expect to happen. Right? But what I would tell you is both the Boulder households specifically tends to be a household that is a little bit more affluent and is actually looking for better for you credentials than non seed oil, where I think what you see in us is a more mainstream household, broadly speaking.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

But I don't know that we've ever really looked to say is there an overlap or an exclusivity to them. Generally speaking, I think we would expect to see overlap across the portfolio.

[Jim Salera, Research Analyst at Stephens Inc]

Okay. And maybe if I could just sneak in one other quick one. Just thinking about the distribution gain opportunity at Boulder, you talked about still a lot of runway ahead of you. I've seen the product in some new places and retailers in my area. Can you just give us a sense for kind of maybe what we should expect from a sequencing perspective this year?

[Jim Salera, Research Analyst at Stephens Inc]

I mean, is it in all the major club regions? I mean, is there anything kind of imminent that we should be thinking about as we're building out the demand drivers for the back half of the year?

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Look, think we've seen a significant amount of distribution gains. We have gotten some support in and some rotational support in some retailers as well. I think what you'll see is continued distribution gains in the business. Obviously, in the natural channel, it's a little harder to see, but we continue to get incremental space there, and you're seeing it now in the more conventional grocer in conventional grocers as well. So you should see continued distribution gains.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

We've got a lot of white space left across this portfolio, as you know. And we would expect to continue to demonstrate our benefits to the category and to consumers with retailers across our portfolio and with Boulder being, I think, a near term beneficiary. And I'm not surprised you're seeing it, and I expect you'll see more of it as we go forward. Okay.

[Jim Salera, Research Analyst at Stephens Inc]

Great. Jay, I just wanted to say it's been a pleasure working with you. Best of luck in whatever the next endeavor is for you.

[Ajay Kataria, Executive VP, CFO & Principal Accounting Officer at UTZ Brands]

Thank you, Jim.

[Operator]

Next question comes from the line of Scott Marks with Jefferies. Your line is open.

[Scott Marks, Equity Research Analyst at Jefferies]

Hey, good morning, guys.

[Scott Marks, Equity Research Analyst at Jefferies]

Thanks so much for taking our questions.

[Ajay Kataria, Executive VP, CFO & Principal Accounting Officer at UTZ Brands]

Hey, Scott.

[Scott Marks, Equity Research Analyst at Jefferies]

First question from my side is, you spoke to kind of volume share gains in core geographies. It seems like maybe some of that could be attributed to those bonus packs. So just wondering, one, if that's the case. And then two, how do you think about incremental distribution opportunities within those core geographies as maybe larger peers continue to see a bit more pressure?

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Yes. So the first answer to your question is, of course, some of the volume share gain that we had is being driven by bonus packs. You'll recall at our Investor Day, what we basically have said is we believe that we can continue to grow by holding our volume share in the core and then driving outsized distribution gains in our expansion markets and to be able to deliver on our top line expectations. Part of what was happening in the core was also our core us as core has significant opportunity on our on three of our remaining Power four brands. So on the border, Zafts and Boulder Canyon, all have average item carry opportunities and distribution opportunities within the core geography to be able to drive gains, which is part and parcel to how we expect to hold volume share.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

What you certainly see in the current quarter is you do see gains in On the Border and Boulder Canyon in our core geography. Distribution gains are up, which is also helping support volume share. And then obviously, again, to your point, the bonus packs was a contributor as well. I think as you go forward, you should expect us to continue to drive our white space opportunities in our core with those items and then our expansion geographies and incrementally additional classes of trade with the rest of our portfolio. Because the one thing that we continue to see is that as we gain distribution, we stay and we are more helpful to the consumer, the customer and obviously the category.

[Scott Marks, Equity Research Analyst at Jefferies]

Understood. Thanks for that. And then a second question for me. I understand you've been speaking about this bonus bag program being more limited and winding down right now. But I guess, you know, based on what we've heard maybe from some some peers around the industry is that, you know, The US consumer seems to be, you know, maybe a little bit more pressured.

[Scott Marks, Equity Research Analyst at Jefferies]

Maybe there's some weakening sentiment out there. So maybe what might change your mind about maybe bringing back this bonus bag program? Is there certain metrics you might have to see that would make you want to bring that back and test it again? Thanks.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Yeah. So look, I think, and I'm not going to break any new ground here by saying that I think we're watching what the how the market is responding and what consumer behavior looks like as a branded company. That's obviously job one for us. And value seeking across all across the consumer base continues to be an area that we're all watching. Our theory has been that we can add value in a variety of different ways, whether it's premium products and value offerings or in innovation and marketing, which have always been the thing that have sustained this category.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

We've never been a price driven business. Consumers come down the aisle because they like the brands, they like the innovation and they like the marketing and then price and then fair pricing. So we'll continue to look at ways to address value as we go forward. The bonus pack program obviously was one way that we went after it. We maintained our price gaps.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

We've also gained distribution in our items. So we're going to play the full marketing mix. And if the opportunity came back again, we have a lot of learnings from this round of bonus packs, and we'll evaluate it as conditions change.

[Scott Marks, Equity Research Analyst at Jefferies]

Understood. Thanks so much. I'll pass it on.

[Operator]

And our last question comes from the line of Jon Baumgartner with Mizuho. Your line is open.

[John Baumgartner, Managing Director, Equity Research at Mizuho Securities]

Good morning. Thanks for the question.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Hey, John. Good morning.

[John Baumgartner, Managing Director, Equity Research at Mizuho Securities]

Maybe first off, just sticking with the bonus packs and the volume response there.

[John Baumgartner, Managing Director, Equity Research at Mizuho Securities]

I'm curious, Howard, if you can see through to any impact on consumption from new trial and new consumers relative to benefits from frequency, how much has been subsidized relative to maybe accelerating new buyer growth that has a longer tail benefit for you from here? I know it's not a long duration program, but just any gleanings you have thus far?

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Yes. So look, think I would say it's a little hard for us to tease it out exclusively for bonus packs because it was a flow through item. So they were not what we did was we delivered the product. We wanted to have it sell through this window of time and then move forward. So it's a little harder for us to tease that out.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

What I would point to, however, John, is if you look at the household penetration results that we continue to see on this on our business. We've gotten now to 49% if you look at the rolling twelve months, which is an all time high for us. And we are, broadly speaking, holding our buy rate, which, as you know, is hard to do when you bring in a lot of new users and then they try you and then they move on. So we're obviously quite proud of the panel metrics and continue to be pretty optimistic about the resonance of our overall portfolio and its quality. But I do believe that there is some trial that is happening with respect to expansion markets with the bonus pack because it was broadly consumed it was broadly delivered to the classes of trade.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

And we'll obviously continue to watch it as go forward. But trial and repeat rates on our business are pretty strong and household penetration continues to grow, which, at least from my seat is the one thing that we want to make sure that we continue to deliver against.

[John Baumgartner, Managing Director, Equity Research at Mizuho Securities]

Okay. And then as a follow-up on C stores specifically, I think the comment there was that performance is improving, but it's not

[John Baumgartner, Managing Director, Equity Research at Mizuho Securities]

yet back to growth. There anything

[John Baumgartner, Managing Director, Equity Research at Mizuho Securities]

at this point that you can do as a company to accelerate that turn? Or is it just largely dependent on overall traffic trends and sort of a macro backdrop?

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Yes. So I think there's a two part answer to that. Obviously, the channel needs to continue to improve. And as the channel improves, I think you'll I think what you're seeing now is that, that is starting to happen. I wouldn't broadly say that it's improved, period.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

But I think getting better. I think for us specifically, there's three things that we are continuing to work on and that they're kind of things we've talked about in previous calls. First is we need to continue to drive our distribution in those in convenience stores and make sure that we have the price tag architecture correct, get those sizes right, get the items right, get the planograms correct. And so we're focused on distribution. And then the second is delivering innovation in that channel.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

It at times can be a little different because a lot of that a lot of convenience is a me moment, right? Smaller bags that tend to be consumed right away. And so I think we have opportunities on the flavor profiles of some of our products as well and the innovation that we need to offer to that class of trade. And then the last is just making sure that we continue to work with those retailers and our IOs to make sure that we have the space and service that I think the consumer reasonably should expect when they walk in to be able to get our products wherever it is that they want to shop.

[John Baumgartner, Managing Director, Equity Research at Mizuho Securities]

Okay. Okay, great. Thanks Howard. And Jay?

[Ajay Kataria, Executive VP, CFO & Principal Accounting Officer at UTZ Brands]

That

[Operator]

concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to our CEO, Howard Friedman for final remarks.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

Yes. So thanks, operator. I just want to say thank you to everybody for the call. I think what you see through our first quarter is us executing our playbook and continuing to drive the results that we expect to deliver. There's obviously, it's only the first quarter and so there's quite a bit more to do.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

But I would be remiss if I didn't thank Jay Live on the call for all his leadership and support over the last several years and say thank you and good luck. And we appreciate everything that you've done. Thank you, Howard. And then last but not least, I'd like to thank Kevin, who is also moving forward as he winds down his time. Obviously, many of you know we have an extraordinary IR program here at us, and it's been largely driven by his leadership and support over the years.

[Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands]

So we also wish Kevin all the best as he moves on to his next great adventure.

[Kevin Powers, SVP, IR at UTZ Brands]

Thank you, Howard.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect.

Participants

Analysts

• Kevin Powers, SVP, IR at UTZ Brands
• Andrew Lazar, Managing Director at Barclays
• Howard Friedman, CEO & Director at UTZ Brands
• Ajay Kataria, Executive VP, CFO & Principal Accounting Officer at UTZ Brands
• Peter Galbo, Director - Equity Research at Bank of America
• Michael Lavery, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies
• Robert Moskow, Managing Director at TD Cowen
• Erica Eiler, Associate - Equity Research at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.
• Jim Salera, Research Analyst at Stephens Inc
• Scott Marks, Equity Research Analyst at Jefferies
• John Baumgartner, Managing Director, Equity Research at Mizuho Securities