Campbell's Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
June 2, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Meals and Beverages organic net sales grew 6% with 7% volume and mix growth, driven by strong home-cooking trends and favorable shipment timing.
  • Snacks in-market consumption declined 3% and organic net sales fell 5% amid category softness, intentional consumer spending and heightened competitive pressures.
  • The company reaffirmed full-year 2025 guidance but now expects adjusted EPS at the low end of the range due to a slower snack recovery, excluding tariff impacts.
  • Campbell’s estimates a $0.03–$0.05 per share tariff headwind for fiscal 2025 and is working on mitigation via strategic inventory management, alternative sourcing and selective pricing actions.
  • The cost-savings program has delivered $110 million of the $250 million target year-to-date, leading to an increased full-year savings goal of $130 million to fund brand investments.
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Earnings Conference Call
Campbell's Q3 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good morning and welcome to The Campbell's Company Third Quarter Fiscal twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I would now like to turn the call over to Rebecca Gardy, Chief Investor Relations Officer at Campbell's. Please go ahead.

Rebecca Gardy
Senior VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at The Campbell’s Company

Good morning, and welcome to Campbell's third quarter fiscal twenty twenty five earnings conference call. I'm Rebecca Gardy, Campbell's Chief Investor Relations Officer. Joining me today are Mick Beekhuyzen, Chief Executive Officer and Carrie Anderson, Chief Financial Officer. Today's remarks have been prerecorded. Once we conclude the prepared remarks, we will transition to a live webcast Q and A session.

Rebecca Gardy
Senior VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at The Campbell’s Company

The presentation, a transcript of management's prepared remarks and today's earnings press release have been posted to the Investor Relations section on our website, thecampbellscompany.com. Following the conclusion of the Q and A session, a replay of the webcast will be available at the same location followed by a transcript of the call within twenty four hours. Slide two outlines today's agenda. Mick will provide insights into our third quarter performance as well as our in market performance by division. Please recall that effective first quarter fiscal twenty twenty five, we are using Surcana MULO plus for in market data.

Rebecca Gardy
Senior VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at The Campbell’s Company

Carey will then discuss the financial results of the quarter in more detail and review our guidance for the full fiscal year 2025. On our call today, we will make forward looking statements, which reflects our current expectations. These statements rely on assumptions and estimates, which could be inaccurate and are subject to risk. Please refer to Slide three of our presentation or our SEC filings for a list of factors that could cause our actual results to vary materially from those anticipated in the forward looking statements. Because we use non GAAP measures, we have provided a reconciliation of each of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure in the appendix of our presentation.

Rebecca Gardy
Senior VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at The Campbell’s Company

And now it's my pleasure to turn it over to Chief Executive Officer, Mick Beekhuyzen. Mick?

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Thanks, Rebecca, and good morning, everyone. Our third quarter earnings performance exceeded expectations, driven by solid contributions from our Meals and Beverages business due to strong in market performance and a benefit from favorable shipment timing, which we expect to normalize in the fourth quarter. The performance of our Snacks business was mixed this quarter, reflecting continued category softness and an increasingly competitive environment. That said, we have an attractive snacking portfolio with a clear right to win and we have been refining our plans to improve our in market performance. In the current dynamic macro environment, consumers are making thoughtful spending decisions, which is materializing in our categories.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Consumers continue to cook at home and focus their spending on products that help them stretch their food budgets and they are increasingly intentional about their discretionary snack purchases. These behaviors supported growth in our meals and beverages categories and increased headwinds in our snacking categories. Collectively, our 16 leadership brands in market performance was in line with overall category consumption, with Meals and Beverages consumption ahead of categories and Snacks behind driven by heightened competitive pressures. Given our performance year to date, we are reaffirming our full year fiscal twenty twenty five guidance ranges. That said, we now expect adjusted earnings to be at the low end of the guidance range due to the slower than anticipated recovery in the Snacks business.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Consistent with what we said during our last earnings call and given the fluid operating environment, this guidance excludes any impact from the imposition of import tariffs government and potential retaliatory actions taken by other countries as the trade environment remains uncertain. We have separately estimated the fiscal 'twenty five tariff impact, which Carrie will talk through in a few moments. We remain focused on near term in market execution and mitigating tariff impact while investing in our brands, leveraging our scale for growth, elevating senior leaders to key roles and advancing critical capabilities for long term value creation. Now let's turn to key highlights from our third quarter results on slide six. Organic net sales growth of 1% was driven by volume growth, marking five consecutive quarters of flat or positive volume across the enterprise.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Organic net sales growth was ahead of in market consumption driven by timing of shipments, which we expect to normalize in Q4. The organic net sales growth was led by our Meals and Beverages division, which more than outweighed the ongoing pressure in our Snacks business. It's important to note that the Sovos acquisition moved into organic net sales in the middle of the third quarter. We delivered four percent net sales growth reflecting the before mentioned organic net sales growth and contribution from rails during the first half of the third quarter. Adjusted EBIT increased 2% versus prior year, which resulted in a slight margin decrease as lower net pricing realization was only partially offset by spending reductions.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Adjusted EPS was down 3% with a net positive EPS contribution from the Sovos acquisition in the quarter. Turning to slide seven. The in market contribution of our 16 leadership brands, representing approximately 90% of total net sales remained stable in the third quarter with more than half holding or gaining share. As we mentioned last quarter, we started to see consumer sentiment softening in January. This continued throughout Q3 with consumers making more deliberate choices with their spending on food.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

The key outcome is a growing preference for home cooked meals, leading to the highest levels of meals prepared at home since early twenty twenty. Additionally, consumers are favoring ingredients that help stretch tighter food budgets. Both provided a tailwind for our Meals and Beverages business, especially for our condensed cooking soups, broth and Italian sauces. As a result, our Meals and Beverages Leadership Brands continued to outpace category consumption and grew dollar share by 0.4 points. Six of our eight Meals and Beverages Leadership Brands grew or held share in the third quarter.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

In total, meals and beverages leadership brand consumption increased by 2% in the quarter. Conversely, the consumer environment was a continued headwind in the quarter for some of our more discretionary categories in snacks such as crackers and chips. However, while value is important, consumers favor better for you segments and are willing to selectively splurge when the benefits are clearly worth it, as evidenced by the momentum of some of our recent innovation launches. In Snacks, three of our eight leadership brands grew or held share: Beverage Farm Bakery and Cookies brands held share, partially driven by our successful innovation. Snack Factory, with a presence in both the deli and snack aisles now, grew share by almost half a point, and our Land Sandwich Crackers maintained momentum with the second consecutive quarter of share growth.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Given the category trends and aggregate share headwinds, our overall Snacks leadership brand consumption declined by 3% in the quarter. We remain confident in the strength and long term growth potential of our Snacks brands and the plans we have to stabilize share while navigating the dynamic operating environment. Let's take a closer look at each division, beginning with Meals and Beverages on slide eight. Organic net sales increased 6% for the quarter, led by volume and mix growth of seven percent. Specifically, net sales increased year over year due to consumption growth of 2% and timing of customer shipments in our base business at the end of the quarter as well as Rails in connection with the implementation of our existing SAP enterprise resource planning system for Sovos brands.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Turning to slide nine. Our Soup portfolio continued its strong performance in Q3, benefiting from the increased at home cooking trend I mentioned earlier. Campbell's Total Wet Soup grew dollar share by 0.4 points and saw the sixth consecutive quarter of volume share growth, driven by household gains, particularly among younger cohorts as they increasingly cook at home. The broth category has grown since 2020 and more recently further accelerated, fueled by the uptick in cooking behavior, making our broth business a continued bright spot within the portfolio. In Q3, we significantly outpaced category consumption and grew dollar share by nearly three points in the quarter.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Swanson saw strong consumption and volume growth and has now gained or held millennial households for seven consecutive quarters. Our strong performance in the broad category is further emphasized by Pacific's continued double digit consumption growth. The pace of the private label recovery has been slower than we originally anticipated, though we expect it to continue to recover. Our supply chain team has done an outstanding job of meeting customer demand in the face of private label supply constraints as we are confident in our ability to continue to do so. Our ready to serve in market consumption declines were driven by increased competitive promotional intensity and our discontinuation of our Well Yes!

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Brand. Our chunky, Pacific, Rails and Homestyle brands all gained share in the quarter. Finally, our condensed portfolio continued its strong performance during the quarter with a sixth consecutive quarter of dollar share growth and increases in both dollar and volume consumption. Our brands outperformed the segment and grew share, partially driven by the successful Mac and Cheese activation. In the current economic environment, we are constantly looking to provide consumers with exciting new options that let them use our products in more versatile ways to cook meals at home.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

A great example of that is our mac and cheese marketing activation. In the third quarter, we introduced a new easy and delicious way to make this household classic. This activation helped drive the eleventh consecutive quarter of condensed cooking soup share growth and added approximately 1,000,000 households to Campbell's condensed cooking portfolio, the highest household penetration gains for condensed in any quarter over the past four years. More than half of these new buyers were millennials, displaying the brand's growing popularity with this generation. This is a great example of our purpose at work: connecting people through food they love and demonstrates the growth we can unlock by continuing to highlight versatility of our condensed soups in making delicious, affordable and stretchable meals.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Year over year, the Italian sauce category grew roughly two points in Q3 and was relatively stable to Q2. Prego trailed dollar consumption for Q3 largely due to a shift in the timing of promotional activity. However, on a Q3 year to date basis, Prego consumption was more in line with the Italian sauce category and well ahead on share when excluding the ultra distinctive segment. Rail's dollar consumption growth in Q3 was in line with the overall category, but underperformed our initial expectations. The main drivers of the lower than expected rail SaaS growth in Q3 can be attributed to a couple of points of headwind from certain prior year promotional events we decided not to repeat this quarter because they were below our premium price guardrails, combined with slightly increased consumer spending sensitivity and increased competitive promotional activity.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

That said, the rails brand remains strong and we still have significant opportunities to increase distribution, household penetration and awareness of Rails when comparing it to Prego. While we have made considerable progress growing the brand since acquiring it last year, there is still a significant opportunity ahead. We have a history of category growth and leadership and believe that the distinctive premium nature of Rails Sauces will allow us to continue that success. Rael's sauce is reaching a point of maturity on core distribution, so we're investing in other levers to sustain growth, including marketing focused on highlighting the Italian origin of Rael's ingredients, continued innovation and sharpened sales execution. Now let's turn to our Snacks business on slide 13.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

In the third quarter, the pressure on snacking categories increased sequentially, which combined with heightened competitive activity resulted in year over year 3% lower in market consumption. Organic net sales declined by 5% driven by lower volume and mix. The bulk of the two point variance to consumption was driven by partnerscontract brands as we continue to reshape our portfolio to focus more on our differentiated leadership brands. Turning to slide 14. You can see how our snacks portfolio performed relative to each respective snacking category and key brand specific action plans to navigate the current landscape.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

In bakery and cookies, we outperformed category consumption through sustained momentum in Pepperidge Farm fresh bakery and cookies resulting in stable in market consumption. Coming off a successful winter holiday, we elevated innovation and unlocked growth by giving consumers the indulgences they are looking for. In pretzels, consumption grew in the quarter in the salty aisle, although at lower levels than the broader category. We are meeting consumer needs through two distinct brands: Snyder's of Hanover for pretzel traditionalist and Snack Factory, which reimagines pretzels. On Snyder's of Hanover, we continue to proactively manage our assortment to higher performing items and invest in expanding convenient portion controlled packs.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

But this was not enough to offset the category competitive pressures. With Snack Factory, we are pleased with the results of its expansion into the salty snack aisle, including the successful launch of Poppins and Bites, which have garnered strong repeat purchases. We expect this momentum to fuel consumption for our pretzels portfolio. In crackers, reduced overall consumer sentiment has put pressure on the category. The outsized consumption decline for our business was partially driven by lapping the significantly supported Goldfish Crisps launch in the prior year, which peaked in Q3.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

While there were bright spots within Goldfish, especially related to the Harry Potter Butterbeer limited time offering, we have more work to do to reinvigorate this brand and get it back on its historical growth trajectory. We plan to focus on core relevancy through marketing support, strategic promotional activity and the critical back to school season. Finally, our CHIPS portfolio is well positioned, but continues to face strong competitive pressures. We have seen positive consumer and customer response to our product innovation and have increased household penetration through some of our better for you offerings such as Kettle Brand avocado oil and air fried options. And while in market consumption fell short of our expectations compared to the narrower Kettle Cook chip segment, it was in line with the broader chip category.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

We have specific plans to drive incremental volume growth through optimized distribution, promotion and continued limited edition innovation ahead of imported summer chip season. Moving to slide 15, we are pleased to share the latest results in our efforts to reignite Pepperidge Farm, one of our billion dollar brands. In Q3, our Pepperidge Farm bakery business delivered the highest volume and dollar share growth in nine quarters driven by the farmhouse brioche platform. This platform now includes delicious items in sandwich bread, buns and rolls and swirl breakfast bread. Growth in our Pepperidge Farm cookies business is coming from Milano cookies, which had the strongest household penetration gains in nine quarters in Q3 driven by the Milano white chocolate platform launch.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

This has helped fuel the core Milano brand, attract a younger demographic, maintain its trajectory coming out of the winter holiday and resulted in strong dollar and volume growth. Other Milano innovation included the on trend limited edition Caramel Cafe au Le and the return of the popular London Fog variety. We are excited about the recent results and additional upcoming opportunities to innovate and provide consumers with the touch of premium indulgence that they seek from our bakery and cookies portfolio. Before I turn it over to Carrie, I want to thank the entire Campbell's team for their focus on delivering solid Q3 results in such a dynamic operating environment. Our Meals and Beverage division had strong in market performance fueled by growing consumer demand for home cooking.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Our Snacks results were mixed as consumers are being more intentional with discretionary dollars and the categories are increasingly competitive. We recognize that we need to continue to sharpen our execution to win in the marketplace and drive future growth. As we look to the fourth quarter, we will continue to navigate the current environment and stay focused on near term execution while we actively work to mitigate as much of the potential direct impact of tariffs as possible. These dynamics are also pushing us to focus on what matters most to our customers and consumers and invest in the capabilities that will position us for long term growth. We are building a stronger foundation for the future by improving our efficiency and effectiveness across the organization to facilitate growth.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

With the creation of the growth office supporting both divisions, we are taking advantage of our scale while we elevate the focus on growth across the organization. The growth office will elevate capabilities within consumer insights, brand activation, innovation and revenue growth management. Additionally, we have hired a Chief Digital and Technology Officer to accelerate digital tools and capabilities to improve our efficiency and effectiveness. Finally, we remain focused on identifying incremental productivity and cost savings opportunities to create more fuel to invest in our brands. All told, our focus remains firmly on disciplined short term execution as we lay the groundwork for consistent sustainable growth.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Let me turn it over to Carrie to go over the Q3 results in more detail.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

Thanks, Mick, and good morning, everyone. As Mick said earlier, our third quarter performance exceeded our expectations. The overperformance in the quarter was primarily attributable to our Meals and Beverages division, which benefited from timing of customer inventory orders. Reported net sales increased 4%, driven by the sales contribution from Sovos brands. Organic net sales excluding the impact of currency, the Pop!

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

Secret and Nusa divestitures and approximately half a quarter of Sovos increased 1% as over delivery in meals and beverages more than offset continued pressures in our snacks business. As a reminder, Sovos moved into organic growth mid quarter as we lap the anniversary date of the acquisition on 03/12/2024. Adjusted EBIT increased 2% primarily due to the contribution from the acquisition offsetting lower base business performance. Adjusted EBIT margin was down 30 basis points with limited impact from tariffs. Adjusted EPS exceeded our expectations at $0.73 down 3% from the prior year.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

The impact of the acquisition was accretive to adjusted EPS in the quarter. Turning to slide 19, as mentioned earlier, organic net sales for the third quarter were up 1% due to favorable volume and mix, partially offset by planned lower net price realization. The favorable volume and mix component was attributable to both Stobos as well as over delivery within our base meals and beverages business, which I'll discuss more in a moment. Reported net sales in the quarter of 4% reflected a four point net contribution from acquisitions and divestitures, which included six points from the Sogos acquisition and negative two points from the Pop Secret and Noosa divestitures. On slide '20, third quarter adjusted gross profit margin declined 110 basis points, with margin in the base business down 100 basis points and a negative 10 basis point impact related to the acquisition.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

Base business margins were impacted by approximately 80 basis points of net price investment and 20 basis points of other cost headwinds as inflation and other supply chain costs were largely mitigated by productivity improvements, cost savings and favorable volume and mix. As mentioned earlier, the direct tariff impact to the business was not material in the quarter. As of the end of the third quarter, we delivered approximately $110,000,000 of total savings under the $250,000,000 cost savings program announced at our Investor Day in September of twenty twenty four, of which approximately 30% were realized in cost of products sold. Turning to Slide '21, the total combined dollar spend on adjusted marketing and selling expenses and admin expenses increased slightly compared to the prior year, primarily reflecting the integration of Sovos. However, these combined expenses improved as a percentage of net sales compared to the prior year.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

Within adjusted marketing and selling expenses, advertising and consumer promotion expense increased 3%, primarily reflecting the acquisition of Sovos. Adjusted administrative expenses decreased 4%, mainly driven by the benefits from cost savings initiatives. These savings include the benefits of the integration of Sovos, which continues to exceed expectations. As of the beginning of the fourth quarter, we have now transitioned the Sovos business into our Campbell's ERP system, which will unlock additional back office savings in IT, finance and order management into fiscal twenty twenty six. As shown on slide 22, third quarter adjusted EBIT increased 2%, primarily due to lower adjusted administrative, R and D and other expenses, along with higher adjusted gross profit, which were partially offset by an increase in adjusted marketing and selling expenses.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

On Slide 23, adjusted EPS decreased 3% to zero seven three dollars as adjusted EBIT growth was more than offset by higher adjusted interest expense, primarily due to higher levels of debt and higher average interest rates on the overall debt portfolio. As I mentioned earlier, the Sogos acquisition was accretive to adjusted earnings per share in the quarter. Turning to Slide 24, Meals and Beverages reported a 15% increase in net sales growth, including the contribution of the acquisition and net of the divestiture impact of Noosa that was completed earlier this calendar year on February 24. Organic net sales increased 6% compared to the prior year, driven by favorable volume and mix of 7% in U. S.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

Soup, Rao's and Canada, partially offset by a one point lower net price realization. Approximately one third of the organic growth was attributable to growth in condensed, broth and ready to serve soups and Rao's sauces, which benefited from the continued shift to at home meals that Mick mentioned earlier. The remaining growth was related to the timing of customer shipments at the end of the quarter in our base business as well as in Rao's in connection with the integration of Sovos into Campbell's ERP system. We expect inventory orders to normalize in the fourth quarter. Third quarter operating earnings in the division increased 8%, primarily due to the benefits of the acquisition, partially offset by a decline in the base business.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

Meals and Beverages operating margin was lower by 100 basis points, which was primarily driven by lower realized net price and in part due to the mix impact of the Sovos acquisition not being included in our base for half the quarter. The remaining cost headwinds, including higher cost inflation and other supply chain costs, were offset by favorable volume and mix, productivity and cost savings, as well as reduced marketing, selling and administrative expenses as a percent to net sales. Turning to slide 25, Snacks reported an 8% decrease in net sales. Excluding the impact of the Pop! Secret divestiture, organic net sales decreased 5%, driven primarily by lower net sales in Goldfish crackers, third party partner and contract brands and Snyder's of Hanover pretzels.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

As a reminder, we lapped the launch of Goldfish crisps in the prior year. In addition, net sales were also lower in late July snacks due to a promotional shift versus prior year and Land Sandwich Crackers as we lapped a pipeline fill in the prior year due to a change in pack sizes. Snacks organic net sales were impacted by unfavorable volume and mix of 5% and neutral net price realization. Snacks operating earnings in the quarter declined 13% due to lower gross profit as the impact of lower volume and mix, inflation and other supply chain costs were only partially offset by supply chain productivity, benefits from cost savings initiatives and lower administrative expenses. Q3 operating margin for Snacks decreased 90 basis points to 14.3%, mainly driven by higher selling expenses as a percent of net sales and lower gross profit.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

Notably, Snacks operating margin sequentially improved 300 basis points compared to Q2, driven by an improvement in supply chain cost as expected. Turning to slide '26, we generated $872,000,000 in operating cash flow year to date, slightly lower than the prior year period driven by changes in working capital. Capital expenditures were $296,000,000 year to date and reflect in chip and cracker capacity expansion for our snacks business, network optimization for our meals and beverages business and enhancements to business capabilities. We remain committed to returning cash to our shareholders with $343,000,000 of dividends paid, reflecting a 5% increase in the third quarter and $60,000,000 in anti dilutive share repurchases year to date. Our net debt to adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio at the end of the third quarter was 3.6 times, a slight improvement from our ratio at the end of the second quarter as we continue to focus on deleveraging the balance sheet towards our goal of three times net leverage.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

At the end of the third quarter, the company had approximately $143,000,000 in cash and cash equivalents and approximately $1,500,000,000 available under our undrawn revolving credit facility. Our full year fiscal twenty twenty five guidance provided on 03/05/2025 remains unchanged, excluding the impact of tariffs. Adjusted earnings are expected at the low end of the guidance range due to the slower than anticipated recovery in the Snacks business. We have estimated the net incremental headwind of tariff related costs to be up to $03 to $05 per share to fiscal 'twenty five adjusted EPS. This is not factored into our fiscal 'twenty five guidance as the trade environment remains uncertain.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

This estimate reflects our assumption that the current tariff actions stay in place and incorporates the proactive steps we're taking to minimize the overall impact, including strategic inventory management, working in close partnership with our suppliers, pursuing alternative sourcing and product cost optimization and where absolutely necessary consideration of surgical pricing actions. To finish out the discussion of fiscal twenty five guidance, as a reminder, '25 comprises fifty three weeks, one additional week compared to fiscal twenty four. The benefit of the fifty third week is included in our fiscal twenty twenty five guidance and is estimated to be worth approximately two points of growth to reported net sales and adjusted EBIT, along with approximately $05 of adjusted EPS. Although we expect an increase in core inflation in the second half as compared to the prior year and a sequential increase from the first half, we expect core inflation for the full fiscal year to remain in the low single digit range and to be mitigated by productivity improvements and higher expected cost savings. We are increasing our cost savings expectation for the full year from $120,000,000 to $130,000,000 as a result of our continued strong year to date performance.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

This includes savings from the integration of Sovos and several previously discussed network optimization projects across both divisions. Capital expenditures for fiscal twenty twenty five are expected to be approximately 4.5% of net sales compared to our prior guidance of 4.7% due to timing of expenditures. To wrap up, our Q3 performance exceeded our expectations driven by over delivery by the Meals and Beverages division. And while we are not satisfied with the results of our Snacks division, we remain confident in the strength of our snacks portfolio and continue to take steps to regain our momentum. We remain focused on delivering high quality, high value food that consumers trust, while advancing our productivity and cost savings initiatives.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

Our long standing supply chain excellence and scale position us to effectively navigate a dynamic operating environment. We're committed to driving long term growth and maintaining capital discipline to deliver value to our shareholders. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, let's begin the Q and A.

Operator

Our first question comes from Andrew Lazar from Barclays. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Andrew Lazar
Andrew Lazar
Managing Director at Barclays

Great. Thanks so much. Mick, I wanted to dig in obviously on Snacks some more. That's the area where the company is seeing sort of the most pressure. How much of the pressure is overall category versus Campbell's in market execution?

Andrew Lazar
Andrew Lazar
Managing Director at Barclays

And I guess what's the company specifically doing, I guess to control what it can while also not contributing to any sort of race to the bottom so to speak from a category pricing and competitiveness standpoint? I guess I'm trying to get a sense of how we think about the next few quarters in this segment in terms of sort of volume and price.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Yes, yes. Okay, great. Morning, Andrew. Appreciate the question and obviously a core focus of us. If you look at the quarter Q3 and you put it in perspective versus Q2, you see that actually sequentially the aggregate categories deteriorated, which is one driven by the deteriorating consumer confidence that we've obviously all seen.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

And then on top of it, that the consumer continues to become increasingly intentional, and that is really that focus on value, better for you and indulgence. If you look at our in market consumption, you saw that in Q2 we were down minus 1%, in Q3 we're down minus 3%. About two thirds of that is driven by the worsening of the aggregate categories and about one third of that is driven by our in market performance. If you look at the in market performance during the quarter, there are a couple of areas that actually worked well, I talked about it in my prepared remarks, which comes back to Beverage Farm bakery and cookies as well as pretzels, where you saw some innovation really driving our brands and supporting overall consumption. I expect us to continue to focus on innovation, which is important as the consumer, as I described earlier, is really intentional about the dollars that they're spending.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

And we are really focused with our innovation on meeting those consumer needs. Then on the flip side, if you look at Q3, on the one end, we got the chips categories. And within chips, we are actually our brands are within the right subsegments of the broader chips category. So I feel good from that perspective. That being said, there's some increased competition and the team is working through making sure that we're successful in this environment with, on the one hand, focus on in market execution with distribution expansion where possible, but also back to some of the innovation and also bringing the excitement to the category with some LTOs.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

And finally, I'd call out, instead of focus just purely on promotional activity, really bringing much more back to price pack architecture and making sure that we have the right price points in the marketplace. And if anything, actually one of the things that we've seen multipacks within chips has worked well. Now then finally, crackers and specifically Goldfish. We got some work to do on goldfish. And I talked a little bit about that in my prepared remarks.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

But if you look at the headwind that we had on goldfish, about half of it is driven by the category and the Goldfish Crisps launch from last year. And then the other half is really back to core declines. So when you think about our focus areas, we're focused on reigniting that core with advertising, activations, LTOs. But on top of it, back to my earlier comments around the focus of the consumer on value, we need to make sure to provide value in the marketplace. And that is not so much coming back to incremental promotions, but it's much more coming back to, on the one hand, make sure that we allocate the promotional activity to where we're actually getting the best ROI, and then on top of it, also making sure that we have that right price point in the marketplace.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

And you might recall, we talked before about that 2.5 ounce grab bag for Goldfish, and I expect that's a good entry price point, and I expect us to continue to expand distribution and also displace within that. And then there might be an opportunity to multipack as well. So hopefully, Andrew, that gives you a little bit of a sense of kind of the dynamics more broadly within our portfolio and what we're planning on doing about it.

Andrew Lazar
Andrew Lazar
Managing Director at Barclays

Thanks for that. A very quick follow-up. Just I know it's too early to guide for fiscal 'twenty six and it's still an incredibly dynamic environment. What are the key puts and takes for us to consider just as we think to next year, particularly as it seems there's a need for some continued reinvestment in the snack space. Some other food companies have been increasingly transparent about the need for greater in market pressure to sort of nudge the consumer a bit. Thanks so much.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Obviously, we're not yet ready to give fiscal 'twenty six guidance. But when I look at where we're at with regard to the Snacks business, as you might recall from last time around, we actually expected a recovery of the snacking business throughout this year. And actually ending the year relatively flat.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

And then going with that into fiscal 'twenty six, obviously, where the current trend is and looking at into Q4, we still have ways to go on that. And as a result, I expect that recovery to take place now in fiscal 'twenty six. I do think that's coming back to the different tactics that I previously described, probably combined with making sure that we continue to invest in our brands. And one of the things that you see right now is that we are spending from a marketing selling perspective at the lower end of our 9% to 10% range. I do expect that going into next year, we might need to lean into that a little bit more, as we need to make sure that we support our brands in the marketplace.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

The other thing is, Andrew, maybe kind of from a, call it, broader incentive comp perspective, our incentive comp is not surprising in light of kind of overall results that you're seeing. I expect that that will be a little bit of a headwind going into next year.

Andrew Lazar
Andrew Lazar
Managing Director at Barclays

Got it. Thanks very much.

Operator

Our next question comes from Ken Goldman from JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Ken Goldman
Ken Goldman
Managing Director at J.P. Morgan

Hi, thanks. Good morning. In Meals and Beverages, you did highlight a few times the uptick in at home cooking and eating trends, which of course is great to see. I'm just curious, I guess, to what extent you have optimism in this positive trend to continue? How much of it do you think is driven by sort of just lower consumer confidence?

Ken Goldman
Ken Goldman
Managing Director at J.P. Morgan

Or are there other factors you'd highlight? I'm really just trying to get a sense of the sustainability of that tailwind as you see it.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Yep, yep, okay. Yeah, thanks, Guy. If I look at the Meals and Beverages business, Meals and Beverages, obviously a bright spot within our portfolio, and you see that in the results. We now have six quarters of positive in market consumption growth within Meals and Beverages. If you look at the results this time around, they were exacerbated a little bit by the timing of shipments.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

And we do expect those to reverse in Q4 and will likely be in about three points headwind in MMB for the fourth quarter. Now that being said, from an in market consumption perspective, we feel pretty good about where we're at, and particularly if you look at what the team has been able to do over the past, call it six quarters. When you start looking at the overall portfolio, the portfolio is well positioned with providing that value, quality and convenience in an environment where the consumers continue to look more at cooking at home. And you also see the power of our portfolio at work with us being, for instance, both having mainstream as well as premium offerings. And a good example, obviously, often talk about Prague on rails, but if you look at, for instance, in broth, we also have Swanson and Pacific.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

And particularly during a time where there's disproportionate demand for broth and a little bit of supply pressure, you see actually both brands doing really well in this marketplace. Now, it isn't only coming back to those. You also saw some of the condensed activation that we had in the marketplace this time around with mac and cheese, which is really driving to cooking with condensed as an everyday behavior versus just during the holidays. And I think the activation this past quarter was a great proof point of that. I'm obviously a continued big believer in the Rails brand.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more about that. And then other areas within the portfolio that we don't talk as much about is, for instance, V eight. If you look at V eight over the past nine quarters, the team has done a great job to actually stabilizing that business. And in certain areas, like for instance, V eight Energy, we've actually seen double digit growth. So overall, I feel very good about Meals and Beverages and the Meals and Beverages portfolio in light of some of the trends that we're seeing with regard to the consumer and the continued focus on cooking at home in combination with our portfolio and the breadth of our portfolio.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Now that being said, I don't expect us per se to repeat the Q3 results as we are coming out of the soup season obviously. But all said, I feel good about where we're at and I still believe that there's a lot of opportunity going forward within the portfolio.

Ken Goldman
Ken Goldman
Managing Director at J.P. Morgan

Thank you. Very quickly, understanding it's too soon for specifics, you mentioned a couple of factors influencing the bottom line next year. One of them was higher marketing below the gross margin line. Just in light of some of the competitive activities you mentioned today, whether it's RTS, premium pasta sauce or snacks, is it also reasonable at this point to anticipate an uptick in your promotional activities as well? Not that these activities, so to speak, won't have an ROI that's beneficial, but just on a gross level, I want to get a better sense or idea of investments ahead. Thank you.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Yeah, good question. And it's something that we're obviously very focused on. If anything, I actually, whereas if I looked at about twelve months ago, we were very much continuing to increase the overall promotional activity, and it was not just us, you saw it more broadly in the categories. And I'm starting to see that that is stabilizing and it's much more about, not so much about adding promotional activity or, and it's much more to my earlier point, making sure that the promotional activity that's in the marketplace is in the marketplace when it really matters. Like for instance, during key drive periods.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

On top of it, and what do I mean by key drive periods? For instance, during the Easter time period. Important for soup broth, and that is a good moment where the brands really matter, and you wanna make sure that you're out there with the proper price points. I do think the other piece, particularly when I think about snacking and on a day to day basis, is making sure that we have the right starting price point in the marketplace. And that comes back to that price pack architecture.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

And when you heard me talk a little bit about Goldfish, for instance, the smaller pack size, but also across broader salty, some of these multi pack initiatives, and that's actually really working. So, again, I'm not looking at much as increased promotional activity from a dollars perspective, it's much more making sure that we allocate the promotional dollars properly, and on top of it, we continue to evolve around PPA.

Operator

Our next question comes from Peter Galbo from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Peter Galbo
Peter Galbo
Director - Equity Research at Bank of America

Mick, Carey, thanks for the question. Mick, I maybe want to ask a slight variation on the Snacks question and understanding we've kind of already addressed a bit of it. But I mean, like your results in the quarter were more or less in line with how the category has been performing, and I think the broader question is probably just that the category continues to be such a drag. As we get into what should be a pretty peak demand season over the summer and even just over the next twelve months, I think it would be maybe more helpful to just understand what you think needs to happen from a category perspective in stacks to actually be able to see some improvement. So we have all this discussion about race to the bottom on pricing or lack thereof, but just, you're using comments in your prepared remarks like, Are consumers deeming that it's worth it to actually indulge in snacking?

Peter Galbo
Peter Galbo
Director - Equity Research at Bank of America

Just like, maybe help us from a much higher level understand what needs to happen from a category perspective for that demand profile and consumers to actually deem the category to be worth it over the next twelve months?

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Yeah, okay. Let me try to frame it up as follows. So first, Peter, when I look at the overall category dynamics and you look at that sequential, call it deterioration that I described earlier, I think one of the key components of that is the deteriorating consumer confidence. And you see that disproportionately play out in categories like snacks because of the discretionary nature. So that is one thing that, if there's one area that I could point to that's one area that I think would actually be helpful is improving overall consumer confidence.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Then I think the other aspect of it is back to your specific question around some of the, quote unquote, worth it. Worth it not being as much of the dollars, but much more about like the experience. And I think that comes really back to that continued focus on intentionality that we have seen within the snacking categories with a broader focus on the one end value better for you and then indulgence or flavors or experience, if you want to call it. And the last three all within that, call it one bucket. And what do I think is important within that is making sure that we continue to meet the consumers' needs.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

And you see, for instance, a good example of that is in the innovation of Pepperidge Farm cookies with the launch of the Milano white chocolate. And the resulting lift that we have had, of course, the one hand around that particular innovation, but also then the broader Milano brand. So I just think it's coming back to making sure that we continue to evolve our brands and meet those consumer needs. And if anything, actually, the broader CPG industry has actually done a real good job over time to continue to meet those consumer needs, and that's what we continue to focus on and work through as well.

Peter Galbo
Peter Galbo
Director - Equity Research at Bank of America

Okay, thanks for that, Mick. No, that's helpful context. And Kerry, if I can ask a clarification comment, the $03 to $05 of tariff related impact that you outlined, that's not included in the guidance, but presumably hit the Q4 numbers. Should we be viewing that as a full quarter impact? Presumably, you would have carried some inventory maybe into the fourth quarter.

Peter Galbo
Peter Galbo
Director - Equity Research at Bank of America

So just want to understand if that $03 to $05 is truly a three month impact that if things don't change, we could kind of run rate forward or if there's some nuance around inventory. Thanks very much.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

Thanks, Peter. I would say, when I think about the $03 to $05 tariffs are being phased in, right? So I would say three main areas of impact that's in that $03 to $05 First, currently we're seeing an impact from the Canada Wave one retaliatory tariffs. Those went into effect at the March and they remain in place. And they relate to our Canadian exports of a portion of our soup business that we ship to Canada.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

You have other tariffs that are starting to phase in, in Q4. You have your Section two thirty two tariffs that impact template and aluminum, where obviously we source for our soup and our beverage cans. And then you also have the phase in of reciprocal trade actions, which does include the impact of our REOS portfolio, which is made in Italy, both finished goods as well as raw materials coming from Italy. So to your point, that's a net impact, net of mitigation. And as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we're working to minimize that overall impact, including strategic inventory management as you referenced earlier.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

And then working closely with our suppliers here. I wouldn't be right now taking that $0.03 to $05 and annualizing it. I wouldn't go there at this point. I think it's a bit too early to say what the fiscal 'twenty six impact may be, mainly because of the rapidly evolving trade landscape. I would say also, as we mentioned, those tariff impacts are being phased in and we've had more limited ability to minimize that gross impact.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

So the range provided doesn't reflect all of the levers that we are working towards, which some take more time to effect. So we'd just be cautious to annualize that Q import impact at this time and obviously working to minimize the overall impact as much as we can that will inform us ultimately for our fiscal 'twenty six view.

Peter Galbo
Peter Galbo
Director - Equity Research at Bank of America

Great, thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Megan Klap from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Megan Clapp
Megan Clapp
Executive Director at Morgan Stanley

Hey, good morning. Thanks so much for taking our question. I wanted to just ask on REOs, and apologies if I missed it, but I don't think I saw you reiterate the expectation for REOs growth to be slightly above 10% this year. So could you just maybe give us an update on how you're thinking about REOs growth for this year?

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Yeah. Morning, Maga. So let me talk about RAYO. So one, and some of it is also in the prepared remarks, I continue to be very bullish around RAYO's and I'm very excited to have rails in the portfolio, which is laying also right into or supporting the overall meals and beverage divisional growth, and particularly in light of some of the consumer trends we just talked about. Now, if you look at the and maybe I'll step back for a second, it is or let me first answer your question.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

It's like we expect still I probably, with where I sit right now, expect high single digits for fiscal 'twenty five. If I look at the year to date, in market consumption is about 10%, two % this past quarter. That was obviously in line with the overall category, but below our expectations. And as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, have a pretty good handle on the individual drivers, and the team is all over in market execution. And as a result, I have a lot of confidence in the continued trajectory or growth trajectory of the brand.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

If you look at the L4, so the last four weeks in market consumption, you actually see some of that already come to fruition. It's obviously always tricky to look just at like L4 periods, but you actually do see that sauce is up 9% and the overall brand is up about 11%. So feel good where we are with Rails, and you might have a little bit of timing here and there, but the team is continuing to expand the brand and we're glad to have RAYOS in our portfolio.

Megan Clapp
Megan Clapp
Executive Director at Morgan Stanley

Okay, great. That's helpful. Thanks. And Carrie, maybe a follow-up for you just on the margin profile in the fourth quarter and the expectations there. Clearly, you're expecting EBIT and EPS now at the low end on a slower Snacks recovery.

Megan Clapp
Megan Clapp
Executive Director at Morgan Stanley

Previously, you talked about Snacks margins recovering sequentially in 3Q and 4Q that did occur nicely in 3Q. Is that still the expectation in the fourth quarter? Or are there some incremental actions that you're taking that might mean that's not the case anymore?

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

Yes, think we were pleased with our Q3 sequential improvement, knowing that we had some discrete items that impacted us in Q2, saw that rebound nicely in that 300 basis point sequential improvement into Q3. I would say as we look at first half versus second half, still expecting that sequential improvement from first half to second half. However, given the slower than anticipated recovery of our Snacks business, that obviously took us to that lower end of our earnings guidance. We're now expecting Snacks margins to be at 13% for the full year. And what we're still focused on is all of those Snacks margin building blocks, including our broader network initiatives that we've been working on, including DSD warehouse and route optimization, as well as those mix improvements as we grow our leadership brands.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

So I think it's but it's also important that we remain competitive in the marketplace and to continue to support our brands for the long term value. So we're really trying to make sure we balance both.

Megan Clapp
Megan Clapp
Executive Director at Morgan Stanley

Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator

Our last question comes from Jim Salera from Stephens. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Jim Salera
Research Analyst at Stephens Inc

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking our question.

Jim Salera
Research Analyst at Stephens Inc

I wanted to dig in, Nick, on this conversation around the splurge worthy portion of your portfolio and really trying to kind of categorize how much of meals and beverage and how much of snacks would you kind of put under that broader better for you umbrella? And is that on a go forward basis, is that really going to be kind of the driver for growth? And do we need to see the innovation focused around there and maybe a revamp of some of the overall stacked brands to target that consumer? Or is it really just get consumer confidence back and that's kind of the first leg forward?

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the operator. We're experiencing technical difficulties. Please stay on the line. One moment. The call will resume shortly. We've reconnected the host line.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Great. Can you hear us?

Operator

Yes, loud and clear.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Thanks, Chris.

Jim Salera
Research Analyst at Stephens Inc

Can't believe my question and didn't reask it.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Sorry about that, Jim. We a we lost power for a second here.

Jim Salera
Research Analyst at Stephens Inc

No problem. Basically, core of the question was what percentage of your portfolio do you kind of view as being under this better for you splurge worthy umbrella? And if we think about what drives the recovery on a go forward basis, is it really pivoting the portfolio to tap a broader focus there and having innovation focus there? Is it we need consumer to rebound and then the innovation and the better for you expansion is kind of secondary to that?

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Yes. So when I look at where we're at right now and with if you look at the sequential performance that I described and also the sequential performance of the categories, as I mentioned, the deterioration of consumer confidence definitely did have an impact, right, on the particularly with the discretionary nature of the categories. So an improvement in overall consumer confidence and would support the categories as a whole. That being said, we obviously got to make sure that we stay focused on the pieces that we can control and we should, and we are going to continue to evolve with the environment. Hence, you hear me also talk a little bit more about some of these PPA initiatives and the strategic promotional activity.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

Now that being said, I think for the long term health of the brands and the broader, particularly snacking portfolio, I think that innovation around indulgence and experiences is important and you've seen that with, for instance, the Milano example that I gave previously. I don't think it's as much of a complete reset of the portfolio. I don't want you to take that away. I think we have a lot of things that are actually working well. And if you look for instance at our pretzels portfolio, I feel very good about on the one hand having Snyder's of Hanover, which is much more focused on the pretzel traditionalists.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

And then the Snack Factory portfolio, which is really in and around the reimagining of pretzels. And they work really nicely together as you saw this past quarter as well. And then on chips, we're actually already in the better for you broader segment that is actually growing, whether it's through cattle or cape or even late July, so feel good about that. And then on the cracker side, I think we have a unique proposition more broadly with Goldfish and I'm very confident that the team with all the things that are working through it is going to change the trajectory over time. So that is probably hopefully giving you a little bit of a sense.

Mick Beekhuizen
President, CEO & Director at The Campbell’s Company

It is much more surgical than it is a complete repositioning. And then finally, if I look at the Meals and Beverage portfolio, I actually think there we have a very good collection of brands with premium mainstream as we've talked about in the past, as well as the way that they are positioned that I think they're meeting consumer needs really well and we see that in the results this past quarter.

Jim Salera
Research Analyst at Stephens Inc

Great. And if I could just sneak in one quick one for Carrie. Carrie, you've mentioned some of the impact on RAYOs from the import tariffs. Are you guys able to shift more production to Alma? Or do you give us any sense what the capacity is there?

Jim Salera
Research Analyst at Stephens Inc

And if that has a meaningful impact on the unit economics, if you can just have more stuff produced in Alma and just import, I would assume, the raw materials versus the finished product?

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

Yes. I mean, I would say just generally, I'd answer it with all of the steps. We're going to look at all of the levers that we have to mitigate tariffs. So whether it's strategic inventory management, which we're obviously leaning on that hard this quarter here, working in close partnership with our suppliers and that would include our partnership with La Regina, looking at their all of what they can bring to help us look at the overall minimizing the overall impact. And then also looking at product cost optimization.

Carrie Anderson
Executive VP & CFO at The Campbell’s Company

So I think all of those levers will come into play as we manage that relationship and manage the overall impact for the Rayos brand.

Operator

We are out of time for questions today. This will conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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