General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Michael Lavery: Okay. That’s really helpful. And just one quick follow up on pet. You had mentioned the retailer inventory destocking and characterized it as a temporary headwind. Is that just because there is only so low they can go, or do you expect it to reverse?

Jeff Harmening: I do not expect it to reverse. I think, there’s only so low that it can go. And we may see a reduction again in the third quarter, because I suspect that our sale — our reported net sales are going to lack our sales out to consumers. And so, we may have not have seen the bottom of that as we look at our third quarter. But it really is more of — I don’t see a rebound in inventory levels, especially as some of our retailers specifically look to manage their working capital.

Michael Lavery: Okay, great. Thanks so much.

Operator: Our next question is coming from the line of Chris Carey with Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead.

Chris Carey: Hi. Good morning, everyone.

Jeff Harmening: Good morning.

Chris Carey: So, just a couple of quick follow up for me. I guess, number one, and I think you’ve been clear about this, but maybe just to put a bow on this, I mean, in your prepared remarks, you mentioned that price/mix will remain positive in fiscal 2024. I’m not sure if I’m reading too much into this, but is there an expectation that price/mix could turn negative in any given quarter ahead, near or medium term because of mixed dynamics or potentially some step up in promotional activity? And just, secondly, Jeff, you mentioned an expectation for some improvement in category growth, is any of that just associated with lapping SNAP benefits as you get kind of deeper into your fiscal Q4?

Kofi Bruce: I’ll take the first part of that question, and then I’ll let Jeff get you on the second. So, look, our expectations on price/mix are really built around the fact that we’ll be sequentially stepping down as we lap pricing actions that we took throughout last year. We should fully lap those by the time we get to the end of the fiscal year. We’re not expecting any of the quarters to deliver a negative price/mix, but merely just a step down in the contribution from price/mix to total RNS.

Jeff Siemon: Chris, this is Jeff Siemon. One point I’d add there is, what you’re seeing over the last couple of quarters is mix, even at the segment level, is more of a headwind, as for example our pet business is growing slower than the other parts of the business. That’s a high price per pound business. As our food service business, which is low price per pound, is outperforming. And so, there are mix elements within the segments that do depress the overall enterprise price/mix.

Jeff Harmening: And when you ask a question about growth at the category level, I mean, there are a couple of headwinds. One is just a little bit of consumer behavior and feeling the economic pressure and a little bit less discretionary spending. And I don’t frankly know when that will turn around. Consumers are certainly still stressed right now. They feel the impact of inflation over the past few years, and we certainly understand that. The thing that we — that’s more discreet really is the lapping of the SNAP emergency allotments benefits from last year. And those kind of go state by state, but they took place last year between January and March. And that may be a one-point benefit to the categories that we’re in. And so, it’s not a heroic increase, but certainly a stabilization of the categories. And we’ll start to — as I said, we’ll start to lap that here in the next month or so throughout our fiscal third quarter.

Chris Carey: Okay. Helpful. I’ll pass it on. Thank you.

Jeff Siemon: Okay. Unfortunately, I think that’s all the time we’re going to have this morning. Thank you for all the good questions and discussion. Appreciate your time and attention. And we will look forward to catching up in the new year. In the meantime, happy holidays to everyone. And please reach out if you have any follow ups to the IR team. Thanks.

Operator: That does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation. I ask that you please disconnect your lines.

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