Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jim Snee: Yes. No, it’s a really good question. And so no, we have not moved off of our top line guidance. We know that there’s a turkey uncertainty and expect that to come back in the back half of the year. The other part of this is our foodservice business. And so even though we had some softness for a period of time in the first quarter, we expect growth for the balance of the year. So those really are two drivers. And then as we expect our international business to come back with some of those challenges abating, we do believe that we’ll be able to deliver that top line. And then the second part of that question, we’re not getting that pressure from retailers in terms of keep more inventory. As Jacinth said earlier, we know how to run this business.

And historically, we’ve had very, very strong fill rates. It’s obviously some of the supply chain challenges that we’ve had over the last two, three years that have prevented us from getting to those fill rates. But slowly but surely, we are getting those fill rates back to where they were. And so we were able to operate the way that we did pre-pandemic. That’s really the expectation.

Operator: The next question comes from Michael Lavery of Piper Sandler.

Michael Lavery: I just want to come back to Planters specifically, when you detail some of these challenges, it’s one of the three things you call out as a focus area in terms of optimizing promotional support and everything else. But then you also called out the capacity expansion, even though those volumes have been down kind of mid or more single digits for some time. Can you just maybe elaborate on what pain point the capacity expansion solves given the current situation?

Jacinth Smiley: Sure. Thanks, Michael. The capacity expansion specifically addressed the continued evolution of snacking as well as C-store and club channel. So the capacity we’re adding a specific packaging. That really is on trend with how consumers want to snack today, when you think about the tube nut in particular, both in a singular purchase as well as in a club variety. The additional capacity is really designed to help us continue to meet the demand, which is exceptional there. And then the other area of growth that we haven’t talked about that is really a hidden gem in the portfolio is the core nut business, and some really great flavors that are coming to market. And as we think of the convenience store business, really the 100 days of summer is where that business really comes to life. So adding capacity both for C-store and club store is where we’re leaning into right now.

Jim Snee: And I think it’s important to know, Michael, these are things that we knew when we bought the business. We knew that there was going to have to be some packaging innovation, which we did last year with the new bottle and then also some capacity investments. So it was existing packaging, but we saw that as an opportunity. It was just a matter of what the timing was that we were going to need it. And then as Deanna mentioned, we’ve seen really, really strong growth since Day 1 for the corn nuts business, and we don’t expect that to slow down.

Michael Lavery: Okay. That’s helpful. And just coming back to Garuda, did you have an option for a bigger stake there? Or could you at some point? How do we think about whether or not that ever becomes part of above the line in operations?

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