Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jason English: Okay. Good to hear – sorry, go ahead.

Paul Ruh: Sorry, Jason. You are right about the headwind still persistent of yet moderating ForEx, but the important thing is the underlying strength of the business is there. And also, we had – we continued to see elevated incidences of flu that we even saw that in the second quarter. So, it’s more the core that we feel very good about and moderating FX pressures.

Jason English: And let’s pull on that thread of elevated flu incidences. Since you have IPO-ed, lots of conversations with investors, and one consistent question or area of concern amongst investors is whether or not you are going to enter a Self Care slump. We had sort of twin engines or twin tailwinds behind this business with COVID and then this nasty cold and flu season lifting big parts of your business. Is it reasonable to expect that there will be a Self Care slump? In other words, a period where your business is likely to contract as we – as these tailwinds fade, or is there reason to believe that you could have durable growth, and if so, what are those reasons?

Thibaut Mongon: That’s a very good question, Jason. That’s a question that we are facing every day to plan for our operations. Our guidance of 5.5% to 6.5% growth, organic growth for the full year takes into consideration of current thinking, which is to have a normal season. So, we do not expect to have as big of an incidence as we had last winter season. We will be ready from an operational point of view to respond to any seasonal demand. But from a planning perspective, we were not planning with such a high season. Having said that, and I think the second quarter is a good example of that, our Self Care segment is – comprises more need space than just cough and cold or analgesics. And you saw this quarter other need space like smoking cessation with Nicorette like Digestive Health with Imodium or like allergy where despite a slightly lower level of incidents, we continue to gain share in the U.S. with both Zyrtec and Benadryl.

All of these other segments are doing well. So, we are very pleased with the performance of the segment and very confident in the continued performance of the segment.

Jason English: Understood. Thank you all.

Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Steve Powers with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.

Steve Powers: Hey. Good morning everybody. Thank you. You have spoken to this a little bit, but I just want to kind of round it all out. Within Skin Health & Beauty and Essential Health, the growth in both segments came in slightly below external forecast. So, I was hoping you could put a bit more definition around how they compare to your internal forecast? I mean you have spoken to the issues in Essential Health, but just more broadly. And then I was also hoping you could just clarify for us exactly when you expect to fully cycle the portfolio rationalization headwinds that are impacting both the segments? And if possible, just within the context of that 5.5% to 6.5% organic growth call for the year, talk a bit about how you expect the three segments to contribute to that on an annual basis to give us a little bit more perspective on how the second half is likely to shake out?

Thibaut Mongon: Yes. Steve, three questions, so let’s put a eye and handle them one by one. Let me first maybe talk about – start with the last one on – as you know, we don’t give guidance by segment. It’s a reminder that really, we – the portfolio is very important, and we gave you several examples in this call again on the importance of seeing Kenvue as one portfolio focused on consumer health. We – your second question on anniversarying the discontinuation. As you heard from Paul, we are anniversarying our decision to suspend sales of personal care products in Russia this quarter. And regarding the other discontinuations of codes that we are talking about, most of them were taken last year when we discontinued slower moving codes to free up capacity in our supply chain.