Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE:KMB) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Javier Escalante: Hi, good morning. . Hello, good morning, guys. Question is, I wonder, perhaps Nelson, if you guys have an estimate on how much pricing have you taken, which is put us kind of like a one-on-one basis relative to the cost that took $3.7 billion in cost. Do you have any estimate how much in the past 18 months, how much pricing you have taken?

Nelson Urdaneta: Yes. Let me — Javier, that’s a great question. And if it helps, build a bridge as to why where we’re at right now and the recovery path that we’ve had on margins. So based on our outlook for this year and the guidance that we’re providing, we would have — we will be pricing — we will be realizing revenue growth management of around 85% of that $3.7 billion, give or take, just to give you a sense of what we’ve put in place when this year is done 36 months through. So obviously, that doesn’t get you there on a one-to-one basis to recover margins. And that’s why our cost-saving initiatives in force come into play in addition to our accretive innovation, which is part of our design to value and the other initiatives that we have in place with the commercial team. But I hope that provides some perspective.

Javier Escalante: Yes, that’s absolutely, very helpful. And then I’m going to have a little follow-up. If you look at, kind of data, particularly in U.S. tissue, you see private label and Proctor, your main competitor, realizing more price mix. Is that real pricing? Or it’s just basically that because you have the Scott business, you are seeing trade down within your portfolio under for – you are realizing less pricing than what so for your competitors and private label?

Mike Hsu: Well, I think, Javier, I’m not exactly sure, but I suspect what you’re also seeing — you’re going to see is also timing of pricing issues. I mean I think Nelson mentioned earlier, we priced relatively fast relative to other manufacturers. And so if you compare on a quarterly basis, I think you’re going to see our pricing start to diminish maybe starting next quarter relative to others. But in a lot of categories, we are at least one, and in some cases, like diapers, three quarters ahead of the competition. And so I think if you line it up that way, I think it’s a tough — it’s not really an apples-to-apples comparison. On Scott, we have taken significant pricing. A few rounds, including double-digit pricing over the course at the end of 2021, all the way through 2022.

And including — and I think — well, in the first quarter as well, we took another round of pricing overall. And so I think the pricing has been extensive. I haven’t looked at that specific issue, and so we may have to follow back up with you on that one.

Javier Escalante: And I do have a third one, if you don’t mind. And it goes back to the Professional business. I saw in the presentation that you said that the business is back to 2019 levels. I believe that probably is sales or price, so pricing — exactly. So if you can give us similarly, do you have an estimate on a volume basis, how much are you back given all these issues about vacancies and stuff like that? And if the volume is significantly — still significantly below 2019, does it open opportunities for optimizing the size of that business? And thank you very, very much.

Mike Hsu: Great question. Yes, so revenue is now above pre-pandemic levels, mostly because of pricing volume is still below, I would say, in the ’80s, right? As a percentage, if you say, hey, the comparison is versus 2019 levels. A couple of things. One is I don’t — I think I said this in a prior call, I think it was before you started covering this. But I don’t expect it to come all the way back because we all can see our own workplaces that the offices are not full. And with work from home, I don’t expect that in the near term. Do we expect to get that volume back over time? Yes, in a different way, though. We have to pursue other channels and class of trade to build that business back. But do I expect to get that back over time?

Or not even back, to grow our volume from where it is today? Yes. In terms of structural changes, we — there may be some tweaks for us. But the thing for us is we were using a lot of external capacity to kind of support our business during that period. And so I would say the fixed cost overhang is probably less than you might imagine.

Javier Escalante: Thank you very much.

Mike Hsu: Okay. Thank you, Javier.

Nelson Urdaneta: Thanks Javier.

Operator: Thank you. And the last question is coming from Steve Powers from Deutsche Bank. Your line is live.

Mike Hsu: Good morning, Steve.

Nelson Urdaneta: Hi Steve.

Steve Powers: Morning. Thanks, hi. So I might just ask one because we’re short on time. But the one I want to ask first, just to clarify. So you talked about a lot of good things that I think we all see as evident in the first quarter, working in your favor and promise boding well for the year. But the guidance raise really only contemplates the $100 million relief in your commodity cost outlook. All the other levers of upside really, implicitly in the guide, are either implied to mean revert lower or, I guess, provide you allowance to invest back against them. I just wanted to play that back and make sure that — I’m not sure it’s the wrong outlook. It seems prudent, but I just wanted to make sure that, that that’s sort of the right characterization.

Mike Hsu: Yes, definitely a preference to invest back, especially behind strong commercial programs and stuff that we have for this year, so — which we’re all very excited about. And as I was mentioning to Jason, let’s see how it goes in the second quarter and definitely reserve the right to think about it again.

Steve Powers: Yes. Okay. And maybe just real quick, just your perspective on market share, you talked about it earlier. I think it’s clear you’re prioritizing margin recovery, probably especially so in consumer tissue. You seem pleased overall. I think you mentioned Personal Care shares on a global basis were essentially holding or gaining in about half, half year category country combinations. But we’ve seen, I guess, softer trends in the track data, which has created some intra-quarter controversies. So just maybe some perspective on that and where you see trends being a bit softer than you’d like or being a bit stronger, just to kind of help round us out relative to the data we all see?