Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LW) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Bernadette Madarieta: Yes, no so as we take a look at our capital spending, there were a number of items where we have long lead times just given the supply chain dynamics that are out there. And we’ve been able to accelerate some of those things in terms of equipment and other pieces to come in, which is being reflected in our overall capital spending for this year. Really happy with that, but that’s not going to bring on this capacity any sooner as we continue to build those factories. We just wanted to make sure that we have the items when needed to make sure that we would bring these up on time. So no change when we’re going to bring that capacity online. As we look to next year, certainly as we do every year-end, when we give our fourth quarter guidance, we’ll update with our capital spending at that time, but we’ll have another year of significant capital expenditures given bringing on over 1 billion pounds in the next 18 to 24 months with all of the capacity expansions that we referred to.

Adam Samuelson: All right. That’s all really helpful, I’ll pass it on.

Unidentified Company Representative: Yes. Hey, Adam, it’s , just kind of for everybody. Just kind of here’s the timing of the capacity coming online. China is going to be sometime fall of €˜23, American falls, Idaho is going to be spring of €˜24, Argentina is fall of €˜24, right? And then quite again in the Netherlands initial thoughts right now are going to be early calendar €˜25. Is, kind of — yes, early to mid, that one’s a little bit more influx. But that’s kind of where the timing is right now.

Adam Samuelson: Thank you.

Operator: We’ll hear next from Peter Galbo from Bank of America.

Peter Galbo: Hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question.

Tom Werner: Good morning, Peter.

Bernadette Madarieta: Good morning, Peter.

Peter Galbo: Tom, I think in your comments you mentioned the incremental pricing in retail that you took, kind of, towards the end of 3Q. In global, it seems like there was no more incremental that was at least expected to come this year, but maybe you could opine a little bit just on Foodservice maybe in one area where we didn’t hear about, if there’s any incremental pricing actions? And then in addition to that, just would love any, kind of, first thoughts as plantings have gone into the ground here in early April?

Tom Werner: Yes. So in terms of the Foodservice segment, we’ve done a really good job over the past year or two, kind of, catch up to our inflation. And so I feel comfortable where we’re at on that. We’re — as I said earlier, we’re evaluating as we look to our fiscal 2024, our input cost inflation and how that’s going to materialize. And then as we do every year, then we’ll get together and think about what we need to do to offset inflation. And I can’t say this enough, we’re still in an inflationary environment in our business. And so as we have in the past and we’ll continue to do, we’re going to evaluate our pricing actions in all segments to offset inflation and that’s, kind of, what we’re going to do. So

Bernadette Madarieta: Yes, so with the Foodservice increase, there’ll just be a small impact in the fourth quarter given the timing of that announcement. And then the only other thing is, as it relates to the crop, we are currently in the process of planting there, the Columbia Basin in Idaho, so we’ll provide more of an update on our next call.