McCormick & Company, Incorporated (NYSE:MKC) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Adam Samuelson: So, I guess I wanted to come back to Flavor Solutions. And I think the comments in response to earlier question was kind of expect to see the margins there build through the year. And that’s also, I think, where the majority of the global operating effectiveness program would show up. Can you just remind us this year, kind of the excess costs that you’re carrying for the U.K. facility as you execute the changeover to the new plant, and we think about that layering out of the system in ’24 and beyond? And maybe more broadly, help us think about the road map to building the Flavor Solutions margins back up to the mid-teens level that they were at pre-COVID?

Mike Smith: Yes. I mean we’re roughly comparable on the little bar facility the last year, as we said, I mean, in…

Lawrence Kurzius: After this quarter.

Mike Smith: After this quarter, but into next year, there’s still going to be some carryover into next year. So I almost hesitate to say a number right now. Overall, we’ve said before around $20 million of kind of dual running costs on an annual basis. So a good chunk of that should go away next year. But again, that depends on there’s a lot of factors relating into that. But if you think about this year with Flavor Solutions, the first quarter is one of the highest commodity and other costs were and that will — just like on the consumer side of the business, that will go down the rest of the year. Pricing realization will support that. Then the GOE business — the GOE program, and that really benefits both of our segments too.

I wouldn’t say all of us going to Flavor Solutions. It’s really across the board where we’ve had inefficiencies that have built up in the system since the pre-pandemic. We’ve called out some of those very clear examples of Flavor Solutions like Topak and things like

Adam Samuelson: And I guess then as we think about kind of exiting this year on Flavor Solutions and beyond, I mean you’re still kind of — the margin structure of the business seem to be well below where you were a couple of years ago. And just trying to think about kind of some of the building blocks, whether it’s, say, concentrated customer base and getting kind of the full price recovery there? Is it mix? Is it capacity? I’m just trying to think about what — where the margins have gotten to in 2018, 2019. And exiting this year, they’re still going to be in kind of high single-digit range, I think.

Mike Smith: We think we have a long runway of improvement Flavor Solutions margins. You refer back ’18 and ’19. I mean our margins are 14-ish range, and we feel we can get back there over time as we over — we recover those costs, we’ve talked about as costs moderate as we get more efficient. So we don’t see 2019 as really the ceiling. And our portfolio — the pruning portfolio driving more towards the higher-margin products as we — you’ve seen accelerated growth there we talked about today. So, we do — but it’s not going to happen snap your fingers by the end of this year. This is a program that is going to play out over the next couple of years.

Adam Samuelson: Well, I get that’s not going to happen just this year, but if I just push in — the business mix isn’t all that different today versus where it was three or four years ago. So apart from we’ve had this big run of inflation, what’s really changed in terms of the profitability of the portfolio today?

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