PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Ramon Laguarta: Yeah. Thank you, Peter. I will not talk too much about the agreement other than saying that it’s a good alignment of the long-term interest of both companies, and it’s great for PepsiCo shareholders. The partnership with CELSIUS is strong, and it’s helping us to gain scale in our go-to-market, specifically in some channels where we need volume to justify some of the economics of the call. So that role continues. We’re pleased with the partnership. Energy is a fast-growing category, profitable, that is great for our portfolio. So that’s what I would say. We remain pleased with the partnership and we’ll continue to build the partnership going forward.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Filippo Falorni with Citi. Your line is open.

Filippo Falorni: Hey, good morning, everyone. So I wanted to go back to Frito but on the top line trends. Clearly, you guys were setting the toughest comp of the year in Frito-Lay. You mentioned you expect some sequential improvement. So maybe you could talk about volume trajectory, particularly for the business? And Ramon, you spoke in the past about the cycling of this shift towards smaller pack sizes. So maybe you can give us an update on that, and also any potential impact from cycling the reduction in SNAP benefits from last year? Thank you.

Ravi Pamnani: Yeah. I would say the Frito-Lay continues to outperform the category. And as I said earlier, the big opportunity for Frito-Lay is continue to create occasions for our savory category, bringing them from broader macro snacks or snacks and meals overlap, how do we bring more category stores, more occasion store snacking. So those are the two big strategic objectives of Frito-Lay. And all our innovation and pricing and channel mix and everything else is against that large objective and do it faster than others, so that we continue to gain shares. So as we — as we look at the business performance, as you said, this is the toughest lap. I think last year, we grew 16% in Q1, and that lap is still high in Q2, but then it gets much better than half two.

So we should expect a gradual sequential improvement of our volume for Frito-Lay, especially in the second half of the year, and we’ll continue to be the guardians of the savory category and make sure it’s valued properly, and it generates growth for our customers ahead of what food generates for our customers, and we continue to capture a disproportionate share of that very fast-growing and profitable business.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Kaumil Gajrawala with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Kaumil Gajrawala: Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Just you mentioned multiple times on gaining share within the category. Could you just give us some — in multiple regions, can you just give us some context on what the categories are growing or at least what — maybe what they’re expected to grow as you think about the next – next year or so?

Ramon Laguarta: We — yes, I mean, like what I said is that our goal is always for our categories to grow faster than overall food and beverages. I think that makes us a very attractive partner with our retail partners, and we deliver growth for them. And our categories are profitable. So it’s a good combination of growth and profitability for our customers. So that’s what we’re trying to do. I think our categories will continue to grow faster than food and beverages in the majority of the countries around the world, given the trends on urbanization and the secular trends that we’ve been talking about both for convenient foods and beverages. So we feel good about that and our commercial programs, innovation and investments are in to deliver that for our partners.

Obviously, there’s countries around the world where we do better, others we do less well. And our goal is to keep emphasizing the ones we do better and improve the ones that we don’t do so well. And that’s how we’re managing the company.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Robert Moskow with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

Robert Moskow: Hi. Thanks for the question. The 4% price mix benefit in Frito-Lay North America is pretty impressive in a food industry where there’s just not a lot of pricing left. And I imagine a lot of it is from price pack architecture or maybe even consumers shifting to different pack sizes. Can you help delineate a little bit more like what’s — which of those is driving it more than the other? Or if it’s about the same? And how do you expect it to evolve for the rest of the year? Do you expect it to be pretty constant?

Jamie Caulfield: Hey, Robert. It’s Jamie. And its majority is price but there’s an element of mix in there. I’d put it that probably two-thirds price and one-third mix. And yes, it comment earlier on our inflationary trends would expect them to be fairly moderate for the balance of the year, fairly smooth through the balance of the year. So I wouldn’t expect a lot of volatility in that buying revenue relationship.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Robert Ottenstein with Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

RobertOttenstein: Great. Thank you very much. Two kind of follow-ups, if I may. Can you please talk about the spring shelf sets? Is it pretty much done? And how do you feel good about what you’re seeing both on the Frito-Lay side and on the beverage side? And I understand on the beverage side, you’re discontinuing some SKUs. So are you gaining shelf space where you want to? And then just a follow-up to an earlier question on CELSIUS. Maybe if you can give us an idea of how your energy drink strategy overall is evolving and what’s going on with Rockstar, Starbucks, Mountain Dew in terms of the overall energy drink strategy? Thank you.