Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc. (NYSE:PBH) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jon Andersen: Thank you, good morning everybody. I guess, on the inventory step up, strategic investment in inventory. Is that really kind of a short-term remedy for some of the supply chain disruptions or constraints I should say that you are experiencing juxtaposed against the strong demand for things like cough/cold or is there also a longer term element to it in terms of retailers looking for higher order fill rates or tighter delivery windows? I’m just trying to understand kind of the reasoning behind it.

Ronald Lombardi: The first driver is to better align ourselves to meet our retail customers, service requirements. So part of its that it is really short-term in nature, Jon. As I said, earlier, we have been looking to try to build inventory to give us a better buffer for the next hiccup in the supply chain, and supply chains out there, in general continue to be impacted by COVID impacting workforces. Not only at their own facilities, but at their, at our suppliers, suppliers, whether it is cardboard or an API, or whatever it is. All it takes is one missing thing in the supply chain to disrupt finished goods, whether it is a label a pallet or an API. So we have been focused on trying to give ourselves a better buffer for the next two to drop that we don’t know about.

As we get into fiscal 2024 and we begin to learn more about how things are stabilizing, we will adjust inventory back down over time. But right now, it is all about getting that buffer in and being better positioned, not only to meet service requirements, but to take advantage of those growth opportunities. And as I mentioned with cough/cold we brought on a second Chloraseptic, Luden’s supplier actually got the first shipments I think the last week or two of December, so we are chasing things out there, Jon.

Jon Andersen: Okay that is helpful. Gross margin stepped down a little bit sequentially again in the quarter and I think Chris, you mentioned, the gross margin you expect for the fourth quarter is kind of similar to what you just experienced in the third quarter. And I understand the math driving this, I think is the cost increases juxtaposed again against the price increases. But do you think we have kind of leveled off at this point or in terms of the gross margin performance and is there potential for some recovery as you look to 2024 and 2025, I’m not sure what would drive that recovery, per se. But any thoughts around that would be helpful.

Christine Sacco: Yes, Jon, I would just say, you know, gross margin is largely coming in, in-line with our expectations, right. And you are right, Q4 being consistent with what we saw here in Q3. I think of, so if I start with about a 56% gross margin as the base, we will continue – excuse me, we will continue to look for opportunities to take pricing actions, that can also come in the form of new product development, as it has historically and which is a big focus for our company, as you know, in addition to continued multiyear cost saving projects that we have going on. So we have talked about, in this environment, going forward, looking at things a little bit differently than we have been operating for the last few years, in that cost savings will come in many different forms going forward.

And it is certainly you know, we have talked about not having a structural issue with our gross margin. So we will be looking to increase our gross margin overtime, and reinvest those dollars into A&M to maintain our EBITDA margin, as we always say.