The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Nik Modi: Great. And then if I could just clarify, in terms of the execution issues in Salty Snacks, what exactly happened, so you talked about systems changeover, but can you just provide just the details on exactly like what the problem was?

Michele Buck: Yeah. I mean, I’d say, two key things. One is we had some promotions that we had planned to occur in Q2 that shifted to Q3 and then we have had some just basic issues as we have been bringing together all of those businesses that you would expect during a transition like that around sales and commercial and supply chain execution. So things just weren’t as connected as they needed to be. We feel very good that the team is on it and focused on it and execution is something that we tend to do very well, so we have a lot of confidence in our ability to focus and get that back around. That said, of course, the back half of the year, as we have mentioned, is going to be — have a lot of volatility that’s really tied to as we build inventory and then work through the implementation and anticipate that we will have lighter sales in the fourth quarter as a result of that, but we have confidence in our ability to fix the execution.

Nik Modi: Great. Thanks so much. I will pass it on.

Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Alexia Howard with Bernstein. Please proceed with your questions.

Alexia Howard: Good morning, everyone.

Michele Buck: Good morning.

Alexia Howard: Can I ask, first of all, about market share trends in U.S. chocolate? It sounds as though capacity constraints and other issues have caused some of those declines. Do you have a view as to when those market share trends should start to improve and turn positive again?

Michele Buck: So we expect to continue to see pressure in the back half of the year. We believe that we will start to see some improvement, but there are a couple of things that are really impacting share. So one certainly is around category mix, with refreshment and sweets being stronger than we had anticipated. Chocolate should improve and we are focused on increasing our level of innovation to be even more competitive and we will be in a better position to do that as we continue to have more capacity come online.

Alexia Howard: Great. And then as a…

Michele Buck: We have increment in REIT [ph]. Yeah. Go ahead.

Alexia Howard: I am sorry. No. I was going to say, moving on to Salty Snacks, you talked about a double-digit decline, I think, in the fourth quarter because of the transformation. Is that choppiness expected to persist into 2024?

Steve Voskuil: No.

Michele Buck: No.

Steve Voskuil: Not at this stage. Really it’s just — Q3 we will be getting ready and building inventory for the switchover, Q4 will be the switchover and the recovery. So by the time we get to the first quarter, we would expect to be back on — back or very close to a regular glide path. Yeah.

Alexia Howard: Great. Thank you very much. I will pass it on.

Steve Voskuil: You bet.

Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Matt Smith with Stifel. Please proceed with your questions.

Matt Smith: Hi. Good morning.

Michele Buck: Good morning.

Matt Smith: Steve, I wanted to dig in a little bit on gross margin. You had a really solid first half with margin expansion up near 100 basis points and you again increased the margin expectations for the year. So could you talk about the drivers of margin expansion relative to your initial expectations and what’s weighing on the expansion in the second half relative to the performance in the first half. Is that tougher comparisons in relation to the balance of pricing and inflation or are there other factors at play, like, increased promotion?

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