The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Michael Lavery: I just want to start by following up on the spending. Could you give us a sense — I recognized last year you adjusted spending to match your — better aligned with the capacity limitations. But would this year be restored levels to sort of the optimal targets? Or do you still see that ramping into next year as well? We’re just trying to understand a sense of, if you’ll be back on your sort of steady run rate or kind of ideal level or if we’re not even quite going to be there yet until maybe 2024.

Michele Buck : Yeah, I mean we are always looking at the returns that we’re getting on our spending, and making decisions as we go forward based on that. So we think that we’re in a reasonable zip code. I think we’ve said before that we don’t think we have to go back up to the very highest levels that we were at historically. We’ve done a great job over time, getting a lot of efficiency, getting very tight in our targeting, so that we’re getting even greater returns. But I wouldn’t also commit that this is the high mark, above which we’re not going to move above. We’re still probably not quite back to exactly the point we want to be.

Michael Lavery: Okay, that’s really helpful. And just want to unpack a little bit more if we can, a comment you made in the prepared remarks about seasons being a growth driver. You said it’s off to a great start. Obviously, last year went really well as well. And so just would love to understand a little bit better how that unfolds and how to be thinking about that.

Michele Buck : Yeah, we continue to anticipate very strong growth in the seasons. We’ve continued to see that in the category. Consumers, during the past several years, have even dialed up their interest in season. So it is a strong part of our portfolio. It’s a place where we do very well. It’s a place where there’s a lot of emotional connectivity. There’s an anchor event, people want to participate in those anchor events with the brands that they love. And so we think that there’s opportunity. We had some missed demand that we weren’t able to fully fulfill because of capacity. And we’re going to be in a much better position this year to be able to more fully capture that opportunity. And the first part of the year, as I mentioned earlier, from a share perspective, we won’t be as strong as we anticipate that we will be for the seasons towards the backward of the year.

Michael Lavery: Okay, great. Thanks so much.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from line of Cody Ross with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Cody Ross : Good morning. Thank you for taking questions. I just want to go back to the last question on volume and perhaps unpack cadence throughout the year. You have increased capacity for seasons coming on, but you’re also lapping the over shipment in the first half this year. Can you just unpack a little bit how you expect volume to progress throughout the year, understanding that you expect for the full year to be flat to slightly down? That’s my first question. Thank you.

Michele Buck : Steve, can you talk that through?

Steve Voskuil : Yeah, going into the first part of the year, the seasons we’ve got already identified the volume and shipments there. So as Michele said, we still — we’re dealing with some capacity constraints leading into the seasons in the front part of the year. When you look at the year overall, we’re not expecting any big material differences by quarter for volume.

Cody Ross : Okay, that’s helpful. And then just one last question on capital allocation here. You’re at the low end of your leverage target over the long term. Are you beginning to look at making additional acquisitions or perhaps return more cash to shareholders in the upcoming years? Thank you.

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