The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Andre Maciel : Probably the only thing is that we have to look a bit of different regions, right? Because I mean in Europe, indeed, the situation is a bit tougher from a private label perspective, growing more. I mean the price gap has been widening, although the private label has been put in price the same, but the gap has been widened. I mean, we have put a lot of initiatives in place like relaunching value brands where we are not like we didn’t have to — like HP being an example, that is in the fast process category. So — and then also do a lot of activities in price spec architecture. So this is like — it’s really keeping us strong, especially versus branded competition. But then in the rest of the world, in emerging markets, specifically, you don’t see that much of private label issue and we continue to gain share.

Miguel Patricio : Okay. Yes. Just to put it in perspective, retail in Europe is about 5% of our business, and that’s what Rafael was talking about. I just want to add to these points that 2/3 of our growth are coming from emerging markets and from foodservice. And on these two channels, we continue gaining share and growing in a very, very positive way, double digit?

Operator: Our next question comes from Stephen Powers with Deutsche Bank.

Stephen Powers : Two questions. The first one is on service levels and fill rates. On Slide 16, you got — you show how you’ve seen improvement in the fourth quarter, really every month within the fourth quarter. I guess question is — number one on this is, just has that improvement continued into ’23 thus far? And what have you really assumed sort of as the base case for ’23 relative to the ultimate goal of getting back to the high 90s. Is that an assumption in the guidance? Or is that more of an aspiration to have some less than allowances in the outlook?

Carlos Abrams-Rivera : It’s Carlos. Let me comment. So to give you a perspective, I guess, the way we see it kind of in North America, as you said, we are, in fact, seeing progress in our supply chain and our service level. In fact, when I look at December numbers, those were the highest service levels we had across the entire year. Now at the same time, we are still seeing the industry having continued to see some challenges, particularly upstream when you think about ingredients and some packaging materials. Now as we go forward, our goal is, in fact, to get to the kind of service levels that our customers and we did towards the end of the year. I think for us, what we are seeing is that the recovery in some of the ingredients and packages, it comes in very asymmetrical.

So if you think about for us, we’re still with the remnant of the avian flu and the impact that, that had in terms of the industry, in some of our business in and in places like in our cream cheese soft business where some packaging materials have been a challenge. And those — so those are the type of things that now we’re working through. It’s places where, in fact, while most things are beginning to come in the terms of more stable supply chain, there are still a couple of places where we are seeing some of those kind of challenges. At the same time, our team is making sure that we are adapting to every situation that’s happening. And I’ll give you an example of that, which is, as you saw, the price of eggs go so high, we need to make sure that we also are adapting the products that go with eggs.