James Hagedorn: So we’re clear. We’re not chasing and we’re not struck dumb with sort of this was three years ago and the idea is evaluation. I think this is where we can partner. I think we’re using in previous releases cash free or something like that. But I think this is where we partner, we accept that we will be one of the partners, possibly get to distribution of those shares to the Scott shareholders, but start with we don’t have to own this. We don’t have to necessarily be the boss. But we do want to be a respected partner in how the business is managed. And I think that as we’ve talked about this business, and I think these were in I think Matt’s notes as we prepared, this business started out as a professionally managed business.
And it still is. And we have a professional management team that can contribute here and within that business, as there’s lots of different sort of levels of professionalism. So I think on top of we’ve got these great brands, we’ve got this great R&D pipeline, we also have a professional leadership that’s used to being in a public Company that can contribute into this whatever co. And it’s pretty exciting, I think. Now, it’s like all kind of deal discussions. Everybody we’re talking now to is enthusiastic. That’s not the issue with enthusiasm. It’s just getting down to meat and potatoes and what flaws do people have in their businesses. We know one thing about how we’re looking at this. And to some extent, whether it’s Hawthorne or RIV, it’s 100% clean and not a burden to anybody.
And that, as I doubt there’s any other business that can say that. So we feel like we have a lot to offer these combinations. I can’t speak for RIV, but RIV is sitting on a relative mountain of cash that doesn’t exist anywhere else in this business. And so we also are enthusiastic and, we have a Board meeting on Friday to kind of keep them current. I want to give credit to Chris especially, because this is one where, because it’s not just one party we’re talking to, it’s multiple parties, it’s complicated. And there’s a lot of permutations to it. And I think it can get tedious where you’re trying to maintain a lot of opportunities and conversations. And things change a lot and people’s attitude changes and people get in bad moods and, people fight old battles.
But I think that if every, and I’m sure some of those people we’re talking to are on this phone call or will be listening to this phone call. If everybody can maintain a balance, we can create a very unique business in partnership with other people. And I think that that’s a really good solution for this, because some of those businesses can make a lot of money and we have something of great value that is not a burden to anybody’s balance sheet.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from Bill Reuter with Bank of America.
William Reuter: Good morning. I just have two quick ones. So the first is, and you kind of got into this during the first question and Q&A, but the amount of incremental shelf space or slottings that you received as a result of the price reductions, is there any way to contextualize that?
James Hagedorn: It’s pretty significant. I’m not sure I want to, but I think if you take it’s a three plus billion dollar business and you’re talking high single digits, which I would say is accurate, you can just multiply it out and you’ll come to a number. And there has been, Matt has really led a process of really pressure testing this issue of how sure are you guys? How does the operating side feel about this?
Nate Baxter: Yeah, this is Nate. No, actually, this is what I love about Matt is he’s keeping us honest. And what I would say is that we did a full bottoms-up, working hand in hand with retailers. We’re not quite done with that process. As most of you probably know, we’ll finish it up and just call it before Thanksgiving. We’re through almost all of the operating plans, hand in hand, working on those with our retailers. And as Jim said, you can do the math, but we’re pretty confident in those numbers. And again, I would say just to, what I will frame out is new listings and promos and merchandising, those are about equal in the bulk of it. And then the smaller bit of it is on the price elasticity related growth.
William Reuter: Got it. And then you guys did a great job explaining the way you’re going to change kind of the marketing strategy in terms of where you’re spending the dollars. I just want to make sure I got some of the numbers that you laid out correctly. Did you say that you increased marketing by 50% in fiscal year ’23? And then I think you said you’re going to further increase it in fiscal year ’24. Did you put any numbers around that? I don’t think I caught any.
Nate Baxter: Okay, it’s 25%. That was the year that just ended. I want to spend more on my giant whiteBoard here. This is where Matt is keeping kind of tally of motion in the ’24 budget. Oh, he still has an additional media number up there. That’s changed since yesterday. But it’s a positive. And so we’re looking to put more money in, but it’s going to be as we solve issues toward the solution that we’re looking for, which I think we said to you is 575. And just for a little bit of visibility, 575 is what we need to achieve for target incentive payout. Okay? So I’m kind of giving you a number that the entire management team is highly incentivized on that. The other number is a — I’m not sure if I said 50%, but it is — basically it is more than 50%, which is taking money that would have been spent in digital and moving it back into traditional forms of media.
So it’s maintain at least what we spent last year, if we can put more in, and that’s what we’re working toward, and then a very significant move toward more what I think I call traditional media because I think people call it like analog or linear or something that I find insulting as an older person because I’m probably in that category. I do not use a flip phone, though.
James Hagedorn: So, Bill, I’ll just comment. The story isn’t so much increasing the media spend significantly, although we are looking for dollars to do that. It’s how we’re going to spend the dollars. And Jim referred to our new agency of record and our partners in Media Hub. So the way we’ll spend the dollars this coming year will be totally different than the way we spent them last year, and I think that’s the bigger piece of the story on the working media.
William Reuter: I think you guys tied it up right there. Okay, thank you. That’s all for me.
Operator: [Operator Instructions]. And our last question comes from [ph]Yakab Mushraff with JP Morgan.
