The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

John Baumgartner: Maybe a follow-up on Matt’s question, just sticking with Atkins. It sounds, Geoff, it sounds as though you’re taking I guess, moving the time frame back for recovery in the brand. And it’s been through a lot the last couple of years with the mobility during COVID and some of the missteps on innovation and merchandising. But I’m curious, to what extent is just a simple elasticity a factor here? I mean, this is a category where we’re seeing more brands, more formats. It seems as though elasticities vary quite a bit between the brands and the formats. So given data or insights that would suggest elasticity has not been a material factor here and it’s not something as simple as just the price point given the Atkins consumer relative to a Quest consumer or somebody else who may be more, I don’t know, loyal but just stickier in terms of the price point.

Joe Scalzo: Yes, I think great question. And I’ll start and I’ll turn it over to Geoff. So if you just look at the brand from a product standpoint, as we’ve since kind of last Labor Day, when people started going back to work, we saw a real shift in what people were buying on the brand and don’t get to elasticities once I touch on this. So shakes and meal bars which tend to be meal replacement on the go meal replacement, somewhat driven by kind of being on the go and be it back to work. We’ve seen those businesses pick up where we’ve seen the slowdown has been in kind of the more snackier portion of the portfolio, snack bars and adult. And they have, in fact, been slightly more elastic in their response to the price increase.

So we’ve tactically done some spending back on the business. So we’ll get a better sense of how that’s going to play out because we start lapping that price increase in July and August and we’ll see whether how consumers respond to it. But we have seen the snackier portion of the portfolio tends to be the last thing in the basket, last thing purchased and the first thing out when people feel a little squeezed from a financial standpoint. So we have seen that behavior in the confection business and the snack bar business. And actually, even as part of the Quest business, we’ve seen more — slightly greater sensitivity to pricing than kind of the more mainstream kind of meal replacement or full snack farms. Anything to add, Geoff?

Geoff Tanner: Yes. I mean all I would probably say is taking the step back year-to-date, POS on Atkins was up 2%. But you’re right; we’re not immune from elasticity like any other brand. But to Joe’s point, when you disaggregate the business you’re seeing growth in [indiscernible], you’ve seen growth in meal buzz. And where you’re seeing a disproportionate impact is in, as Joe said, the snackier part of the business which is where we’ve lost distribution and not innovated as we should have. So yes, I think you’re absolutely right. Elasticity is a factor. But just aggregating the business, you can see where the business has strength where we have gaps and the plans we have put — we’re putting in place to solidify where we’re seeing more of the impact.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Pamela Kaufman with Morgan Stanley.

Pamela Kaufman: You’ve highlighted the initiatives to improve Atkins innovation. Can you talk about what you see as some of the gaps in the product portfolio and where you think the innovation has lagged. I guess just in terms of the opportunity to improve innovation on bars versus innovation on some of the snackier formats which you’ve seen some elasticity on but I guess, how are you thinking about the balance of where the innovation is focused?