Robert Dickerson: Great, thank you so much. Look, I mean, I guess I’ll just ask kind of from just given this is the first time, as Brian was saying, we have access to Mike and also maybe for Irwin. By the way commentary just about kind of all the opportunities ahead, right, still see a lot of opportunity could still grow nicely on the go forward. Just I guess given since you kind of got there in August, Mike, you said you traveled decent amount. I’m sure you’ve been speaking with the Board frequently. Maybe just kind of spend a minute kind of talking about maybe where you saw certain opportunities not captured that were already available to you, maybe kind of like what some of the low-hanging fruit is mostly on the top line, I guess? And then just kind of as you set course now, like we’ll hear more in Q3, but like what are you doing now, what’s different?
Michael Franklin: Yes. Look, I’d say when I initially joined the Board — at the Board back in August, to what — from my initial impression where this is a really strong business, help the underlying business with tremendous opportunity for growth that on the — in the Branded CPG segment, we’re in the early innings for where we can take this business. And I’d say above all levels, I think I was incredibly encouraged by the depth and quality of our team at the operating level. I think the more time that I spend with the team, the more conviction that I gained in the business. In terms of low-hanging fruit and opportunities that we’re excited about, I think — one of the first opportunities we identified was our manufacturing footprint.
How do we simplify and return our business to an asset-light state, that’s something that is of increased focus for us, right? How do we get the product to customers in one truck across many of our brands? And then understanding, we have a great, strong international business. How do we reinvest in that business? How do we provide our teams abroad with the adequate resources to grow materially? And in North America, I think a lot of the frustration and challenges that we’ve had in 2022 largely stem from look, the operating macro environment wasn’t easy and our primary focus is making sure that we deliver the highest customer service levels. And so putting our customers first, making sure that we put the right products to our customers, making sure that we’re reinvesting in marketing, trade and innovation.
All that taken together, hopefully, we’re continuing to be excited about what’s in store for 2023 and beyond.
Robert Dickerson: Alright, got it. So I mean it basically sounds like a little bit more operational kind of headwind that you felt hope to kind of dig out of that through your own efficiency plan. When you think about the investment side, what you said there are areas to kind of reinvest which I guess would imply kind of SG&A goes up a little bit, maybe there’s some more trade going in. You kind of just mentioned international. I mean do you kind of view it as some of the U.S. brands have been underinvested then because I mean it feels like there was decent innovation coming out of that side of the business. We haven’t really heard as much about the international side of the business, even though that was kind of part of the plan upfront, it was like equal and crush it in emerging markets, but really didn’t hear much about equal in emerging markets.
So maybe just kind of spend a second on kind of where you think some of the investment could go? And then I have a quick follow-up.
Michael Franklin: Happy to answer that. Look, our international — we’re incredibly excited about. Any opportunity that we can grow from a distribution perspective, especially in our international segments is incredibly important for us. If you look at India, for example, that business from 2021 to 2022 nearly tripled. No different is what we’re seeing in material growth in China with that business growing over 50% year-over-year. I think it’s for us, it’s identifying high-growth regions and making sure that we’re supplying the product in those regions and making sure that we’re delivering it catered towards those local preferences. So when it comes to international, we’ll touch more about this, obviously, at our Investor Day. But yes, international continues to be an important book area.
Irwin Simon: And Rob, we have Canderel, which is a tremendous well-known brand that is really strong in France, really strong in the UK and Belgium, and there’s so many opportunities for expansion there. And like Mike said, I mean, when you said international was to be a big part of this. And I think — listen, we’ll go back and complained a lot on COVID, but there are certain things whether it’s currency and other things that happen that hurt us. But international has tremendous opportunity, and we have some strong brands over there. I mean we mentioned Canderel, the brand awareness. And basically, we’re only in a few countries today in Europe with tremendous expansion. Mike said before, what we’ve done in Middle East, India, and China is tremendous in a short period of time, and he has lots of opportunities there.
Robert Dickerson: Got it, great. Thanks guys. And then just quickly, just on gross margin for the year. I mean, obviously, gross margins kind of continued to decelerate. There’s a little price cost dynamic. You called out Q1 being more pressured quarter or the most pressure quarter of the year on the EBITDA side. But I’m just curious, as you think about the plan for 2023 trade spend, price cost relationship, etcetera, are you thinking kind of more of like a flattish gross marginish year-over-year and then maybe a little higher SG&A, which maybe puts a little pressure on the EBITDA margin in the near term or just any color on the gross margin side would be great? And that’s all. Thanks so much.
Duane Portwood: Hey Rob, this is Duane. I appreciate the question and good morning. Yes, from a full year perspective, we do expect adjusted gross margins to be pretty consistent overall with 2022. The order of events is going to be a little different in the sense that like I mentioned, in the first quarter both from a gross margin perspective and an EBITDA margin perspective will be on the smallest of the quarter. So both dollars and margin rates are expected to improve as the year goes on. And at the end, we will — we expect to finish fairly consistent. On the SG&A side, yes, there’s investments going on there. We’re in — we’re increasing our marketing spend by around 25% year-on-year to make sure that we’re supporting our launches, supporting the initiatives around the globe with a little bit of emphasis towards North America. So that’s where a lot of the SG&A investment will come from as well.
Robert Dickerson: Perfect, thank you.
Operator: Our next question is from the line of Bobby Burleson with Canaccord. Please proceed with your questions.
