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| Statement |
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| The split is slightly more pronounced on adjusted EBITDA, driven by stronger demand and higher utilization, which is also most pronounced in the fourth quarter |
| we have continued to invest directly into our supply chain, as you can see on Slide 6, which we believe strengthens our competitive positioning and partnerships with our customers |
| As a result, we finished the year with a stronger portfolio, enhanced capabilities and depth, all while investing in our supply chain to better align it with these priorities |
| Our enhanced depth and capabilities are quickly enabling new bid opportunities, and we continue to hear interest from retailers in partnering on innovation, including seasonal items, which is another opportunity for Treehouse to drive profitable volume growth for both our company and our retail grocery partners |
| From a procurement, we're really pleased with the reaction and the response we're getting across our base |
| And if you think about a macro environment where units are flat and we've guided deflation, that means we've got to have a couple percent unit growth to make that happen, right? And so, we just think guiding stronger than that with the uncertain consumer environment isn’t prudent at this time, but in order to meet the guidance that we have, and we wouldn't do that if we didn't see the strength of both our underlying business and our new businesses, we think you've got to grow about 2% to make that happen |
| Importantly, our reshaped portfolio and enhanced strategic focus will enable us to gain share and increase our competitive relevance across an industry with strong consumer tailwinds |
| The best thing is we've got great availability |
| We remain confident we are well positioned to capture the opportunities ahead for private brands, with our focus on delivering growth |
| We are pleased with the progress we're making on these initiatives, which are designed to drive margin improvement in future quarters |
| We are investing in our supply chain to drive consistency and predictability, and I believe these capabilities provide significant opportunity to achieve even better performance for Treehouse in the coming year |
| Adjusted EBITDA of $108.4 million, which was just above the midpoint of the guidance range, reflects our continued progress against supply chain savings initiatives across the businesses |
| As you would expect, our procurement and logistics teams are hard at work executing initiatives throughout our network to drive profitability improvement given the current environment |
| Given this backdrop, we expect our volume growth to be stronger in the second half of the year |
| Adjusted gross margin performance drove improvement in adjusted EBITDA margin, which returned to almost 12% |
| I am proud of everything we accomplished in 2023 and remain confident in our ability to execute in 2024 |
| We are confident in the progress that we've made in implementing our supply chain savings initiatives and believe we are on track to deliver significant growth savings in 2024 |
| As we look ahead, I'm confident that the transformative actions that we've taken to sharpen our portfolio focus and strengthen our capabilities, have the company well positioned to deliver the growth and profitability that we've outlined |
| These efforts have contributed to improved execution and margin performance, including 130 basis points of adjusted gross margin expansion this year |
| Continued progress on these supply chain initiatives in the coming years should allow us to further expand margins |
| But that gives you a sense, even with that, last year we grew 5% in OEE right? Now, to be fair, Treehouse was not at the top of the OEE hill, right? We have some room to grow, and we have - that's why there's the kind of cost savings in our network that there is, right? There is substantial opportunity in our network, and the good news is, we're making progress at attacking it |
| Also, I'll remind you that we are now lapping a historically strong net sales performance in Q1 2023, which saw a significant benefit from our cumulative pricing actions to recover inflation, and the pipeline build that we discussed last year |
| Having said that, we see a number of opportunities to grow our topline organically, particularly in the businesses where we strengthened our capabilities last year, including coffee, pretzels, and pickles |
| So, if you drive traffic to the shelf, we hope categories grow, and we're confident that private label will get a share of that category growth given the absolute penny gaps that are in front of us now |
| And we think our ongoing maintenance programs will be sufficient to make us a much more reliable and consistent vendor going forward |
| These plans are designed to drive future margin improvement |
| In addition to these organic growth opportunities, we have the benefit of volume from our recent coffee and pretzel acquisitions during the first half of the year, as well as the annual volume from the Bick's pickle business that we acquired in January |
| Despite the ongoing economic uncertainty, our company is in a strong financial position, with our current balance sheet and capital structure |
| Over the long term, we still believe our categories provide the opportunity for strong growth |
| It's the strongest the company's had since I joined in 2018, which is a testament to our commercial teams, the strength of their customer relationships, and our operations |
| Statement |
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| Our net sales decline was primarily driven by challenges at our broth facility, as well as discrete supply chain disruptions within our pretzel and cookie business that we discussed last quarter |
| From a macro perspective, we've seen weakness in overall food and beverage consumption volumes over the last year |
| However, as is the case with topline guidance, we expect the investments we have already made in our broth facility and the related volume impact to constrain our profit growth |
| The decline will be driven primarily by the impact of the broth facility, which will also adversely impact our volume |
| Lastly, SG&A and other, negatively impacted profit by $7 million year-over-year |
| Current consumption trends remain challenged, and while private brands are outperforming, the current growth trend remains flat, impacting our ability to drive topline growth in the near term |
| As you have heard from other CPG companies, the macro environment continues to be challenged by inflationary pressure and general economic concerns among consumers |
| This topline guidance reflects the impact from the current restart of our broth facility, which we expect to continue to pressure results in the first half of the year |
| So, we are losing some sales |
| It has been a drag on the results since then |
| Volume and mix, including absorption, was a headwind of $33 million in the quarter |
| I was disappointed quite frankly, that we didn't see more private label promotion during the quarter |
| How does that take into account the broth issues? And then I think you had some issues in pretzels and cookies in third quarter as well |
| And some geographies are more challenging than others |
| The unfavorable volume and related absorption impact from our broth facility will be a significant driver of the Q1 year-over-year decline |
| Net sales of $910.8 million and adjusted EBITDA of $108.4 million, both declined versus the prior year, which was in line with our expectations |
| As a reminder, late in the third quarter, we were impacted by a broth recall and some discreet supply chain disruption that occurred in our pretzels and cookies businesses, which will extend into our fourth quarter results |
| I guess, first off, if we exclude the $20 million impact in the first quarter from restarting the broth facility, EBITDA is still expected to be lower year-over-year in the first quarter in a pretty material way, and I know part of that is also the difficult year ago comp that you mentioned |
| The net effect of these has resulted in overall lower category volumes |
| With regard to the first quarter, we are expecting net sales of $780 million to $810 million, which represents a year-over-year decline of approximately 7% at the midpoint |
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