Bruce Carbonari
Analyst · Cleveland Research Company
Thank you, Michelle. Good morning. Welcome to our discussion of Fortune Brands' 2011 first quarter results. Before we begin, let's note that our presentation includes forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those listed in the cautionary language at the end of our news release, and our actual results could differ materially from those targeted. This presentation also includes certain non-GAAP measures that are reconciled to the most closely comparable GAAP measures in our news release or in the supplemental information linked to the Webcast page on our website. Fortune Brands continues to deliver strong growth in sales and earnings as each of our three businesses outperformed their respective markets in the quarter. Our businesses are pursuing strategies designed to outperform their markets, and they're executing at a high-level. As a result, we're on track to deliver another year of strong earnings growth in 2011. Our Beam Spirits business delivered mid-single-digit comparable sales growth, excluding the benefit of initial sale of inventory related to the establishment of an enhanced Australian distribution agreement with Coca-Cola Amatil. On this basis, our global power brands grew at a high-single digit rate, driven by strong growth for Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, Courvoisier and Teacher's. The company outperformed key markets, including the U.S., U.K., Spain, Germany, Australia and India. Comparable operating income grew at a low-single-digit rate as expected, reflecting our double-digit increase in brand investment to support new product launches and long-term brand building initiatives. We're also pleased that we added the Skinnygirl cocktail brand to our portfolio and continue to launch innovative new products in the quarter. Against the challenging comparisons of a double-digit sales increase in the year-ago quarter sales for Fortune Brands Home & Security rose 2% in a market that was softer than anticipated. Results included strong gains from new cabinetry businesses we've earned and growth for Master Lock security products. These gains more than offset modest decreases for faucets and advanced material windows and doors, categories that faced particularly challenging comparisons to strong growth in the year-ago quarter. Operating income in Home & Security reflected higher costs for commodities and our planned strategic investments to support new business and brand-building programs. Our Acushnet golf business began the year with comparable sales that grew 17% and comparable operating income that grew more than 30%. Sales achieved a first quarter record as successful new products drove strong growth in each product category. Sales for the Titleist brand were sharply higher on very strong initial demand for the new Pro V1 golf balls and 910 medals, while sales of the new DryJoy Tour golf shoes as well as gloves and performance outerwear drove robust growth for FootJoy. We're performing very well in the marketplaces across our consumer categories. And we're building on our competitive strength as we position our businesses to create even greater value as independent companies. Each of our businesses has a powerful strategy, a proven management team and prospects for strong growth and returns and strong capital structures. We are now targeting that our proposed separation plan to spinoff Home & Security to either sell or spinoff Acushnet and to move forward as a strong pure-play spirits company, will be approved and completed by early in the fourth quarter. Now let's take a closer look at the numbers. Net sales were $1.76 billion, up 8%. Sales were up 6% on a comparable basis. That measure excludes excise tax, foreign exchange, acquisition and divestitures and further adjusted for the startup benefit of the Australian spirits distribution agreement, which involved an initial sale of inventory. By brand group, comparable net sales on that basis were up 5% in Spirits, up 1% in Home & Security and up 17% in Golf. Net income for the quarter was $81.2 million or $0.52 per diluted share, results included some charges and gains that Craig will touch on a little later. Excluding charges and gains, diluted earnings per share was $0.59, that's up 20% from $0.49 in the year-ago quarter, when diluted earnings per share before charges and gains increased 63%. Reported operating income came in at $160.5 million. On a before charges and gains basis, operating income was $177.3 million for the quarter, up 10% versus the year-ago quarter. Reviewing our asset and investment return measures, after-tax return on net tangible assets before charges and gains was 17%. Working capital efficiency came in at 35%. Asset maturing inventories for Spirits, working capital efficiency was 18%, a year-over-year improvement of 190 basis points. Return on equity before charges and gains was 8% and return on invested capital before charges and gains was 6%. Craig will take you through the performance of each businesses in a few minutes. But first, an update on our key strategic initiatives. The plan we announced in December to separate our three businesses are proceeding very well. As we've said before, we're exploring the potential sale or spinoff of our industry-leading Acushnet golf business. It's fair to say there is very active interest from a broad range of perspective buyers for Acushnet business. At the same time, we're proceeding with our plan for a tax-free spinoff of our Home & Security business. We've already made significant progress to prepare for the spinoff. First, we've determined the corporate organization requirements for Home & Security to become an independent company. Second, we've sought confirmation from the IRS that the spinoff of Home & Security will be tax-free to Fortune Brands and its U.S. shareholders. And third, we expect Fortune Brands and Home & Security will file the initial draft Form 10 with the SEC tomorrow. More on that in a moment. Regarding the ongoing company, we are preparing Fortune Brands to become the pure-play spirits business, operating under the name Beam, following the separation. So our separation plan is on track, we're confident each business will be ready to hit the ground running on day one, and as I mentioned earlier, we're now targeting that this initiative will be complete by early in the fourth quarter. Naturally, this remains subject to completion of detailed separation plans, customary regulatory approvals and final board approval. We expect each business to be equipped to compete and grow on its own, with their management, strong capital structure and growth and returns prospects necessary to drive success and create even greater value for our shareholders. Let me take a few moments to review the strong position at each of these businesses to compete and create value as independent companies. First, our Beam Spirits business. Beam is a leader that has the unique combination of scale with agility and a focused strategy that positions us well to outperform and consistently deliver strong profitable long-term growth. Our scale in Spirits comes from our strong portfolio of premium brand and leading market position. Already the fourth largest spirits company in the world and the largest U.S.-based spirits company, Beam is building momentum with our strategic focus on creating famous brands, building winning markets and further fueling growth with operational efficiency. Our agility comes from our development of an organization that's simpler, smarter, faster and closer to customers and consumers. As a result, we're able to bring new products to market faster, set and respond to consumer trends and leverage assets like our flavor expertise and strong route to markets. New products drove approximately a quarter of our 2010 sales growth in spirits and we're continuing our innovation momentum in 2011. Let's take a look at some of our newest innovations. We're revolutionizing the bourbon category with innovations like Red Stag and Maker's 46, and we're keeping our foot on the gas here in 2011. We've expanded our leadership in the small batch category with the launch of Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve, which is significantly exceeding our expectations. In the second quarter, we will introduce Jim Beam's Devil's Cut in the U.S., which uses a proprietary process that extracts the liquid and the rich flavors trapped inside the wood of the barrel to create the finely balanced smooth 90 proof Devil's Cut bourbon. And building on its success in U.S., we're now rolling out Red Stag in Germany and other European markets. We're attacking the fast-growing flavored vodka category two ways. First, we're very excited about the development and launch of a new unique Puckers flavored vodka line. We've used our award winning flavor expertise to create the bold natural fruit flavors and distinctive drinking experience offered by the Pucker Vodka line. And second, we've extended our EFFEN Vodka brand with EFFEN Cucumber, which has sold out its initial production. We're continuing to innovate on the cognac category as well, with the upcoming launch of Courvoisier Rosé. We're rolling out 100% agave Sauza Blue tequila in the U.S., and Sauza Gold and Silver in Mexico. We're continuing to successfully expand the Sauza -- excuse me, the Sourz brand in Europe and we're fueling further growth for Canadian club in Australia with new RTD [ready-to-drink] products. We're also excited about the addition of the Skinnygirl cocktail brand, which we acquired in the quarter. This premium brand, created by popular entrepreneur, Bethenny Frankel, is a leader in the fast-growing low calorie cocktail segment with Skinnygirl margarita. We have an excellent opportunity to leverage our strong distribution on behalf of Skinnygirl and the brand also provides a powerful platform for further innovation. In 2011, we're continuing to step up our brand-building investments. These investments are supporting the creation and execution of impactful brand-building campaigns that are highly targeted, rolled into our consumers and markets around the world and building strong positions. A few examples of these programs are: in the U.S., the new bold choice campaign for Jim Beam, the new Jim Beam Live Music Series; and our successful multi-platform ESPN partnership are connecting with consumers in new ways and generating incredible buzz for the brand. In the coming weeks, we will launch the first-ever television advertising for Maker’s Mark. At the same time in Australia, the world's second largest bourbon market, we're launching new television advertising to support Jim Beam, which is Australia's number one spirits brand of any kind. We're also continuing to support Canadian Club RTD in Australia. We've built Canadian Club into the market's fastest-growing spirits brand. And in India, we're boosting investments in our brand activation platform for Teacher's Scotch, which we've built into one of the strongest and most respected brands in that emerging market. Our brand-building strategies combined with our enhanced global route to market are positioning us very well in the three global regions by which we manage this business. They are North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific and South America. In the quarter, we've established our enhanced long-term distribution agreement with Coca-Cola Amatil in Australia, which will leverage their unrivaled customer reach and expertise and our consumer understanding in an agreement that provides mutual incentives to further drive profitable growth. Naturally we see great opportunity in the emerging markets and our focus on these opportunities has enabled us to drive double-digit growth in key markets like India, Brazil and Russia. As Craig will detail in a moment, we're building some nice momentum in a lot of areas at Beam. Our investments are paying off and our confidence in the prospects for Beam to outperform as a stand-alone company is further reinforced by the strong team and powerful strategy we have in place. We also believe Beam will continue to generate excellent cash flow, deliver operating margins that's among the best in the industry and have a strong capital structure that will give us the flexibility to evaluate opportunities to further enhance our portfolio. Turning to Fortune Brands Home & Security. We've built an industry leader that is outperforming and has tremendous upside potential as the housing market improves. Home & Security's success starts with the strong fundamental -- excuse me, strong foundation of leading brands and market positions, lean and flexible supply chains and highly effective strategy and talented and proven management team. As a reminder, annual sales for Home & Security exceed $3 billion and 90% of our sales benefit from number one market positions, including: our industry-leading cabinetry business; Moen, the number one faucet brand in North America; Therma-Tru, the most preferred residential entry door brand in the U.S.; and the legendary Master Lock. In the U.S. housing market, where recovery remains gradual and uneven, Home & Security continues to take a proactive approach that has kept the business playing offense. First we're focused on exciting consumers. Investing to build on our leading market positions and drive share gains with organic growth initiatives. These include targeted consumer advertising, such as the return to television advertising for Moen in the first quarter and an upcoming campaign for Master Lock Work Truck security products featuring well-known personality Mike Rowe. We're also investing to support new business we have won over the last -- over the past 12 or 14 -- excuse me 18 months. We expect this new business, which includes Martha Stewart Living, Thomasville, Canada, and Decora kitchen cabinetry at the Home Depot, along with design stock cabinetry program at Lowe's, new programs for kitchen and bath dealers, along with the Waterloo garage organization at the Depot will amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales. We're investing in our innovation pipeline as well across these product categories. As a result, we've delivered recent innovations such as Moen's spot resistant finish, Moen's new Reflex pull down faucet kitchen system, new Moen bath vanities for the Chinese market, the Classic-Craft Canvas paintable door from Therma-Tru and great new styles across our cabinetry brands. We're also pleased that Moen last week won a best of the KBIS [ph] award at the Kitchen & Bath Show for Moen's innovation of new Flushmount body sprays. We're expanding brands into adjacent product categories as well, such as electronic security and commercial safety for Master Lock and garage organization for Waterloo. And we're expanding into international markets. Moen is the number three faucet brand in China and we'll continue to expand Moen's footprint in China with a planned 20% increase in showrooms in 2011, as well as in India and in Latin America. And we're building Master Lock's global presence particularly in Europe, Latin America and China. These are among our fastest growth initiatives in Home & Security and more than a quarter of Moen and Master Lock sales now come from international markets. Second, we're focused on leveraging our lean and flexible global supply chains to deliver excellent customer service and drive profitable growth as volume returns. We've substantially improved our cost structure since the outset of the downturn. At the same time, we've enhanced our flexibility and productivity with the use of lean manufacturing, distributive assembly and design-to-manufacturer techniques. As a result, we deliver among the best lead times in our industry with advantaged cost structures, excellent quality and better improved asset efficiency. Also, our lean and flexible supply chains have enabled us to ramp up production to accommodate the new business wins. As I mentioned, we plan to begin the process of registering Fortune Brands Home & Security stock with the SEC. Filing the Form 10 registration statement is another important milestone as we move towards the proposed tax-free spinoff of Home & Security. The Form 10 will dive deeper into historical operating result as well as the strategy and fundamentals that we believe position Home & Security to create substantial value for shareholders as the Home Products market recovers. A few highlights, the Form 10 will break out results for the four segments by which Home & Security will report results as a stand-alone company. Those are the kitchen and bath, the cabinetry, plumbing and accessories, advanced material windows and door systems and security and storage. You will see that each of these segments looked solidly profitable in 2010 as competitively well-positioned with excellent prospects to leverage and drive growth and returns. You'll also see the basis for which we believe will certainly be strong capital structure for Fortune Brands Home & Security. Again, that will be filed and publicly available tomorrow. As Home & Security looks to become a stand-alone company, the business is outperforming in the marketplace. On top of that, while we continue to see challenged markets this year, the longer-term prospects for Home & Security markets are supported by favorable long-term demographic trends. And we believe shareholders will be enthusiastic about the long-term prospect growth for this business, as high cash flow and a substantial opportunity drives shareholder value over time. Our industry-leading Acushnet Golf business is driven by the iconic Titleist and FootJoy brands and by the best management and sales organization in the industry, we're continuing to build on this strong foundation in golf by investing in two key areas: innovation and international expansion. Successful execution of this strategy has expanded our track record of outperformance in golf into early 2011. New product introductions launched in the first quarter included the new Pro V1 family of golf balls, the new Titleist 910 Fairways and Hybrids, and the new DryJoy Tour golf shoe. These innovations are helping us gain profitable market share. And FootJoy has just announced that it will enter the golf apparel category in 2012, building on its succes in performance outerwear, including the successful FootJoy layering system. Nearly half of our golf sales now come from outside the U.S., and our investments in priority international markets continues to pay off in our strongest growth. We've invested to build our sales and marketing infrastructure in markets like Korea, China and Japan. We're expanding our customer fitting capabilities to these markets, and we are serving these markets with the new ball plant we opened last year in Thailand. One note on Japan, we've been working closely with our retail partners in Japan to help them recover from the tragic earthquake and tsunami. As Craig will discuss, we actually had a very strong first quarter in Japan although the industry can expect rounds of play in Japan to suffer over the next few months, we believe Japan will be a resilient market and will recover. Over the course of 2011, we see upside in other markets that will offset any impact in Japan. We expect to continue outperforming the global golf market in 2011 and the Acushnet Company continues to enhance its prospects to deliver substantial upside over the long term. As you can see, we are confident in the future of each of these businesses and excited about the potential opportunities for shareholders. We're very pleased with the reaction we have had to our separation plan from both long-time and new shareholders as well as our associates. Now here's Craig with a closer look at our markets and the performance for each of our segments.