Operator
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Central Garden & Pet's Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2015 Financial Results Conference Call. My name is Rob and I will be your conference operator for today. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Steven Zenker, Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications. Please go ahead, sir. Steven Zenker - Vice President-Investor Relations & Communications: Thank you, Rob. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. With me on the call today are John Ranelli, Central's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Lori Varlas, Central's Chief Financial Officer. Our press release providing results for our third quarter ended June 27, 2015 is available on our website at www.central.com. Also on the website is the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation with the non-GAAP measures discussed on this call. Before I turn the call over to John, I would like to remind you that statements made during this conference call which are not historical facts, including expectations for new product introductions, future acquisitions and improved revenue and profitability are forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by forward-looking statements. These risks and others are described in Central's Securities and Exchange Commission filing, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed December 11, 2014, and in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q to be filled on or about August 5, 2015. Central undertakes no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise. Now I will turn the call over to John Ranelli. John? John R. Ranelli - President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you, Steve. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I am very pleased with the progress we are making against the plan I set forth when I joined as CEO. We have delivered real operational improvements. The results are now evident in our financial statements. As we continue to execute on our plan, we expect to deliver top-line growth and additional operational improvements, driving continued earnings increases. On our last call in May, I outlined how our focus was shifting to growth. I called out some of the initiatives we are pursuing to drive organic growth in revenues and profits in the years ahead. A key to this shift is changing to a sales-driven organization. Let me elaborate. By being sales-driven we are placing even more emphasis on partnering with our retail customers and providing them with a broad range of products that appeal to our consumers. Being sales-driven is core to our balanced approach. We are leveraging all of our selling tools and more effectively using our dollars and resources to increase our sell-through in the marketplace. Being sales-driven means we are focusing on our customers with the best mix of in-store promotions, point-of-sale initiatives and advertising that drives consumer takeaway. As we become more sales-driven, we are actively building our selling team. Recently, we hired two highly successful pet executives who have a wealth of industry and selling experience. These are strong leaders, who we expect will have a very positive impact on our company. The foundation we have built over the last few years has helped Central return to being a more responsive, flexible and nimble company, attributes that bring value to our customers in many ways. Specifically, we are once again providing industry-leading customer service. Our improved relationships with our customers are benefiting us in a number of ways also. They are creating opportunities for incremental shelf space, enhanced product placement and increased distribution. Because our strategic alignment with our customers is stronger, we have more opportunities to make our products part of our retailers' growth plans. Perhaps best of all, some of our retailers are now calling us first when they have a need for a product, market insights or information. We are proud of the value and service propositions we now bring to our customers. In addition to growing organically, as I just described, M&A is another important aspect for growth. We continue to look for companies that fit well with our business at reasonable prices. Our Envincio acquisition of last year is performing as expected, adding revenues and profits to our bottom line. Also, just last week we acquired a rawhide and dog chew producer, which we believe will be accretive in the coming fiscal year. This is an adjacency that expands our footprint and fits will within our current Treats and Chews business. In addition to our customer initiatives, we are continuing to work on a number of fronts to lower our costs and increase our productivity. We want to be the low-cost producer of high-quality products, enabling us to invest in our branded businesses and be more competitive when bidding for private-label business. I'm pleased that our successes to-date are reflected in our financial results. Our gross margins are up, our SG&A costs as a percentage of sales are down, resulting in an improved bottom line. While we need to continue to reduce costs, the key to our future success is to grow both organically and through acquisitions. To that end, we will continue to leverage the lower-cost structure and stronger balance sheet we have created. The foundational pieces are largely in place to execute on the significant opportunity we have to grow our company over the next several years. I joined the company as CEO almost two-and-a-half years ago. I came here with broad goals and ideas of how to improve the company's performance. I am very pleased with our progress to-date, both in our operations and in our financial results. With the progress we have achieved and continue to achieve, the board and I have thought a lot about the future and how best to maintain the continuity of the business and build on our success. We believe that now is the right time to begin planning for succession. While we have built momentum in our operations and in our earnings over the last few years, we have not yet fulfilled our goals for top-line growth. We have more work to do. I am committed to staying through the end of fiscal 2016, when I reach my 70th birthday. We expect to launch a search for our next CEO this fall to enable an orderly transition. I will continue to work with our management team to build the company. After that, I will consult for an additional four years to support Central's new leader. In the meantime, we will all be working diligently to continue the positive momentum we have worked so hard to put in motion to increase shareholder value. Now I'd like to talk about our third quarter. Lori will give you a more detailed view in just a minute. Again, I am very pleased with our third quarter results. We've delivered earnings of $0.38 per share versus adjusted earnings of $0.28 per share last year. Sales, operating margin and SG&A as a percentage of sales all showing improvement. This is our fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement. When we last spoke, we believed our third quarter earnings would be flat to down versus last year. Instead, our results showed significant improvement. The principle reason we exceeded our third quarter expectations was the shift of certain higher-margin sales from the fourth quarter into the third. In addition, our wild bird feed and private label fertilizer and controls businesses did better than we expected. Also, we incurred lower than originally expected SG&A expenses. While it is still early in the quarter and there are a number of variables that could impact our fourth quarter results, we continue to believe it will show an improvement in earnings. We currently expect our fiscal 2015 earnings per share will be $0.63 or higher, well ahead of adjusted earnings per share of $0.33 in the prior year. On another matter I wanted to share is that our Chairman of the Board, Bill Brown, commenced a leave of absence in July as he continues to recover from injuries he sustained in an accident in his home earlier in the year. Jack Balousek, our Lead Independent Director, is acting as Interim Non-Executive Chairman until Bill returns. The final thought I would like to leave you with is that we've made excellent progress on our vision. The foundational changes we have made are working and yielding measurable results. Actions are now underway which we expect will deliver future sustainable top-line growth. Like our foundational steps, these actions will take some time to yield results. Our team is energized by the successes to-date and is united around delivering top-notch customer service and improved returns to our shareholders. Before I turn the call over to Lori to go over the financials, I want to take a moment and thank her. Although she will be with us through the end of August, this will be Lori's last earnings call. As you have seen, we put out a separate press release earlier announcing Lori's resignation. I want to express my personal appreciation for her invaluable contributions, leadership and hard work over the last four-and-a-half years. We couldn't have done it without you and we will miss you, Lori. Lori A. Varlas - Chief Financial Officer, Secretary & Senior VP: Thank you, John. It's been a pleasure being a member of the team and I'm going to miss everyone. John R. Ranelli - President & Chief Executive Officer: Well, thank you. We have named David Chichester as Acting CFO. David has been a member of Central's board for 13 years, including serving as the Audit Committee's Financial Expert. David has been a Senior Financial Executive for several companies, including Starbucks and Marriott. We will be looking both internally and externally for a permanent replacement. Now I will turn it over to Lori. Lori A. Varlas - Chief Financial Officer, Secretary & Senior VP: Good afternoon, everyone. By now you have likely seen our press release issued earlier today outlining our third quarter financial results. Let me recap and provide some additional color. I'll begin with a consolidated overview before moving on to our segment results. Consolidated sales for the quarter increased 3% versus third quarter 2014 adjusted sales. As a side note, for comparability purposes, I'll be referring to our adjusted 2014 numbers as I outline the details of the quarter. As you may recall, in the third quarter of last year we took a charge related to the discontinuance of two garden products. We reported adjusted numbers, excluding both the impact of that charge and the gain on sale of plant assets. You will find a reconciliation of our GAAP and adjusted numbers in today's press release and on our website. Continuing on with our 3% gain on consolidated sales, we delivered revenue gains in both our Pet and our Garden segments, with the vast majority coming from Pet. We'll get into that in just a minute. Our consolidated gross margin for the third quarter of 2015 was 30.9%, an increase of 30 basis points compared to our consolidated adjusted gross margin in the third quarter of 2014. Our Garden segment drove the improvement in gross margin. SG&A expense as a percentage of sales improved 70 basis points to 22.4%, principally due to the non-reoccurrence of certain Pet marketing expenditures we incurred last year as well as efficiency gains. Corporate expenses increased over the prior year, primarily due to outside consulting expenses. Our third quarter consolidated operating income increased $5.7 million to $39 million. And our operating margin was 8.5%, a 100 basis point improvement over last year, reflecting the higher gross margins and lower SG&A expense as a percentage of sales. We're pleased to see this increase in our bottom line in the third quarter on top of the gains we delivered in prior quarters. Let me move on to the third quarter details for our segment results, starting with Garden. In our Garden segment, revenues increased 2% over adjusted sales from last year. Within the segment, there was a strength in control product sales due to increased distribution and the sales of other manufacturers' product. These gains were partially offset by lower wild bird feed and branded fertilizer sales. Third quarter grass seed sales were relatively flat to last year, which was disappointing after we saw a strong April following a weak second quarter. From an industry sales perspective, the 2015 garden season, which primarily encompasses our second and third quarter, turned out to be somewhat lackluster. The season started late due to a slow warm-up throughout the Northeast and Midwest. April was strong and hopes were high that the second half of the season would make up for the first half weakness. However, in May, record rain in the Southwest, especially Texas, and record heat in the Northeast caused consumer takeaway to falter. So looking back, it was not an optimal Garden season. Year-to-date, our Garden sales were relatively flat versus the prior year. Our Controls and Fertilizer sales were up substantially on the strength of increased distribution. It was lower grass seed and wild bird feed sales that had the largest negative impact. Perhaps most important of all, our Garden profitability for the year-to-date period was the highest in five years. Actions we have taken to lower costs have driven our much-improved Garden bottom line. Getting back to the quarter's result, the Garden segment increased its operating income for the third quarter by $4.6 million versus last year's adjusted operating income. Garden's operating margin improved by 190 basis points to 10.6%. Our grass seed and private label fertilizer businesses were the biggest contributors to the gain in Garden's operating margin. Grass seed benefited from new products and a more favorable mix of sales. Our private label fertilizer business benefited from a more favorable customer mix and lower selling expenses. Our wild bird feed and decor businesses had lower margins than a year ago. Moving on to the Pet segment, third quarter Pet revenues were up $11 million or 5% on higher revenues in our professional products business as well as higher sales of other manufacturers' products. The increase in professional product revenues reflects higher sales of non-consumer active ingredient control products. Additionally, this quarter's professional revenues include higher year-over-year sales from the small natural insecticide business, Envincio, that we acquired at the beginning of the third quarter of 2014. Our Pet Distribution business distributes third-party manufactured products in addition to our branded products to independent retailers and to food, drug and mass. This business is a valuable channel that our branded and private labeled competitors don't have that allows us to provide a broader selection to our customers and provides insight into current industry trends. (20:37) also provides opportunities for organic and acquisitional growth. In the quarter, the sales gains of other manufacturers' products is attributable to increased sales of third-party products in the e-commerce channel and to new store openings by larger customers. Partially offsetting the professional and other manufacturers' product sales gains were lower revenues in our flea and tick and wild bird feed businesses. The flea and tick business was impacted by lower sales in the sub-channel, while wild bird feed sales were negatively impacted by our lower product pricing associated with lower commodity costs. In the Pet industry, 2015 sales growth has slowed compared to recent years. Growth in dog food, particularly the premium natural segment, which has been the driver of the Pet industry's gains over the last few years, has leveled off. In our portfolio, categories within dog food play a larger role. Clearly categories like flea and tick, dog treats and puppy pads has seen decent industry growth this year, while many other categories are down. The weakest industry categories year-to-date that we participate in has been wild bird, pet birds and small animals. In our Pet business, we have reversed course from the sales declines we experienced in 2013 and 2014 due to shelf space losses and our walking away from low-margin business. We expect the revenue growth we have experienced over the last few quarters in this segment to continue. Operating income in our Pet segment increased $4.5 million and the operating margin increased 130 basis points to 13.8%. Higher sales and lower SG&A as a percentage of sales increased the bottom line and drove the increase in operating margin. Our professional and flea and tick businesses were the primary drivers of the increases in operating margin. The professional business benefited from increased efficiency due to higher sales volume. Sales and profitability gains we made in our Envincio business that we acquired last year also added to our profitability. In our flea and tick business, the non-reoccurrence of certain marketing expenditures also had a positive impact. Dog and cat margins were also up, benefiting from better sourcing and a lower manufacturing cost. The equine, aquatics and wild bird feed businesses had lower margins than a year ago. Net-net, both operating profit and operating margin improved for our Pet segment. Looking back to our consolidated results, net interest expense in the third quarter decreased $1.4 million from the prior year to $9 million, primarily due to lower average borrowing including the impact of the redemption of $50 million of our 8.25% senior subordinated notes in the second quarter of this year. Our third quarter tax rate was 37.5% compared to 37% in the third quarter of 2014. Third quarter net income was $18.8 million or $0.38 per fully diluted share compared to adjusted net income of $14.1 million or $0.28 a share in the third quarter of 2014. Turning to our cash flow and our balance sheet, inventories of $340 million were $25 million lower than a year ago, as we continued to seek to optimize inventory balances for our ongoing business needs. This is in addition to the $48 million reduction in inventory we delivered in the third quarter of last year. From a cash flow perspective, our cash flow generated by operations in the third quarter was $155 million compared to $129 million in the third quarter of 2014. CapEx for the quarter was $7.1 million versus $3.7 million last year. Our fiscal 2015 year-to-date capital expenditures are in line with our historical annual run rate of $25 million to $30 million. Depreciation and amortization for the quarter was $8.3 million, down from $9.2 million last year. Net debt was $356 million versus $404 million last year, an improvement of $48 million. Our leverage ratio at quarter end was 2.9 times, down from 5.6 times last year. At the end of the third quarter, we had no borrowings outstanding on our ABL credit facility and had $384 million available for borrowing. During the quarter, we did not repurchase any of our outstanding stock and approximately $35 million remains available under the board-approved stock repurchase program. With regard to our outlook, as John noted earlier, while it's still early in the quarter and there are a number of variables that could impact the company's fourth quarter results, we expect an improvement in earnings compared to last year. We currently expect fiscal 2015 earnings per share of $0.63 or higher, well ahead of ahead of adjusted earnings per share of $0.33 in the prior year. Thank you for joining us this afternoon. We'd be happy to take your questions. Rob, would you please open the line?