Operator
Operator
Welcome to the Flowers Foods Third Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Ellen, and I will be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to J.T. Rieck. Mr. Rieck, you may begin. J.T. Rieck - Managing Director of Investor Relations/Financial Analysis, Flowers Foods, Inc.: Thank you, Ellen, and good morning, everyone. Our third quarter results were released yesterday after the market closed. You can find a copy of the earnings release posted on our website along with a set of slides supporting our discussion this morning. Finally, the 10-Q was filed earlier this morning with the SEC. Before we begin, I remind you that our presentation today may include forward-looking statements about our company's performance. Although, we believe those statements to be reasonable, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. In addition to matters we will discuss during the call, important factors relating to Flowers Foods' business are detailed fully in our SEC filings. Participating on our call today are Allen Shiver, Flowers Foods' President and Chief Executive Officer; and Steve Kinsey, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Following their prepared remarks, we'll open the call to your questions. Now, it's my pleasure to introduce our President and CEO, Allen Shiver. Allen L. Shiver - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, J.T., and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our call. On a comparable basis to last year, we grew sales and expanded margins. Our adjusted EBITDA increased 6.1% and our adjusted EPS is up 9.5%. Flowers' consolidated sales were up 4.8%. Volume increased 3.6%. Price mix was flat and the DKB acquisition contributed 1.2%. Our branded retail sales increased 4.9% during the quarter, or 2.9% excluding DKB. Wonder, Nature's Own and our other white and soft variety bread brands performed well. Tastykake also had strong sales growth. As we saw during the second quarter, our snack cake business is turning around. IRI data shows Flowers dollar share up 2.6% with price mix offsetting flat unit volume. Direct-store-delivered Tastykake is driving our cake business. IRI reports Tastykake retail sales were up 6%, with unit volume contributing 4.5% and positive price mix. Looking at the IRI data, Flowers' share of fresh packaged breads increased to 14.1, up 0.2 share points. Overall category growth of fresh packaged breads was up 1.4%. For the category, price mix was up 1.8%, offsetting down unit volumes. As in the second quarter, store brand continues to lose share, with unit volumes down 2.4%. Moving forward, our team is executing on three initiatives to drive our branded sales of both bread and cake. First, we are broadening distribution of our brands. Not only are we expanding the geographical reach of our DSD network by entering new markets, we are also growing sales in those markets that we've entered in the past five years. This quarter, expansion markets contributed 1.2% to our overall sales growth. We are working hard to keep this momentum. Our recently opened bakery in Lenexa, Kansas is running well, producing fresh product for Kansas City and surrounding areas. Time and time again, we've found retailers and consumers recognize the value of Flowers' excellent service combined with locally-produced fresh bakery products. Broader distribution is not limited to our expansion markets. Despite strong competition, Tastykake has grown sales by leveraging Flowers' DSD network in both core and expansion markets. A key strategic rationale, when we acquired Tastykake, was to take the brand beyond its core Philadelphia market. The team has done a great job on that front, with expanded distribution driving the branded sales growth. Our success integrating Tastykake products into our DSD network gives me confidence that we will execute on our plans to add Dave's Killer Bread items to our DSD routes, and extend the reach of DKB beyond the Pacific Northwest. The second factor driving our branded sales is the success we've had identifying how best to position our brands in different markets. We have clarified our brand positioning for our national and regional brands, and created a strategic assortment that meets the needs of consumers wherever they are, geographically or economically. This process has also allowed us to streamline our product mix, enabling our distributors to be more efficient and effective. And these efforts are leading to share and profitability improvements. Our third initiative to grow branded sales is introducing new products. Earlier this year, we introduced a Right Sized loaf under our Cobblestone Bread Company brand in select test markets. The CBC Right Sized specialty bread has unique varieties of bread that consumers want, but in a smaller size. After the successful test, we've rolled out CBC Right Sized items across our DSD network, and the response from consumers has been great. According to IRI, Cobblestone had the greatest unit increase in the specialty premium category during the third quarter. Between our organic bread offerings and CBC, we have a sound strategy to grow our share of the specialty premium category. Our innovation in the snack cake category continues. For Tastykake, our ever-changing, seasonal flavors continue to be a huge hit with consumers, bringing excitement to the category and driving impulse purchases. In addition to the new Mini Cupcakes I mentioned on the call last quarter, we've rolled out new single-serve items and flavors under our warehouse-delivered Mrs. Freshley's brand. On a consolidated basis, our non-retail sales grew 6.7% due to volume gains from our foodservice customers. We're seeing nice gains from QSR accounts, foodservice distributors, and from independent restaurant operators. Now, for an update on our recent organic bread acquisitions; as we've already announced, we finalized DKB on September the 14th, and Alpine Valley on October the 13th. We've all been working hard to integrate the businesses and execute on our growth plans. We're now adding DKB to our existing West Coast direct-store-delivery network and working quickly to increase capacity and expand distribution in our core markets. Our retailers are eager to have these brands on their shelves, and we are working closely with them in preparation for their spring shelf resets. Even with all the activity, an absolutely critical aspect of the integration has been the attention we put on making sure that even as these companies come together, the quality and integrity of their products and the culture of their team is respected and preserved. By leveraging our long experience growing strong brands, we are working to increase the availability of DKB and Alpine Valley products, all the while staying true to the ideals that attracted consumers to these brands in the first place. Before I turn it over to Steve Kinsey, our CFO, I want to say that this is an exciting time for Flowers. Our team is doing a great job. New brands, new products, and new markets, are all driving sales and increasing profits. Now, let's have Steve give us a review of the financials. R. Steve Kinsey - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thank you, Allen, and good morning, everyone. During the quarter, there were three items that affected year-over-year comparability and were excluded from our adjusted results. First, we incurred acquisition-related cost of approximately $5 million, primarily legal and banking fees. Second, we closed our Morristown, Tennessee, facility which resulted an approximately $736,000 of one-time costs; and then finally, in the third quarter of 2014, we recognized a gain of approximately $1 million related to the Leo's Foods divestiture. For more detail on these items, please reference the non-GAAP reconciliations at the end of our press release. On a consolidated basis in the quarter, our gross margins as a percent of sales were flat year-over-year, while our adjusted selling, distribution and administrative costs fell as a percent of sales by 20 basis points, resulting in our adjusted EBITDA margin increasing by 10 basis points to 11.8% of sales for the quarter. There were several puts and takes affecting adjusted EBITDA margin this quarter. As a percent of sales, input costs declined 60 basis points, driven by sales improvement and lower ingredient costs. However, workforce-related costs and purchases of Dave's Killer Bread products from co-packers each increased 30 basis points, offsetting the input cost declines. For the DSD segment, adjusted EBITDA margin as a percent of sales expansion was driven primarily by higher sales and a lower ingredient cost as a percent of sales, offset by outside purchases of the Dave's Killer Bread products, and to a lesser extent, higher workforce-related costs. The contraction in the Warehouse segment's adjusted EBITDA margin was due to lower efficiencies, higher egg (10:51) prices and increased employee incentive costs. By combining Dave's Killer Bread and Alpine Valley, we'll begin to capture production and capacity synergies. As we expand distribution of these brands and locate production closer to consumers, we will improve our margins and more importantly, improve product freshness. As I've mentioned in previous calls this year, corporate costs remain elevated, due primarily to higher consulting and legal costs. Consulting costs should abate as we complete some key initiatives, while legal costs will remain variable quarter-to-quarter. Third quarter carrying costs associated with the acquired Hostess bakeries were $2.5 million, bringing the year-to-date total carrying costs to $10.5 million. We still have nine closed bakeries. Six remain under evaluation and we continue to market three non-strategic facilities. Interest expense in the quarter was down year-over-year due to a lower average outstanding debt balance as compared to the third quarter last year. Interest income increased slightly due to the increases in our notes receivable from the sale of Ralph's. We ended the quarter with total debt of $897 million, including the debt incurred to complete the Alpine acquisition early in the fourth quarter. Our pro forma debt is approximately $1 billion, putting our trailing 12-month debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio at 2.2 times. As in the past, debt reduction will remain a key focus so we can remain flexible to take advantage of future strategic acquisitions. Since the third quarter of 2013, we've had strong cash flow generation, which has allowed us to reduce our debt substantially, increase our dividend and repurchase shares. The reported tax rate was 36.4% in the quarter as compared to 35.3% in the year ago quarter. One of the primary items impacting the rate was certain non-deductible acquisition-related costs. Overall, the rate was negatively impacted approximately 90 basis points. This brings us to the bottom line. Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter was up 9.5% to $0.23 per share, in line with First Call consensus as compared to $0.21 per share during the prior year third quarter. In the release, we updated our guidance. We now expect sales for the fiscal year to be in the range of $3.818 billion and $3.842 billion or 1.8% to 2.5% growth over the 53-week fiscal 2014. Adjusted EPS is expected to be in the range of $0.96 per share to $0.98 per share. We continue to expect capital expenditures to be in the range of $85 million to $95 million. Our updated guidance now includes the recent acquisitions, which are anticipated to contribute approximately $50 million to $55 million to fiscal 2015 sales and to be neutral to adjusted EPS. As you may recall, 2014 was a 53-week year. That week positively impacted sales approximately 1.7% in fiscal 2014, creating a headwind for fiscal 2015. The adjusted revenue guidance imply the 0.5% to 1% increase on a full year basis for the core business, which is at the bottom of our initial guidance range. We will provide 2016 guidance on our fourth quarter and full year 2015 call in February. Including the recent acquisitions, we now forecast the full year fiscal 2015 depreciation and amortization to be approximately $130 million to $131 million and full year interest expense to be approximately $27 million to $28 million. These items will also be elevated in fiscal 2016 over the 2015 amounts due primarily to the impact of the recent acquisitions. Focusing on the remainder of the year and looking ahead, we are excited about the growth opportunity the recent acquisitions bring to us. Cash flow continues to be strong, and this will allow us to focus on debt repayment as we continue to fund dividend, capital expenditures, and share repurchases. Thank you for your interest. And now, I'll turn the call back to Allen. Allen L. Shiver - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Steve. From both an operational and a financial perspective, we've had good performance so far this year. That is the result of the team leveraging their years of experience and executing on their goals, but we're always looking to improve. Our updated outlook recognizes that there are things that we can do better, and we are focused on making those improvements. Flowers is in a great position, with strong brands and plenty of opportunity to gain market share. Our recent acquisitions of organic brands, Dave's Killer Bread and Alpine Valley Bread, allow us to take full advantage of the growing market for organic foods. As Steve mentioned, we remain committed to achieving an appropriate financial position that allows us to take advantage of future opportunities and create value for our shareholders. Now, Ellen, if you would open the line for our questions, please?