Jeffrey M. Ettinger
Analyst · Farha Aslam with Stephens Inc
Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. We announced first quarter earnings this morning of $0.48 per share, even with last year. The value of our balanced business model was again on display as strong results by our Specialty Foods, Grocery Products and International All Other segments offset weaker results by our Jennie-O Turkey Store segment. Results in our Refrigerated Foods segment were even with last year, hindered by poor pork operating margins. In terms of the top line, we generated record sales of $2.1 billion, an increase of 4%. Total volumes increased 2% despite a planned reduction in harvest levels at our hog processing operations. We increased sales in 4 of our 5 segments. I will now take you through each segment. Our Grocery Products segment profit increased 13%, and sales grew 24%. We began including sales of our Don Miguel products in Grocery Products results beginning in the third quarter of last year, and these sales were very robust in this recent quarter. We were also pleased to see that sales for Grocery Products were up 4% excluding Don Miguel products. Sales gains in Grocery Products were led by our SPAM family of products, Hormel chili, Mary Kitchen hash and Herdez salsa. Sales of our Hormel Compleats microwave meals also increased during the quarter as our new Cheesy Pasta items aided growth. Segment operating profit for Refrigerated Foods was even with last year, as poor pork operating margins and weaker results in live production eroded the results in our value-added franchises and stronger performance by our affiliated business units. The affiliated business units include Farmer John, Burke and Dan's Prize. Sales for Refrigerated Foods declined 2% in the quarter, primarily attributable to a planned reduction of harvest levels in our hog processing operations. We did achieve growth in retail sales of Hormel party trays, retail and food service sales of Hormel Natural Choice deli meats and food service sales of our new HORMEL FIRE BRAISED Meats. Segment operating profit at Jennie-O Turkey Store decreased 23% as we faced significantly higher grain costs and lower commodity turkey meat prices. Increased sales of our value-added products across all trade channels were unable to offset these headwinds. Sales of our Jennie-O Turkey Store fresh tray pack items, turkey franks and turkey bacon were particularly strong, as we continue to benefit from our Make The Switch advertising campaign over the past 3 years. We reduced our harvest numbers at Jennie-O during the quarter in order to better balance our turkey meat supplies. However, higher bird weights offset most of the decrease in harvest levels this quarter. Our Specialty Foods segment profit grew an impressive 43% in the quarter. These results were attributable to both significant sales growth and improved operating efficiencies. Sales grew 7% during the quarter, led by Hormel Health Labs products, private label canned meat, savory ingredients, nutritional products and ready-to-drink products. Segment profit results in Specialty Foods have now registered year-over-year growth for 4 consecutive quarters. Our All Other segment, which consists primarily of our Hormel Foods International business, grew operating profit a strong 37% on a 4% increase in sales. Results were primarily attributable to strong exports of fresh pork and improved profitability by our China operations. Our current fiscal year and beyond are shaping up well. In our Grocery Products area, we are seeing strength in all 3 of our key product platforms. In the traditional canned goods area, we have excellent momentum on the SPAM family of products, Hormel Chili and Mary Kitchen hash. Our microwave franchise is being reinvigorated by our new Cheesy Pasta Compleats items. And within our MegaMex Foods joint venture, we continue to grow our consumer franchises with Herdez salsas, Don Miguel appetizers and Wholly Guacamole dips and salsas. We expect continued growth from both our Specialty Foods and All Other International segments. For Specialty Foods, our approach of managing operations on a segment-wide basis is paying dividends, coupled with some nice sales success in the industrial and private label arena. For International, we look for continued success in growing our SPAM franchise worldwide and with targeted fresh pork exports, coupled with the added sales growth and efficiency we are seeing from our China operations. We're also encouraged by the strength of our value-added protein products in both Refrigerated Foods and Jennie-O Turkey Stores. This bodes well for positive long-term contributions by both units to our overall company. We recognize that both of these units are facing some challenges in terms of immediate delivery of segment profit growth. In the case of Refrigerated Foods, the soft and even negative processing margins in pork are weaker than we had anticipated, but we do expect the balance to eventually return to this area, allowing for more traditional returns. Higher grain costs and lower turkey commodity meat prices will continue to hinder margins at Jennie-O Turkey Store in the near term. We expect the results to begin to improve as we move into the latter part of the year. The planned reduction in harvest levels at Jennie-O Turkey Store and modest and strategic pricing should help mitigate those headwinds going forward. I would point out that this unit is still delivering excellent operating results. The current business is solid from our standpoint, and we expect we will soon see a substantial added benefit in 2 of our 5 operating segments from the Skippy acquisition. Although our ownership of this iconic brand is in its early stages, we are excited by what we see in terms of opportunities for growth, both domestically and abroad. The financial benefits from this acquisition will emerge more significantly as the year proceeds, in that our second quarter will bear the burden of a large amount of the charges related to the transaction. Strong operating margins, enhanced by expected synergies, will flow fully through our results commencing in fiscal 2014. The estimated charges and income are both reflected in our revised guidance. In addition, we continue to enjoy outstanding contributions to total company growth from our innovation efforts. The latest example of our team's work is the planned launch this spring of our new Hormel roast snack wraps, which are being offered by the Meat Products team within our Refrigerated Foods segment. This line consists of 8 varieties of meat and cheese combinations, each rolled in flatbread. These ready on-the-go products can be enjoyed by consumers either in a cold state or easily warmed up in 20 seconds in a microwave oven. This new line outpaced all of our benchmarks in recent test markets, and we are receiving broad acceptance of the line from retailers throughout the United States. Taking all of these factors into account, we are raising our fiscal 2013 earnings guidance to a range of $1.93 per share to $2.03 per share from our prior guidance range of $1.90 per share to $2 per share. At this time, I will turn the call over to Jody Feragen to discuss the financial information relating to the first quarter.