Earnings Labs

Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. (KDP)

Q3 2018 Earnings Call· Wed, Nov 7, 2018

$28.82

+2.36%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good evening ladies and gentlemen and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Keurig Dr Pepper’s Earning Call for the Third Quarter Ended September 30, 2018. This conference call is being recorded. And there’ll be a question-and-answer session at the end of the call. I would now like to introduce your host for today’s conference, Keurig Dr Pepper Chief Corporate Affairs, Ms. Maria Sceppaguercio. Ms. Sceppaguercio, please go ahead.

Maria Sceppaguercio

Management

Thank you. Hello everyone and thanks for joining us today for KDP’s first earnings call. I hope this slightly later start time is more convenient for you. This afternoon, we issued our press release for the third quarter of 2018, and we’ve previously filed an 8-K containing our historically adjusted pro forma quarterly results, both of which are available on our website. As you know, this past quarter was a busy one for KDP with a lot of progress made across business. Here with me today to discuss our results of the quarter and our outlook for the year are KDP’s CEO, Bob Gamgort, and our CFO, Ozan Dokmecioglu. Before turning the call over to Bob, I would like to take a moment to provide some context on the adjusted pro forma basis upon which much of our discussion today of financial performance will be based. As you know, our results start with reported GAAP financials. Due to the merger and unique adjustments required to make year-over-year comparisons helpful, we prepared pro forma basis that takes these impacts into account. These adjustments include resetting the transaction date as if it were consummated on December 31, 2016, eliminating one-time merger-related costs and expenses, and normalizing any accounting differences between the two companies. With these differences accounted for, we then adjusted this pro forma for items affecting comparability not related to the merger, such as the typical mark-to-market impacts, restructuring expenses, and refinancing costs among others. The Company believes that the adjusted pro forma basis provides investors with additional insight into our business and operating performance trends. While the exclusion of these items is not in accordance with GAAP we believe that it is a meaningful comparison and an appropriate basis for discussion of our performance. Details of the excluded items are included in the reconciliation tables in our press release and are discussed in detail in our 10-Quarter, which will be filed shortly. Finally, our discussion this evening may include forward looking statements which are subject to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. And the Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements based upon subsequent events. A detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties is contained in the Company's filings with the SEC. With that, I’ll hand it over to Bob.

Bob Gamgort

Management

Thanks, Maria, and thanks to everyone for dialing in. Before jumping into the results of the quarter, let me take a few moments to share my perspective on how the integration has progressed since we closed the merger in July. The integration management team established shortly after the merger was announced in January, successfully transitioned the two companies into one. We announced the new leadership team in June, implemented new decision and governance processes soon thereafter, and have cascaded our new combined structure throughout the organization. We continued the strong momentum of both legacy businesses and have had no disruptions in customer service or systems, an accomplishment that none of us, who are experienced in acquisition integrations, ever take for granted. Most importantly, the KDP organization is learning to work together. We are energized by the unique opportunity that KDP represents. That energy and excitement has translated into strong performance in Q3, both financial and in-market, and we look forward to closing 2018 on a strong note and entering 2019 with continued momentum. Turning to some highlights of the quarter, starting with in-market results, based on IRI. Retail market performance remained strong in the quarter. Our CSD portfolio registered market share gains in both units and dollars, driven by strong performance of Dr Pepper and Canada Dry. In addition, we grew our coffee portfolio in the quarter, driven by single-serve category unit growth of approximately 7%, combined with a substantial increase in unit and dollar market share of pods, manufactured by KDP. We also continue to gain share and enhanced flavored still water, and we held share in both shelf-stable tea and juice and juice drinks. Turning now to the financials. On an adjusted pro forma basis, net sales were up a solid 2.9% with growth registered in all four…

Ozan Dokmecioglu

Management

Thanks, Bob, and good evening, everyone. Let me start with the results of the quarter, which was a very good one for KDP, and then transition to our outlook for the remainder of the year. Continuing on an adjusted pro forma basis. Net sales for the third quarter increased 2.9% to $2.86 billion compared to $2.78 billion in the previous year, reflecting strong growth across all four of our business segments. Driving the net sales growth was higher volume mix of 3.6%, partially offset by unfavorable foreign currency translation of 0.5% and modestly lower net price realization of 0.2%. Net sales for our Beverage Concentrates segment increased 3.1% to $331 million, driven by higher net price realization of 2.7% and increased volume mix of 0.7%. Partially offsetting these positive factors was unfavorable currency translation of 0.3%. Shipment volume growth for Beverage Concentrates of 0.5% was driven by Canada Dry, reflecting innovation and continued strength of the ginger ale segment. Also contributing to the volume growth were Crush and Hawaiian Punch, partially offset by Sunkist and a modest decline for Dr Pepper. In terms of bottler case sales, which primarily reflect sales from bottlers to retailers and fountain customers, Beverage Concentrates reduced their growth of approximately 1% in the third quarter fueled by higher growth of fountain case sales. Net sales for our Packaged Beverages segment increased strong 4.9% in the quarter to $1.34 billion as compared to $1.27 billion in the prior year. This was fueled by volume mix growth of 5.7%, partially offset lower net price realization of 0.7% and unfavorable foreign currency translation of 0.1%. As Bob mentioned, the lower net pricing was largely due to Bai and BODYARMOR with the pricing actions we initiated on our CSD portfolio during the quarter, serving as a significant offset. Shipment…

Bob Gamgort

Management

Thanks, Ozan. To summarize, the third quarter represented a strong start for KDP. In a very short period of time, we made progress across the business from organization structure to integration planning to delivering a strong first quarter as a combined company. During this time, we also reshaped and strengthened our partnerships across both our hot and cold businesses, and set the stage for a strong finish to 2018. We’ll now open the lines for your questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from the line of Lauren Lieberman from Barclays.

Lauren Lieberman

Analyst

I was curious if you guys could talk a little bit about evian, just kind of role that you see it playing in the portfolio. It strikes to me maybe there is bit of like latent brand equity there, little bit under-representative in terms of distribution. So, you didn’t talk about some of the opportunities for that brand specifically, why it was -- it’s a right answer for you, as you talk about going after that kind of value-add or higher end water category? Thanks.

Bob Gamgort

Management

Water category in total, as you know is very much on trend and growing. You can look at water and segment it, depending on how you look at it into somewhere between 6 and 8 different sub-segments of water, premium source Stillwater is a very attractive segment, both in terms of its size and growth. evian was the original premium bottled water. It really does show though that the power of the brand met the demand with power of distribution. So when they lock their previous distribution agreement, they were actually the largest premium sourced water brand at that time. And the brand that the legacy DPS business with Keurig PG was much smaller and you could see there's a complete reversal and trends at that point in time. So we are really excited to be able to bring full distribution back to evian. Danone is a terrific partner. They love this brand. This is the largest premium water brand in the world. It is a flagship brand in their portfolio and they're very excited to invest in marketing and innovation now that they have confidence that the distribution and merchandising base will be back up to where it needs to be for a brand of this stature. So it's a perfect complement to our portfolio. It's a gap that we wanted to fill and we are excited about the growth prospects of getting it back up for where it once was as the leading premium water brand in the country.

Lauren Lieberman

Analyst

And if there is a room for second question, I know Bob you've reminded everybody that Allied Brands are only 5% of total company sales and profit. But I just saw it in the form it might be helpful if you could recap how you are updating the [progen] or you went through the changes made in the portfolio, but more how you put yourself in a better position to capture value you are creating for your partners, instead of avoiding hits down the road.

Bob Gamgort

Management

So I think, it's just a recap on where we are only a few short months into the combined business on the Allied portfolio; we have added evian, Peet's Iced Espresso and Forto Coffee Shots, which are shipping now; we acquired Big Red and Core, we are excited about those; Fiji and BodyArmor exited the portfolio. And then we continued on with no change in distribution agreements for Vita Coco, High Brew and Neuro. And so really the Allied portfolio has settled out nicely in a fairly short period of time. As we said with all the pluses and minuses of that, there is no change on our earnings or EPS when you net those all out. I think when you think about 2019, which we'll talk about, there may be some slight headwinds to a onetime reset in growth, because you're taking some big businesses out like CG that actually weren’t growing very much. And you are replacing them with some smaller but faster growing businesses. So that's really just a onetime adjustment, has zero impact on our profitability at all. And we think we’re in a really good starting point, but we want to do more. And the go forward position on Allied brands is we're targeting that feel like gap in our portfolio, because we want to make sure that it's an incremental volume generator by its nature. And the partnerships that we are looking for, those that are very long term in nature, they have an equity investment component to it. And in most cases, evian being in situation where it doesn't make sense, they would have a path to ownership assuming that we both hit milestones on that. And that avoids, which you were alluding to which is you help drive the brands' great success and then you're really have, at that point, no advantage versus any other company in owning that brand once you have contributed to its success. We don’t see that as a successful path going forward given all the value that we create. And as you have seen in the business, the value creation has proven time and time again. So that's really the evolution of the allied brand portfolio.

Operator

Operator

And our next question is from the line of Bryan Spillane from Bank of America.

Bryan Spillane

Analyst

Just two quick ones for me. I guess one just a clarification on in terms of the $600 million of interest expense in year one that's I guess second half of '18 through the first half of '19, right? So the first four quarters.

Bob Gamgort

Management

Right.

Bryan Spillane

Analyst

And then second question I guess for you Bob is just, can you just -- in the quarter, you had very good margin expansion in coffee systems. And I think there's been a lot of focus on the price reductions in pods and I think people have been concerned a little bit about the ability to grow margins and have pricing come down. So if you could walk us through where you stand in that process and the drivers of margin expansion, I guess, in coffee systems as we look forward?

Bob Gamgort

Management

Let me talk about the growth side first and where we stand on that, and then I'll talk a little bit about the margin side. We were very happy with the performance that we put in coffee systems during the quarter. And it very much represent the execution of the strategy that we talked to you guys about for a while now. If you take a look at the pod category, and this is IRI but its good proxy for even what we see in some of the unmeasured channels. Pod category grew 7%. We grew share of pods manufacture by KDP. And therefore, our consumption in the quarter on pods was 9%. Now, there's a little discrepancy when you take a look at the shipments. During the quarter, you see plus 3% for pods, that’s really simple. It's just a year ago comparison to a shipment timing where a year ago, we were implementing SAP and so there were advanced shipments in the third quarter that were bumping up again. But the fact that there was 9% growth of consumption during the quarter really speaks to the robust growth that we're seeing in the total system. As you know from a pricing standpoint, we been very strategic is taking price down. We've done that for a couple reasons. We've done it to address the number one consumer barrier to entry two years ago, that's now largely gone away, which was pod pricing. And we also want to compete on a different level and attract the right partners into the system based on price and quality and service. And we talked about we attracted Tim Horton's to come into the system, which is the leading coffee brand in Canada. That’s further evidence of that. We clearly have been able to…

Operator

Operator

And our next question is from the line of Judy Hong from Goldman Sachs.

Judy Hong

Analyst

So I guess first question is just on the DPS side, the packaged beverage division. I know the margins there have been under pressure, just given a lot of the input cost inflation that a lot of the industry players are facing, obviously. But it seems like pricing went through and maybe that a little bit of delayed pricing. But I guess I am just wondering how much of some of these input costs inflation you’re expecting to recoup in the fourth quarter and 2019? And then there’s been a little bit of maybe choppiness around how some of the leading CSD players were taking pricing in the marketplace, some with a little bit of a delay. So how do you think about the competitive dynamics as you’re taking more pricing in that category?

Bob Gamgort

Management

So if you go back to the release that we did for the second calendar quarter of the year, we put results out for DPS and KGM especially separately, because we weren’t running the business at that point in time. But we did allude to the fact that we were seeing inflationary pressures, which everyone in the industry is facing right now. And the fact that we were, at that point, in need of putting pricing in place and that’s what we were really clear that we were going to do. If you take a look at what’s happened in the marketplace, and I’ll just use IRI as an example. On year-to-date basis, our price is up across our portfolio of CSDs about 1.9%. In the latest 13 weeks, it’s up 3.3%. That still lags the category but we’re now catching up. And that's really what's required for us to close that margin gap on the [PB] side of the business. And so if being implemented not a lot of that hit during the quarter. So the benefit to your question will really hit us in Q4 and then roll over into 2019.

Judy Hong

Analyst

And then just a follow-up on the margin or the process improvement at KGM side, so I think you also called out lower marketing expenses. So of the 22% increase in operating profit, how much was the lower marketing? And is this more timing that hit the fourth quarter. How should we think about that?

Bob Gamgort

Management

It’s really timing related, because there’s some nuances around when you want to spend around the holiday season versus year ago, and it was not a significant driver in the profit improvement in the quarter. It was one of the smaller contributor to it and it’s nothing to signal other than just when do we want to time around the holiday. And we’re really happy with the advertising that we have on air right now with James Corden, featuring the new growers; looks great, getting great consumer response to it. So we’re happy to invest in that in the fourth quarter.

Operator

Operator

And our next question is from the line of Brett Cooper from Consumer Edge Research.

Brett Cooper

Analyst

A question for you on the innovation side, specifically on the legacy DPS business. I was just wondering if you could offer your thoughts on, or your perspective on where you take innovation as you go forward relative to prior DPS. And then relative to the coffee business where you had a longer lead time to get innovation out. How long you’ve taken to in innovation cycle that you feel is representative of what you can do going forward? Thanks.

Bob Gamgort

Management

I think we see a lot of opportunities to expand into white space and new territory within our portfolio on both sides of the business. As we talked about on previous occasions, the Allied brand or partnership strategy is an important part of it, but it’s not the exclusive approach to it. And we think there’s a big opportunity, both in terms of the innovation and renovation. I think a good example of this is Canada Dry; Canada dry, great segment, good solid marketing behind it, and then the introduction of Canada Dry with lemonade this year. That business -- if I take a look at -- take a look at on a year-to-date basis that business is up about 16%, It's up actually stronger than that in the latest four weeks. So, I think that is a really good proof point of how some strong marketing and some nice renovation on top of an existing business can really generate growth. And so our perspective is it will be a balanced approach across all of those as we all try to ramp up the growth side of the business. And one last one, as you imagine, that’s very profitable growth to be able to add topspin to a brand like Canada Dry, 16% growth on a CSD, is I think surprising to most people in the outside we talked about CSDs being flat to declining. And so it gives us encouragement that we can really ramp that up.

Operator

Operator

And our next question is from the line of Stephen Powers from Deutsche Bank.

Stephen Powers

Analyst

So just to start a couple of just clean up clarification questions, I guess. On the guidance, I get the EPS has been reiterated. Just want to confirm that you're also reaffirming the 7% to 8% EBITDA growth. Second on the A&P, I think you did a good job of clarifying the timing related. Just as we think about the full year pro forma. Are you net investing in A&P, or is A&P down, is it a source of profit growth in the year? And then last on the synergies. Is any benefits to 2018, because obviously we're not carrying the executive management team at DPS any longer. And I think as of a couple of weeks ago, there has been a pretty sizable restructuring done in Plano. So just want to understand if there is synergy benefit to '18?

Bob Gamgort

Management

We will divide and concur on this one. I'll do the marketing, because it’s the easiest one. The marketing will not be down at year-over-year, it's not a source of profit for us. In fact, we look to generate productivity to invest more behind the brands, which is something that we expect to see going forward. And again, the evidence that we have on the Dr Pepper business growing and Canada Dry business growing, the Keurig system growing, I think are for us gives us very confidence that if we have got the right marketing vehicles, we are certainly not shy to invest in them. Ozan, why don’t you talk about the synergy piece? If you want to talk about -- how do we think about the synergies and any impact on 2018 and then I'll ask Maria to talk about our targets.

Ozan Dokmecioglu

Management

In fact, the synergy that we are going to see in 2018 would be quite a bit immaterial. And we ordered the new and it was related to a handful of executives with regards to the severance, and the consequence of that, the synergies that we had already planned, and literally quite a small number. That's why we did not change our outlook, neither for 2018 nor for 2019. And we basically say, as I said during 10 minutes of readout that we are committed to deliver our synergy number $600 million over three years, so starting $200 million 2019 onwards.

Bob Gamgort

Management

And Stephen, your question about the recent restructuring we announced, that was pretty -- not pretty much -- right on schedule from what our original plans were. And really the timing of that was late in the year and by the time people actually read, et cetera, it's almost no impact in '18 but it puts us in good position along with other synergies for '19. Maria, you want to talk about target question?

Maria Sceppaguercio

Management

I know you asked about EBITDA, let me just start at sales. We disclosed net sales and that’s going to be in the plus 1% to 2% range for the year. Originally, we were talking about EBITDA in the 7% to 8% range. We've since gone to EBIT, because as a public company, we think EBITDA is far more important in our operating income, it's much easier for other folks to track. But the difference between the growth rates is insignificant. So we’re still looking at 7% to 8% growth in operating income. And Ozan already talked about $600 million in synergy, which was another important metric. So I think we’re holding our guidance and all of the important elements of that guidance we are not changing.

Stephen Powers

Analyst

If I could just ask one more question and I guess as a follow on from this, we think about the synergies, culturally down you in legacy DPS. There have been a big move over last five, six, seven years to implement with what was referred to as RCI, rapid continuous improvement. I was just curious as how you guys have -- you've engaged with the DPS team. What you've encounter with regard to that programs. Do you expect that to live on and just any reactions to that and how we should think about that as playing a role going forward?

Bob Gamgort

Management

Clearly, productivity, it's been a big part of both companies' cultures. There is different approaches to it, different names behind it and look at the productivity delivery prior to the merger with DPS. If we saw the before and after picture when it was private and then public again, you saw that was a very significant amount of productivity driven. So, I think it’s great that we are all working together towards the same goal. These are both organizations that have an appreciation for the fact that the way to control your destiny in CPG today is to make sure that you've got robust productivity that you can invest back in the brands and into your organization where needed. And so that part has been, I would say, fairly seamless in terms of the cultural fit.

Operator

Operator

And our next question is line of Kevin Grundy from Jefferies.

Kevin Grundy

Analyst

I wanted to start with the KGM business and come back and build on Bryan's question, and then I have a question on working capital. So Bob, just to come back to the pricing dynamic and you sound relatively comfortable with that. Have we flattened out at this point? So in other words, are you comfortable modeling flat pricing looking out to '19. And then as it pertains to that, when the deal was announced, the expectation was at least at the time the KGM gets back to 2% to 3%, or 2% or 3% type growth in 19 and beyond, things certainly getting better sequentially each quarter this year but not certainly not at that 2% to 3% level. What's your confidence that you can deliver on that 2% to 3% looking out to next year? And then I'll follow-up with the working capital question.

Bob Gamgort

Management

I think, we still have to price -- I wouldn’t -- as we're talking about it moderating, but I would use the word flat right now. And I think that that’s the prudent planning approach to take. It forces us to make the right decisions from the perspective of productivity to cover that from a margin standpoint. And it puts us in a very competitive position, because as I said before, lowering prices attracts more consumers into the system, as well as satisfies our partners. So the targets that we put in place back in the beginning of the year when we announced the deal are very much intact, as Maria talked about before and I think all the elements of the KGM strategy and KGP as client company are coming together nicely.

Kevin Grundy

Analyst

So 2% to 3% but then more volume weighted and you guys can offset the lower price that you’re still confident with that. Is that correct?

Bob Gamgort

Management

I think that’s the way we think about. We play around -- we have the ability to play around with different pricing and volume, different levers to cover this thing. But I think we’re fine from that standpoint.

Kevin Grundy

Analyst

And then quick follow-up for Ozan on working capital. There is clearly a healthy level of working capital improvement based on your leverage guidance looking out, but not to the degree that you're able to achieve on the Keurig side. Now that the deal is closed and you've spent quite a bit of time now with the operations. Do you see potential upside for working capital at this point or is that something that you can comment on?

Ozan Dokmecioglu

Management

And as we’ve said, we’ve successfully developed our working capital in the past doing healthy and into legacy KGM. And it's basically we are applying the same to the table, using even the larger balance sheet. And we feel very good about in terms of the working capital generation levels, why is this turned into cash that we have found out so far in DPS legacy. So we feel very good about it.

Kevin Grundy

Analyst

Yes, I mean more explicitly -- and then I’ll pass it on. So if I am not mistaking, you went to negative 15% of sales on the Keurig side. Is that something that’s attainable on the legacy Dr Pepper side?

Ozan Dokmecioglu

Management

Yes, we will be pretty close to that number somewhere around, as you said, minus 12% to minus 13% is within range. And we have already started to deliver on the trajectory based off the working capital improvements that we managed to do in the past 84 days.

Operator

Operator

And our next question is from the line of Robert Ottenstein from Evercore ISI.

Robert Ottenstein

Analyst

First question, I was wondering if you could just give us a little bit of more background in terms of color on Bai, what strategy is there. You’re taking a little bit of price reductions. What’s going on there in terms of volume, penetration, distribution, velocity, anything to give us a sense of what’s going on with that brand please?

Bob Gamgort

Management

If you take a look at Bai, it's made a transition from a small but rapidly growing brand to a good sized brand. So it’s in the $400 million range right now and on a year-to-date basis growing at 15%. So it is -- the good news is it's large, the reality of that is brands don’t grow at 40% or 50% forever, as you know, especially once you get into that near $0.5 billion range; having said that, we see a tremendous amount of upside on the business over the long term; a lot of distribution still to be gained on that business, particularly in small outlets. If you take a look at some of the IRI numbers, in particular, around some of the smaller outlets as much of that as you can get, there’s still quite a few distribution gaps in there that I think that will continue to drive growth on that brand, going forward. So we’re -- we're happy with how the brand progresses. It's really a nice addition to the portfolio and it’s delivering meaningfully in terms of both revenue, and is a nice profit contributor as well.

Robert Ottenstein

Analyst

And what’s the pricing strategy?

Bob Gamgort

Management

Well, that’s the pricing you're taking look at is there was some negative pricing. It’s really just a quarterly timing of promotion. There's no -- it’s not a conscious strategy as we talked about on pods, for example, to say we’re going to roll back pricing. This is just timing of promotions that impacted.

Robert Ottenstein

Analyst

And then second question I'm hearing through the Grapevine that there's been some supply issues for cans, aluminum cans. Is that anything that you are seeing, or hearing, or affecting you in any way?

Bob Gamgort

Management

There has been some bumpiness in aluminum can supply across the industry, nothing that has reached the level where it would show up in our results, and we noted inflation as well, which is part of what's driving some of the pricing actions in the industry.

Robert Ottenstein

Analyst

And then my final question, I'm also hearing that there is out there a second increase on 20-Ounce PET, The Coca-Cola Company is trying to lead in c-stores. Are you guys following that? Do you have any sense or color on what's going on there?

Bob Gamgort

Management

I mean that’s not something that we could comment, which would be future pricing that’s rumored would be appropriate for us to talk.

Operator

Operator

And our next question is from the line of Vivien Azer from Cowen and Company.

Gerald Pascarelli

Analyst

This is Gerald Pascarelli on for Vivien Azer. Thanks very much for taking the question. So my first question has to do with the coffee systems. The 8% volume growth that you delivered in Brewers, I guess. What percentage or how much did the new innovation from K-Café, K-Latte drive the growth relative to your more core offerings?

Bob Gamgort

Management

I have to look that one. I don’t have that off the top of my head. It's really just started shifting during the quarter. It's really going to hit mostly in the fourth quarter. And so that’s where you will see much more and we will clearly have that answer on our next call. But I think it's mini, the latte and the Café are really going to be a big driver in the fourth quarter, not as much on the third quarter.

Gerald Pascarelli

Analyst

And my next question has to do with Canada Dry. I know that Ginger Ale, strong performance in Ginger Ale was a call out in the prepared remarks. But I guess where does Sparkling Water fit into the growth profile and into the brand's overall performance here as you continue to deliver these strong trends? Thank you.

Bob Gamgort

Management

We think that Sparkling Water, under both Canada Dry and Schweppes has been a big growth driver. It's not something that shows up on a lot of these numbers nor that we talked a lot about it. It’s a relatively small business but there are regions in the country where it's fairly large. But again when you think about our go forward strategy that’s the segment that really would be a good part, a good addition to our portfolio in a broader way than we have played right now with Canada Dry and Schweppes; but there are pockets of country, particularly in the north east where it up sells other sparkling flavor waters and I think it's something that we haven’t leveraged well enough.

Operator

Operator

And we have time for one last question from the line of Nik Modi from RBC.

Nik Modi

Analyst

The question is really on M&A. You obviously have made some moves on brands. But I'm curious how you think about acquiring different go-to-markets, because it does seem like just looking across the entire beverage landscape, distribution is starting to become more of a focus just as companies try to get closer to the consumer. So, maybe you could just provide some contest around that?

Bob Gamgort

Management

Just to clarify, are you saying acquisitions related to distribution versus brand?

Nik Modi

Analyst

Yes, go-to-market -- exactly. Go-to-market, asset purchases versus actual -- just brand purchases or maybe there's both, right? Maybe there is…

Bob Gamgort

Management

I'll do the question. I think anything is fair game as we think about optimizing our business. As we talked about our strategy, it’s a combination of broadening our portfolio and making sure that our distribution and merchandising is best in class. We think about a portfolio side, as I've said before, a combination of innovation, renovation, as well as partnerships and M&A. On the distribution side, we're thinking about things, I think more towards optimization of what we have right now and we've got number partnerships right now in the distribution space that we also think it we could have conversations that are more strategic in nature as well. I wouldn’t rule that out what you’re talking about, but it's certainly not on our short-term hit list of priorities that we think that we can get a significant amount of improvement in the market system by optimizing what we have and maximizing the relationships that are in place right now.

Nik Modi

Analyst

And then just a follow-on to that, when you think about your algorithm that you put out there. I’m just curious how much partnerships -- additional partnerships or Allied brands is part of that algorithm, or is that just what you have in your existing portfolio?

Bob Gamgort

Management

I think as we talked about that those targets, which we go back to as we put out there at the time of the announcement of the merger before we knew exactly what Allied brands would look like. And as we said a number of times that’s what you guys have us forced to navigate through all these complexities to make sure that we're able to land in a very good place, which is exactly what happened where we stand today with Allied brand portfolio, and I talked before about how we think the impact on the business, going forward. We like partnerships so we will continue to do those, and we will continue to add through acquisition as well. And if it got to a point where it was such a material addition to it that it would change our outlook, we have that conversation. But we feel like we’re in good position right now with the partnerships in place and the portfolio that we have to deliver well against the targets that we talked about all the way back to January.

Operator

Operator

And at this time, I am showing that we have no more time for further questions. Presenters, I turn it back to you for any closing remarks.

Maria Sceppaguercio

Management

This is Maria. I just want to thank everyone for joining us tonight. I know it's getting late. We will be around. So if anyone wants to reach out to me, certainly feel free to do so. Steve Alexander' is also here, so reach out to him as well. And thank you for participating and we look forward to continuing the dialog. Take care, everyone.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude our conference call. We thank you greatly for your participation. You may now disconnect.