Earnings Labs

The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC)

Q2 2019 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 8, 2019

$22.40

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day. My name is Sherry, and I will be your operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to The Kraft Heinz Company's First Half 2019 Earnings Conference Call. I would now turn the call over to Chris Jakubik, Head of Global Investor Relations. Mr. Jakubik, you may begin.

Chris Jakubik

Management

Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining our business update. With me today are Miguel Patricio, our new Chief Executive Officer; and David Knopf, our Chief Financial Officer. We'll begin today's call with opening comments from both Miguel and David, and then we'll open up the lines for your questions. Please note that during our remarks today, we will make some forward-looking statements that are based on how we see things today. Actual results may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties, and these are discussed in our press release and our filings with the SEC. We will also discuss some non-GAAP financial measures during the call today. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered a replacement for and should be read together with GAAP results. And you can find the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations within our earnings release. Now it's my pleasure to introduce our Chief Executive Officer, Miguel Patricio.

Miguel Patricio

Management

Thank you Chris and hello everyone. Well first of all I'm honored to be with you today as the new CEO of Kraft Heinz. As someone who has worked on some of the biggest brands in the world I know intimately their power in the marketplace and with consumers. Kraft Heinz has some of the globe’s best roughly 200 brands in nearly 200 countries with nearly 20 of them maintaining their relevance for 100 years or more. We are in 97% of American households today holding the number one or two spots in 50 categories. And I’m humbled to follow the great CEOs that have successfully adapted our brands and businesses through periods of tremendous change over more than 100 years. These are great assets for any business. But at Kraft Heinz we have far bigger aspirations. That’s why I want to be candid with you from the start of my tenure here. The valuation of our stock is now among the slowest in the industry and you deserve straight talk from me about how this business is run. I plan to do that to you today and for as long as I’m here. The entire Board has mandated a new approach to Kraft Heinz. As such it’s my job to tell you what we got wrong and why we got it wrong. Over the coming months I will share more with you about how we’ll fix it but it starts right now with me and our entire senior management team. Our brands are icons, it’s our job to ensure they are leading icons. To do that we must understand the future so we can lead, not follow. We must understand the consumer better than any other company. We have a good start on being data and process driven but…

David Knopf

Management

Thank you, Miguel, and good morning, everyone. First off, with the filing of Forms 10-Q for both the first and second quarters, we expect to regain our current filer status with the SEC. The accounting review and audit process for our 10-K was a thorough and time intensive effort, and we restated past periods for misstatements that have occurred over the past four fiscal years. Overall, the magnitude of adjustments to our historical numbers was a cumulative impact from 2015 to 2018 of less than 1% of net income. We are now taking extensive actions to improve internal policies and procedures, and to strengthen internal controls, including over financial reporting. To date, we have already implemented a comprehensive disciplinary plan for all employees found to have engaged in misconduct; enhanced our organization, augmenting our procurement finance teams with additional experienced professionals in the area of supplier contracts and related arrangements, as well as realigned reporting lines, so procurement finance now reports directly to the finance organization, and have enhanced the level of precision at which our internal controls for financial reporting for goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible asset impairment tests are performed. We're also in the process of reassessing employees’ KPIs, and will be implementing checkpoints to evaluate the impacts from significant changes in the environment, as well as evaluating potential solutions to upgrade our procurement management software, and deploying a comprehensive global procurement training program. Taking these steps to improve internal controls is of the utmost importance for our Board, Miguel and myself. It will continue to be a high priority for the organization going forward. And I would like to thank all parties for their support and dedication, especially our finance and legal teams, our Board of Directors, our financial partners, among others. Regarding our first half performance, overall,…

Miguel Patricio

Management

Thank you, David. I'll start by saying that the level of decline versus previous year is nothing we are proud of, and nothing that any of us should find acceptable moving forward. And while I have officially been the CEO for roughly 40 days at this point, I think it's important to make a candid assessment of where I think we are today. At the outset, I shared many of the concerns that a good number of you have expressed over things like brand support, supply chain execution, the sustainability of our profits, and just how long it would take to be in the position to start growing both the top-line and the bottom-lines. And our Board of Directors made it clear that they wanted to bring change in light of the company's recent missteps and have given me their full support to contemplate any tasks that will create long-term sustainable value for our shareholders. So far, I have found as you might expect, things are rarely as bad or as good, as what you read from the outside. What is clear is that we win when we strongly and consistently invest in our brands. For instance, thanks to innovations and investments to extend a 150-year old brand into new segments, Heinz achieved an all time high market share in U.S. ketchup reaching 70% in the second quarter. And Philadelphia has consistently grown share and grown the category year-over-year since 2014 with 68% share year-to-date by setting the standard for superior quality and taste. We have also built a world class quality organization that has had the fewest recalls in the food industry over the past four years. Since 2015 we invested more than $1 billion of CapEx in North America alone including significant investments on the end of the…

Operator

Operator

[Operator instructions]. Our next question comes from Andrew Lazar of Barclays.

Andrew Lazar

Analyst

So first from me a little more broadly. As you mentioned there's been so much written and said about Kraft Heinz really just into even 4Q results in February, which immediately feels like a lifetime Miguel. It’s a little hard to know from the outside I guess what range true or not. So first off, perhaps if you could just go through a little bit of specifics on what you see as some of maybe the biggest misperceptions among investors at this stage, both positive and negative? And then I just got a follow up.

Miguel Patricio

Management

Sorry, I’m not going to comment on rumors or on speculation about what people think about Kraft Heinz. But I’m glad to tell you why I’m optimistic and why I’m here at Kraft Heinz. I really believe on the power of brand it’s got. And I think that we have an amazing portfolio of brands, some are shiny, some are not. But I think the heritage that we have in the brands, the household proliferation that we have, the awareness that we have makes me feel very positive about the possibility of turning around some of the trends that we have in the brands that are not doing as well. I also think that we have a great scale. And that is a very competitive advantage in America. And I am also very, very excited about the possibility of turning the business around. I have done it before in my life and I think that it is possible. Now to take a business around, I think it’s critical that we define comprehensive strategy. And this strategy has to be based on understanding the future, understanding the consumer. I believe that if we have -- the industry is in huge transformation today. And transformation is also a moment of opportunity. And the ones that are going to take this opportunity are the ones that will understand the future better than the others. So they will lead. The ones that will not understand will follow. And the followers will not win. So we need again to set a comprehensive simple strategy for the future and be very disciplined on making and executing them. So, I'm very excited, I am much more excited today after 40 days than I was on day one about our future.

Andrew Lazar

Analyst

Thanks for that. And I know you're not ready to address, obviously, what you see is sort of a more sustainable margin structure for the business yet, going forward. But as you mentioned, EBITDA margins have sort of come in some 500 basis points or so in the past three years. Some of that's been reinvestment, whether in marketing or capabilities, and some has been related to other items, but margins are still well above the Group average. So I guess my question is, do you think Kraft Heinz with its sort of geographic portfolio and relative market share makeup, should be able to sustain a margin structure still well above the Group or not? Because in your prepared remarks, I think you talked about more efficiently using the spending that's already in the base. Thanks so much.

Miguel Patricio

Management

Yes. Thank you Andrew. Well, let me start saying again that I truly believe that we need to invest much more, especially in our people, and our brands. I think that as I said before that our media investments are below where they should be. But before going after new investments, I would really look at the possibility of inefficiencies in the system so I can reorganize and redeploy these investments. I am still -- of course, it’s early to talk about it but I'm seeing a lot of inefficiencies and this could bring us big opportunities. I'll give you just two examples so I'm not so theoretical. In marketing, we increased investment in the last two years. But in media, we've been declining. We grew investments or we put money behind many other things, agency fees, production, research, product development. But the thing that the consumer really sees, we declined to pay the other expense. This was in our inefficiencies that we can redeploy. I will give you another example, maybe because of all the complexity that we put in the system, our supply chain losses have been increasing actually double-digits in the last years, that’s not acceptable. We need to understand very well the root causes of the supplier chain losses and that to reduce them. We got losses that can be converted in investments. So just two examples of inefficiencies that I have seen very early here in my job. And this has to be my focus before talking about new investments and reducing the margin. I’d be going after inefficiencies, that can put best in the system to feed the growth and seeing them.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Chris Growe with Stifel.

Chris Growe

Analyst · Stifel.

I just want to ask a question. You spoke about -- and I had a benefit of listening to your comments there about needing visibility, improving processes, bringing new technical expertise. From a high level that sounds like that’s a lot more blocking and tackling, basic improvements would be made to Kraft Heinz in order to get the business to where you would like it. I’m just trying to get a sense of, for the timing or expense or something to understand. Those factors, those items that have kind of missing at Kraft Heinz today that -- how long you’re talking, how much do you think it will cost to get the company to the point where you think you a visibility you need and the processes in place to better grow the business?

Miguel Patricio

Management

So Chris let me go back a little bit in time, Kraft Heinz. I think when you put two companies together, the first cycle or first phase or first cycle has to be really about bringing new culture and extracting inefficiencies. I think the company did a good job on that. We extracted a lot of efficiencies. We passed a lot of costs. But then after two years, it’s hard to continue to cutting costs. You need to change the strategy or you need to change the path. In the first year you have two CEOs, you cut one CEO, so that’s cost cutting but the following year don’t have another CEO to cut. Cost cutting is a one-off activity and it is necessary when you have the opportunities. But then you have to move and you have to think about how do you reduce costs but in a different way and that way is really -- you have to change the way of operating the business, it’s about efficiencies, it’s about making better everyday forever. You need to change the mindset. And if you reduce cutting costs trouble, you can get in trouble. I think that this second phase starts now with me. Yes, it could have started before and I think the company would have benefit from that, but it didn’t. And so it starts now with me and I’m going to put a big emphasis on that, not on cost cutting but on efficiencies in the system, extracting efficiencies from the system, making better every day, making our factories much more efficient, making our execution in sales much better, making our marketing investments, as I mentioned before, much better as well. So we invest on things that consumer see, not on the consumer doesn't see et cetera, et cetera. Hopefully I was able to answer your question, Chris.

Chris Growe

Analyst · Stifel.

Yes, that makes good sense. And thank you for that color there. I had a quick question for David. Just do you expect -- you're not giving guidance for the year, but if you could provide us some context around FX and variable compensation and non-key commodity? Are those figures you can update today David or you would wait to get more information on those?

David Knopf

Management

Yes, Chris, thanks for the question. So, like Miguel said, we're not providing at this point guidance. But I can give some additional color on some of the items below the line. So we continue to expect up to $0.25 of unfavorability below adjusted EBITDA line for the full year relative to 2018. And this negative impact will be greater in the second half relative to what we saw in the first half for a couple different reasons. First off, the largest driver is tax. We have some discrete benefits in the first half, whereas we expect some discrete costs within the back half of the year. Second, we did see some FX favorability in the first half in other income that may flip in the second half. Third, related to incentive based comp, will have a significant expense in the second half of the year. And this is due to the timing of the delayed filings of our 10-K and our 10-Qs whereas we typically expect that to happen in the first half of the full year. And then finally, we may see some higher interest expense in the second half as well.

Miguel Patricio

Management

Maybe let me add on this point, Chris, because I believe this was a big disappointment for you that we're not giving you guidance. And I'll go further a little bit and tell you why? First, because I believe that for Kraft Heinz -- and now we need -- what we don't need is to be focused on internal -- on profit targets on the short-term. We have a big agenda to build. We have a second half to deliver. But I think that working on short-term targets will not help. But second, since I've been here just for 40 days, I wouldn't feel comfortable about giving a guidance, that I still do not have the necessary confidence about this number. I'm not sure if I'm going to overachieve my second half if I'm going to underachieve or I will achieve. When -- in this situation, when managers look at the leaders always with empty pockets, right, like they don't know me yet, but what I know is that in the second half some of the pressures that we had in the first half will face pressures like supply costs, or even commercial costs and that is positive. However, there's also risks, and risks such as further retailer inventory reductions, commodity inflation in categories where private label has had a lot of success, like natural cheese, meat, and coffee. But one observation that I made early on is that from a seasonality standpoint, historically, Kraft Heinz usually earned 60% of the 50% -- at least the 50% of the EBITDA in the first half of the year, but that’s just an observation. So we will see how we do.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Bryan Spillane of Bank of America.

Bryan Spillane

Analyst

So first question from me I guess, we’ve gotten this a few times this morning on just how we should be thinking about confidence in the dividend going forward, particularly in the context of at least I guess not having the EBITDA guidance we had before. So if you could just talk about how you are thinking about the dividend and what factors may or may not affect it?

David Knopf

Management

Sure, Bryan, this is David. Thanks for the question. So, as we said before we are committed to our investment grade rating and we firmly believe that our business today generates sufficient free cash flow to support both delevering organically over time as we’ve committed as well as to support the current dividend payout that we have. On top of that we have taken actions as you know earlier this year to accelerate the delevering producing our dividend and successfully divesting India beverages and Canada cheese businesses a couple of digits multiple. So again we feel that the business currently generates sufficient cash flow to cover the dividend and also to delever organically.

Bryan Spillane

Analyst

And then Miguel, just you’re going to the process of reviewing the business. There has been some commentary in the past about potentially just evaluating the portfolio, and gets implied additional asset sale. So could you just provide your perspective not so much on what you might be thinking about doing but just probably more from a higher level just how you think about asset sales in terms of how they create value, don't create value? Just what parameters you're thinking about in terms of what would tend you to do something along those lines.

Miguel Patricio

Management

Bryan, nice talking to you, I don’t want to be evasive on your question. But actually I don’t want to talk about divestitures or non-divestitures until we make our strategic decisions. I think that has to get consequence after what portfolio you’re going to carry for the future and only after refining and having these approved with our Board and discussed and approved, I think we should be talking about divestitures. For that reason at this moment, that question is not undertaken.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ken Goldman with JPMorgan.

Ken Goldman

Analyst · JPMorgan.

Just a clarification and not to beat the dead horse, but you do already have guidance of the year, right, you’ve talked about positive organic sales growth and adjusted EBITDA of $6.3 billion to $6.5 billion. I just want to make sure I understand, are you officially pulling this guidance or you’re just opting not to address it today?

David Knopf

Management

Hi, Ken, this is David. So that’s right that we're not providing guidance for the full year so we're pulling guidance. But I can provide a little bit of color on our expectations for the full year without giving an updated point estimate for sales or EBITDA. So like I said before we do expect to see better year-over-year performance on top and bottom-line in the second half versus the first half and some of the drivers are what’s consistent with what we said in February and there is some new potential risk to that as well. So what hasn’t changed versus our expectations in February are continued retail takeaways that we’ve seen in the market with U.S. consumption of 1%, Canada consumption of 4%, and that we expect we continue to be supported by accelerated innovation in the back half. And we've also seen some promising growth globally in our food service business as well. On top of that, we expect to see improved pricing trends in the back half of the year versus what we saw in the first half. And this will happen with some of the trade timing overlapping, as long as the price increases in the U.S. that we implemented later in the first half that will fully lap in the second half as well. And then finally, on the positive side, as Miguel mentioned earlier, we do expect to see improving cost inflation as we start to lap some of the higher costs that we had in second half of 2018. We has changed versus our expectations in February as we progressed through Q2 is we see risks for further retailer inventory reductions in the second half. Although we can’t say what that may look like, we do see additional risk. And on top of that, we also see risk from accelerating key commodity inflation, particularly in the U.S. in meats and dairy but we will definitely try to manage via price, but could be a risk to us in the second half. And then finally, we also have some potential adverse currency translation versus our expectations in February.

Ken Goldman

Analyst · JPMorgan.

Okay, thank you for that. I appreciate it. And then my follow up. Miguel I know you're not ready to really talk about this in detail, and I understand it. But there's been a lot of talk today about supply chain, shifting the mindset of going from a merger savings model to ongoing productivity. But is there anything you can give us specifically in terms of what's really going wrong on the top-line? I know you mentioned media spending having gone down and so forth. But just your initial take, because to me that's the most important thing that Kraft can to do to turn the story around is to reverse the top-line trend. So if there's any specifics you can share with us right now that'd be great?

Miguel Patricio

Management

I think that we need to have a big focus on both bottom-line and the top-line. Maybe in the past, we were too focused on the bottom-line. We need a strategy, first of all for growth, which is critical. We need to find opportunities, find white spaces, what brands to invest, what channels today that do have lower share, what channels should I invest more, and structure for growth, what countries where we should attack and grow and bet on. And these will all be part of our strategy for growth. So examples, just I was talking here with my colleagues that, a country that I know very well, China. In China we have a very good business on soy sauce. We are leaders in two of the provinces, Guangdong and Fujian, that's two of the most -- the richest provinces. But we are only three. It's a business or it's a industry, soy sauce is an industry $12 billion, it grows 8% per year. And we have great activity there. But we are just in two province, big opportunity to grow outside of this province. There is the big opportunity to have other sauces not only soy sauce. Why haven't we done it? I don't know exactly. But I see this as big opportunity for white space but we have to organize ourselves for growth. It's also good policies, mindsets that we have to do it. And to fund -- and we have to work on the other side, to fund these growth initiatives. We have to be very efficient. We need to be more efficient than everybody else. And to tell you the truth when I came and when I arrived here I was absolutely sure that I would find these opportunities for growth, I was not sure if we had to opportunity for efficiencies because I didn’t know the business. And today I know that we have. There are many other white spaces like in the West, talking about ethnicity, 20% of the population in America is Hispanic and represents 40% of the growth of the population. We don’t have absolutely anything in our portfolio today to attend this population. We don’t even communicate to the Hispanic community. That gives an opportunity. So I’m looking at these opportunities everywhere from a brand standpoint, from a channel standpoint, from ethnicity standpoint, from a country standpoint. And this will be only tools that we will put in our plan that we will present to our Board at the end of the year and to you at the beginning of next year. Hopefully, I was able to answer your question.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from David Palmer with Evercore ISI.

David Palmer

Analyst · Evercore ISI.

Welcome Miguel. Supply chain savings or like it rather was cited as a big reason for the last 2018 shortfall. Where do you believe your supply chain costs not, just the competencies, are relative to where they should be? And I asked because I think there is a lot that wouldn’t be surprised to hear some of the investments needed given the stories we heard out there, not just that the savings are not there as the company stated last year? And I had a quick follow-up.

Miguel Patricio

Management

Look the good news is that the service level that we had in the first half I think were the best I don’t know if ever or in the last year but were very, very high and very, very good. So that is a good news. And I whole credit give to the changes that were made not by me that was way before on the leadership of supply area. So this is one part and we are putting things in place, at present we’re working on simple things which is basically the execution. We are in a much better place. For the future what we did was to open a front both with inside and outside or external people or talent to help us define what is good match for efficiencies for the future. We opened eight fronts that go from supply chain losses to service level that go to people, that go to cost, it’s productivity on the line and these are not projects, this will be a way of living. We’ve been too focused on the present and literally on fire fighting, there is a fire there, let’s extinguish the fire. We need to work on our competencies for the future with the mentality of make it better every day. Again, this is a mentality shift that I lived before in my life, in my professional life that I know what it means and will come forever. This will feed our future in supply, in service level, but also on cost through doing things better, through efficiencies.

David Palmer

Analyst · Evercore ISI.

And just a quick follow up, there was some reinvestment that was made last year I think was it $300 million in some levels of brand support. You said that there's some inefficiencies there. But as far as the return on that investment, and return on any investment you're making in marketing your brands in the categories that you're in, do you feel like there are enough microcosms or individual success stories that you can build upon here? And what would those be? Because I think there's a lot of questions about return on any marketing investment in some of the categories that you're in. And thank you.

Miguel Patricio

Management

Look let me start with progresses. Consumption is that -- we haven't seen consumption up for a long time, share are flat. And I would say the same here in terms of -- and I have here reports from Neilson with 21 categories, 13 of them have positive shares in the first half of the year. So I could argue with you that some of -- there are a lot of investments that are working. I would mentioned, Heinz Ketchup, with the innovation that we had, and the communication is a very good example. Innovation to premiumize the brand, launching organic versions, no added sugar, that we can charge more that have higher margins. And that helps us well, the image of the brand. And that is a very good example of what to do. We put more money behind the brand and we achieve all kinds of shares, 60% to 70% share. That's a good example. So, but on the other hand again as I said, I think we can do a much better job on focus on investments on core brands, not dilute at among a lot of brands and small brands, do more innovation on big brands instead of launching too many new brands, having innovation is more incremental and not dilutive. I think we did a lot of brand extensions but not enough of accretive innovation. So there is a big homework to be done in marketing. I don't think everything is wrong at all and there a lot of good examples but we could -- we can do better and consistently invest in our brands.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Jason English with Goldman Sachs.

Jason English

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

Hey, good morning, folks. And welcome Miguel. Two questions from me as well. And you probably just kind of touched on it by referencing consumption and market share trends, but appreciate the commentary on the reinvestment into people, in media and maybe in some white space opportunities. A lot of investors we speak with have also questioned whether or not investment may be necessary in price whether it be to narrow price gaps with private label, or change the economics of retailers to incent and to focus more on your brands. I would love it if you could just maybe comment on that on where you where you see these price gaps and the retailer economics today and whether or not you think you're properly aligned?

Miguel Patricio

Management

Look, I think that the pricing is an area of opportunity. And I would even say that both pricing, revenue management overall. But specifically on pricing I think that on categorires that we lead we need to meet the pricing and maybe in the past it took us too much time to pass inflation and we suffered with that. I also think that pricing -- averages on pricing are dangerous because we have brands like Heinz Ketchup or like Philadelphia that industry innovation -- or not innovation, we have been able to track price and we continue growing and we're achieving all time highs in that market share. But of course we have more pressure on categories where we have more competition from private label and where kind of more driven by commodities like cheese. So David mentioned before that yes, one of the risk we have in the second half is because cheese -- the commodity of cheese is increasing dramatically, the price of cheese and we’re tracking price and we are expecting private label to follow, but we don’t know if that’s a risk. So that would be my comment on pricing, but I would like to go beyond, I think opportunities in revenue management exist as well. I think we can do a better job to maximize the discount. Discount is a big investment and I think we can be much better on allocating discount by count, by product throughout the year, understand better what works in what way and when and how. And I also think that innovation can play a big role on revenue management and as a consequence on pricing. So I think there are good opportunities in this area to explore moving forward.

Jason English

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

Thank you, that's helpful. And my last question, I appreciate that you guys don't want to box yourself in with specific guidance for this year, but you did have another impairment charge fairly sizable one related to a new five-year operating forecast or revised expectations and priorities. I was hoping you could put a little more context around what is changing as you look out over the next five years versus maybe where your expectations were at the end of last year?

David Knopf

Management

Jason, this is David, thanks for the question. So on the impairment side, first off our impairment testing as you know occurs in 2Q every year. And so we performed our testing procedure this year after we file the 10-K current concurrent with preparing our Q1 and Q2 financial statements. And then to reiterate these are preliminary numbers that we disclose in 8-K. So the preliminary impairment charge in the first half were driven by two main factors. So first off, as you said we did have revised expectations in response to current market factors in some of our international businesses that were evaluated during the first quarter of 2019 as we developed these five-year plans. And as a reminder these are EMEA East reporting unit, LTA Exports reporting unit and Brazil where we had an impairment. Secondly, we also had the application of a higher discount rate to reflect the sustained decline in our stock price since the start of the year. And also you should keep in mind that we did start the year at nearly $60 billion of goodwill and indefinite-lived intangibles with less than 20% attrition relative to carrying value. So what that means is there's going to be risk of future impairments, given any change in forecasts or modeling assumption can particularly trigger that. And to answer your question specifically, as we kind of updated develop these operating forecasts, we did have lower revenue and margin expectations, specifically for the three reporting units that I mentioned, EMEA East, Brazil and LTA Exports. The six brands that were impaired within Q2 were driven by the increase in the discount rate, which again, was reflecting the sustained reduction in our stock price since the start of the year. Operator Thank you. And our final question today will come from Steve Strycula with UBS.

Steve Strycula

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

Hi. Good morning and welcome Miguel. A very short opening question then a little bit more of a strategic one. So the short question would be, as you think about the strategic review, when should the investment community as a whole kind of expect to receive the output of the notification? And then from a strategic standpoint, wanted to understand, given your experience at ABI, a different industry, what are some of the similarities and dissimilarities relative to Kraft’s portfolio that you observed? And how that ultimately impact call it the earnings power of the company? I recognize your private label is low in that industry, but how does that kind of shape your view with the current portfolio they're working with? Thank you.

Miguel Patricio

Management

Okay, Steve, look, we'll update you through the rest of the year on how strategic work is going. But it's our intention to share with our Board at the end of the year, and then sharing with you at the beginning of next year. Now talking a little bit about my experience with food -- well with beer and how this has -- can be adapted to food, I think there are a lot of similarities, but there a lot of differences as well. And I think this has been actually pretty good, arriving here with fresh eyes and asking questions that some were obvious, but people were not asking themselves for a long time. Some were not obvious and they have not been asked about it before. And so this has been positive. I think that my experience in the past both from leading global brands at ABI and using premiumization are the ways to grow top-line was very interesting. When I was Head of Marketing, ABI had been growing substantially because of mix, because of premium brands. And I think actually this is an opportunity for the industry. That is a bit of premiumization going on. But the premiumization actually is coming much more from the small players not from the big players. But let me share with you another experience from my past that I think we can adapt here at Kraft Heinz. I ran our business in Asia, and China has been the best story of organic growth for ABI. And the reason why we succeeded was because we understood the future of business in China better than anybody else. And we understood that economic growth would bring huge premiumization, wealth, the channels will change -- channel would grow immensely. And so we made all the…

Chris Jakubik

Management

Thanks, everyone for joining. For analysts who have follow up questions, Andy Larkin and myself will be available and for those in the media Michael Mullen will be available for you as well. So thank you very much and have a great day.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may all disconnect and have a wonderful day.