Earnings Labs

Post Holdings, Inc. (POST)

Q3 2013 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 8, 2013

$102.87

-0.91%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to Post Holdings' Third Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. Hosting the call today from Post is Terry Block, President and Chief Operating Officer; and Rob Vitale, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time. The dial-in number is (800) 585-8367 and enter pin number 24090132. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Brad Harper, Investor Relations of Post Holdings, for introductions. You may begin.

Brad Harper

Analyst

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Post Holdings' conference call to discuss results for the third quarter ended June 30, 2013. With me today are Terry Block, our President and COO; and Rob Vitale, our CFO. During this call, we will review our financial results and initiatives through the first 3 quarters of our fiscal year. We will not be taking questions after the prepared remarks. This -- the press release that supports our remarks today is posted on our website at www.postfoods.com. Before we continue, I would like to remind you that this conference call will contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which should be carefully considered by investors as actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements. For more information regarding these risks and uncertainties, please visit SEC filings, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website. These statements speak only as of the date of this call, and management undertakes no obligation to update or revise these statements. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. As a reminder, this call is being recorded for audio replay. And finally, in this call, we'll discuss certain non-GAAP measures. For a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the nearest GAAP measure, please see our press release posted on our website. With that, I will now turn the call over to Terry.

Terence E. Block

Analyst

Thank you, Brad. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today on our earnings conference call. We will review the status of our business, both for the third quarter ended June 30, 2013, and for the 9 months of our fiscal year 2013. Looking at the business retrospectively, the outcomes are materializing largely as we had anticipated, following our spin-out from Ralcorp in February 2012. We knew we had to lay the foundation for both reliability and operating free cash flow and growth, as both are essential to forward thinking optionality for the business. To establish that foundation, recall we had to reverse multi-year negative share and revenue trends, accept some margin dilution to fund the ability to better compete, rationalize the product supply network designed when Post had much larger share of RTE, upgrade the contributions from the consumer demand generating processes of Post and define and execute an acquisition strategy and gained access to deal flow. Progress against the building of this foundation continues to offer encouragement. Third quarter consolidated net sales were $257.3 million, an increase of 6.4% versus the same period last year. A breakout of revenue would have the established Post cereal business, which we will now be calling Post Foods, contributing $246.6 million in sales, growing 1.9% for the quarter, with Attune Foods delivering the difference or $10.7 million in revenue. Please keep in mind that the Hearthside granola acquisition, which we are combining into Attune Foods, was consummated in late May 2013 and contributed only 1 month to the expanded Attune Foods third quarter sales. These Q3 shipments were against a challenged ready-to-eat cereal category, as measured by Nielsen, that was down, in dollars, 2.6% for the same 3-month time period. For the 9 months, consolidated net sales grew 4.3%, reaching $742.4…

Robert V. Vitale

Analyst

Thanks, Terry. As Terry mentioned, consolidated net sales increased $15.4 million for the quarter, including $10.7 million from current year acquisitions. Post Foods, which excludes acquisitions, improved $4.7 million or 1.9% over last year. The improvement resulted from a 7% increase in pound volume, offset by a 4.8% decline in average net selling prices. In Q3, HBO led pound volume increases with a 7.1% improvement, an improvement not reflected in consumption data because growth was primarily in non-measured channels. Approximately 2/3 of the quarterly net pricing decline is attributable to a shift in product mix towards value packages. The remainder results from higher trade spending. On a year-to-date basis, consolidated net sales increased $30.7 million, including $13.5 million contributed from current year acquisitions. Excluding acquisitions, Post Foods net sales improved $17.2 million or 2.4% compared to the prior year, driven by a 5.1% higher volume and 2.6% decrease in average net selling prices. Year-to-date, volume improvements have been driven by growth in the Great Grains and Grape Nuts brands and growth in revenue from co-manufacturing agreements. Q3 gross margin was 43.2%, down 220 basis points from the prior year. This excludes the impact of acquisitions and accelerated depreciation related to the Modesto restructuring. Virtually the entire decline in margin is a result of the lower overall net pricing. As expected, we continue to see higher commodity costs for grains and fruits compared to prior year. However, for Q3, these increases were offset by lower costs for sugar and nuts. Manufacturing fixed cost absorption is consistent with prior year. On a comparable year-to-date basis, gross margin declined 170 basis points to 43.1%. Once again, lower margins are a function mostly of mix driven by declines in average net selling prices. Unlike the quarter commentary, the higher commodity costs, while in line…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.