Vincent C. Byrd
Analyst · Deutsche Bank
Thank you, Richard. Good morning, everyone. As expected, fourth quarter volume trends improved sequentially from the third quarter, yet higher prices, aggressive competitive actions and cautious consumer behavior continues. Although we do not expect these dynamics to reverse overnight, we remain confident in our ability to manage through this environment. While much ultimately depends on consumer and competitive behavior, we anticipate volume trends will improve this fiscal year. As Richard indicated, our 2013 key initiatives will focus on brand-building investments, innovation, capitalizing on recent acquisitions, realized savings from our supply chain projects and better managing price points. Specific to pricing, this includes narrowing our everyday and promotional price gaps with branded and private label competitors and in certain price-sensitive categories, taking a more aggressive stance on pricing. With the exception of oils, our price gaps compare to our #1 competitor and private label began improving during the fourth quarter, and we'll continue to focus on this going forward. We will also increase our emphasis on the value-conscious consumer and provide lower price offerings through, first, expanding the availability of our opening price point products, and secondly, downsizing selected items. Let me elaborate on these initiatives as we discuss our segments. Beginning with the U.S. Retail Coffee, we have a strong lineup of planned marketing actions and innovation for 2013. The relaunch of Folgers Gourmet Selection bag coffee repositions the brand as an entry level price point into the premium coffee segment. This provides a three-tier pricing strategy across the gourmet section with our Folgers Gourmet Selections, Dunkin' Donuts and Millstone brands. Building on the success of our K-Cup offering, we will soon launch 2 new varieties. We expect our business to realize double-digit growth in 2013 on top of the nearly $180 million of sales achieved in 2012. Additionally, our brands will participate in the test rollout of the Keurig new View [ph] coffee system during the upcoming year. We are also excited to announce the launch of our new Folgers FRESH BREAKS, a premium single-serve instant coffee with a more roast and ground-like experience. To support these new products and other brand-building initiatives, significant marketing investments are planned for coffee in 2013 including a number of new TV commercials. Second, we remain excited about the Rowland Coffee acquisition growth opportunities. We anticipate above-average growth rates from the Cafe Bustelo brand as we continue to expand into other key Hispanic markets in the United States. In 2012, the Rowland brands delivered $100 million in net sales for the U.S. Retail Coffee segment. And we expect to double their sales over the next 5 years. Third, green coffee costs are expected be lower in 2013, providing relief from the record highs we experienced in 2012. This, in turn, will allow lower prices on shelf which we expect will help improve our coffee volume in 2013. In May, we announced an average 6% price decrease on the majority of our U.S. retail packaged coffee products. Retailers are now beginning to reflect this decrease on the shelf. As Mark will discuss, we expect Coffee segment's profit to decline in the first quarter compared to last year's record first quarter, but anticipate segment profit growth for the full fiscal year. Finally, we expect to complete the last major milestone of the coffee supply chain restructuring project later this year. Our Kansas City coffee plant was recently closed, and the expansion of our New Orleans facility is on track to be completed this summer. In addition to improving our cost structure, the expanded plants allow us to capitalize on upcoming initiatives including future consolidation of the roast and ground production related to recent acquisitions and continued product innovation. Turning now to Consumer Foods, we expect overall volume will continue to be pressured in 2013, primarily in the first half of the year due to many of the same factors that impacted it this past year, including higher price points and competitive activities. To help address these challenges and provide growth opportunities, we have a number of new initiatives planned for Consumer Foods. First, we have several new products including the recently launched Jif Hazelnut spreads, which allows us to participate in the fast-growing specialty nuts category. Retailer acceptance of this offering has been very positive. We will also launch new varieties of Pillsbury baking mixes, frosting and seasonal items. Our innovation efforts have led to the launch of a downsized cake mix offering. This new size provides consumers with the same full-sized great tasting cake but is expected to improve profitability in what was currently a low margin category for our business. This profit improvement is expected to begin in 2014, as the coming year will be one of transition. Several new television ads are planned to support the launch of new products as well as building on the equities of our Smucker's, Jif and Pillsbury brands. Secondly, applying our learnings from this past year, we will increase focus on getting the price right in the price-sensitive categories such as oils and milk. We expect to achieve this by improving efficiency of our trade spend and better utilizing our pricing strategy. In the spreads category, we will reinstate our support of the back-to-school promotional period, following last year, when many of the promotional activities were pulled in the first quarter to manage the peanut crop availability. Peanut butter items, which had been temporarily discontinued in 2012, are also now back in the market. Lastly, in terms of the supply chain, we continue to make significant progress on the Orville manufacturing facility and will begin initial production in July and continue to ramp up activities over the next 12 months. The overall cost savings and construction cost related to this project remain on track. In addition, we have made significant investments to expand the capacity of our Smucker Uncrustable sandwich manufacturing facility in Scottsville, Kentucky. As such, we are better positioned to capitalize on continued strong consumer demand for this product, and we anticipate solid volume growth in 2013. Additionally, our capital expenditure plan for this year includes significant investments to further expand the bakery operations in this facility. As you can see, despite the economic and competitive environment, we believe our plans for 2013 will help improve our volume and share of market trends. Let me conclude with a few comments on our Sara Lee food service beverage acquisition, which doubled our existing Food Service business. We have accomplished a great deal since closing the transaction in January. As of May 1, nearly all major systems and processes have been transitioned. The integration was a tremendous achievement by our teams and was done in record time over the past 4 months. And the transition was seamless through our customers. In addition, we redesigned our food service sales organization and go-to-market approach. With a direct sales team now in place, our touch points with customers has expanded significantly, and we look forward to the growth opportunities this provides our overall food service business. Subsequent to the closing, we made 2 strategic decisions that will delay the transaction's expected EPS accretion from what was originally announced. First, we slowed the roast and ground supply chain integration activities, allowing our teams to prioritize other key initiatives underway in our U.S. Retail Coffee business. Secondly, in order to ensure we are meeting the needs of our customers, we initially absorbed additional lower margin Roast and Ground business that was not included in our long-term projections. We have begun to exit some of these businesses, however, at a slower pace than originally anticipated. While these decisions are expected to delay the majority of the EPS benefit for an additional 12 to 18 months, we remain confident in ultimately achieving the anticipated earnings contribution from this business. In closing, while we remain cautious as we enter the new fiscal year, we are encouraged about the proactive measures we are taking to address these challenges head-on, and by the opportunities that lay ahead. I will now turn the call over to Mark to discuss our consolidated results for the fourth quarter and to provide details on our outlook for 2013.