Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (CHD) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Will the meeting please come to order. I want to welcome all to the 175th Annual Meeting of Church & Dwight shareholders. I am Matthew Farrell, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Church & Dwight. If you registered for the meeting using your 16 digit control number, first and last name in e-mail, you may vote at any time prior to the closing of the polls, using the button marked voting located in the lower right of your screen. The meeting materials may be referenced by clicking materials where you will find links for the proxy statement, annual report, agenda and rules of conduct. In the interest of protecting the health and well-being of our stockholders, employees, directors, officers and representatives, we are once again holding our annual meeting virtually. While the meeting is virtual only, we will welcome questions from our stockholders that are submitted online. You can submit your live questions using the text box provided by clicking the Q&A button located in the lower right corner of your screen. After registering with your 16 digit control number, first and last name and e-mail. But we may not be able to answer every question, we will do our best to provide a response to as many questions as possible. We will address any appropriate unanswered questions on our corporate website shortly after the meeting. We will respond to your questions after the business portion of the meeting, and again, at the end of my overview of our 2020 results. To conduct an orderly meeting, we ask that you follow the meeting rules of conduct. They are available on the meeting website. As is our custom, we will conduct the business portion of our meeting first followed by a review of the 2020 results. Thank you for your cooperation with the rules. I will begin the meeting today by first introducing the members of our Board of Directors: James Craigie, our former Chairman and CEO. Brad Irwin, our Lead Director; Penry Price, Susan Saideman, Ravi Saligram, Chair of our Governance and Nominating Committee; Bob Shearer, Chair of our Audit Committee; Janet Vergis, Art Winkleblack, Chair of our Comp & Org Committee; and Laurie Yoler. Next, I will introduce a few of the Church & Dwight executives. With me are Patrick de Maynadier, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary; and Rick Dierker, Executive Vice President and CFO. In addition to Rick and Patrick, the remaining members of the executive leadership team are also participating today, and they are Britta Bomhard, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer; Barry Bruno, Executive Vice President, International; Steve Cugine, Executive Vice President; Rene Hemsey, Executive Vice President, Global Human Resources. Carlos Linares, Executive Vice President, Global Research and Development; Rick Spann, Executive Vice President, Global Operations; and Paul Wood, Executive Vice President, U.S. Sales. This is Steve Cugine's last meeting as an executive of our company as he is retiring in June after 21 years with the company. Steve was the architect of our new product development process and has led the team as EVP New Products since its inception in 2005, with the exception of a 2-year break. NPD has played an important role in achieving our evergreen goal of 3% organic growth each year. It's common had our company for people to wear more than 1/2. Steve has been our EVP International for the past 7 years. Our international business has been our fastest-growing business over that period of time, thanks to Steve's leadership. Steve has been a true Church & Dwighter for the past 21 years. Thank you, Steve, for your many years of stellar leadership. We wish you the best in your next chapter of life. Also with us today are Mr. Geoff Brash, the Representative from Deloitte & Touche LLP, our independent auditor, is also present at the meeting through webcast. During the question-and-answer period at the end of the meeting, Mr. Brash will be available to answer questions concerning the company's financial statements. Anna Hagberg, CT Hagberg LLC has been appointed as Inspector of Election for the meeting and took the oath of Inspector of Election earlier today. Mr. de Maynadier, who is serving as Secretary of this meeting has delivered an affidavit of mailing, establishing that notice of this meeting was duly given. All stockholders of record at the close of business on March 2, 2021, are entitled to vote at this meeting. A list of our stockholders of record who are entitled to vote is available on the meeting website for inspection by stockholders. I've been advised by the Inspector of Elections that the shares represented at the meeting, either in person or by proxy, are sufficient to constitute a quorum for the purpose of transacting business. Ms. Hagberg, do you have a report?

Yes. The stockholders list shows that holders of 245,088,140 shares of common stock of the company are entitled to vote at this meeting. They are represented in person or by proxy 211,310,558 shares of common stock or approximately 86.2% of all of the shares entitled to vote at this meeting. Therefore, we have a quorum.

Okay. Thank you. Because we have a quorum, I declare this meeting to be convened for purposes of transacting business that may properly come before. The next order of business is a description of the matters to be voted on at today's meeting. The first proposal to be voted upon is the election of 10 directors to serve until the annual meeting of stockholders in 2022. And in each case, until their successors are duly elected and qualified. The Board of Directors recommends the election of the following persons as directors of the company to serve until the 2020 annual meeting -- 2022 annual meeting. James Craigie, Matthew Farrell, Brad Irwin, Penry Price, Susan Saideman, Ravi Saligram, Robert Shearer, Janet Vergis, Art Winkleblack and Laurie Yoler. The second proposal to be voted upon is an advisory resolution on the compensation of the named executive officers set forth in the company's proxy statement. The Board of Directors recommends a vote in favor of the compensation of our named executive officers. The third proposal to be voted upon is the approval to amend our certificate of incorporation to remove the requirement for holders of 2/3 of our outstanding stock to fill vacancies on the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors recommends a vote in favor of that amend. The fourth proposal to be voted upon is the approval to amend our certificate of incorporation to remove the requirement to have holders of 2/3 of our outstanding stock approved certain mergers, consolidations or dispositions of substantial assets. The Board of Directors recommends a vote in favor of that amend. The fifth proposal to be voted upon is the approval to amend our certificate of incorporation to remove certain procedural provisions that will no longer be required once the Board is fully declassified. The Board of Directors recommends a vote in favor of that amendment. The sixth proposal to be voted upon is the ratification of Deloitte & Touche to serve as the independent registered public accounting firm for the company for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. The Board of Directors recommends a vote in favor of that appointment. We will now take questions from stockholders submitted online.

Yes. And at this time, there are no questions online.

Okay. Thank you, Rick. Now that everyone has had an opportunity to vote, the polls are now closed. All electronic ballots and proxies are now in the possession of the Inspector of Election. Will the Inspector of Elections, please report the results of the voting.

The ballots have been counted and the preliminary votes indicate that the 10 nominees for election to the Board of Directors have been duly elected by the affirmative votes of at least 91% of the votes, representing more than a majority of the votes cast at the meeting. The compensation of the company's named executive officers has been approved on an advisory basis by the affirmative vote of at least 86.4%, a majority of the shares present and entitled to vote. The amendment of the company's certificate of incorporation to remove the requirement for the holders of 2/3 of outstanding stock to fill vacancies on the Board of Directors has been approved by the affirmative vote of at least 99.3%, more than 2/3 of votes outstanding and entitled to vote. The amendment of the company's certificate of incorporation to remove the requirement to have holders of 2/3 of our outstanding stock approve certain mergers, consolidations or dispositions of substantial assets has been approved by the affirmative vote of at least 99.3%, more than 2/3 of the votes outstanding and entitled to vote. The amendment of the company's certificate of incorporation to remove certain procedural provisions that will no longer be required once the board is fully declassified, has been approved by the affirmative vote of at least 99.3%, a majority of the votes outstanding and entitled to vote. And the ratification of appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2021 has been approved by at least 93.1%, a majority of the shares present and entitled to vote.

Thank you very much. No further business coming before the meeting. The meeting is now adjourned. And I will now discuss the company's 2020 results. After my presentation, we will have a brief question-and-answer period. And before I start, our presentation contains forward-looking statements, and these statements reflect the company's best intentions, but are subject to risks out of our control. So give me a moment to pull up the presentation. Okay. So let's begin. First, we have a safe harbor statement. I encourage everybody to read this statement after the meeting. 2020 was a solid year for us. I would say everyone who has invested in our company over the years knows our evergreen model and our evergreen model is healthy. The U.S. grew last year. We're becoming more digitally savvy as a company. The international business continues to be a juggernaut for us. Our new products have been successful in the marketplace, and we have a very strong outlook for 2021, not speaking by who we are. So we started with ARM & HAMMER baking soda back in 1846, this year, the company is going to be 175 years old. And in 2020, we had $4.9 billion in sales. You can see displayed on this slide of the various business units: fabric care, health and well-being, home care, waterpik, specialty hair care and personal care. This year, in 2021, we'll cross $5 billion in sales. We have 13 power brands that make up 80% of our revenues and profits. And here they are displayed for you. Most of these brands have been acquired since the year, all of them actually have been acquired since the year 2001. And if you went back to the year 2000, the only brand we really had was ARM & HAMMER. And we like to say, we have 13 brands today and 20 tomorrow because the company has been built through acquisitions. And back in 2004, we had $1.5 billion of sales. And in 2021, we're going to cross of $5 billion. We have very strict acquisition criteria. We like to buy brands that are #1 or 2 -- #1 or #2 shares they need to be able to grow at 3% or better, which is our evergreen model and also have a high gross margin. As you know, our gross margin is approximately 45%. So we like to buy brands that are at or above that. We like things that are asset light. You may recall that about 25% of our total sales are manufactured by third parties. We have an extensive cold manufacturer network. And anything we acquire, we leverage our supply chain footprint, logistics and purchasing power. And finally, anything we buy needs to have a long-term competitive advantage. And how we run the company, I mentioned our evergreen model. Our evergreen model requires us to grow our top line organically 3% and our bottom line 8%. And the way we get there is by expanding our gross margin 50 basis points. Try to expand gross margin -- operating margin by 50 basis points. The way we get there is 25 basis points comes from gross margin, and we get 25 basis points of leverage from SG&A. And where the 3% comes from? Domestically, we expect to grow 2%, international 6% and specialty products 5%. We generate a lot of cash as a company. This is a prioritized use of free cash flow. We think the highest and best use of cash is a TSR accretive acquisitions. And as you run your eyes down the slide, you can see next up would be CapEx, the new product development. And then finally, to the extent we have that debt reduction. And then number 5 would be return of cash to shareholders either through buybacks or through dividends. We have 5 operating principles. Number one, we try to leverage our brands, we have brands consumers love. Number two, we're a friend of the environment, and I'm going to say more about that in a minute. Number three, we have highly productive people. We have the highest sales per employee of any company in the CPG space. We're approaching almost $1 million per employee in 2021. Leveraging assets, I mentioned before that we're asset light. And if you do the first 4 really well, you get good returns. But if you are able to be execute good acquisitions, you're going to get great returns. And that's what we've gotten over the last 1, 3, 5, 15 and 20 years. I said I want to talk a little more about the environment. So we've been around since 1846, 175 years, and we've been a friend of the environment for almost that entire time. So even in the 19th Century, we were using pro environmental wall charts and trading cards we put in our products. And you can see in the early 20th Century, we were using recycled paper ports. So we're way ahead of our time. And then in the '70s, the sole sponsor of the 1st Earth Day. 20 years later in 1990, we were still the only corporate sponsor of Earth Day. And more recently, we've been focused on green energy. And we've been planting millions of trees in the Mississippi River Valley through Arbor Day. And everybody knows that you reason you plant trees is because trees take CO2 out of the atmosphere. Here are our goals. So water is to reduce water and/or wastewater by 25% by 2022. With respect to solid waste, we want to increase our recycling to 75% by the end of this year. And I think the big 1 is we want to be carbon neutral by 2025. And we expect it that by the end of 2021, we'll be 70% carbon neutral. That means we'll be offsetting 70% of the CO2 we put into the atmosphere through our actions of planting trees and buying energy credits. Earth Day 2020, I mentioned, we're a big fan of Earth Day. If you look back last year, what we did. 150,000 wildflower sleep -- seed cards were sent to homes and over 20,000 pine tree seedlings were mailed to customer homes. So this is all in addition to our Arbor Day actions. And we've been getting recognition externally, put a few of them up on the screen. FTSE4Good. EPA Power Growth and also Newsweek's list of America's most responsible companies. And now the financials. So last year, organic sales growth was 9.6%, it's almost 10%. So it was a -- it's a big year. Some of our categories are rocketed why because of COVID and 1 example would be our vitamin business. If you look at EPS, at the bottom of the slide, you'll see we grew EPS 15%. And the way we got there was we expanded gross -- gross margin contracted by 30%, but the top line is what drove the bottom line. Now if you look at the first quarter, which we just announced this morning, we had almost 5% organic growth in Q1. Gross margin contracted, it's largely because of the cost -- input cost increases that many of us are aware of today as both raw and packaging materials. So we expect more of that to come. I'll say more about that in a second. So EPS was flat in the first quarter, and that was actually a good story. Our EPS was $0.83. We expected it to be $0.80, so we're actually beat our outlook in Q1. Mentioned, we have a lot of headwinds in 2021. We have higher commodity costs coming from surfactants and resins. The commodity costs were exacerbated in the first quarter. As many of you know, there was a freeze in Texas, which cause force majeures and interruptions of the availability of raw materials and then higher transportation costs because of the demand in society right now. Tariffs are also a year-over-year headwind for us. And finally, the Texas freeze, which I've mentioned a couple of times. By the way, so what we're doing about it is we've decided to raise prices, reduce our spend on couponing and promotions. And our outlook for the full year is as follows. We started the year expecting that our organic sales growth would be 3%. Now we're expecting it to be 4% to 5%. Gross margin, we expect it to -- expand by 50 basis points, but now we're expecting it to be flat, and that's the net effect of the raw material increases, transportation increases, offset by our price increases and our productivity gains. So we're still holding to our adjusted EPS growth expectations for the full year of 6% to 8%. And finally, we've had 120 consecutive years of dividends, and we recently raised our dividends in 2021 by 5.2% to $1.01 per share. Okay. So now we'll take questions from shareholders that were submitted online.

Okay. There are 2 questions. First 1 is from James. Do you expect the drop-off of business as more people get vaccinated?

Actually, no. On the contrary, we expect, as more people get vaccinated, that consumer mobility will expand. We're already starting to see that if you look at it in the month of April. So during the first few weeks of April, our consumption is up in 14 out of 16 categories. So no, I think to the extent that people get vaccinated, that mobility will increase. I also think that because of the stimulus package, the fact that the personal savings rate is up over the last 12 months that household balance sheets are in pretty decent shape, and that bodes well for our categories.

Okay. And the final question is, can you explain what carbon neutral means?

I think I covered that a little bit in my remarks. So we know how many tons of CO2 that we put into the atmosphere annually. So we're trying to offset those tons with by planting trees. And you can measure the amount of CO2 that you're going to take out of the atmosphere, depending on how many trees that you planted. So consequently, we can do the math and figure out that by the time we get to 2025, we'll have planted enough trees, and we'll have invested enough in renewable energy, in other words, the energy that we buy from utilities. We specify that we want -- like we want electricity from renewable sources. A combination of those will get us to 100% offset by 2025.

There are no further questions.

Okay. So no further questions, then thank you for attending today's meeting. You may now disconnect.