Del Monte Pacific Limited (D03) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Sorry to the participants we had computer issues. So we'd like to start the investors meeting now. Representing Del Monte in this call are: Cito Alejandro, Group Chief Operating Officer of Del Monte Pacific, then President and COO of Del Monte Philippines, DMPI; Parag Sachdeva, Group CFO of Del Monte Pacific; Greg Longstreet, President and CEO of Del Monte Group's in the U.S.; and this is Iggy Sison, Chief Corporate Officer of DMPL. As advised earlier, we will go straight to Q&A, which will be moderated by our colleague, Jennifer Luy. Thank you.

Good morning, everyone. So maybe we can start off with the Asian business for DMPI. We had a very good result, very stellar. Maybe Cito can walk us through on some of the achievements in the second quarter for our DMPI business.

Yes, sure. I thought we would go to Q&A?

Yes. We don't have any questions yet.

Yes. Okay.

I see one in the Zoom Q&A, Jen.

Yes. I'll let Parag answer that shortly, yes.

Let's wait for the questions, should we?

Yes, there's a question now.

There's one question now. It's how was the $90 million bond refinanced?

The $90 million -- thank you for the question. The $90 million bond was financed on time on 9th. It was financed through bank loan that we got from BDO.

Thanks, Parag. As of now we don't have any other questions in the Q&A box.

Any questions, please? Then let's wait for them.

We have a question now. Can management provide an update on the latest status of Del Monte food business and the restructuring?

Greg, do you want to start?

Yes. I think there's a couple of projects and transactions that we're working on. The first is referenced in the deck materials. You'll find that as I page through this tail end of my update on Slide 36, we refer to some of the work we're doing on supply chain restructuring with our Hanford facility sale. This is a sale that has a lot of inherent benefits to the company, both operational, financial and strategic advantages. There are sale proceeds associated with this asset sale and general COGS and margin improvement and a lot of synergy in this project. So this is subject to closing and requisite approvals, but that's one of the major for us. The other key project that we're working on right now would be potential asset sales. We have been marketing the Joyba business for potential acquisition. That process is underway with the [indiscernible] markets. And then we're looking at additional assets where opportunities exist where we are underutilized and high cost in our production. That's a big part of the supply chain piece of what we're doing. And then in general, we are restructuring and reorganizing to be an asset-light, much simpler, smaller organization with less layers of management, increased spans of control and overall lower operating cost, and that work continues. We started that work last year with success and are advancing that agenda this year. So broadly, those are some of the highlights in terms of some of the restructuring. But go ahead, Parag, anything else you'd like to add?

Yes. No, I think just building on that, I wanted to also provide a brief update on the second quarter for the U.S. business since the question was a little bit broader. Overall, our revenue was down by 3% and key categories where we continue to see softness are mainly healthy snacking, which includes plastic fruit cups and canned fruit. So that is one segment, which continues to be soft and behind. Overall, margin improvement was in line with our plans. We delivered around 16% for the second quarter. And if you remember, the first quarter margin was around 10.5%. So that was a substantial improvement. We do obviously continue to be impacted by profit leaks, which I would call incremental grade that we are incurring to sort of sell our excess inventory. We are also being impacted by increased waste. So that bucket continues to have an unfavorable impact. Overall, for the first half, to give you some perspective, that amount of profit leaks was around $40 million plus. That includes excess incremental trade that we incurred -- waste we incurred and also sale of sundry channel, which is near expired products or damage products. The positive was our inventory reduction is on plan. In fact, if you would have looked at our results, our inventory is down by $250 million, which is very much in line with our plan, and we are forecasting that our inventory reduction would be in line with our commitment of 30%-plus. Also I would like to highlight that, that also has meant that despite higher losses that we are incurring because of lower margins and increased interest expense. Our working capital is able to really help us manage the liquidity and sort of lead to a situation where our debt is forecasted to be lower than last year for the U.S. business. We are also contemplating sale of a tomato plant, as Greg mentioned. That should also enable us to further improve our liquidity and contribute to the lower debt that we are expecting in the U.S. So obviously, some -- there have been some tough quarters, but I think with the inventory reduction that we are achieving and the excess inventory being reduced from 15 million cases to almost 5 million, which is a 10 million case reduction. We are sort of looking at reducing our profit leaks next year substantially, and that will help us get back to improve profitability from fiscal '26 onwards. So that's a brief update on the business and just wanted to complement what Greg mentioned on the Hanford divestiture that we are working on.

And just to also comment on Parag's feedback and summary. The intentional work that we're doing right now to reduce inventory and reduce aging excess inventory, the incremental spending that's going on is to successfully remove that inventory that Parag alluded to, is costing a little bit more this year, but it's positioning us for better results next year. That as well as the supply chain transformation will position us for lower cost of goods next year. So we'll see these benefits in '26, particularly in H2 of '26, but a lot of work going on right now, as Parag mentioned a lot of hard work to transform and turn around the business and the results, and we are ahead of plan on many of those objectives, such as gross margin for the quarter and inventory reduction.

And again, just sort of zooming on the margin question, right? You will appreciate that our costs do include the increased storage, increased warehousing, all of that, which we have incurred due to excess inventory levels in the last 12 to 18 months, and that's also being amortized to the P&L. So all the improvements that are being made by way of changing the footprint, optimizing the network, lower or giving -- or taking out DCs or excess storage space, the impact of that will obviously come through in the following years as we sell inventory from this year's pack in the following year pack. So I just wanted to reiterate that one of the margin areas -- one of the areas that is impacting margin is you will see distribution and warehousing costs being higher. That's mainly what we have incurred and are now amortizing to the P&L as we sell that excess inventory from prior years.

Okay. Thank you, Parag. Thank you, Greg. One more question. MDA mentioned unfavorable timing for DMFI regarding the holiday season. Can you please provide additional context there?

Yes. That's just simply a shift in the timing of shipments and the recognized revenue for the holiday. The Thanksgiving was a week later in the U.S. market this year. So we saw sales that were forecasted to occur in Q2. Some of those sales bleed into Q3. So we had a very good November as a result with volume growth relative to plan and forecast. That's an example of that timing shift. So overall, feel really good about the holidays, just a shift in that timing between Q2 and Q3 in terms of recognizing the revenue.

Thanks, Greg. Next question, apologies, as I may just have misheard it. Did the management just mentioned about potential asset sale. Can the management elaborate?

Yes, we are considering that, subject to Board and lender approval, but we are in an advanced stage of selling one of the plants in the U.S. Yes.

Okay. Thanks. Can the company provide guidance on EBITDA and leverage ratios for 2026?

I don't think we can provide forecast on the call, but more than happy to separately work on this question if you're interested in understanding more about how we are planning the transformation or how do we look at restoring profitability in the following years.

Thanks, Parag. Has there been any update on plans for the $30 million parent contribution to DMFI?

It's work in progress, and we are looking at addressing that particular initiative as well.

Right now, we don't have any open questions. So we can give a few more minutes in case anyone has questions.

I just wanted to reiterate one more point on the U.S. business. As we look at third quarter, first of all, as Greg alluded, Thanksgiving was a little bit later. But overall, between October and November, the momentum was strong, particularly on the veg business. But also I want to highlight that from a margin perspective, we would see some dilution because we incur more trade and holiday promotions in this quarter. Just wanted to reiterate as you guys look at Q3 from a forecast perspective. As you consider any questions, we also want to share with you all that the restructuring in the U.S. following the refinancing is progressing. And we are expecting to have final conclusion on that in the third and fourth quarter. But as we look at that restructuring, we also are trying to establish if there's any tax cost associated with that. So that work is also underway, but we are looking at all options to make sure that there is no leakage from the losses that have been carried forward in the prior year. So that work is underway. And I just wanted to highlight that on the call.

Thanks, Parag. So we have a new question, what are management's plans for next summer's pack? How much can we expect utilization to improve relative to this summer's smaller pack?

I can comment on that, Jen. So in terms of next summer's pack, we're going to be very deliberate in our pack volumes like we were this year to address any areas of surplus or excess inventory. Pleased to report that our flagship vegetable operation in the Midwest, had a very good season. We packed record volumes there, and we'll pack record volumes again next year as we look at early indications of demand and supply in the veg business. We also anticipate improved capacity utilization in our California peach operation and the areas where we have real utilization challenges, we are addressing. And as Parag mentioned, through various tactics and potential asset sales, we are consolidating our manufacturing footprint in the U.S. to ensure that we are not penalized by absorption and that we work to lower cost of goods. Anything to add there, Parag?

No. I think you covered it. We would see close to 100% utilization on our veg plant. As our sales of Joyba increases, we should see better utilization in Mexico. And as we said, we -- on fruits, as we lower our inventory, there should be better utilization in our California plant as well. One area, which we have to work through is our pears inventory, and we are looking at some solutions including a strategic alignment, which should help address the issue around utilization.

Thanks, Parag. Thanks, Greg.

I think those were the key highlights, if there's nothing else, please feel free to reach out to us and we can further deliberate next week or the following week. Thank you so much.

Thank you, everyone.

Okay. Thanks, Anything else, Cito?

Jenny, are we done?

Yes, we don't have any more questions.

If there's any questions, just send it over to Jennifer and we will respond.

Okay. Thank you so much, everybody.

Thank you.

And have a good holiday. Okay.

Thank you. Happy holidays. Bye-bye.

Happy holidays.

Bye.