Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (MFI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Maple Leaf Foods Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference call is being webcast and recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Omar Javed, Vice President of Investor Relations at Maple Leaf Foods. Please go ahead, Mr. Javed.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that some statements made on today's call may constitute forward-looking information. This information is based on management's current estimates and assumptions and is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to our third quarter 2026 MD&A and financial statements and other information on our website for a broader description of operations and the risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could affect the company's performance. We've also uploaded our third quarter 2026 investor presentation to our website. As always, the Investor Relations team will be available after the call for any follow-up questions you may have. With that, I'll turn the call over to our President and CEO, Curtis Frank.

Thank you, Omar, and good morning, everyone. Joining me on our call today is our Chief Financial Officer, David Smales. I'll begin with the key messages from the quarter, discuss our updated outlook for the year and highlight the commercial and operating priorities that we are advancing. David will then review the financial results, cash flow and balance sheet in more detail, and I will return after his remarks with a few closing thoughts before we open the line to your questions. . The headline today is straightforward. Disciplined execution delivered strong third quarter earnings growth and cash generation, and our results show that the Maple Leaf Blueprint is working and that our business continues to strengthen. Sales increased 2.4% to $1.03 billion, marking our eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. Adjusted EBITDA grew 15.4% to $129 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 140 basis points to 12.5%. We also generated $175 million in free cash flow and ended the quarter with leverage of 1.9x well within our targeted range. Beyond the headline numbers, the quality of growth was particularly encouraging. Sales grew in both operating units and our branded portfolio continued to gain momentum. Across the company, branded revenue increased 4.5%. In Prepared Foods, branded sales growth was over 6%, supported by branded volume growth that was over 4%. We delivered double-digit growth in branded sustainable meats, increased Canadian branded market share, grew plant protein sales following the relaunch of the Eves brand in Canada, and our protein snacking platform also continued to develop. Mighty Protein expanded into approximately 3,500 gas convenience and dollar locations while extending club distribution and improving velocities. Greenfield protein kits have added approximately 30,000 U.S. points of distribution and secured its first national U.S. club channel launch. Together with our Maple Leaf Natural Selections protein kits, Mighty Protein and greenfield products are bringing our brands into more convenient, protein-rich eating occasions that are meeting real consumer needs. The poultry also delivered a solid quarter. Sales increased 4.3%, led by improved channel mix and pricing. Prime raised without antibiotics delivered double-digit growth. Canadian branded market share increased and London Poultry continued to support a more favorable mix, while protecting our ability to grow well into the future. This commercial progress translated into stronger profitability within the quarter, where favorable sales mix along with improved operating efficiencies and disciplined cost management drove a 15% increase in adjusted EBITDA. Fuel for Growth is also becoming increasingly tangible. Our plants are delivering the benefits attached to our operational excellence program that are ahead of target in downtime, yield and labor costs. We remain on track to unlock more than 4 million kilograms of annual capacity in constrained categories, and we continued to advance our playbook in automation and AI, including the installation of our eighth Cobot at our Heritage facility, and the launch of our Planter Coach AI system that will reduce the cost of food waste while advancing our vision to be the most sustainable protein company on earth. Through the first 9 months of this year, revenue has now increased 3.3% to just over $3 billion, and adjusted EBITDA has grown 8.4%, more than twice the rate of sales growth reaching $388 million. On a comparable continuing operations basis, year-to-date free cash flow has increased 57% to $193 million and we have returned $19 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. This combination of earnings growth, cash generation and an investment-grade balance sheet gives us significant financial flexibility. It allows us to invest behind our brands, advance our strategic and growth priorities while continuing to allocate capital with discipline. Let me now turn to the outlook. We entered 2026 expecting a relatively stable external environment. That has certainly not been the case. Renewed inflation in food production worldwide has raised costs and pressured consumers, particularly in the second half, where cost pressures have intensified across energy, freight, feed, packaging and ingredients along with several protein inputs, such as beef, turkey and chicken, offsetting any benefit of favorable pork markets. At the same time, consumers remain under pressure, and promotional intensity has increased to optimize both our volume and market share performance in the near term. In poultry, for example, which accounts for approximately 40% of our overall sales. This inflation is translating directly into higher costs in real time. These higher costs are passed on from farmers to processors like Maple Eat Foods through the Canadian supply management system, were effective October 18, live bird costs have increased by approximately 3% sequentially in Q4 from Q3 and 8% year-over-year with very short advanced notice. We do expect to mitigate those costs through the combination of disciplined cost management, fully justified price changes and other commercial actions, but the normal implementation lag means we will absorb the pressure in Q4 before realizing the benefits of those actions within Q1. Overall, we are responding with the same playbook that has served us well. We are managing pricing and trade programs carefully, optimizing promotions, driving productivity across the network and maintaining tight control of our own costs. We are also making the deliberate choice to continue to invest behind our brands as we will not optimize a single quarter at the expense of the long-term health and relevance of our leading brands. While we continue to expect revenue and profit growth over last year in the fourth quarter, these conditions mean that we now expect full year adjusted EBITDA to be around the bottom of our previous outlook range of approximately $520 million to $540 million. For fiscal '26, this means we expect mid-single-digit revenue growth unchanged from our previous outlook. Full year adjusted EBITDA around the bottom of our previous outlook range of approximately $520 million to $540 million, capital investment of $130 million to $150 million compared with our previous range of $160 million to $180 million, reflecting the timing of projects and the discipline in our approach. Our net debt to adjusted EBITDA below 3x consistent with an investment-grade balance sheet posture and quarterly dividend growth of approximately 10%. Our confidence in mid-single-digit revenue growth is supported by the progress through the first 9 months, continued momentum in our poultry, in our prepared foods branded portfolio and an additional week of shipping within Q4. We are also continuing to make the structural changes in our business that are needed to achieve our longer-term ambitions. For example, in September, we announced the consolidation of our U.S. plant protein manufacturing network into a single center of excellence in Indianapolis. The transition is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2027 and with benefits beginning in 2028. In addition to this, we are advancing a multiyear finance modernization program to simplify processes and upgrade our systems including the phased transition of selected transactional activities to an external partner beginning this month. Both initiatives require careful execution, and we are managing the impact on affected teammates with care and respect consistent with our values. The expected costs, capital requirements and benefits of these initiatives are reflected in our 2030 outlook. Our confidence in our 2030 financial targets remain unchanged. We continue to target approximately $5 billion in revenue, approximately $750 million in adjusted EBITDA and cumulative free cash flow of approximately $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion from 2026 through 2030 and an investment-grade balance sheet. The third quarter shows that the Maple Leaf Blueprint is translating into stronger and growing brands, better mix, improved efficiency and greater cash generation. We are managing the near-term environment with discipline while continuing to make the right choices for the long-term health of the business. With that, I'll turn it over to David to walk through the financial results in a little bit more detail. David?

Thank you, Curtis, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'll comment on results for the third quarter before turning to cash flow and balance sheet. Sales in the quarter were $1.03 billion, an increase of 2.4% compared to last year. Sales growth was driven by both poultry and Prepared Foods, which increased by 4.3% and 1.3%, respectively. In poultry, sales increased due to improved channel mix and pricing. These factors were partially offset by the impact of lower volume with growth in food service and retail volumes more than offset by a decline in lower value industrial volume. Prepared Food sales increased due to improved product mix and related party revenue, which were partially offset by the impact of lower volume and higher trade promotion spending. Adjusted EBITDA of $128.9 million increased by 15.4% versus the third quarter of last year with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 12.5%, improving 140 basis points over the same quarter last year. Improved profitability was driven by favorable mix in both Prepared Foods and poultry as well as improved operating efficiency and lower SG&A expenses. SG&A expense was $96 million in the quarter compared to $101.5 million last year. The decrease was driven by lower variable compensation and the timing of advertising and promotional expenses. SG&A as a percentage of sales improved by 70 basis points to 9.3%. Earnings from continuing operations were $22.3 million for the quarter or $0.18 per basic share compared to $23.3 million or $0.19 per basic share last year. Adjusted earnings were $44.9 million or $0.36 per basic share compared to $26.8 million or $0.21 per basic share last year. The increase in adjusted earnings was driven by higher gross profit and lower SG&A and interest expense which were partially offset by higher income tax expense. Capital expenditures were $30.4 million in the quarter compared to $27.8 million in the same period last year. Year-to-date capital expenditures were $75 million compared to $77.7 million last year. The decrease reflects 2025 spending related to Canada packers prior to the spin-off which was largely offset by an increase in maintenance capital projects this year in continuing operations. Looking ahead, as noted in our updated 2026 guidance -- we expect capital investments for the full year to be in the range of $130 million to $150 million, down from previous expectations mainly due to timing of projects. Free cash flow in the quarter was an inflow of $175 million compared to $46 million last year. Removing the impact of discontinued operations which contributed $29 million of cash inflow in the third quarter of last year. The increase in continuing operations of $157 million was largely a result of the timing of investment in working capital and was partially offset by higher income tax payments and maintenance capital expenditures. In line with our stated capital allocation priorities, our leverage ratio remains well within an investment-grade range. Net debt to trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA ratio was 1.9x at the end of the quarter compared with 2x a year ago and 2.2x at the end of the second quarter. Strong free cash flow in the quarter, together with our underlying annual cash generation and investment-grade balance sheet provides flexibility to execute a balanced approach to capital allocation. On November 3, the Board of Directors declared the regular quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, consistent with our commitment to a growing and sustainable dividend. Year-to-date to the end of the third quarter, we returned $119 million in capital to shareholders through a combination of our quarterly dividend, which increased by 10.5% from the prior year, and the repurchase of approximately 1.4 million shares under the NCIB. We intend to remain active under the NCIB. It's a minimum offsetting dilution from our stock-based compensation plan. I will now turn the call back to Curtis.

Okay. Thank you, Dave. I'd like to close here this morning with 3 thoughts. First, our third quarter results were strong and broad-based. We delivered our eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth. Both operating units grew, branded volume and sales increased, margins expanded and earnings translated into significant cash generation. Second, the external environment has certainly become more challenging than we anticipated at the beginning of the year and even 1 quarter ago, and we are responding with discipline and communicating with transparency. In the face of this environment, it's important to take away that we do continue to expect revenue growth and profit growth over last year in Q4 and we expect full year adjusted EBITDA to be around the bottom of our original range. Third, it has now been 1 full year since we completed the separation of our pork business and began operating Maple Leaf Foods as the purpose-driven, protein-focused and brand-led CPG company that we set out to create. Over the last 12 months, revenue has grown by more than 4%, adjusted EBITDA has grown by more than 8% or almost $40 million, and our adjusted EBITDA margin has expanded. At the same time, we have strengthened the balance sheet to 1.9x giving us meaningful financial flexibility to invest in our future and execute our strategic blueprint and capital allocation priorities. While we can be proud of what we've accomplished in this first year, not every external condition has gone our way, which makes the progress even more meaningful. The Maple Leaf Blueprint is working. We are building demand behind our leading brands, improving commercial mix, operating our assets more efficiently and translating those gains into stronger earnings and cash flow. We remain confident in our strategy, our assets and our people, and the opportunity to build a larger, more profitable and more cash generative, Maple Leaf Foods is intact, and our confidence in our 2030 financial targets remain unchanged. I want to thank the entire Maple Leaf Foods team for their continued execution, commitment to living our leadership values and dedication to serving our customers and consumers every day. Thank you. Operator, we can now open the line for questions, please.

[Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from Irene Nattel with RBC Capital Markets.

If we could just focus for a moment on the sort of the updated 2026 guidance. I guess first question is, excluding the extra week, are you anticipating that underlying Q4 revenue growth would kind of look more like the year-to-date number?

Good morning Irene. How are you today? . I'm glad to hear that. We -- yes, excluding the external week I don't think we could give you a specific guidance on the quarter, but approximately in that range, I think, would be a reasonable -- reasonable expectation. I mean the way we've provided an updated outlook for the year in terms of both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. By that nature, kind of allows you to calculate more directly an outlook for the last quarter, which I think would give you a pretty good indication of that. And it's just -- it's pretty much reasonably just matched from there. So yes, in and around the range.

And then just thinking about the level and the response to the trade promotional activity. Can you talk about what you're seeing? And then how preliminarily we should be thinking about that frame in 2027, if we assume that the macro backdrop doesn't change meaningfully?

Well, look, it's a competitive and challenging environment from a consumer perspective, as we noted in our opening comments, and we've continued to see throughout the year. I would point out to start the relative performance of our business as compared to other consumer packaged goods companies in North America is a source of pride for us. I mean there isn't a lot of CPGs out there today that have had 8 consecutive quarters of revenue growth are delivering 4% branded growth in the quarter like we did last quarter and are delivering 15% improvements in EBITDA in any given quarter. So we're not dissatisfied in the context of the environment with the results last quarter. In fact, we view them as quite solid. At the same time, you're right to point out that the consumer environment is quite challenged. I think what probably gives us the most confidence in our operating outcomes today is the fact that the branded portfolio performed so strongly last quarter in the face of that consumer environment. The headlines that we would point out to you are 6% sales growth in Prepared Foods from a branded perspective and 4% volume growth from a branded perspective. So even in that -- in that challenging environment -- and we're gaining market share. So even in that challenging consumer environment, we would view that as a very strong performance. We're having to invest more from a promotional intensity perspective than certainly we had anticipated at the onset of this year to get outcomes and we're certainly seeing more inflation as is the consumer. But that's kind of what we're experiencing in the quarter today. And the most positive outcome of that is the uptick in the branded volume following the last inflationary pricing we took earlier this year. So that's a positive perspective. When it comes to 2027, I think there's a little more to play out yet our typical and historical pattern in terms of releasing an outlook for next year and providing guidance comes later this -- our early story in the year next year in the first quarter. So we'll give you a little bit more color on 2027 and what that means at that time.

Your next question comes from Derek Lessard with TD Cowen.

Congrats on the quarter. I guess, Curtis, in your prepared remarks, you noted strong channel penetration in some key milestones and C-stores and club. Maybe could you just talk about the runway you've got there and how should we distinguish from early distribution gains from a platform that's scaling versus material longer-term contributor?

Yes, sure. Happy to do. The one competitive -- unique competitive advantage that we talk about from a Maple Foods perspective is the leadership we have in protein more broadly. And in today's environment, including the rapid adoption of GLP-1s, I think it's really important to have that protein position. And the reason I start there is because protein snacking. There are 2 places that we would point to say competitively differentiate us. One is in the protein -- or in the poultry business in particular, which drives a clear line of sight to the benefit of healthy protein for consumers and the other is in protein snacking. And the ability to expand our distribution of protein snacking really in 2 ways in protein kits, which you would have seen in our materials. We have the largest kitting manufacturing facility in the Canadian market and brand leadership in that category. And what we've done with meat sticks, not just with Mighty Protein, but with the Schneider's brand are 2 great examples of that. Traditionally, our distribution focus has been in the retail channel, but expanding to gas and convenience dollar and continuing to build penetration in the club channel have been really helpful to us. So not only are we growing there today and adding points of distribution that we highlighted, but really a few products paved the way for more products. And to answer your question more directly, we continue to be able to do that. We'll have lots of legs and lots of opportunity for growth as we build stronger relationships and bring more products to that channel.

Super helpful. And then maybe just one last one for me. Just on the CapEx -- on the reduction in the CapEx guide that you guys pointed primarily to project timing. Just wondering if you could maybe add some meat to that bone and whether there's been any change in investment priorities.

Yes, sure, David, you can help with that one. .

Yes. No change in priorities. Derek. It's really just a timing and phasing of some of the projects that are underway and when we expect that spending to materialize. So no change in strategic priorities.

Okay. So I guess we could tack that on into 2027 then?

Yes. Obviously, we'll look at 2027 capital guidance in line with the timing Curtis talked about earlier, as we put together our capital plans for 2027, we'll take some of that into account. So it won't necessarily be a straight add-on. There's lots of moving pieces as we think about 2027. But some of that timing will move into next year for sure.

Our next question comes from Tamy Chen with BMO Capital Markets.

I want to go back to the description you have for your inflation you're seeing. So -- so how did that trend, I guess, so far in the second half of this year versus the first half relative to your expectations? Was it a significant acceleration? And can you just touch on exactly the main components that have really accelerated. And I'm wondering if you can also talk about in Q1, what exactly it is that you intend to do to mitigate that? I don't know if you can still pass through price with your retail customers right now?

Okay. Great. Thanks, Tamy and good morning. The question on what's changing in the business, I think, is an important one, obviously. And I would highlight what's changed most materially is the environment, not our kind of the underlying direction of our execution. There are 3 things that I think are important that I would point you to in terms of the moving parts probably from the start of the year till today and certainly from Q3 moving into Q4. The first is we've seen more inflation enter the business than we have expected, that's accelerating. And they're really to answer your question in 2 areas, I think, that are the most pronounced. The first comes in fuel and fuel surcharges. When we were last together for our Q2 earnings call, up until today, fuel surcharges have increased about 17%. So a pretty material change in our pricing and that we've implemented has not yet caught up to that. So that's one material component. But the most important 1 comes in our poultry business. Poultry, as you know, is supply managed. The costs are regulated. And -- and we've seen the cost of live poultry, so our direct raw material input, the cost of live poultry, increased about 3% from quarter 3 to quarter 4. And effective October 18, which is 8% year-over-year which is a pretty material move in the poultry business. So those 2 things combined the continued impact of broader-based inflation tied to global conflict and specifically fuel and energy combined with the changes in poultry are really what's driving the inflationary component. So that's the first component of what's changed inflation. The second is the consumer environment continues to be stressed and probably more so than we would have expected at the onset of this year, more sustained food inflation, more broad-based inflation overall, interest rates moving higher and a real demand for value, so the consumer environment will be the second. There's a smaller timing effect in Q4 tied to selling through, but just the timing of selling through higher cost inventory, that's probably the smaller thing. And when I reflect on execution, the only other color I would add for you is we've clearly got a little less private label volume actually in our business than we would have expected at this point in the year, and that's an area of focus for us. So very, very pleased with the branded performance from an execution perspective. It's certainly my expectation that we would have had a little stronger volumes in private label. There are reasons for that, and we'll get those resolved. But that's really how I would sum up kind of where we are today and what's changed kind of from the onset of the year and even what we expect Q3 to Q4. With respect to the mitigating actions, there are a few of them that I think are really important. The first is that we control our costs in a very disciplined way. I mean, you saw that in the third quarter, SG&A, operating efficiencies and the work we're doing in fuel for growth. And in this consumer environment, managing those costs is hugely important. The second is the work we do to optimize in our revenue management function, the promotional offer to the consumer, and we're working away at that. We saw a very positive outcome in Q3 volume and market share outcomes across the branded portfolio. And the third is obviously after we've exhausted those levers, making changes to our pricing architecture. We do have plans to adjust our prices in Q1. There's still a time window to do that within the quarter. And we haven't yet announced those changes to our customers. So it would be premature to comment on them. I think it's important to us that we have an opportunity to work through those changes directly with our customer partners, but we are expecting to make adjustments in the first quarter.

And my follow-up is, specifically in poultry for Q3. I was curious how it performed versus your expectations. Can you talk about the broader category in retail, if you're saying the consumer is perhaps a bit more stressed lately? How is your Poultry segment doing exiting the quarter. And I think you mentioned Curtis like your total branded, like total company branded volume growth was up 4.5% and prepared. Food was up 6%. So it sounds like your branded volume in poultry was lower than that. Am I thinking about that correctly?

We were super pleased with the poultry outcome in the quarter. And you might look at the top line number of 4.3-ish percent growth and maybe arrive at a different conclusion. I was still obviously pleased with that. But there are a few things, timing, that are important inside of that to unpack. The first is, in Q3 last year, we grew the poultry business 16%, 16%. So we were comping a very big quarter. and we had 4% revenue growth on top of that. But that's not the real story in the poultry business. What's really important is that we had very solid growth in both the retail and food service channel, accompanied by double-digit declines in the industrial channel. So we got to 4% growth by really solid growth in retail and food service, and double-digit declines in the industrial channel. And that's a very good thing for our business in terms of the mix profile of the revenue that we generated because the industrial channel obviously tends to have the lowest profitability. So that's very purposeful in terms of strategy execution. Something important to highlight would be our Maple Leaf Prime raised without antibiotics brand had double-digit growth within the quarter, just as an example, inside of that. And our market share, obviously, as we noted, was up. So we were really happy with the poultry growth and more importantly, how it materialized, then the mix outcomes that came alongside that.

Your next question comes from Chris Lee with Desjardin.

Thanks for all the comments so far. It's very helpful. For Prepared Foods, can you talk about how the volume progressed through the quarter as consumers adjusted to the price increases? And how did it exit the quarter? That start to trend higher overall?

It wasn't necessarily higher exiting the quarter. I would view, Chris, the 4% volume growth that we had was fairly consistent through throughout Q3. It did ramp up a little bit, obviously, following the back end the inflation-justified pricing that we had taken into the market, but it was fairly consistent through the quarter, which again is why we would characterize it as a solid quarter. In terms of Q4, I'm kind of going to resist getting into -- I'm kind of going to resist getting into week-by-week kind of outlook in terms of how the branded volumes materializing. But I expect -- I continue to expect branded strength in our performance overall. I think would be the way to characterize it as we close out the year. And the most important is we always say in consumer packaged goods, the category leaders move with pace when there's justified inflation in the market. There's typically a period of volume adjustment, which we saw in the second quarter. And we were very pleased with the recovery here in Q3 and kind of expect to continue that momentum looking forward.

No, that's helpful. And maybe also on prepared foods again, I'm sorry if I missed your answer. You know that branded sales were up strong more than 6% in the quarter, but total sales were up 1.3%. Is the difference mostly in the private label that you mentioned earlier, where you're seeing...

Yes. Yes, that's exactly it. It's in private label, and it's in the Canadian market and the U.S. market. We had the roll-off of certain private label businesses that again, we expect from a capacity utilization to replace in time. But that's really what's driving the difference that you're pointing out really. .

Great. And my last question, just -- I think your updated guidance for EBITDA still implies some EBITDA margin rate improvement in Q4. Is that correct? And then do you have good visibility on achieving the bottom end of your EBITDA guide of $520 million? Is there a risk of falling below that?

So a couple of things on that less so on the rate side, but I think what's important is we still expect both revenue growth and EBITDA growth year-over-year in Q4. So I think that's a positive. The rate quarter-to-quarter, I think you'd be able to kind of back into from a math perspective. But we still do expect to deliver revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth in Q4 what you view as positive. Sorry, there was a second part to your question. I might have missed it.

I just wondering -- I was wondering that the $520 million, I guess, you got guiding out to the bottom end -- is that a good visibility on that?

Yes. Well, we've guided to -- I mean there's still 8 work -- 8 weeks left in the year. We're not perfectly precise, and I wouldn't want to leave you with that impression or illusion in our business. We guided to around the lower end of our $520 million range, the lower part of our $520 million to $540 million range. And I think that word around plus or minus, is exactly where we would view the business. For us to be able to look with full transparency in terms of how we're looking at the balance of the year playing out based on everything we know today. And we consider that tightening the range. And I think that was appropriate. .

Your next question comes from Vishal Shreedhar with National Bank.

I was hoping you could give me your thoughts on EBITDA getting at the lower end of the range. And maybe could be the puts and takes. It sounded like there's many positives in the year, mix was silly very strong for you, and that's helpful, but inflation, more so than expected. Consumer is a little bit tougher than you thought poultry inflation in Q4 is a little bit acute there. So hopefully you can give me a little bridge of what the positives and the negatives are that caused you to revise that from -- to the lower end?

Yes, the Sure, Vishal. Yes, I tried to cover some of that earlier, but happy to put a little bit more color around it. I mean, the biggest thing was the sustained inflation in the market. I mean we entered this year expecting a little bit more stability in the year. We expected to take a cost change early in the year and kind of have that be it for the balance of the year. . You'll remember, we were forced to move with a second one as well as a second increase as well as a change in fuel pricing as well. So those are pretty material changes from where we started the year until -- to where we are today. So the inflationary backdrop, I think, first and foremost, is the most significant one and was the most difficult, obviously, to predict given kind of what's happening from a global conflict perspective and what's happening even geopolitically and with trade, but that would be the larger than the heavy hitter. I mean the consumer environment in response is not something we directly control, but we have had to respond to. So I think the second area would be more promotional investment than expected to get the volume and market share outcomes that we're proudly delivering today would be the second most important area because the consumers ultimately felt the brunt of that inflation. And the third would be the comments I made around the private label volumes not materializing in a way that we expected at the onset of this year. And those would be the kind of the things that changed maybe from a working against us perspective. I'd go back to pointing out, first and foremost, the branded growth that we're getting in the business, really positive in response to that, but particularly this past quarter, a very positive volume and sales growth. And as I said at the onset of the call, the fact that we're performing the way we are relative to the broader CPG industry, 8 consecutive quarters, 15% improvement in EBITDA last quarter, and revenue growth, 8 quarters in a row, I think, is a source of pride inside of that environment, notwithstanding there are areas, obviously, that we could have been better. Some out of our control, some we certainly could have been better. Private label volumes, in particular, would be one area I would point to.