Saputo Inc. (SAP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Interpreted] Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the shareholders' meeting. My name is Lino A. Saputo, Chairman of the Board as well as President and Chief Executive Officer of Saputo, and it is in these capacities that I will share today's meeting. With me today is Maxime Therrien, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary. He will be acting as Secretary of this meeting. We also have Lydia Pham, Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs, who will act as moderator today. Before we get started, I would like to say a few words on how the meeting will unfold. The formal portion will be in French, mainly, with simultaneous interpretation available in English. You can also join the meeting in the original language, if you wish to listen without translation. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxies who have logged in using their control number may submit or ask questions during the meeting. Guests may attend the meeting but may not vote or ask questions. You can submit your questions in English or in French. And we'll answer you in the same language. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders may submit a question in writing or ask in real time over the phone during the meeting by clicking on the messaging icon. The text box will appear. You can choose to write your question or to enter your telephone number. If you provide your telephone number, an operator will call you when it's time to ask your question. You can submit your question at any time during the meeting, but I encourage you to do so as soon as possible. If your question relates to an item on the agenda, please clearly indicate the item in question, so that it can be taken into account during discussions on that item. The question-and-answer period will follow the formal part of the meeting. Any questions that do not concern a specific item on the agenda will be dealt with during the question period, time permitting. In the interest of time and fairness to other participants, please limit your questions to a maximum of 2 and keep them concise. If we're not able to answer your questions within the allotted time, we will contact you after the meeting, provided you supply your contact details. We may combine questions from several shareholders on the same subjects in order to avoid redundant or repetitive questions. And we also reserve the right to reject questions relating to personal claims or grievances or that could be deemed inappropriate or irrelevant to the meeting. At this meeting, during management's presentation or the question-and-answer period, we may make some statements containing forward-looking information within the meaning of the applicable securities legislation. By their nature, these statements are based on assumptions and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially. I refer you to the cautionary note on forward-looking statements in our annual report on our website, which you can access by clicking on the documents icon on your screen. I would now like to appoint Madame Martin Gauthier and Ms. Claire Girard of Computershare Investor Services, Inc. as scrutineers for this meeting. The scrutineers are provided an attendance report, and I can confirm that we have a quorum of shareholders present or represented by proxy. The matters to be dealt with at today's meeting are set out in the proxy circular dated June 8, 2023. The company used the notice and access system to make its meeting documents available, and sent a notice including all information in this regard to all shareholders on June 27, 2023. The circular and notice of meeting are available to shareholders on our website. You can access them by clicking on the document icon on your screen. All these documents are also available on the company's profile on SEDAR plus and we'll, therefore, omit reading the notice of meeting. Our transfer agent, Computershare, has confirmed that the applicable meeting materials have been sent to shareholders in accordance with the Canada Business Corporations Act and the company's bylaws. I hereby declare that this meeting is duly convened and constituted to transact the business of the company. I move that the minutes of the Annual Meeting of August 4, 2022, be dispensed from reading and deemed adopted. The minutes will be kept in the company's books and may be consulted by any shareholders. We will now proceed to voting instructions. You can vote online if you're a registered shareholder or a duly appointed proxy, provided you have logged in using the control number you've received. For today's meeting, voting will take place via a single online ballot. If you have already voted by proxy, you do not need to vote online, as your vote will be recorded in accordance with your proxy instructions. However, if you wish to modify a vote already submitted, you can click on the vote icon. It is now possible to vote on all items on the meeting agenda as described in the proxy circular. As the Chairman of the meeting, I will propose all motions, none of which will need to be seconded. Once discussion of all agenda items has been completed, a short period will be devoted to voting. Preliminary voting results will be announced before the end of the meeting. The first item on the agenda is the presentation of financial statements. A Copy of the company's financial statements and the auditor's report for the year ended March 31, 2023, are available under our SEDAR plus profile and on our website. I'd now like to invite Max to make a few remarks on our financial results for fiscal 2023 and the first quarter of fiscal 2024. We will then continue with my presentation of the highlights of our strategy. We'll be back live after these presentations. Max, the floor is yours.

Good morning. And thank you for joining us today. Fiscal 2023 was a pivotal year for our company after the many challenges encountered in fiscal 2022. Our solid performance reflects rigorous execution despite volatile market conditions. Our revenues and adjusted EBITDA reached record levels thanks to our pricing initiatives as well as favorable commodity and export market prices. We've also taken decisive steps to counter inflation and make our supply chain more efficient. On the workforce front, improvements in recruitment, training and retention have enabled us to restore service levels and better meet customer demand in all of our markets. At the same time, we continue to lay the groundwork to support our long-term strategy and made significant progress on our global strategic plan. We're investing in new capacity. We're accelerating efforts to modernize our operations and we're allocating capacity where it's most needed. We are capitalizing on these opportunities in all of our sectors to position our company for future growth. Now for our strategic initiatives by sector. In Canada, we have completed automation projects, notably in the production of sliced and grated cheese, as well as in cheese packaging in our plants across the country. This will enable us to take advantage of new business opportunities and pursue our growth with selected national retailers. Our cost structure in Canada can be further optimized and these investments are a step in that direction. In the United States, we are focusing on optimizing our network of cheese plants. In fiscal 2023, we launched several projects to modernize Mozzarella production, the benefits of which should be felt progressively from fiscal 2024 onwards. We went ahead with our revitalization plan and by converting one of our Mozzarella plants into a goat cheese plant. We also proceeded with the construction of our new facility in Franklin, Wisconsin, which will become the focal point of our expanded cutting and packaging capabilities in the Midwestern United States. This new state-of-the-art facility will enable us to consolidate and modernize our packaging activities and optimize our manufacturing footprint. In addition to maintain our leadership position in the string cheese category, and further stimulate growth, we announced the expansion of our operations through the conversion of one of our facilities in California into a string cheese packaging facility with full capacity expected to be reached by fiscal 2025. These ongoing investments are essential if we are to achieve our full growth potential in the United States. The new and modernized facilities will generate efficiency gains and increase our manufacturing capacity for higher-margin value-added products. During the year, we also completed the merger of our former Cheese and Dairy Foods Division in the United States. Our business processes, our system applications, and our IT infrastructure are now fully integrated. And as a result, our team can work more efficiently to serve our customers faster and with greater agility and so focus on growing our business. In our international sector, which includes the Australia and Argentina divisions, we are streamlining our operating model and continuing to focus on value creation opportunities in order to be well positioned for the long term. In Australia, we permanently closed one of our facilities and moved a large part of its production to other locations, reducing our costs and improving our network capacity utilization. We also announced the rationalization of operations at 2 other Australian facilities whose production and packaging functions will be integrated to other locations. Savings should, therefore, increase gradually over the year. More recently, we announced the sale of 2 fresh milk processing facilities to adjust our manufacturing footprint and strengthen our competitiveness in the marketplace, in line with our strategy of maximizing the return on every liter of milk. In Argentina, we have reached an important milestone in our growth as we are now the world -- that country's largest and fastest-growing company in dairy process of that country. We continue to strengthen our leadership position, investing in capacity, innovation and our brands. These investments puts us in a good position to support the growth of our market share and improve our ability to increase our milk supply. In Europe, we continue to execute our strategic initiatives despite volatile market conditions. We completed the outsourcing of all our warehousing activities, enabling us to consolidate our cheese packaging operations with a single center of excellence. In terms of our financial results for the year ended March 31, 2023, consolidated revenues rose by 19% over fiscal 2022, to more than $17 billion. The increase in revenues reflect pricing initiatives implemented in all of our sectors, the increase in average block price of cheese and the rise in the average price of butter in the United States, as well as rising prices on international cheese and dairy ingredient markets. Adjusted EBITDA for fiscal 2023 totaled $1.55 billion, an increase of 34%, reflecting a significant improvement in the United States and solid performance in Canada and the international sector. We continue to leverage our control measures to minimize the impact of inflation, and our efficiency and productivity enhancement initiatives. We've also benefited from the pricing initiatives that have been implemented to mitigate rising input costs such as consumables and packaging, transport and fuel due to persistent inflationary pressures, as well as the volatility of commodity markets. Net income totaled $622 million, up 127% or $1.49 per share. We have maintained our ability to generate substantial cash flow and in fiscal 2023, we generated net cash from operating activities of over $1 billion, up 48% year-on-year, reflecting the strength of our diversified global platform. We paid out $199 million in cash dividends and made net capital investments of $632 million to support our growth initiatives and to maximize growth and profitability. In terms of capital allocation, our priorities are to reinvest in our business, the payment of dividends, and debt reduction. Let's move on to fiscal 2024. Yesterday, we announced our first quarter results. Adjusted EBITDA was $362 million, up 4% on the previous year, while first quarter adjusted net income was $154 million, up 8%. As we explained in June at our fourth quarter results conference, the macroeconomic context is much more difficult than expected, and this is having major impact on spending levels and consumer behavior. What's more, we've seen a high degree of volatility develop rapidly in the U.S. and international dairy market since the start of our fiscal year. Even though we face a difficult short-term environment, we believe in our initiatives to improve efficiency, reduce costs and positive spin-offs from our global strategic plan. While we are pleased with these efforts, we remain cautious about general economic climate. Looking ahead, we'll continue to manage a range of risks across our businesses, including volatile commodity prices, persistent inflationary pressure on costs and the tight labor market. Although we anticipate some moderation, we will continue to implement initiatives in the area of cost control measures to limit the impact of inflation on our input cost. Thanks to a more stable workforce, reduced supply chain constraint and the impact of additional capacity, we expect to improve our ability to serve our customers, particularly in the United States. Another important point is that yesterday, the Board of Directors revised the dividend policy and increased the quarterly dividend to $0.185 per share, an increase of 2.8%. The quarterly dividend will be payable on September 15 to shareholders of record on September 5, 2023. In closing, I would like to thank all of our employees, customers and partners for their support. Back to you, Lino.

Thank you, Max. Despite operating in a complex environment, our fiscal '23 performance reflected a strong turnaround across all our sectors. This is a true testament to our solid foundations and our unwavering focus. Through the hard work of our teams, we recovered from a difficult fiscal 2022. Looking back, I can easily say we navigated through one of the most difficult environments in our history. And although we are still facing market volatility, I believe we've emerged better, stronger and more resilient. The heavy lifting we've done over the past 2 years has set us up for unprecedented success in the coming years. Our notable wins included cost and margin recovery. Operational performance and stability. Efficiencies through network optimization, cost containment measures and improvements in our recruitment and retention practices, resulting in a stable talent pool. While we gained momentum, we also continue to execute on our growth plan, which will no doubt simplify and strengthen our manufacturing footprint, further reduce complexities, streamline our operating model, and unlock new growth opportunities. As called for in our plan, we announced several capital investments and consolidation initiatives across our global platforms, and we further enhanced our commercial capabilities through product innovation and brand investments. Indeed, a long list of accomplishments to celebrate. Delivering their best once again, I'd like to acknowledge our dedicated employees for their hard work and steadfast determination. It's their passion that helped drive these solid results and I extend my deepest appreciation to each and every one of our team members around the globe. With our outstanding high-quality products shining equally bright, we also delivered innovation to the market and our balanced portfolio of trusted brands enabled us to meet the demands of our consumers. We continue to launch new formats, flavor extensions and plant-based products through impactful marketing campaigns. Through the Saputo promise, a key enabler of our global strategic plan and the ESG framework for our operations around the world, we continue to create shared value for all stakeholders and ensure the long-term sustainability of our business. Just released yesterday, I encourage you to read about our accomplishments in our annual Saputo promise report. I'm proud of the progress we've made across our 7 pillars. I'll share a few highlights with you. First, we put significant focus on our people. We care deeply about the health and well-being of our employees, and we're passionate about providing the best possible work environment, one that is safe, diverse, equitable and values driven. As such, in fiscal '22, we updated our diversity, equity and inclusion policy to make it more robust and even more inclusive. Complementing this, in fiscal '23 we introduced our advancing gender balance global initiative, and I'm encouraged we are close to our target of 30% of women in senior management. When it comes to our talent, we're keenly focused on being an employer of choice, and I'm thrilled our efforts have been recognized. Saputo made Forbes's 2023 Canada's Best Employers list, which surveys worker satisfaction and willingness to recommend the company as an employer. And we made Forbes's 2022 world's top female-friendly Companies list, which surveys worker satisfaction with regards to gender-related topics. Moreover, in fiscal '23, we continue to invest in our employees with training and development programs, providing our team members the skill needed to maintain our high standards and to continue to grow within the company. During the fiscal year, we invested approximately 515,000 training hours in developing our permanent employees, and growing our talent from within has translated into over 1,400 employee promotions in fiscal '23. Under our environment pillar, we have clear targets articulated around global climate, water and waste performance to our 2025 environmental pledges. To date, we funded over 65 projects globally with a $50 million allocation. We've already completed more than half of these projects and our efforts are already bearing fruit with more benefits to come. With 19 more projects approved for fiscal '24, I'm pleased to see our progress and our increasing efforts are being recognized. Our CDP climate disclosure B score is above industry average. And we also improved our water disclosure score compared to the prior year. Ensuring sustainable sourcing of our dairy ingredients also supports the Saputo promise. To this end, we launched our global sustainable agricultural policy, which defines our responsible production standards to our producers and milk suppliers. In fiscal '23, we also sourced 100% RSPO certified palm oil. And we completed our global management system deployment to ensure certification for our own operations. As part of our supply chain pledges, we are pleased to fund initiatives that support sustainable farming practices in our U.K. and in our Australian divisions. We are also doing our part to support a transition to Net Zero as a member of Pathways to Dairy Net Zero. As such, we are currently planning to post 2025 climate targets using the latest industry and science-based tools. We aim to ensure we continue to progress towards the Paris Agreement goals of net zero emissions by 2050. To promote Nutrition, we continue to improve the nutritional quality and performance of our global portfolio. Under this pillar, we launched our global responsible marketing guidelines to ensure we market our products responsibly, particularly to the younger generation. Our commitment to our community efforts marked a milestone last year, as we celebrated the tenth anniversary of our Saputo legacy program. During this time, we funded dozens of projects in the communities where we live and work, investing over $3 million in sports and health facilities. In fiscal '23, we strengthened our commitment to support our employees to volunteer. We introduced paid volunteer time off to our U.S. employees, and we launched the You Care We Care program globally, through which employees can receive a financial contribution to support the causes they are personally involved in. As we enter the second year of our 3-year plan, we remain committed to delivering on our Saputo promise goals. Although we are very encouraged by the financial performance we delivered in fiscal '23, we are now focused on fiscal '24, which presents a new host of challenging macroeconomic conditions. Despite this, we remain confident we can execute well through the balance of our global strategic plan, which is well in motion. Near term, we will work on execution and accelerating growth. We will then transition to leveraging investments to unlock the full earnings potential of our strategic initiatives, particularly in the U.S., which we expect to be the largest contributor to our growth target. I will reiterate. These investments are significant in terms of their long-term impact on our ability to operate more efficiently as we work to create an even stronger, more agile organization that can grow and succeed through all market cycles. We are focusing on capital projects that provide the highest potential return and directing our efforts to markets with the best growth opportunities. As we complete initiatives that bring further scale and expand production capacity, we expect our performance to reflect these benefits driving significant margin improvement. We have a solid foundation in place. And with close to 7 decades of experience behind us, we will remain steadfast in our long-term vision for the organization. As always, we aim to create value for our employees, our customers and our partners and, of course, our valued shareholders. In closing, I'll express my gratitude to our Board of Directors once again for their sound governance and valued support. I would especially like to recognize Louis-Philippe Carrière who's retiring from our board today after a combined 37 years of loyal service. Thanks, LP, for your valuable contributions to our growth and for helping to shape our company's values. Thank you. [Interpreted] The next item on the agenda is the election of directors. The Board proposes that the current members of the Board, with the exception of Louis-Philippe Carrière, be nominated for election as directors. Their biographies can be found in the management proxy circular. I nominate the following 9 persons for election as directors of the company, to hold office until the next meeting of shareholders or until their successors are elected. Henry Demone, Olu Beck, Anthony Fata, Annalisa King, Karen Kinsley, Diane Nyisztor, Franzisca Ruf, Annette Verschuren, and myself, Lino Saputo. Each of the proposed nominees has confirmed that he or she would be willing to serve as a director if elected by shareholders, and that he or she qualifies as a director under the Canada Business Corporations Act. Lydia, have shareholders made any nominations or asked any specific questions on this point?

[Interpreted] No. We have not received any other application or questions on this point.

[Interpreted] As previously indicated, registered shareholders and duly appointed proxyholder, can vote online by selecting the applicable voting options on the voting panel appearing on their screen. The next item on the agenda is the appointment of the auditor. I propose that KPMG be appointed auditor of the company until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders and that the Board of Directors be authorized to set the firm's remuneration. Lydia, do shareholders have specific questions about this motion?

[Interpreted] No, Mr. Chairman.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Lydia. As previously mentioned, it is possible to vote on all items on the agenda. The next item on the agenda is the adoption of an advisory nonbinding resolution on the company's approach to executive compensation. I propose that on an advisory basis, and without diminishing the role and responsibilities of the Board, that shareholders accept the company's approach to executive compensation described in the proxy circular relating to the 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Lydia, do shareholders have any specific questions on this motion?

[Interpreted] No, Mr. Chairman.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Lydia. As I mentioned previously, it is possible to vote on all items on the agenda. We have dealt with all items put to a vote. The ballot will close shortly. A simple majority of votes cast by proxy or online will suffice to approve the business put before the meeting today. Following discussions with the company, the shareholder who submitted shareholder proposals has agreed not to vote on these proposals. We will discuss these proposals after the announcement of the preliminary voting results. We will now take a break to allow those of you who have not yet voted to do so now. [Voting]

[Interpreted] This is what concludes today's ballot. The scrutineers confirm the following preliminary results. According to the results of the proxy votes received, at least 95% of the votes were cast in favor of the 9 directors proposed in the proxy circular. Around 99% of votes were in favor of KPMG's appointment as auditor. The advisory resolution on executive compensation is approved by approximately 96% of votes cast in its favor. Shortly after the meeting, we will file a report on SEDAR plus showing the final voting results for each item put to the vote. In addition, we will report on the election of each director in a press release. We will now move on to shareholder proposals. We have received 3 proposals from the [Foreign Language]. Following discussions with the company, MEDAC has agreed not to put to a vote these proposals. The text of these 3 proposals is set out in Appendix A of the proxy circular. Although there will be no vote on these proposals, MEDAC has asked that they be discussed at the meeting. We'll now hand over to Willie Gagnon. Mr. Willie Gagnon, representing MEDAC. Mr. Gagnon, please go ahead.

[Interpreted] Hello, Mr. Chairman, can you hear me?

[Interpreted] Yes, we can hear you Mr. Gagnon.

[Interpreted] My name is Willie Gagnon I'm from MEDAC the [Foreign Language], and we have sent you 3 proposals, shareholders' proposals. I will mention them and explain why we didn't see the need to put this to a vote following discussions that we have had with the company. We had for -- first of all, the use of languages [ mastered ] on Page 79, you said that the linguistic knowledge of the directors are now mentioned in the proxy circular. And this is exactly what we wanted to know. So we are very pleased with that. Another one had to do with the remuneration update. We felt there was not enough information about that committee when it came to the well-being of employees. And in your reply, you said that for next year, there will be a summary for 2024 of what they have been working on, that committee, when it comes to the well-being and health and safety of your employees. So we are pleased with that result, and we had also sent a proposal regarding the animal well-being and we obtain all the information that we were looking for. And we also sent the company a question about holding live events, because we feel that virtual AGM only should not completely replace in-person AGM. So we would like live in-person AGM come back with the addition of the virtual segment. And we're not the only one that are interested in that. There are many other organizations, such as [Foreign Language] stated the same point so we propose this. Why is it that there are no longer in-person AGMs because we would like, Mr. Chairman, to have in-person AGMs. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for listening to us, and we really appreciate our discussions with the company.

[Interpreted] Well, thank you, Mr. Gagnon, I would like to thank MEDAC for the discussions we had regarding these issues. Well, I'd like to provide an answer regarding virtual meetings. Those virtual meetings are part of our strategy to leverage today's technology to provide easy access, better communication and cost savings. Many companies, as you know, now hold their meetings virtually, and we follow the guidelines of the Canadian securities administrators. We assess the meeting format every year. Whatever the format we choose, our goal is to offer our registered shareholders the opportunity to attend, participate, vote and even ask questions during the meeting. We do recognize that there are advantages in holding in-person interaction, but technology allows shareholders to interact during the virtual meeting, and the advantages of virtual meetings outweigh the disadvantages. This being said, Mr. Gagnon, we will look into this for next year, and we'll get back to shareholders to let them know about our decision regarding next year's and whether it would be an in-person event. So we will now move on to the Q&A session. It is with great pleasure that we will reply to your questions. I would like to remind that the registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holder who have logged in using their control number can ask questions by clicking on the message icon. Lydia? Do shareholders have any questions?

[Interpreted] Mr. Chairman, I confirm that we have received no questions from shareholders.

[Interpreted] Thank you all for your presence today. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our Board of Directors for their outstanding work and invaluable advice. I look forward to working towards our company's goals in fiscal 2024. Finally, our company's many achievements can be attributed to a number of factors, the most important one being our employees. Our dedicated team has intensified its efforts to drive our company forward. It is our employees from around the world who have forged the multinational company we are today, and I would like to thank them once again for their passion. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our customers, suppliers, business partners and shareholders for their loyalty and trust. There being no further business on the agenda, I declare the meeting adjourned. Thank you all, and have a nice day. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]