The J. M. Smucker Company (SJM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Everyone find your seats. We'll kick off our next fireside. I'd like to welcome back to our conference, The J.M. Smucker Company. With us today are CEO, President and Chairman of the Board, Mark Smucker, along with CFO, Tucker Marshall, who now also serves as EVP of the Frozen Handheld and Spreads and Sweet Baked Snacks segments. Mark and Tucker are going to go through some brief prepared remarks, and then we'll sit down for some questions. Mark, over to you. Thanks for being here.

Thank you, Andrew. It's great to be back. I think this might be my 10th or 11th -- and honestly, just appreciate the opportunity to be here with all of you today. Tucker and I, as Andrew said, we'll provide some brief comments, and then we'll reserve the remainder of our time for questions. But as always, please note that certain information provided today is forward looking based on current views and assumptions. Also, we use non-GAAP results for the purpose of evaluating performance internally. Details for both items can be found in the slides for today's presentation available on our Investor Relations website. So with that, let's get started. My commentary today will center on 2 key points. First, our focused strategy and differentiated portfolio continue to deliver results. We remain focused on our strategic priorities of driving organic volume growth across our key platforms, improving profitability and accelerating earnings growth for the company and maintaining a disciplined approach to capital deployment. Second, while our portfolio is performing well today, we see even greater potential ahead. We have built a truly differentiated and complementary portfolio of leading and higher growth brands across attractive categories. Supported by our proven brand-building model and innovation capabilities, we are expanding into new occasions, reaching new consumers and unlocking additional growth opportunities across our business. Our strong first quarter results reinforce both of these points and demonstrate progress across our strategic priorities. For example, each of our key growth platforms Uncrustables, Cafe Bustelo, Meow Mix and Milk-Bone delivered volume growth. Profitability improved, and we generated strong earnings growth and our free cash flow increased more than $430 million compared to the prior year, and we paid down approximately $230 million of debt. Given these results and our expectations for the balance of the year, we raised our full year outlook for net sales, adjusted EPS and free cash flow. The momentum across the business reflects the strength of our portfolio, the investments we have made in our brands and the focused execution of our team. Let me share a few examples of how we are driving growth across the portfolio. Starting with the Uncrustables brand, which recently reached the milestone of $1 billion in annual net sales and achieved our long-standing ambition of becoming a top 3 brand in a [ total freezer aisle ]. Over the past year alone, the brand added over 2 million new households. Importantly, the brand has significant runway ahead supported by expanded capacity and our continued focus on brand building and consumer-led innovation, which we expect will drive further household penetration. We recently launched 1 of our most exciting innovations yet, fridge friendly Uncrustable sandwiches. In addition to being stored in the freezer, all Uncrustable Sandwiches can now stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. This innovation creates even more convenience, flexibility and everyday usage occasions for consumers. We are supporting the launch with a robust marketing campaign across social and digital channels, further strengthening the brand's cultural relevance and highlighting the unique attributes that differentiate Uncrustable Sandwiches. Let's take a look at some recent content. All right. If you're wondering what's fueling up all the players here at the American Century Championship. It's 1 of my personal favorites and my kids Uncrustables, 10 out of 10 recommend. So good, what I saw, which is really cool is now, it's fridge friendly up to 5 days. So you know when you like take out of the freezer and then have to eat it within like a certain amount of time, I think it's like 8 hours. Now you can put it in the fridge. And it lasts up to 5 days. So this is going to make my life as a mom much easier. And we have a lot of great flavors. The fun part is when the guys open up this [indiscernible], then it gets them in your on [indiscernible]. So anyway, I'm going to take the chocolate 1 later. Your seem somebody eating across in 1 bite. [ Presentation ] We have also expanded the Uncrustables brand into the growing protein snack space with varieties that deliver 12 grams of protein. These offerings meet consumers' increasing demand for convenient protein-rich snacks while extending the brand's relevance across a broader range of eating occasions throughout the day. The platform has exceeded our expectations, delivering highly incremental growth for the brand. Building on that success, we've added 2 new flavors to the lineup. Beaman Berry Blend and Bright-Eyed Berry. We are incredibly excited about the future of the Uncrustables brand as we continue to strengthen our leadership in the frozen category. Turning to Cafe Bustelo. It is 1 of the -- the fastest-growing brand in the at-home coffee category and is now the sixth largest. Over the past year alone, it has added more than 3 million new households, demonstrating our ability to attract consumers and expand the brand's reach. We continue to fuel this momentum through our game-based campaign this summer. The campaign was rooted in a simple but powerful insight. Fandom is a ritual. We saw an opportunity for the Cafe Bustelo brand to become part of that ritual. The spot aired during the halftime commercial break of the world's biggest soccer tournament this summer helping bring the brand to a broad and highly engaged audience. Take a look. [Presentation]

Across June and July, the campaign generated more than 1.5 billion impressions, further amplifying the brand among existing and new consumers. This campaign is a great example of how we are building brands with cultural relevance while preserving what makes them unique. We continue to make progress toward our ambition of making Cafe Bustelo a top 4 brand in the at-home coffee category. For the Milk-Bone brand, we are delivering products and experiences that reflect the needs of today's pet parents. This includes communication of quality nutrition and functional benefits along with limited time offerings tied to seasonal and special occasions. Let's take a look at some examples. [Presentation]

Beyond biscuits, our Milk Bone Soft and Chewy Dog treats continue to deliver strong results, highlighting the opportunity to bring premium and differentiated offerings to pet parents as demonstrated by the success of Milk-Bone peanut buttery bites. This innovation was the #1 dog snacks launch over the last 4 years. Building on that success, we expanded the platform with Milk-Bone peanut buttery cups earlier this year and see continued opportunity to bring new experiences and premium offerings to the category. For the Meow Mix brand, we continue to build momentum in the attractive cat food category. Our growth is being driven by a combination of strong category fundamentals strategic brand building and consumer-led innovation. Moew Mix gravy birth was the leading innovation in dry cat food last year, and we expanded the platform in early 2026 and with a new salmon flavor, which is exceeding our expectations. Looking ahead, our ambition is to build on our leadership position in dry cat food while thoughtfully expanding the brand's presence into other attractive segments of the cat category, including wet food and treats. While these key growth platforms represent our largest opportunities for future growth, they are only 1 part of what makes our portfolio unique. Our higher growth brands are complemented by category-leading brands that generate strong cash flow, support continued reinvestment and provide additional opportunities for innovation and growth. Together, they create a differentiated portfolio capable of delivering consistent and durable growth over time. The Folgers brand is a great example of this. Folgers remains the #1 brand in total volume share, and we have evolved our media strategy in recent years to over-index with the younger consumers. We launched a new national media campaign that reimagines our iconic jingle in a way that resonates across audiences of all ages, especially younger coffee drinkers. Our actions are driving results. The Folgers brand was the #1 brand in total buyers among younger generations in the at-home coffee aisle. We are also excited to announce the launch of Folgers Functional which will begin shipping this November. This platform is designed to make functional copy more accessible to everyday shoppers through clear benefit-led offerings, including protein, focus, boost and prebiotic. Functional Coffee is the fastest-growing space in the category, and this launch is a clear example of our consumer-led strategy in action. We are taking a trusted leading brand and leveraging its strong equity to participate in emerging consumer trends. Jif is another leading brand where we are applying this strategy. Recently, we launched Jif Simply, which combines the strong equity of the Jif brand with a simpler recipe and a taste consumers love. Early consumer response has been positive. We are also focused on increasing the relevance of Jif across more eating occasions throughout the day. Peanut butter is a tasty versatile protein-based solution that can play a role across breakfast, snacks and other everyday moments. To bring this strategy to life, we are launching a new campaign that showcases modern accessible ways to enjoy peanut butter and gives consumers inspiration for new occasions. Take a look. [Presentation]

Hostess and [indiscernible] are another example. The Donuts brand continues to outperform the broader sweet baked goods category as we focus on winning the growing AM snacking occasion where consumers are increasingly seeking quick, convenient and satisfying options. We are building on this momentum through innovation early next calendar year, including offerings made with real fruit and other ingredients consumers value while also ensuring simplified ingredient labels with no artificial sweeteners or dye. The examples I have shared today reflect how we are leveraging our proven brand-building model and deep understanding of the consumer to identify emerging needs and rapidly bring relevant solutions to market across our portfolio. Consumer-led innovation is more than a pipeline of new products. It is a capability that allows us to strengthen our brands, expand into new occasions and reach new consumers. In closing, our strategy is working. We are delivering results, strengthening our brands and investing in capabilities that will drive future growth. Our portfolio is differentiated, our momentum is strong, and we remain confident in our ability to deliver sustainable growth and create long-term shareholder value. I will now turn the discussion over to Tucker.

Thank you, Mark. Good afternoon, everyone. It's great to join you for this year's conference. As Mark highlighted, we are confident in our ability to drive long-term growth and shareholder value. We remain focused on advancing our fiscal 2027 priorities and our strong first quarter results demonstrate the progress that we are making across the business. Our first quarter performance was broad-based. Net sales increased 5%, including a 1 percentage point contribution from volume mix. Importantly, we also delivered gross margin improvement and earnings growth. We generated approximately $337 million of free cash flow, an increase of more than $430 million compared to the prior year. This performance gave us the confidence to improve our full year net sales outlook by approximately $180 million at the midpoint of our guidance range. We now expect net sales to decrease between 1% and 2%, primarily reflecting net price realization in coffee as anticipated green coffee cost deflation is passed through to consumers through lower prices. We also raised the midpoint of our adjusted earnings per share guidance by $0.75 to a range of $10.50 to $11 and increased our free cash flow outlook by $100 million to approximately $1.1 billion. The progress we are making across the business, combined with our focus on profitability and disciplined execution supports both our fiscal year 2027 outlook and our long-term financial objectives. Importantly, our financial foundation continues to strengthen. In the first quarter, trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA increased to approximately [ $2.3 billion ]. Adjusted EBITDA growth, combined with debt paydown resulted in a leverage ratio of 2.9x net-debt-to EBITDA. As a result, we achieved our 3x leverage target ahead of our original expectation. We also expect to generate more than $1 billion in free cash flow for the second consecutive year. Free cash flow was $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2026 and is expected to be approximately $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2027, demonstrating the strong and consistent cash generation of the business. This leverage position and strong cash generation provide enhanced financial flexibility and continues to support a disciplined and balanced approach to capital deployment. We remain focused on organic growth opportunities, debt paydown and shareholder return in the form of dividends and share repurchases. We are committed to paying down at least $500 million of debt in this fiscal year 2027, while maintaining the flexibility to evaluate share repurchases. Another key component of our capital deployment model is our dividend. We remain committed to our dividend, which has increased at a 5% compounded annual growth rate over the past 10 fiscal years. In July, we announced that we increased the dividend for the 25th consecutive fiscal year. We expect our Board to maintain the company's current dividend policy, which is to return approximately 40% to 45% of of our annual adjusted earnings per share to shareholders, reflecting dividend growth consistent with future earnings growth. This capital deployment model enables us to reinvest in the business and fund our largest growth opportunities while delivering sustainable returns for shareholders. Looking beyond fiscal 2027, we remain confident in our long-term financial algorithm, which consists of the following: low single-digit net sales growth; mid-single-digit adjusted operating income growth; high single-digit adjusted earnings per share growth and total shareholder return of approximately 10% or greater when considering our dividend policy. We view these objectives as steady, compelling and compounding supported by our disciplined capital deployment model. The strength of our portfolio, continued margin expansion opportunities and strong cash generation give us confidence in our ability to deliver sustainable growth and increase shareholder value over time. Thank you for your time today. Andrew, I'll hand it to you.

Great. Thanks very much, Mark and Tucker. Maybe to start off, Smucker reported a strong fiscal first quarter recently. Organic volume growth across each of your 4 growth platforms, meaningful underlying gross margin expansion and an increase to full year guidance. Of course, some of that had to do with the tariff refund you received in the quarter. But on an underlying basis, I guess, what are the key couple of takeaways you want investors to come away with? And I guess what in the quarter most increased your confidence in the earnings and cash flow outlook for the business?

Andrew, thanks for the question. A lot of what I talked about in the prepared remarks really underscore the strength of the portfolio. And you know as well as anyone, the work that we've done over the last 5-plus years to reshape this portfolio, get it super focused, essentially removing things that would inhibit our aggregate growth. And so that, along with the capabilities that we've invested in, the brand building, which I mentioned in the prepared remarks, and just continuing to be disciplined about supporting this complementary combination of higher growth brands that are really helping to lift the whole company and then continue to support these mainstream cash-generating, leading brands like Folgers and Jif have really been that combination has been really unique. And what it has enabled is not only consistently driving growth, but it's also allowed us to accelerate our debt pay down obviously, continue to support the dividend, deploy cash responsibly. And even to the point we're now considering at some point in the not-too-distant future, do we have the flexibility to potentially buy back share.

Great. If we take a step back, portfolio has changed considerably over the past several years, you've increasingly concentrated resources behind Uncrustables, Cafe Bustelo, Meow Mix and Milk-Bone, how do you think about the role each of those platforms needs to play in delivering the long-term algorithm? And what gives you the confidence that the growth of those brands can sort of more than offset the slower growth elsewhere in the portfolio.

It pretty much goes back to what I just mentioned. If we continue to support the growth of each of those brands, if you think about Uncrustables, we are now in a unconstrained capacity environment where we're pulling forward -- excuse me, the turning on, if you will, of the second phase in our McCalla, Alabama plant, which is already built. It's a function of us staffing and really activating those assets, which will continue to support growth. But probably more importantly, on Uncrustables, if you just think about expansion of the offerings, the flavors, the fridge friendly, the protein has given us additional space at retail. So we've expanded distribution just in terms of the sheer freezer space. We have great opportunities in Away From Home channels as well, which would include convenience. So that's just a great example. And then you look at Milk-Bone, having returned Milk-Bone to growth at least in this quarter and continuing to focus there on innovation and taking advantage of premiumization, humanization trends as well as building out core biscuits in some functional ways. So those are just a couple of examples, but I really think it goes back to, again, that combination, that complement combination of leading and growth brands.

You reached your leverage target, as you mentioned, of at or below 3x earlier than expected, raised the free cash flow outlook to approximately $1.1 billion and then begun speaking more directly about flexibility to consider share repurchases down the line. I guess, how should investors think about the threshold for moving from debt reduction towards buybacks. And would repurchase be opportunistic based on valuation? Or do you think a more recurring component of capital allocation?