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spk07: Good morning and welcome to the Whole Earth Brands fourth quarter and full year 2021 results conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please also note that today's event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Jeff Sonick, Investor Relations at ICR. Please go ahead, sir.
spk00: Thank you and good morning. Today's presentation will be hosted by Albert Manzoni, Chief Executive Officer, and Dwayne Portwood, Chief Financial Officer. Executive Chairman Erwin Simon is also participating on the call and will be available for Q&A. The comments during today's call and the accompanying presentation contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts are considered forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Some of these risks and uncertainties are identified and discussed in the company's filings with the SEC. We'll also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures today. Please refer to the tables included in the earnings release, which can be found on our investor relations website, investor.wholeearthbrands.com, for reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures. Additionally, we've provided a supplemental earnings presentation on the investor relations website that may be useful in your analysis of the company's performance. With that, I now turn the call over to Albert Manzoni, CEO.
spk13: Thank you, Jeff, and thanks to everyone for joining the call today. I'd like to begin by welcoming Dwayne Portwood to his first earnings call for Whole Earth. As you know, Dwayne joined Whole Earth as CFO in January, bringing with him a wealth of experience and wisdom and has hit the ground running. I'm excited he's part of the Whole Earth team. 2021 was a transformational year for Whole Earth. and I am pleased to deliver on our financial commitments amid a complex and challenging operational environment. In response to supply chain disruption and labor shortages, we took actions to position the company for success, and I am proud of our achievements and particularly grateful for the efforts of our team, including those on our front lines for their resiliency and persistence, which is critical in maintaining our operations and service levels with customers. For full year 2021, which is our first full year as a public company, we drove 2% consolidated organic constant currency revenue growth, which included acquisitions in buff periods. Branded CPG segments perform organic constant currency revenue growth grew 0.7% versus 2020 and 11.9% on a two-year stacked basis versus 2019, due mostly to volume growth. And flavors and ingredients segment product revenues grew 7.1% versus 2020. We generated over 82 million in adjusted EBITDA within our guidance range through the power of our portfolio and strong cost discipline. It has been an exciting journey since our business combination in June 2020, and I would like to take a moment to reflect on all our friends' accomplishments in this short time and the opportunities that lie ahead. At the time we went public, we saw an immense opportunity to bring global leadership to an unorganized yet extremely attractive category that not only had a large total addressable market, but was also supported by powerful secular tailwinds geared toward better-for-you alternatives. To accomplish this goal, we needed capital to unlock this opportunity to compound value for shareholders over time. This capital provided us the ability to significantly improve our capital structure and reduce leverage. We also needed to generate scale, particularly in North America. We successfully acquired two amazing businesses in Wholesome and Swerve, which nearly doubled our revenue base and provided the foundation which has become our power of one strategy to drive growth across our diverse portfolio of brands. And finally, we were able to invest in our team and strengthen our bench which is a critical point for a growing business with great aspirations. We have assembled the talent, capabilities, and leadership to deliver on the potential of our global business through brand expansions, new product innovations, distribution increases, and supply chain optimization. We have fundamentally strengthened and transformed our business. And to that end, I'd like to recognize our team once again for all of our accomplishments to date. Our Power of One strategy to enhance our shelf presence and drive greater visibility with retail customers across our portfolio of natural and traditional sweeteners is working. We are seeing the retail distribution gains that we have been building towards. We have momentum in e-commerce and food services recovering nicely. This is a wonderful combination of forces that puts us in a formidable position as we look ahead to 2022 and beyond. I view 2022 as a year of building upon the foundation we put in place in 2021. Fundamentally, we are an organization focused on profitability and cash flow generation. and we believe we have a durable foundation to build from that will provide us the flexibility to advance our growth initiatives. Our opportunity to create value lies with a healthy global category, our world-class brands, and our ability to leverage our commercial teams in key global regions to drive penetration. In North America, our Power of One strategy continues to provide us with a framework to drive long-term growth. With our Whole Earth sweeteners brands, we continue to execute on opportunities to expand distribution and build out adjacencies. For Swerve and Whole Earth, innovation and expansions in the baking portfolio are critical factors that will support growth and distribution gains. In Wholesale, We have an amazing brand that has defined the word organic in the sweetener category for many years. We see an opportunity to build upon Wholesome's brand equity and expand its portfolio into other areas such as baking mixes. And finally, beyond the retail shelves, we continue to pursue opportunities within our other sales channels such as e-commerce and food service, with a thoughtful approach to meet the shifting consumer needs and appetites for better-for-you products. Within our international markets, we are in an advantageous position with very recognizable brands that have number one or number two share in most key markets. Our aim is to continue to drive greater penetration with brands such as Candorail, Equal, and Pure Via through portfolio expansion to baking and over-adjacencies. At the same time, we're excited by our expansion momentum into new geographies such as India and China. From an operational standpoint, inflation and supply chain management continue to be top of mind for the entire CPG industry, and it is a focus of ours as well. In fact, Our North America Supply Chain Reinvention project is focused on identifying opportunities to de-risk our supply chain while enhancing service and ultimately creating efficiency. We are fortunate in many regards that our focus began prior to the extreme disruption to global supply chains. And the project is all the more important today as we work to mitigate incremental costs and disruptions. The key thrust of this project was to bring select production activities in-house to improve our cost structure while improving service levels. In fact, in response to the rapid shift in the environment, we made a strategic decision to accelerate the project timeline to minimize the impact on customers. While these efforts are ongoing, I am confident that our exposure would be significantly greater had we not invested the time and resources to optimize our network. While we were immune to the supply chain disruptions, we continue to believe we are in an advantage position relative to others in the space. Nonetheless, we are actively working to accept inflationary pressures with price, SKU rationalization and heightened attention on maintaining profitable relationships with our customers. We are also making every attempt to mitigate the timing mismatch that erodes margins. With respect to our recent results, our fourth quarter was negatively impacted and we expect this to continue through first quarter of 2022 as well until our pricing actions are implemented. We believe the effects are temporary and we anticipate returning to more normalized margin rates beginning in second quarter with a pricing structure that will offset forecasted cost pressure through the balance of 22. We will continue our initiatives to mitigate volatility, protect margins, and create opportunities to drive greater efficiencies over the long term. This includes trade spend optimization, an ongoing focus on sourcing, manufacturing operations, logistics and distributions, and synergy extractions from our integration of Swerve and Wholesome to help protect our business against macroeconomic forces. With respect to our flavors and ingredients segment, we're very pleased with our performance. We added some new leadership and critical investments in R&D and sales that have been instrumental in shifting our commercial approach to the diverse end market that we serve. This is visible in our innovation and product development strategy, which now clearly maps to the various applications across our suite of Magna branded products to drive use and sales growth. We continue to view this business as a strong free cash flow generator with a defensible mode and global leadership position that will support our broader growth initiatives as we further diversify and grow our business. Polar Friends is the global leader in the better for you sweetener and reduced sugar categories. Our team continues to pursue three priorities. First, disrupt the massive 100 billion total addressable refined sugar market, which is being displaced by fast-growing sweeteners. Second, drive category leadership through best-in-class innovation and brand building, expand our global distribution, leverage our strong supply chain capabilities, and continue to further accelerate our growth through strategic M&A. Third, continue to evolve our brands and product portfolio towards becoming a large, organic, natural, plant-based food company. We remain focused on both organic and inorganic opportunities for growth. We have demonstrated that we can be simultaneously strategic and opportunistic in our transaction and would continue to do so. We believe 2022 will be another productive and profitable year for all Earth and our portfolio of products. With competitive advantages that include market positions, global scale, industry-leading R&D, and best-in-class supply chain, we are well positioned to execute our growth strategy and achieve our goals. Finally, before turning the call over to Duane, I want to mention our progress in ESG initiatives. We were excited to recently announce the launch of our ESG framework and strategic goal areas. Strong ESG performance is fundamental to our business strategy. It is reflected in everything we do, from product development to ingredient sourcing and manufacturing and beyond. Our commitment to enabling wellness by offering natural alternatives and clean label products supports our ability to deliver on our ESG vision over the next decade and beyond. We're excited to launch this framework after our first full year operating as a public company and share this journey with customers, consumers, and investors. In the coming months, all our friends plan to further develop measurable targets and a baseline to strategically address the key ESG issues.
spk12: We look forward to sharing our progress with you. Duane?
spk05: Thank you, Albert, and good morning to everyone. As a reminder, we acquired Swerve on November 10th, 2020, and Wholesome on February 5th, 2021. I will speak to reported results, which includes Swerve and Wholesome, for the full fourth quarter of 2021. Additionally, we will provide some select pro forma results as if we owned both Swerve and Wholesome in 2021, 2020, and 2019 to assist in your analysis of the organic growth of the combined portfolio. Also, please refer to our non-GAAP reconciliations at the end of the press release for additional detail, and I encourage you to view the supplemental earnings presentation in our investor relations website. For the fourth quarter ended December 31st, 2021, consolidated product revenues grew 75.3% to $132.7 million versus the prior year quarter. On a pro forma basis, including swerve and wholesome for the full quarter in both the current and prior year periods, organic constant currency product revenue was flat with the prior year fourth quarter. Reported gross profit was $38.7 million compared to $25.2 million in the prior year fourth quarter. Results were positively influenced by contributions from the Swerve and Holson acquisitions, a $5.9 million favorable change in non-cash purchase accounting adjustments related to inventory, and partially offset by $6.2 million of costs associated with our supply chain reinvention project. Reported gross profit margin was 29.2% in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 33.3% in the prior year period. Adjusted gross profit margin was 34%, down from 42% in the prior year, driven primarily by the inclusion of Wholesome in 2021, which has lower profit margins and product mix. Consolidated operating income was $6.4 million compared to an operating loss of $6.9 million in the prior year, and consolidated net loss was $0.4 million compared to a net loss of $5.1 million in the prior year period. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA increased 47.5% to $20.6 million driven by contributions from the Swerve and Olson acquisitions and revenue growth. partially offset by higher bonus expense compared to 2020. Now, shifting to the segment results for Q4. Branded CPG segment product revenues increased $52.3 million, or 98.1%, to $105.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2021, driven primarily by the addition of Swerve and Wholesome. On a pro forma basis, including the impact of both acquisitions in the current and prior year quarters, organic constant currency product revenue decreased 4.3% compared to the prior year fourth quarter, primarily due to temporary supply constraints that were partially offset by solid volume growth at Wholesome. On a two-year stack basis, when comparing fourth quarter 2021 to fourth quarter 2019, branded CPG segment pro forma organic constant currency revenue increased 9.1%. Operating income for the branded CPG segment was $4.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to operating income of $6.2 million in the prior year period. The decrease was driven by a decline in revenues within the legacy branded CPG business, higher bonus expense, and costs associated with our supply chain reinvention projects, partially offset by contributions from the acquired Swerve and Holson businesses and lower purchase accounting adjustments. Flavors and ingredients segment product revenues increased 21.2% to $27.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2021. The increase was driven by increases in all product categories, including licorice extracts, pure derivatives, and the MagnaSweet product lines. Operating income for the flavors and ingredients segment was $7.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to an operating loss of $2.0 million in the prior year period. The increase was primarily due to a $5.9 million favorable change in purchase accounting adjustments related to inventory evaluations, revenue growth, and lower operating costs. Operating expenses for corporate for the fourth quarter of 2021 were $5.7 million compared to $11.1 million of operating expenses in the prior year period. The decrease was primarily due to lower M&A transaction fees and non-recurring public company readiness expenses. Now I will briefly cover our full year 2021 results. As a reminder, our consolidated full year 2020 results reflect both predecessor and successor periods indicative of the June 25, 2020 business combination date. The full year results I will discuss compare the results for the year ended December 31, 2021 to the combined year ended December 31, 2020 which includes the successor period from June 26, 2020, through December 31, 2020, and the predecessor period from January 1, 2020, through June 25, 2020. Additionally, our consolidated reported financial results reflect the completed acquisitions of Swerve and Holston. Both formal comparisons include the impact of both acquisitions in the periods of comparison. Consolidated product revenues increased 79.3% to $494 million as compared to the full year of 2020. On a pro forma basis, organic constant currency product revenues increased 2% compared to the prior year. Brand and CPG segment product revenues increased 119.1% to $389.2 million, reflecting the acquisitions of Wholesome and Swerve. On a pro forma basis, Organic constant currency product revenues increased in 0.7% compared to the prior year and grew 11.9% on a two-year stack basis as compared to the full year 2019. Flavors and ingredients segment product revenues were $104.8 million, an increase of 7.1% as compared to the prior year. Reported gross profit was $158.8 million, an increase of $62.5 million from $96.3 million in the prior year. Gross profit margin was 32.1% for the full year ended December 31, 2021, as compared to 34.9% in the prior year. Adjusted gross profit margin was 34.5%, down from 42.0% in the prior year, driven by the inclusion of wholesomes. Consolidated operating income was $22.8 million compared to an operating loss of $44.3 million in the prior year. And consolidated net income was $0.1 million for the full year ended December 31st, 2021 compared to a net loss of $42.6 million in the prior year. The improvement was largely due to a $40.6 million of non-cash impairment charges recorded in 2020 and the positive impacts of acquisitions on our 2021 results. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA increased 50.7% to $82.2 million driven by contributions from the acquired swerve and wholesome businesses and revenue growth, partially offset by higher bonus expense. Now moving to cash flow and the balance sheet. Cash flow provided by operating activities for 2021 was $9.5 million, That is net of $26.9 million of non-recurring or unusual items such as M&A transaction related costs and restructuring costs. Capital expenditures for the year ended December 31st, 2021 were $12.2 million. And free cash flow excluding the non-recurring or unusual items was $24.2 million. As of December 31st, 2021, we had cash and cash equivalents of $28.3 million and $387.2 million of debt net of unamortized debt issuance costs. Our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio at December 31st, 2021 was 4.37 times. Reducing balance sheet leverage continues to be a corporate priority. Now shifting to our initial full year 2022 outlook, which includes the full year impact of the Wholesome Acquisition. As a reminder, Our outlook represents our expectations for growth on a pro forma organic basis. We define pro forma organic growth to be as if the company owned Wholesome for the full year 2021. For 2022, we expect consolidated product revenues to be in the range of $530 to $545 million, representing reported growth of 7% to 10% and pro forma organic growth of 3% to 6%. We expect consolidated adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $84 to $87 million. And we expect total capital expenditures will be approximately $10 million. Finally, I want to take a moment and provide some context around the quarterly cadence for the year. As you heard, the ramp-up of our supply chain reinvention project is creating some headwinds for us in the first quarter. These relate to the inflation price mismatch that is putting some temporary pressure on margin through about mid-quarter when a significant number of our price increases take effect. Additionally, the supply constraints that impacted fourth quarter 2021 will have a residual impact on the first quarter of 2022. And lastly, from a comparability perspective, we anniversary the wholesome acquisition on February 5th, which puts some pressure on the reported year-over-year comparison. As we look to the balance of the year, We see our sales and margin rates reverting to more normal levels and expect relative consistency and seasonality relative to the prior year. Before we open the call for Q&A, I want to thank Albert for his kind words to open his prepared remarks. In the two months since I joined Whole Earth Brands' team, the attributes that attracted me to the company have not only been validated, they've been strengthened. First, we operate in a fantastic category and are well positioned to take advantage of organic top line growth opportunities, which will drive profitability and cash flow. Second, we have a platform to take advantage of acquisition opportunities and the discipline to do it right. And finally, we have a team that has the experience, the bandwidth, and is all in to meet the challenges and take advantages of the opportunities. I couldn't be more excited to be part of this team. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, now back to you. Please open the call for Q&A.
spk07: Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question comes from the line of Brian Holland with Cowan & Company. Please proceed with your question.
spk03: Yeah, thanks. Good morning. And forgive me, I hopped on a little bit late. Were you able to, if so, if I missed this, forgive me, but were you able to quantify the impact of the supply constraints, either in 4Q or the extent to which that impacts your fiscal 22 guidance?
spk13: Good morning, Brian. Hope you're well. We didn't quantify the impact, and I would pass it on to Duane to comment on that. But what I would tell you is that we're very pleased to have been very proactive ahead of essentially any supply chain disruption. As you do know, after the acquisition of Swerve and Wholesome, we essentially saw the opportunity and you see the number of dots on the supplemental deck of all the locations we were operating in to essentially synergize and bring those things together. And we very decidedly took over some of the production in-house for sachet and bags. And, you know, looking back, were extremely happy that we did this because that positioned us very strongly for 2022, where we're able to mitigate essentially cost inflation with our productivity together with pricing. And so that had an impact in Q4, some lingering effects in Q1, and then that's behind us. We also took that opportunity, importantly, to do some SKU rationalization, which we have not done in quite some time, especially on the private label side and lower margin products. And again, that bodes well for 2022. Duane? Yeah, good morning, Brian, by the way.
spk04: I think to your first question in terms of did we quantify the impact of the constraints, we did not. That said, I will say, you know, we ended up within our guidance range on the top line. We would have been certainly over the midpoint of our guidance range had that constraint not been present.
spk12: Okay.
spk03: Fair enough. Appreciate that. Next question, maybe just, again, around the fiscal 22 guide. You know, as a later reporter, you obviously have more information. in a very dynamic and fluid environment. I think you called out some of the geopolitical factors, you know, within the context provided. Can you give us any color or just help us understand whether it's from a raw material sourcing perspective or on the revenue line, what exposure you might have as a result of recent conflict in Eastern Europe?
spk13: Sure. Let me start this by telling you, so let me break it down a little bit by telling you that we're very comfortable about our guidance for 2022. The high end is obviously within our long-term guidance. The low end just takes into account some of what you say, since I would say that as of today, nobody knows how bad things could get. But within what we see today, first of all, we have no exposure to Eastern Europe and Russia, either from a sourcing or really from a customer standpoint. So that's first and foremost important. Second of all, from a supply of ingredients, et cetera, and I had talked about this previously, we essentially have amounts of inventories needed located in North America or in Europe and close to our production sites and therefore are comfortable with this. And then number three, thanks to the brands, the innovation, the power of one at the distribution, we're seeing the ability to really compensate any inflationary pressure this year through our supply chain productivity and pricing, and therefore feel very comfortable about our guidance.
spk12: Appreciate the color, Albert. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
spk04: Sorry, Brian. Echo everything that Albert has said. We're trying to take what we know right now into account in our guidance. As things progress, however they progress during the year, obviously that could change. As I sit here now and with the conflict going on in Eastern Europe, gas prices seem to be pretty volatile to the extent that that's To the extent that continues, then there could be other things and other pressures that go on throughout the year.
spk03: And then if I could just sneak in one last one, Albert. I know we've talked about this a lot, but there's obviously challenging optics here with what we see in the scanner data on a bi-monthly basis with your portfolio down sharply. I just wonder if you could just take a minute and just help us parse out, you know, kind of your exposure to those channels, how much that represents, and maybe why, you know, that these data points that we're getting are not, you know, why you think they wouldn't be instructive as to directionally where this business is headed or more specifically the categories.
spk13: Thank you, Brian. This is an important question because obviously that's what people see. And I will tell you, first of all, that what you see in Nielsen measure channel is really about 25% for North America of our total sales. So first and foremost, that's a small piece. Number two, we are essentially making our biggest gains as we speak outside of those measure channels. And that would be specifically into club, into food service, which essentially grew 30% year-on-year, into e-commerce, which grew 100% versus 2019. So you have significant distribution gains and progress outside of those channels. Now, when you come into the channel and you say, well, if that's what you do outside, why don't you do it here too? What I would tell you is the following. As part of those supply chain constraints that we really impacted end of Q3, Q4, and are lingering in Q1 and will be over this by March, April. really what we did is two things. Number one, we had to stop most of our promotions. So from a year over year, that has an impact. And number two, we did have some supply constraints. That being said, again, when you compare this to 2020-19, you do see an 11% growth. And that is also for some of our products that are really geared to baking, et cetera, some level of deceleration. Importantly, when you look at the 2022, what I would tell you is, number one, that those supply chain constraints are behind us. We're back to high customer service levels with our key customers. And number two, we have significant innovation coming upstream in the second half. And what I would say on those innovations additionally is that a lot of them are not recorded into Nielsen. So all the baking mixes that are coming up with Wholesome, and we picked up 3,500 stores at the end of February, the innovation that you could see at Expo West the last week on a swerve, on chocolate chips, cookies, et cetera, those things are, again, not measured by Nielsen. by Nielsen since they only look at the category as a sweetener.
spk12: I appreciate all that context, Albert. I'll leave it there. Best of luck. Thank you.
spk07: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Scott Mushkin with R5 Capital. Please proceed with your question.
spk10: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question, I guess. So I guess, Albert, I want to where you left off, I wanted to go where you left off on 2022. You talked about the back half, some good product introductions, wholesome bake mixes. Maybe elaborate a little bit more on that. Maybe also tell, where's wholesome bake mixes, where they're gonna be, but what else is in the pipeline? And how do you think these new products could eventually propel you to the top end of your guidance? Kind of just frame it for us a little bit more.
spk13: Sure. So, you know, if you look at 2021, I see that as a very foundational year for all the reasons that we said. We made two acquisitions that we brought in-house. We doubled almost the size of our company. We took our EBITDA to the mid-80s. And we essentially showed as a team that we could take those on. The work has been intensely going, as you can imagine, in terms of bringing those brands together, bringing the operations together, and bringing an innovation pipeline together. And you are going to see that really coming in 2022. Obviously, those products are being presented, were presented to the retailers. We do see more appetite. In the retail environment, to take on new innovation, as you know, the last two years have been more limiting due to labor shortages and so on and so forth. But we do see appetite from the retail to decent, even for the risk prudence, and put those things on the shelf. So what we're excited about, and this talks essentially to what I said, the top end of our guidance is really geared to our mid- to our long-term guidance is those innovations hitting the shelf. As I said, some of them are hitting as we speak, and so you will obviously see that impact in Q2, and then throughout Q3 and Q4, you will see those innovations. I will add, if you allow me, that our international business grew almost double-digit and we continue to see that opportunity going on, and we're very excited about this. We're doing well in China and India that we started last year. And then I also want to take a moment to really congratulate the flavors and ingredients team, and you have seen incredible growth there, which again comes from laser-focused execution on flavors. R&D on sales, and they, too, were very pleased with essentially the power of a very strong position supported by innovation and R&D and distribution.
spk12: Thanks for the color.
spk10: That actually leads right into my second question. I know you talked about exposure to the war in Ukraine. What I wanted to also explore is that Asian component. I mean, obviously there's been some concern vis-a-vis China. So maybe you can walk us through both from a raw material perspective and then also from a sales perspective, specifically the flavors and ingredients, I think, on raw materials. How much licorice do you have in inventory? I think there's some sub-manufacturing going on there. Just kind of walk us through that. That would be great, and then I'll yield.
spk13: Sure. So, well, you know, most of the companies today are global, and globalization has been a phenomenon for decades. And, you know, where that is going to go and take us, nobody knows. But what we're doing, obviously, is a few things. Number one is to diversify our supply from different regions in the world, and we're doing that. as much as we can. Number two, as I said earlier, is also build up inventories in the locations, be Europe or be the US, so that we have a certain amount of inventories and feel comfortable that we can manage, you know, starting from labor shortages and freight shortages and those type of things. That's really what initiated it. And so this is just taking the next level up making sure our exposure from a sales standpoint and customer is obviously still very small. As I told you previously, you know, markets like India and China, you can invest heavily. It takes a long time. We have decided to take more of an e-commerce, modern trade route. So those are not big exposure in the context of our guidance and where we're heading. But I hear you and we are as proactive in terms of diversify of supply together with different manufacturing centers and building those up as well as putting the right amount of inventories in the strategic locations.
spk12: Perfect. Thanks. Thanks, guys. Thank you.
spk11: Thank you.
spk07: Our next question comes from the line of Bobby Burleson with Canaccord Genuity. Please proceed with your question.
spk14: Hi. Yeah, I think you guys have covered a lot of good ground here in the Q&A, but maybe just focusing a little bit more on food service. I'm curious how that's contributing to your growth outlook, what kind of trends you're seeing there. Obviously, a lot of mask mandates have been removed, and there's a lot of broad you know, reopening. So curious how that's affecting your outlook in 2022.
spk13: Good morning, Bobby, and thanks for the question. I will start by telling you, and I think that comes across through some of the Q&A questions so far, which is the power of a diversified portfolio. And, you know, what I love about our business is that you operate in two segments. You operate in North America, you operate in international markets, you operate across different channels. And that is what gives me extreme confidence in terms of the sustainability of our results and our operations. And so when you then dive into those channels in North America, as I was saying, our food service grew 30% year-on-year in 2021, and that was great because that's, you know, the start in 2021 period. food service was not out of the woods. And as we look forward, what we're excited about is, first of all, that we have a great portfolio of both traditional as well as natural options. And we have said in the past that we do foresee a number of operators proposing increasingly natural options. And the second thing is that we have the power of Wholesome, the number one organic brand in North America, the power of Swerve, the number one baking brand in North America, whole earth brands equal. And there's a reason opportunity that we're chasing upon to essentially not only work on the front end, of the store but also on the back end and we are extremely happy with the successes we're getting on the back end of the kitchen whether somebody wants to provide you know a calorie-free muffin or an organic sugar chocolate cookie and so we have a great team we have great operations there and we do see 2022 as a good year for us in food service driving our performance.
spk14: Great. And then just in terms of pricing actions, those are obviously helping you here in the balance of Q1 and going forward. But there's a lot of fluidity in cost inflation this year, it looks like. Curious, what are the kind of cycle times in terms of you identifying cost headwinds and then being able to put through price increases. What's the lag time there and how much flexibility do you have in price changes this year to address this dynamic environment?
spk13: Yeah, that's a great question, Bobby, because We essentially are taking prices as we speak, and those prices are in the mid-single digit. Those prices are going through. As you know, it's a never-seen-before ability to take some level of pricing, and the pricing has gone through. There is, number two, a lag factor, which you are going to see somewhat in Q1, where your COGS start in January and your prices start mid-quarter. So you are going to see some of that in Q1, which Duane and I alluded to before. And number three, I would go back to really our supply chain reinvention project in North America. I'm so pleased and so thankful for the organization and the team involved to have taken on the time, the energy to start this very early on. We didn't wait for inflation to start. We immediately, with Wholesome and Swerve, took on the opportunity to synergize. And those synergies are extremely helpful together with price. At this point in time, we feel comfortable, as Duane said earlier, with what we see today, to be able essentially throughout the year to compensate the COGS increases and inflation with the pricing actions and the supply chain reinvention.
spk12: Okay, great. Well, thank you. That's it for me. Thank you, Bobby. Thanks, Bobby.
spk07: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Myers with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
spk09: Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Just one for me. You know, you talked quite a bit about the price increases. So what sort of feedback have you gotten from some of your retailers as far as these price increases go? And have they been pretty receptive to it?
spk13: Hi, Ryan. Yes, they have. That's the long and short answer. And we have taken those prices, I will tell you, across North America. We have taken them across international markets. we have taken them on a flavors and ingredients, and essentially there is, I would say, a very good understanding about where this is coming from. Depending on customers or regions in the world, you have to justify more or less and almost document what is going on and why you are doing it, and I will tell you that there is receptivity, understanding, And that's what we're doing and have done as we speak.
spk12: Great. That's helpful. Thank you. Thank you.
spk07: Thank you. Our final question this morning comes from the line of Alex Arnold with Odeon Capital. Please proceed with your question.
spk01: Hey, guys. Good morning. I guess I have two. One's a little higher level, which is just sort of balancing or looking at the state of the consumer as it relates to your product portfolio. you know, sort of on the back end of lapping stimulus and inflation squeezing the wallet? How does that impact sort of a higher value, higher price product portfolio relative to trade down? And then the other question is, I guess that the inventory reset versus the supply chain costs almost net out. So if you can just help me, other than pricing, unpack the other stuff that's running through the the COGS increase, and then also how the supply chain costs might look in Q1.
spk12: Okay. So three questions, if I understand.
spk13: So give me back the first one, and I'm happy to take it.
spk01: The first one is, you know, when you think about your product portfolio being a premium product portfolio that's not, you know, that's not the lowest price, what are you seeing out there in terms of consumer behavior on the back end of stimulus going away and inflation squeezing their wallet?
spk13: Understood. So this is a great question and one that obviously we spend a lot of time thinking about. I would tell you a few things. The first one is this is a portfolio and a category where consumers come to it either because they need it For health reason or because they want it for lifestyle reasons So this is a you know that goes back to this the promise of this category and why I'm excited about it Which is really there is too much processed sugar consumers realize What they need to do and the importance of it I've said many times, you know COVID was just an accelerator of that because diabetes and obesity were risk factors and And so this category is really prone for consumers to stick into it. Number two, we do have, very importantly for me, a number of brands, and they play across different price points. And I continue to consider that together with taste, cost is a very important element in to increase penetration of this category. And I'm very pleased to the fact that we do have a portfolio that goes from traditional, at a lower price point, all the way to the most premium products like a Wholesome. And that gives the opportunity to consumers to still come into category, but essentially pick it up where they can afford it. And playing that portfolio, I think, is one of the strengths in the environment that you are describing. And I would say that's true also for international where we have always a traditional offering and a premium offering. This is very important in emerging markets. So taking all the lessons and benefiting from our global view, this is no different, you know, when you talk to different income groups than thinking about, you know, an international developing market versus a developed market. And so we... know how to operate this, and we have a great portfolio to do it. Does that answer your first question?
spk01: It does. Thanks, Albert. I guess Dwayne's probably the next one, but all I'm trying to do is unpack the increase in COGS a little bit and understand how some of the one-time pieces roll forward. So if you can give just some high-level guidance, we can drill in further on the Zoom later.
spk04: Yeah, sure, Alex. Appreciate the question. I think from a one-time cost perspective, obviously, we had a little bit in Q4. There will be some in Q1 as well, and then it should taper off dramatically. From an overall inflation perspective, you mentioned pre-buys of inventory and the like. I would say, generally speaking, we see inflation in our – in our production processes throughout, whether those are packaging, whether that's raw materials, whether that's labor. We've mitigated that somewhat in terms of inventory pre-buys and the like. Obviously, the lens is more clear in Q1 than it is in Q4, so we're not as concerned about inflation, so to speak. in the near term and to the extent that it, like I said on one of the other questions, we're confident that we can control what we see right now. Should things change, obviously we'll have to change, but as we finish what we're doing in our North America supply chain, get stability there, we're comfortable that through through these initiatives and through efficiencies there that we're doing what we can to mitigate the inflation that we're seeing.
spk01: Okay. And then just in terms of supply chain costs, the $6 million rules, can you give a rough range for everyone as to what that might look like in Q1?
spk04: I would, without getting too specific, it'll be... significantly less than that.
spk12: It'll be south of five. Okay, thanks. Yep.
spk07: Thank you. Our final question comes from the line of Pablo Zwanek with Kenner Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.
spk08: Thank you. Albert, I mean, it's a basic numbers question, but can you give more color In terms of your various brands, performance in the fourth quarter, I mean, minus 4% performance. I understand that we have to look at the two-year stack number. But can you break that down between, I don't know, North American, international, between branded CPG, and even within North America, maybe more color between Wholesome, Swerve, and Whole Earth? I mean, just more color would help. And then I have a follow-up. Thanks.
spk13: Sure. Sure. So with regard to Q4 and with regard to the supply chain constraints that I talked about, I will tell you that all of the brands, to a lesser extent wholesome, were impacted by the supply chain constraint, very simply put. And all of them were impacted by a reduction of elimination, essentially, of any promo activity. So I would say that that was really a theme across because essentially we are insourcing, you know, sachet and bags. So that's a big component of our business, including in food service. And so, you know, that plus 30 was also done with those supply chain constraints. So I would say that was the impact on North America. On international, you know, we operate from number one, number two positions across all of the markets. And the category is healthy. You know, when you look at on a two-year basis and even year-on-year basis, The category is double-digit, high single-digit. We are leading in those categories. Remember that we have a number of markets where we have a 70% market share. So we're driving the category, and I would say that the international had very healthy growth, and that will continue. Similarly, flavors and ingredients, and we broke it down for you. We're very pleased with the results there. So, Pablo. Does that answer your question?
spk08: Okay, yes. And then in terms of just the outlook, when I think about in the past about ACV opportunity versus, you know, whether that means new doors or new SKUs within the same store, maybe expand on that. I'm trying to understand what we've seen is that your brands maybe are beginning to enter into each other's turf, right? So the lines are beginning to blur, but I'm sure there are different segmentation for each brand. and maybe the channel opportunities vary by brand, but maybe just a reminder when I think of Wholesome versus Swear versus Whole Earth about the ACV opportunity, whether that's doors versus space within the store's use, and then whether there are any channels that you won't go to, like maybe Wholesome won't go to a certain place or Swear won't go to a certain channel. Thanks.
spk13: Yeah, that's a great question. And first, let me tell you that... If you add our four brands, we are, as we close the year in North America, in about 85,000 doors, and that we added 7,000, over 7,000 doors this year, and that's 9% versus 2020. So our power of one, which is essentially going to the customer with a retail solution, customer by customer, is powerful. we are elevating this organization and adding resources to continue to move this forward, and we're very excited by it, number one. Number two, what you said about the brand is very important. And having worked in portfolio of brands all my life, the last thing you want to do is to have overlaps and cannibalization. That's not why you do a portfolio of brands. We had a question earlier from Alex about, you know, the pricing. And so there is significant opportunities when you have a great portfolio of brands like ours. Number one, there is a differentiation on taste and price. Number two, there is chartered innovation fields. We talked earlier about the baking mixes for wholesome, which are delicious, full-calorie baking mixes. Then you have Swerve going into chocolate chips cookies, which we showcase at the Expo West. which are amazing with no added sugar products. And then to your point, you can also play channels right. There are some channels, as you know, whether you look at club, mass, or natural channels, that are not, where a product is not going to coexist well, and that gives us an opportunity to really play this portfolio, to always be in a very strong position and play the channels from a price standpoint. So I would say, and I will close by telling you that we're excited, as Bobby said earlier, about our food service opportunities for 2022. We're excited about our e-commerce, which, as I said, grew 100% over the last two years. And we're excited about the innovation and discussions and power of one discussions that we have with retailers, be Nielsen, be outside of Nielsen.
spk12: Got it. Thank you.
spk07: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question and answer session. I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Manzoni for any final comments.
spk13: Sure. And maybe as a final comment, I know that our chairman, Erwin Simon, is on the line. Erwin, if... If you want to give us some comments, that would be great.
spk02: Thank you, Albert. Good morning, everybody. And I know in regards to supply chain, I know in regards to, you know, what's going on in Ukraine and Russia, you know, it's difficult times, fuel prices. But, you know, I must say in regards to the whole earth, it's just, you know, 18 months old. It's a company that owns some great brands today. I've been listening to a lot of your questions in regards to our premium brands. Listen, I think with gas prices where they are today, people will stay home, eat at home more, bake more, and I think we're in a good position. As Albert said, we don't have disruption to Ukraine or Russia. And, you know, we have a really good infrastructure and building out the infrastructure that can run a billion-dollar company. You know, not everything goes perfect. And when we had issues, we reacted. We started the supply chain, taking over all manufacturing. As Albert and Duane talked about, you know, putting in place today for a company our size, our public company costs are tremendous. company going forward as I saw in building another natural organic food company. We're in a really good place here with our brands, with our products, with our distribution, with our brand awareness and our categories and with our free cash. It's tough, but with that, there's really a good plan in place for 22 as Albert talked about it. We got our people, we got our brands, we got our strategy. And most important, how do we reward our shareholders is something that's very, very important to us. So thank you, Albert.
spk12: Nothing to add to that.
spk11: Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time.
spk07: Thank you for your participation.
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