1/28/2022

speaker
Operator

Good day. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the John B. Sanfilippo and Sons Incorporated Second Quarter Fiscal 2022 Operating Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to Frank Pellegrino, Chief Financial Officer. Please begin, sir.

speaker
Frank Pellegrino

Thank you, Norma. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our 2022 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Thank you for joining us today. On the call with me today is Jeffrey Sanfilippo, our CEO, Jasper Sanfilippo, our COO, and Mike Valentine, our Group President. We may make some forward-looking statements today. These statements are based on our current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties that are inherent in our business. The factors that could negatively impact results are explained in various SEC filings that we have made, including Forms 10-K and 10-Q. We encourage you to refer to these filings to learn more about these risks and uncertainties that are inherent in our business. Starting with the income statement, net sales for second quarter of fiscal 2022 increased 8.4% to 253.2 million in comparison to net sales for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 of 233.6 million. The increase in net sales was due to a 6% increase in sales value, which is defined as pounds sold to customers, combined with a 2.3% increase in the weighted average selling price per pound. The increase in weighted average selling price came from a shift in product mix from lower-priced peanuts to higher-priced trail and snack mixes, entry nuts, as consumer preferences favored higher-priced products in the current second quarter. Sales volume increased in all three distribution channels in the current second quarter. Sales volume increased 2.2% in the consumer distribution channel, driven by a 7.6% increase in private brand sales volume, primarily from sales volume increases in trail and snack mixes, almonds, and mixed nuts mainly driven by new distribution at existing customers. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in sales volume for private brand peanuts and cashews. Sales volume increases for all branded products, with the exception of fish or snack nuts, also contributed to the sales volume increase in the consumer distribution channel. Sales volume in the consumer distribution channel accounted for 75.4% of total sales volume in the current second quarter. Sales volume increased in the commercial ingredients channel by 27.1%, mainly due to a 42.7% increase in sales volume in our food service business. The increase in food service sales volume was due to improved conditions in the restaurant industry from fewer COVID-19 restrictions. As the company's sales volume in this distribution channel began to return to pre-COVID-19 levels. Sales volume increased in the contract packaging distribution channel by 11.4%, primarily due to increased promotional and merchandising activity and increased distribution by a major customer. Looking at sales volume for our branded products in the consumer channel, sales volume for Fisher Recipe Nuts increased 9.6% due to increased distribution and merchandising at two existing grocery customers. The 4.1% increase in sales volume for orchard value harvest was primarily driven by a sales increase at a major customer in the non-food sector, as this retailer continues to recover from COVID-19 restrictions, and new distribution at an internet retailer. These gains were partially offset by reduced merchandising activity and item discontinuance at a mass merchandising retailer. Sales volume declined by 45% for fish or snack nuts, due to the discontinuance of our in-shop peanut product line, which occurred in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021, in a seasonal rotation at a club store that did not repeat in the current second quarter. The 8.5% increase in sales volume for cylinder-style nuts was primarily driven by increased promotional activity at a club store customer. Net sales for the first two quarters of the current year increased to $479.5 million, from $443.8 million for the first two quarters of fiscal 2021. The increase in net sales was primarily attributable to a 9.7% increase in sales volume, which was partially offset by a 1.5% decrease in the weighted average selling price due to a decline in commodity acquisition costs for all major trade-offs except cashews. For the first two quarters of fiscal 2022, sales volume increased in all three of our distribution channels. Sales volume increased 7.2% in the consumer distribution channel, primarily from a 13.6% increase in private brand sales volume driven by sales volume increases for trail and snack mixes and mixed nuts, mainly from new distribution to existing customers. These increases were partially offset by decreases in sales volume for private brand peanuts, and sales volume for our fish or snack nuts, for the same reasons I cited in the quarterly comparison. Sales volume increased 32% in the commercial ingredients distribution channel, mainly as a result of a 45.2% increase in sales volume in our food service business that occurred for the same reasons I discussed in the quarterly comparison. Sales volume increased in the contract packaging distribution channel by 3.8%, Again, for the same reasons I cited in the quarterly comparison, which were partially offset by promotional activity by the same customer, it did not reoccur in the current year first quarter. Second quarter gross profit decreased by $600,000, or 1.1%, and gross profit margin as a percentage of net sales decreased to 20.6% for the second quarter of fiscal 2022 from 22.6% for the second quarter of fiscal 2021. The decrease in gross profit and gross profit margin was mainly attributable to manufacturing scheduling inefficiencies due to the current supply chain issues and inflationary cost increases, including labor, freight, and manufacturing supplies. These were partially offset by increased sales volume. Gross profit for the first two quarters of the current year increased $11.9 million, and gross profit margin as a percentage of net sales increased to 21.7% from 20.8% for the same period last year. The increases in gross profit and gross profit margin in the year-to-date comparison occurred primarily due to lower commodity acquisition costs for all major tree nuts except cashews and increased sales volume, which were partially offset by manufacturing inefficiencies and inflationary cost increases I discussed in the quarterly comparison. Total operating expenses for the current second quarter increased $9 million in the quarterly comparison, and total operating expense as a percentage of net sales increased at 13.4% from 10.7% compared to last year's second quarter. The increase in operating expenses were primarily due to a $3 million increase in advertising, consumer insight research, and related consulting expenses as we continue to reinvent our brands. An increase in freight expense of $1.9 million due to increased volume and rate, and an increase in payroll and payroll related expenses of $500,000 also contributed to the increase. The prior year second quarter also included an insurance settlement gain of $2.3 million that did not reoccur in the current quarter. Total operating expenses for the current year to date period increased $13 million. and the percentage of net sales increased to 12.2% from 10.2% compared to the first two quarters of fiscal 2021. The increase in operating expense was mainly due to the same reasons I cited in the quarterly comparison. The insurance settlement gain that occurred in the second quarter of the prior year was offset by the gain from the sale of our Garysburg, North Carolina facility that occurred in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. Interest expense for the second quarter increased slightly as compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2021 due to higher average short-term debt levels. For the first two quarters of fiscal 2022, interest expense decreased slightly due to a reduction in our weighted average interest rate. Net income was $13.2 million, or $1.14 per share diluted, for the second quarter of fiscal 2022 compared to $19.9 million, or $1.72 per share diluted for the second quarter of fiscal 2021. Net income for the first two quarters of fiscal 2022 was $32.5 million or $2.81 per share diluted compared to net income of $32.7 million or $2.83 per share diluted for the first two quarters of fiscal 2021. Now taking a look at inventory. The total value of inventories on hand at the end of the current second quarter increased 15% compared to the total value of inventories on hand at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2021. The increase in inventory was due to higher commodity acquisition costs for almost all major tree nuts, peanuts, dried fruit, and other raw materials, which were partially offset by lower on-hand quantities of in-shell pecans and cashews. The weighted average cost per pound of raw nut and dried fruit input stocks on hand at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2022 increased 24.4% compared to the weighted average cost per pound at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2021. The increase in weighted average cost per pound of raw nut and dried fruit input stock was attributable to higher commodity acquisition costs for almost all major input stock items which was offset in part by lower quantities on hand of in-shelf pecans and cashews. I will now turn the call over to Jeffrey Sanfilippo, our CEO, to provide additional comments on our operating results for second quarter of fiscal 2022.

speaker
Norma

Thank you, Frank. Good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report that we continue to deliver strong net sales and volume growth in this unprecedented operating environment. Coming off a record second quarter in fiscal 2021, The company's performance this quarter was still our third best second quarter ever. We reported sales volume growth in all our distribution channels, a majority of our brands, and e-commerce. In addition, our commercial ingredients and contract packaging channels continue to recover from the impact of COVID-19 as sales volume in these channels has approached pre-pandemic levels. However, as many other companies have recently reported, The inefficiencies from supply chain issues, higher than anticipated inflationary input costs, and labor shortages had a negative impact on our profitability as they outpaced our pricing actions. But our sales and marketing teams have been extremely diligent in implementing necessary pricing actions across our channels, and we have completed 90% of those conversations to date. The teams are actively negotiating the balance of our pricing actions with customers. We anticipate these price changes to be completed by the early part of the third quarter, which are intended to significantly offset inflationary input costs that we've incurred or expect to incur. Additional pricing action may be required if these inflationary costs exceed our current expectations as we continue to review pricing with our customers on a regular basis. In order to maintain our high service levels and ensure store shelves were stocked during the holiday season, we incurred approximately $1.9 million in temporary incremental payroll costs as we paid an enhanced wage rate to our plant and distribution employees during the holiday season, and we paid freight surcharges to ensure our products were delivered on time. Our service levels did not falter in spite of the enormous supply chain headwinds. It is a part of our corporate culture across the organization to take care of our customers and consumers from procurement, to scheduling, to production, to warehousing, to shipping. And I'm very grateful and proud of all of our team members who worked long hours to ensure customer orders were satisfied during such a challenging time. From the start of the pandemic, Our entire organization came together to keep each other safe while still focusing on building our business. Our teams have not stopped working to drive continuous improvement projects, optimize supply chain efficiencies, and maintain best in class quality and service levels for our customers and consumers. The management team over the past year has been focused on developing the company's long term strategic plan for growth. We have invested the time and resources to look at macro trends, consumer insights, competitive activity, the supply chain, retailer strategies, e-commerce and innovation, and manufacturing capabilities. Yesterday, we presented the growth priorities and enablers to our board of directors. There is more work to be done, but there is alignment on the direction and path for JBFS to become a $2 billion business in the future. I will share more in upcoming quarterly earnings calls as we finalize our plans. A few highlights I will mention. We will continue to invest in our brands and customers. As you look at the brand results just announced yesterday, we began to see the impact of our new brand strategy in the current second quarter. We will also continue to grow our private brand and food service business, which is such an important part of the company's success and the value we provide strategic partners. And we will look at other SNAC segments to explore potential acquisitions. Environment, social and governance, ESG, was also discussed with our board. The company has created an ESG task force to expand our efforts and develop formal goals and KPIs. We have already established programs such as a diversity, equity and inclusion committee. We are investing in social and environmental programs to improve farming communities in places like Africa for cashews. Our packaging engineering department is working closely with suppliers to develop sustainable packaging materials. Our ESG committee will now facilitate and support these initiatives. In the upcoming quarters, we will set ambitious targets and communicate them to stockholders once our plans are finalized. The company is in the process of engaging an investor relations firm to assist our outreach efforts to the investor community. The company, now turning to channel updates. In the consumer channel, the company had a very successful holiday season with Fisher Recipe. Our consumer sales and marketing teams are focused on capitalizing on our strong performance and developing programs to expand our distribution for Fisher Recipe and assist other retailers with growing their branded baking nut programs. The commercial ingredient channel, the food service team has continued to expand our distribution and gain new locations where our products can be purchased. JBS products today are sold in 20,000 more locations than they were at this time last year. And we have multiple products in each of these locations. These include places like vending locations, hotel lobbies, golf courses, and mom and pop store kiosks where snacks are sold. In the contract packaging channel, we started to see a rebound in volume as consumers began traveling more and the convenience store traffic started to pick up. We also gained a new customer in this channel and shipments have just started. Now turning to category updates. I will share some of the category and brand results with you for the quarter. As always, market information I'll be referring to is IRI reported data. For today, it is for the period ending December 26, 2021. When I refer to Q2, I'm referring to 13 weeks of the quarter ending December 26, 2021. References to changes in volume or prices are versus the corresponding period one year ago. We look at the category on IRI's total U.S. definition, which includes drug, mass, Walmart, military, and other outlets, unless otherwise specified. And when we discuss pricing, we are referring to average price per pound. Breakouts of the recipe, snack, and produce categories are based on our custom definitions developed in conjunction with IRI. And the term velocity refers to the sales per points of distribution. The total nut category was up 1% in dollars and flat in pound volume in Q2. This is consistent with the growth rate we saw last quarter. We continue to see strong growth in the trail mix and produce categories, offsetting slight declines in the recipe and snack nut categories. Overall, prices across the category were relatively flat in Q2 versus the prior year, up 0.7%, with some nuts increasing while others declined. Now I will cover each category in a little more depth, starting with recipe nuts. The recipe nut category declined 5% in dollar sales and 4% in pound sales. This is an improvement versus the decline that we saw in Q1. The declines were more pronounced among walnuts than pecans. As a reminder, the category had significant growth throughout the pandemic, driven by more consumers cooking and baking at home. While the category as expected is down, levels remain above 2019. Our Fisher brand performed better than the category in Q2, declining only 1% in dollars and pounds. Fisher's performance resulted in a dollar share gain of 0.7 points in Q2, increasing Fisher's branded share leadership in the recipe category. Fisher's performance was driven by strong velocity in the grocery and mass channels. Velocity growth was due to merchandising and increased investment in media, shopper, and influencer partnerships. Now let me turn to the snack category. In Q2, the snack category declined 2% in dollar sales and 3% in pound sales. This is relatively consistent with the decline that we saw in Q1. The snack category continues to hold on to most category gains that it experienced during the pandemic. All nut types are showing slight declines except for cashews, which are 1%. Fisher Snack did not repeat a club rotation this year and declined 18% in dollars and 25% in pound sales at the total outlet level. However, without the club item, Fisher Snack continues to grow faster than the category and gross share. The oven roasted never fried line continued to grow 32.5% in dollars and 26.5% in pounds. driven by strong distribution and velocity growth. We are seeing strong results in the oven roast, never fried line across our large sizes as consumers continue to look for better for you snacks at a good value. We are focused on continuing to build distribution and drive velocities against this line. The trail and snacks mix category grew dollars and pounds in Q2 by 11% and 10% respectively. This segment continues to accelerate growth as it laps out of modest performance during the pandemic. Our southern-style nut brand declined 2% in dollars and grew 7% in pounds due to higher velocities versus last year in club offset by velocity declines in mass. Private brands continue to drive the trail mix category growth. Our last category, produce nuts, increased 5% dollar sales and 2% in pound volume sales in Q2. This is slightly lower growth than we saw in Q1, but the growth is still being driven by pistachios, which were up 37% in dollars versus last year. Our produce nut brand, Orchard Valley Harvest, was down 6% in dollar sales and 2% in pound sales, driven by lost distribution and aggressive competition competitive action. The decline was primarily driven by the mass channel. In grocery, Orchard Valley Harvest grew 9% in dollars and 18% in pounds, while we start to activate new merchandising and trade strategies. We continue to be focused on a holistic plan to turn Orchard Valley Harvest around with more news coming towards the end of this fiscal year. In closing, there is no doubt These are volatile times with the pandemic, the supply chain, the economy, inflation, and a significant shift in consumer behavior. But we also see significant opportunities for growth. Our management team and our associates continue to work hard to expand our business, to build stronger brands, to build more innovative product platforms, and to provide higher levels of quality and service. JBSS is positioned well for stronger results in the future. We have a dedicated team of leaders throughout the company who are working to do what matters most to consistently deliver strong financial performance. Lastly, I'd like to mention that the company is celebrating its 100th anniversary in business this year. It is a milestone for any company, and it is a testament to the dedication, commitment, and leadership every JBSS team member past, present, and future. In honor of our 100th anniversary, JBSS will be ringing the closing bell on NASDAQ on March 14, 2022. It is an exciting time, and we are honored to finally have a chance to participate on Wall Street. We appreciate your participation in the call, and thank you for your interest in our company. I will now turn the call back over to Frank.

speaker
Frank Pellegrino

Thank you, Jeffrey. We will now open the call to questions. Norma, please queue up the first question.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you'll need to press star 1 on your telephone. To withdraw your question, please press the pound key. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Chris McGinnis with Sedoti & Company. The line is now open.

speaker
Chris McGinnis

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Nice to see that continued volume growth, especially you know, in the market. Just to start off, you know, around volume within consumers, some new customer wins. Can you just talk about what's the driving factor of gaining those customers and were you in there before and maybe it was disrupted by the pandemic? Can you just talk a little bit about, you know, how you're winning the new clients at this point?

speaker
Norma

Sure. Good question, Chris. So it's a combination of things. Number one, we've reorganized our marketing strategies for our brands. really focused on getting better messaging out there, finding consumers where they're looking at messaging. So the increase in velocity, I think, is a direct result of our change in marketing efforts. So that's increasing velocity. The distribution is a combination of things. We focused on investing in innovation, consumer insights, so we have better plans to present the right things in the market, that we know consumers are looking for and expanding the type of products that we manufacture within our organization. So R&D and innovation has been a critical part of that growth as well.

speaker
Chris McGinnis

I appreciate that. And I guess a similar question on food service. I think you mentioned in your prepared remarks 20 more thousand locations that you weren't in. Was that because those locations were closed during the pandemic or is that organic new growth that you're seeing related to food service?

speaker
Norma

Sure. So obviously during the pandemic, a lot of locations were shut down. But our team, even throughout the pandemic, have worked hard to gain distribution in those locations. So once they opened up again, we had product available for consumers. And so those are 20,000 locations that we weren't in this time last year that are now starting to come back into the market as places open up again. So it's all incremental new business.

speaker
Chris McGinnis

Great. And just with, you know, the Omicron variant, any issues that you're seeing pressure, maybe the sales there, just kind of given, you know, just how quickly it came about?

speaker
Norma

You know, it's too early to say. You know, December numbers were still strong throughout the holidays. January will be, that's when you'll see some of the impact on volume would be, I think, January as a result of Omicron. Obviously, food service, it's still growing, but not as fast as it was prior to Omicron. But I think people are still active and still getting out there. But I would expect some results probably in January.

speaker
Chris McGinnis

All right. And then I guess just one more question around normalized volumes. How long do you think, I guess just with the wins that you do have, especially around food service, You would expect your trends to be higher in a normalized operating environment versus where they were pre-pandemic. Is that, I guess, correct to think?

speaker
Norma

Yeah, I would say that's a fair statement. Like I said, we've gained a lot of new distribution pre-pandemic. I think people want to get out and do things. So I think you'll start to see some of that volume pick up to where it was back in 2019. But the new locations we have and just the new distribution, the new things we're doing with our marketing efforts, I think you should expect to see better volume.

speaker
Chris McGinnis

Okay. When you talk about the $2 billion target, you know, longer term, how do you envision that, you know, in the sense that, you know, how much of it is extensions from the products that maybe you're selling today versus, you know, I know you've talked about it in the past, new products that you're thinking about maybe entering? Sure.

speaker
Norma

So it's going to be a combination of things. I'll share more as we finalize the plans. It's going to come from our current business. Obviously, private brand is extremely important to the company. We'll continue to invest in building that business. Our brands are extremely important, so expect to see higher level of brand volume come out of that plan to achieve the $2 billion in the future. And then M&A. We've talked about M&A in the past. We're looking at a lot of different exciting categories where there could be opportunities for growth. And I think you'll also continue to see just the growth in the category in general plant proteins, the health and wellness initiatives that are going on. I think consumers are really looking to change their diets and to eat healthier. And I think we're in a perfect place to help optimize that.

speaker
Chris McGinnis

Right. I think following the pandemic, I think everyone could probably use that. Just in terms of the consumer insight that you are, you know, with the studies that you're doing and the extra spend there, can you just talk about maybe some of the early benefits that you're seeing? It sounds like it's already translating a little bit sooner than I would have thought. Just what are you seeing there and the markets maybe that are opening that, or the way you're going to market that you didn't do before the study?

speaker
Norma

Sure. So the new consumer insights, we're looking at, you know, a broader range of data points. It just helps us to see gaps that exist in the market today that we can take advantage of, whether it's a product, it's a pack size, it's a consumer trend, it's something that's being discussed online. So it's helping us find opportunities almost in real time as we see them. But I think the bigger piece on the investments we're making in consumer insights is forward developing an innovation pipeline, looking at what people are talking about that are just beginning to be trends today that will become bigger in the future. It's having access to those insights that are going to help us build a stronger innovation pipeline for the future.

speaker
Chris McGinnis

Perfect. Great. Can you maybe just discuss the competitive landscape and any changes that you see in the competitive landscape at this point?

speaker
Norma

Yeah, so it's been competitive. There's always competitors out there. Obviously, with the Hormel acquisition of planners, they're aggressive. They're trying to build that business. So we expect to see more from them. I think they'll do a nice job with the brand. Private brand competitors, it's been pretty quiet. I think people these past six months have just been focused on servicing their customers and not doing a lot of new pursuits. But always competitive activity, but nothing surprising that I can say is a huge impact at this point.

speaker
Chris McGinnis

And then I guess just thinking about gross margin levels at this point, is this a sustainable level that we're at? Do you expect to see a little bit more of a decline? Just any color you can provide as we look out?

speaker
Norma

I think from a commodity standpoint, it's still a little bit early to tell. We saw higher prices in the pecan industry than we anticipated. We're seeing some softening in other commodities, partly a result of declining consumption. I would say almond market, we're potentially going to see some. Maybe cashews would be the two. Nothing significant, though, where we would be adjusting prices dramatically. But in addition to that, then you've got the headwinds with labor still being high, raw materials being high, lead times are creating cost aggravations in operations because we're having to build up some inventories just to keep up with the supply chain. So it's a combination of headwinds and tailwinds.

speaker
Chris McGinnis

Yeah, no. And just around labor, how have you changed your labor practices? Is it simply just increasing pay rates? Is there more training? Obviously, it's a hot topic this quarter for everybody. Can you just provide an update of what you think about the labor market going forward?

speaker
spk03

Sure, Chris. This is Jeff. Obviously, it is a very competitive market. One of the big changes that we had to react to this fall were labor shortages, which we had to supplement with temporary employees. But a lot of it really was fixed by just increasing labor rates. The supply chain issues that we talked about, the biggest impact those have is we couldn't run the machines as long as we wanted to because we didn't have all the packaging machine or we had shortages in labor, so we had to move crews from one line to another to make sure that we kept servicing our customers and meeting our demands. We have made investments over the last several years on automation to help reduce some of those head counts. You know, times where we look at CapEx investments where we want to have a decent financial return, a lot of those investments have been made. Now we're looking at some investments that we have to make in automation just because we're having a very hard time finding labor. And so I think you're going to see a combination of continuing to pay market rates to get the labor in that we need, as well as investing in automation to, you know, hopefully keep a cap on the amount of new employees that we need to hire to support our business. I appreciate that.

speaker
Chris McGinnis

And I guess just thinking about a deflationary environment, But increasing labor and freight costs, it sounds like you're doing well with price increases. Can you just talk about that pricing dynamic as you try to go to your customers and pass it in a deflationary price environment for your nuts, though?

speaker
Norma

Well, a lot of the costs that we've already passed on were combines that we purchased prior to any kind of deflationary activity. So all the inventories that we own are at the higher prices. That's the pricing that has been discussed with our customers. And so the deflationary items, we won't see that until probably fourth quarter or even into fiscal 2023. And so those will be conversations. We have very clear discussions with our customers and very transparent with what's happening with commodities. So as hopefully markets come down at the end of the fourth quarter into fiscal 23, you'll have the same type of pricing conversations with them at that time.

speaker
Frank Pellegrino

Hey Chris, this is Frank. As you know, in our consumer channel, we review, historically we review pricing every semi-annual basis. So we review pricing in the fall and in the spring. So we've been doing this for a long time and we have a very Jeff, we have a very transparent relationship with our customers.

speaker
Chris McGinnis

Okay, great. I think that's it for my questions now. Again, a nice quarter, especially on that volume growth, and congrats on 100 years. It's really amazing. So good luck in the next quarter.

speaker
Norma

Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Chris.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, that's star one to ask your question. And I'm currently showing no further questions at this time. I'd like to hand the conference back over to Mr. Frank Pellegrino for any closing remarks. Actually, I have a question from Tim Call from the management company. Your line is open.

speaker
Frank Pellegrino

Congratulations on strong volume growth. To follow on to the last question, you mentioned in your press release that the price increases that you've been planning on should be effective early in the fiscal third quarter. Is that what you were talking about you've been working on for several months, and they actually go into effect, and when we see the next quarterly report, we should be able to note that in the numbers? Is that correct?

speaker
Norma

That's correct. Yeah, conversations started as we saw these commodities and cost changes. But a lot of those cost increases go into effect after anywhere from January 6th to beginning of March. So you'll start to see those numbers reflected in the Q3 report.

speaker
Frank Pellegrino

And in your press release, you said you began to see the impact of the new brand strategy. Can you highlight a couple of instances where you've seen That impact, is it in that volume number, or do you have any specific examples where you've seen some early signs of payoff?

speaker
Norma

Sure. So if you look at the Fisher, the recipe category was down 4%. Fisher was only down 1%. So we did better than the category. We gained market share. And one of the reasons that we've done really well is we've invested in bringing consumers to the recipe, the baking category. We focused on trying to bring millennials and Gen Z consumers to the category, educate them about our marketing efforts to teach them how to use nuts as an ingredient, reach places where they're currently looking for content for their brand purchases. And so that's a good example of where we've invested. We've changed our marketing strategy. We looked at consumer insights and tapped into how can we bring consumers to that category and grow our brand and grow the retailers segment. So I would say that's a perfect example of how the changes we've made in our marketing efforts and sales efforts are starting to pay off. And we saw that this holiday season.

speaker
Frank Pellegrino

As you come out with new varieties or new packages and new distributions, does that mean you have to add a lot of infrastructure or do you have excess capacity you can utilize now for those new variations?

speaker
spk03

Yeah, Tim, this is Jasper. We do have excess capacity. We do get a little tight on warehousing storage during the fall, but everything that we have in the pipeline now will currently run on our existing equipment. I know part of our long-range plan, there are different technologies that we'll have to explore, but currently for fiscal 23, we do not see any issues with additional capacity.

speaker
Frank Pellegrino

And some of the expense that you incurred with the holiday rental rush to get product out in time, you don't expect to have that in the next three quarters. Is that correct?

speaker
Frank Pellegrino

That's correct.

speaker
Frank Pellegrino

Well, thank you. And congratulations again on continuous volume growth. That's terrific.

speaker
Norma

Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. And I'm currently showing no further questions at this time. I'll hand the conference back over to Frank Pellegrino for closing remarks.

speaker
Frank Pellegrino

Thanks, Norma. Again, thank you for your interest in JBSS. This concludes the call of our second quarter of Fiscal 2022 operating results.

speaker
Operator

This concludes the conference call. You may now disconnect, everyone. Have a wonderful day.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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