J & J Snack Foods Corp.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the J&J Snack Foods Fiscal 2023 Third Quarter 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 will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Norberto Aja of Investor Relations. Sir, please begin.

Thank you, Michelle, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining the J&J Snack Foods fiscal 2023 third quarter conference call. We will start in just a minute with management's comments and your questions. But before doing so, let me take a minute to read the State Barber language. Today's call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. As such, all statements made on this call that do not relate to matters of historical facts should be considered forward-looking statements, including statements regarding management's plans, strategies, goals, expectations, and objectives, as well as our anticipated financial performance. These statements are neither promises or guarantees that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that may cause results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors discussed in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 24, 2022, and there are other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that caused actual results to defer materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made on this call today. Any such forward-looking statements represent management's estimates as to the date of this call, August 1, 2023. While we may collect the update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause expectations to change. In addition, we may also reference certain non-GAAP metrics on the call today, including adjusted EBITDA, operating income, or earnings per share, all of which are reconciled to the nearest GAAP metric in our earnings press release, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website. Joining me on the call today is Dan Faschner, our Chief Executive Officer, along with Ken Flint, our Chief Financial Officer. Following management prepared remarks, we will go ahead and open the call for a question and answer session. Dan Faschner, J&J Snack Foods Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, Dan.

Thank you, Roberto, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us to discuss our fiscal 2023 third quarter results. I'd like to start by thanking our employees across all J&J segments for a record quarter. I am so proud of our team and their efforts to continuously improve on our business. Their hard work and dedication are allowing us to post record top and bottom line results and create added value for all our employees partners, and shareholders. For the fiscal third quarter, revenues increased 12% to 425.8 million, and net earnings increased 124.8% to 35 million, led by strong gross margin performance and improved distribution expenses. Our gross margin initiatives and strategies are starting to gain momentum helping us to drive improved profitability. Like most of our industry, we are beginning to see cost inflation stabilize and our pricing actions are now better aligned with costs. This, combined with improved margin mix and added efficiencies in our manufacturing plants, should have us well positioned to deliver consistent margin performance. Ken will provide more details on our financial performance later in the call. Today, I'd like to begin by talking about the operations and supply chain side of our business. As we have discussed in prior quarters, our team has been focused on several initiatives to create more efficiencies in our business and enhance our capabilities. Combined, these initiatives will help us transform how we operate as a company. Here's a quick update on these key priorities. Our team has improved logistics management over shipping, warehousing, and product distribution through our partnership with NFI. NFI now manages 100% of our transportation network and is helping us improve truck capacity, minimize miles, reduce stops, enhance customer service, helping us lower shipping, handling, and storage costs. Next. we are transforming our warehouse network to simplify how we manage product through our warehouses. This includes the build out of three geographically positioned regional distribution centers, adding freezer capacity, including more storage space for Dippin' Dots products in two of these three locations. The first of these three RDCs recently opened in Terrell, Texas in June, And the other two locations are scheduled to open later this calendar year and early 2024. These initiatives will simplify our logistics network by moving from over 30 warehouse locations to less than 10, resulting in improved customer service and lower distribution costs. Also, we have rolled out six state-of-the-art production lines adding capacity to support growth in our key product categories such as pretzels, churros, and frozen novelties. These lines are more automated, creating production efficiencies and higher output metrics, all aligned to support our growth opportunities in these core products. Our operations team has implemented stronger discipline within the plants, that is driving efficiency improvements in areas such as waste reduction, maintenance spend, SKU productivity, and hours utilization. And we have improved our financial and operational foundation via the implementation of a new ERP system last year. This has enabled us to integrate processes and controls across our operations and is now providing better data to manage the key KPIs across operations, supply chain, and finance. We expect to continue to see additional benefits from this initiative. Together, these operational and supply chain initiatives are transforming our business and will play a pivotal role in reducing distribution and manufacturing costs and providing better service to our valued customers. One of our key strategies is to leverage the strength of our core products and brands to drive growth and improve profitability. Our team is working across segments and channels to create new selling opportunities and drive innovation. I'd like to highlight a few of our brand priorities. Dippin' Dots is quickly penetrating new markets and gaining placements in new channels. One of our biggest growth opportunities is in the theater channel where we are now in approximately 375 Regal theaters and actively testing with the other two largest theater chains. Like we reported last quarter, we are leveraging our brand portfolio to create products like Dippin' Dots Icy Cherry and Blue Raspberry, which is already the best new product launch for Dippin' Dots ever. Finally, We are pursuing numerous vending opportunities as we find new ways to serve our customers. Olatsuro has exceeded our expectations with sales growing by over 19% in the most recent quarter and almost 30% year to date. We now have significant market share and are confident in our ability to maintain our leadership position. We are finding growth opportunities that include bringing Ola Churros into the retail space in the fourth quarter, and new business with major US food distributors, QSR, and fast casual channels. Super Pretzel is one of our most powerful brands with endless potential, it seems. In the fourth quarter, we will be launching Super Pretzel Bavarian sticks, bites, and mini dogs in the food service and retail creating new snacking occasions and solidifying our dominant position within soft pretzels. I see it continues to benefit from a recovering theater industry, as well as from its strong consumer appeal across a growing number of occasions. There is recent momentum in the theater industry as attendance moves close to pre-pandemic level and stronger movie releases are hitting the markets. We continue to gain placements in QSR and are currently discussing a major opportunity with a Club Channel customer. On the marketing side, a new campaign is currently being tested in the Atlanta market called Let the Kid Out. That includes out-of-home, curb-in, and digital media support and is receiving very positive reviews. We continue to have strong plans to market and grow this brand across our portfolio. We have really built a business balanced across multiple products, channels, and customer segments, which together helps us adapt to changing consumer and snacking occasions. We manage this portfolio to maximize our growth opportunities across food service, retail, and frozen beverage segments. This quarter is a great example of our flexible business model and our capabilities to continue driving both sales and growth and profit growth. Before transitioning to Ken, let me highlight a few additional insights within each of our business segments. Food service continued its strong performance from prior quarters with sales up 11.9% to 255 million. Super Pretzel Bavarian Pretzel Bite and Jalapeno Cheese Filled Nuts launched this quarter, and we gained placements of a Super Pretzel Bavarian Sticks at a large family entertainment center. Also, we launched Hola! Chocolate Filled Churros across food service, including incremental placements with distributors, cash and carry, national accounts, and individual operators. We're also testing a significant opportunity with a large QSR customer with full rollout scheduled in early calendar 2024. Funnel cakes, fries, funnel cake fries are a big opportunity in QSR and casual dining growing 10% in Q3. And Zaxby's, a fast casual restaurant chain with over 900 locations across the USA, recently informed us that they will move from a test of our five inch funnel cake to a permanent menu item in Q4. As it relates to the retail segment, sales were up 0.2% to 61.2 million. For the quarter, the consumer environment was a bit soft in the first couple of months as retailers and grocery stores reported lower traffic in their stores and smaller baskets. This trend did improve in June, but highlights the fluctuation we are seeing in retail consumer spending. We believe this impacted sales of soft pretzels and biscuits in the Q3, as both were down 12.2% and 15.3% respectively compared to the prior year. We continue to see strong growth opportunities in retail, especially in our super pretzel, frozen novelty, and churros. The Super Pretzel brand continues to resonate with consumers with purchase intent of 50% versus the year ago. As previously discussed, we are currently launching Super Pretzel Bavarian sticks, bites, and mini dogs in the retail supported by strong sales plans and marketing. Frozen novelties continue to be an opportunity led by Luigi's, Dogsters, and Icy Stix as the performance of each product continues to outpace the category. Olash Churros will begin shipping in the Northeast region this month as we bring this growing brand to retail. Moving to our third business segment, frozen beverages, we saw a record Q3 sales of 109.6 million, reflecting the strong rebound in the theater channel as well as ongoing strength at our Mexico operations. There is a lot of excitement in the theater industry on the heels of stronger movie releases and higher food and beverage consumption per visit. Theater attendance is improving closer to pre-pandemic levels. Beverage sales grew 26.1% in Q3, driven by 9% volume increases in the quarter. Our maintenance and service sales grew 5.5%, and equipment sales grew 17.1%, driven mostly by the continued checkers rollout. Finally, we continue to make progress growing consumption and placement in amusement, mass merchandisers, and restaurants. As it relates to M&A, we continue to evaluate potential M&A opportunities that complement our brand portfolio and business model and that offer an attractive shareholder return. Financially, we are well positioned to invest in growth when the opportunities align with our business model. In summary, I applaud the excellent work everyone across the organization is doing to improve every aspect of our business. I am confident that our team is aligned on our core strategies and executing the right initiatives to grow our business and improve our operations. We are well positioned in the market with a long-term focus on growing sales and profits and delivering shareholder returns. I would now like to turn the call over to Ken Plunk, CFO, to review our financial performance. Ken?

Thank you, Dan, and good morning, everyone. Like Dan, I am so proud of our J&J employees and their many contributions in helping us deliver a record quarter. We are executing the strategy across our organization with a focus on driving top line and bottom line growth. I am equally pleased with our ability to show marked improvements across most of our operational KPIs, including gross margin and distribution expenses. We believe that we have the right plans in place to drive continued growth and deliver value to our shareholders. I would like to take a few minutes to walk you through our results. Net sales for the quarter totaled a record $425.8 million, a 12% increase versus the prior period. And sales through nine months totaled $1,115,000,000, a 13.7% increase versus the first nine months of fiscal 22. The strong top line result was driven by growth across all three of our business segments, and across most of our core products and reflects the health and resiliency of our business. Our largest segment, food service, experienced a 11.9% increase in sales to 255 million, representing 59.9% of total company sales. This strong performance was a result of healthy growth across the segment including 176.4% increase in frozen novelties to 47.4 million, which included an incremental 29.2 million in Dippin' Dots sales and showcases the benefits from the Dippin' Dots acquisition. Also, a 19% increase in churros, a 13.6% increase in salt pretzels, and a decline in handheld and bakery of 33.9% and 8.3%, respectively. Moving to our retail segment, sales increased 0.2% to $61.2 million compared to the same period in fiscal 2022. Handheld sales increased 180.2% driven by expanding growth with a major mass of merchants. We did experience sales decline in soft pretzels, biscuits, and frozen novelties of 12.2%, 15.3%, and 4% respectively. due to softness in traffic and basket size with retailers and grocery chains. As it relates to our third segment, frozen beverages sales were a record 109.6 million, or a 20% increase versus Q3 22, led by strong growth across all three subcategories. Beverage sales increased 26.1%, led by gallon increases of 9%. Machine revenue increased by 17.1%, and maintenance revenue increased 5.5% compared to the previous year period. As highlighted by Dan earlier, we made significant progress improving gross margins and distribution expenses, driving operating income growth of 127.2%, a $27 million improvement over last year. Starting with gross profits, Q3 gross profit improved to $142.9 million, or a 31% increase versus the prior year. Gross profit as a percentage of sales was 33.6% in Q3 2023, comparing favorably to 28.7% in Q3 2022. It was driven by a combination of better product mix, alignment of pricing and cost, production efficiencies, as well as the stabilization of inflation pressures on the back of historic highs last year. Overall, we experienced low single-digit inflation for the quarter. Costs of key ingredients, including flour, oil, dairy, and meat, have declined. Though we are still experiencing double-digit inflation in sugars, sweeteners, and mixes, which continues to impact products. such as frozen anomalies and insuros. Looking at expenses, total operating expenses increased 6.8 million, or 7.7%, and represented a 22.2% of sales for the quarter, compared to 23.1% in Q3 of 2022. Distribution costs were 10.4% of sales in the quarter, down sequentially from 11.3% and much improved from 12.7% in the prior year period. Our supply chain transformation initiatives, along with declining diesel prices and carrier costs, are starting to drive improvements in shipping efficiency, cost per truck, and cost per pound. Marketing and selling expenses represented 7.4% of sales versus 6.3% in the prior year period, and 7.1% in Q2-23, and were driven primarily by the timing of spend for trade shows and sponsorships. Administrative expenses were 4.4% of sales in Q3-23 compared to 4.1% in Q3-22 and 5.3% in Q2-23, driven mostly by the expected seasonal impact of adding dip and dots. This led to an operating income of $48.3 million or 127.2% increase compared to $21.3 million in Q3 of 2022. Adjusted operating income was $51.1 million or a 104.8% increase compared to Q3 of 2022. After the impact of income taxes of $12.6 million, Compared to $5.6 million in Q3 of fiscal 22, net earnings increased to $35 million, resulting in reported diluted earnings per share of $1.81 or $2.51 for the first nine months of fiscal 2023. This compares to $0.81 a share and $1.56 a share in the prior year periods. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was $1.92 for the quarter and $2.76 for the first nine months compared to $0.95 per share and $1.72 in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA increased 73.3% to $66.6 million from $38.4 million in the prior year period, and our effective tax rate was 26.5% in the third quarter. Looking at our liquidity position, we continue to maintain a healthy balance sheet, including $70.2 million in cash and marketable securities. In addition to the investments we are making across our business, we also continue to pay down debt of approximately $125 million when we acquired Dippendot to $83 million at the end of fiscal Q3 23. And we intend to continue returning value to our shareholders via dividend payments given the health of our balance sheet and our strong free cash flow generation. We have ample availability under our revolver of approximately $132 million of additional borrowing capacity. This affords us added flexibility to strategically invest and support our business. In summary, we are executing our strategy and key initiatives and setting the foundation for continued growth. Our teams are aligned across the segments, relentlessly focused on growing our core brand, innovating and finding new opportunities and snacking occasions, cross-selling across our portfolio and channels, and improving how we operate. This combination is helping us improve performance throughout the P&L, and positions as well as drive strong returns and shareholder value. I would now like to open the call to questions. Operator?

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. The first question comes from Connor Radigan with Consumer Edge. Your line is open.

Good morning, guys. Good morning, Connor.

How are you doing?

I'm doing well. Thank you. Thank you. So I guess just first things first, just from the top line. So, you know, obviously results came in a little lighter than, you know, I think we and other folks had expected. So, I mean, I guess maybe could you guys sort of maybe break out what you saw there? Maybe if anything came in. you know, ahead below your expectations if you saw any pockets of, you know, weakness or softness ahead of expectations there.

Yeah, Connor, this is Ken. Good question. Yeah, let me break that down for you a little bit. You know, take the food service segment. And you got to kind of break it in because there's some different things going on here. So if you look at soft pretzels, frozen novelties, excluding Dippin' Dots, churros, that combination of products was up over 14%. So somewhat aligned with, I think, what you would expect and what we would expect and ties into what we talked about in emphasizing growing those core products. If you look at handhelds and bakery, in handhelds, there's around $3.5 million in there that is a cost pass-through based on an agreement we have with one of our... Club Channel customers. So the unit stayed the same, but we passed on deflation that we got, we passed that on to the customer. Also, when you think about Vagrant Handheld, a big part of their business is sold through retail. And as we talked about in the retail segment, the retail industry saw a decline in traffic, saw softer baskets, and that pretty much aligns with, I think, anything you need from some of the core retail grocery channels that have come out recently. So those behave similar to that. And then if you add in Dippin' Dots, Dippin' Dots is an incremental 29.2 million frozen novelties. Frozen beverages, really excited about what we saw there. Beverage sales up 26%. The overall segment up 20%. Volume up, you know, over 9% in the quarter. We talked about the recovering theater industry. So you start to see the consumer come back to theaters the last few weeks having some of the biggest weekends they've had in a long, long time. So all in all, we feel really good, but there's certainly some things going on with the consumer. There's probably a little bit in the amusement area of impact from some of the hot weather. And some of our amusement customers have talked about some impacts on traffic in that category. So You know, it's kind of a quick overview. All in all, though, we feel like we're executing the plans we need to execute. And, you know, we're quite pleased, you know, given all that and where we ended up with sales.

Yeah, Connor, I just add to that. We are confident in where we ended up. Much like what we've seen throughout this year, there's been some ups and downs throughout the year. And even this quarter, April, you know, as it started was, was off there was a consumer confidence issue i think going on at the time with a lot of different things happening in our world and it kind of grew again throughout the quarter so we've watched that really closely but i don't think we had any big surprises as you asked in the quarter okay great that was that was really helpful guys um and then i guess just uh

moving with the gross margin too, right? I mean, you know, in the release, you guys called out, you know, pricing mix, you know, stabilized inflation, right? I mean, I guess, could you maybe help us sort of, I guess, dimensionalize the extent of the impact in each one of those, just kind of get a sense for that?

Well, there's a lot in that, Connor, in terms of kind of parsing all that out. I mean, the way I would answer your question is, Well, to mix, you know, when you see us growing in pretzels, churros, frozen all of these in our biggest segment, food service, that mix, you know, really drives stronger margin and it's a part of our strategy. At the same time, you know, some of the declines in bakery and handhelds are strategic. You know, we're sharpening the pencil line. skews and some skews we got out of that weren't driving the margins we needed. And we're tweaking that and we're investing in other products in those areas that we expect things up down the road. But the combination of both dialing down in that area and then growing in those higher ones helps mix a little bit of that going on in retail as well. And then the other thing is when you mix in a record quarter for ICI, together with the biggest quarter for Dippin' Dots, those are both very accretive to our top line margin. And so that mixed in, you know, had a big role in our strong growth margin performance. You then add on inflation coming down, I think more than all of us expected. You know, I think CPI was just shy of 3%. PPI, I think, was closer to 5%. that was about a, I think a 200, 300 basis points decline just from quarter to quarter. And we've benefited from that, you know, cost and some of our key commodities, flour, you know, oils, things of that nature came down and certainly that played a role in that. And then the other thing we talked about is our initiatives. They get better in how we operate and get better in, you know, and how we produce product is starting to drop some efficiencies. You know, so it all came together really nicely in this quarter and I think is kind of sets the foundation going forward. And we've somewhat moved out of that really crazy 12 to 18 months of historic inflation.

Okay. All right. Thanks for the call as always, guys. I'll go ahead and pass it on.

Thanks, Connor. Thanks, Connor.

Please stand by for the next question. The next question comes from Andrew Wolf with CL King. Your line is open.

Thank you. Good morning, and congratulations on the quarter and the results. Thank you very much, Andrew. My pleasure. The results speak for themselves, but... I just wanted to ask about sort of a prior question on the sales, and you guys kind of touched on, you know, I guess a pass-through of some deflation to a large customer. But in the past, you've talked about skew rationalization, you know, in lower margin lines, which I think bakery is, and perhaps handhelds as well. Is there any, you know, deliberate, if you will, you know, kind of portfolio management of the... of the lines in that way where you're, you know, not bidding up for contracts that just, you know, don't make sense when you have, you know, other lines of, you know, products you can produce and distribute that maybe have two or three times the margin.

Yeah. You know, Andrew, you've heard us talk a lot about kind of our strategy of pushing our core products and we continue to do that. And we'll continue to do that also in the bakery, which we're real fond of the bakery and what happens there, but, But we do have a strategic initiative there to make sure what we're bidding on and what we make and who we sell to also complements our strategy of what we've been talking about getting to that 30% gross profit margin. So absolutely has there been a strategy around it to reduce some SKUs that weren't operating there? And then the team, that Baker team, is really focused on new business and what they bring to the organization. As I said in the opening, I'm proud of all of our teams and the way that they're executing the strategy.

Is there any way to quantify beyond the pass-through of some deflation what the skew rationalization might have been as a drag to the sales growth?

No, I'm not going to quantify what that is exactly. And, you know, it kind of ebbs and flows with decisions you make, you know, month to month. But, I mean, the bulk of it is going to be in bakery. You know, and so I think as you look at the bakery numbers, it's a combination of that skew rat together with the fact that a lot of that bakery is in retail and grocery bakery groups where... you know, there has been some decline and softening of traffic in those venues.

Okay. Thanks, Ken. I understand. And Dan, if I could just get back to, you know, the way you were talking about your sales and just kind of, I know you don't guide to us, but I just wanted to ask, like, when you're thinking through your sales budget for the board or however, you know, how are you thinking about the current quarter and going into fiscal 24 for your budget about where the sales growth comes from in terms of price versus velocity gains on existing products. And it sounds like you're really bullish on new placements, new distribution. So I'm not trying to fish a number out of you that I know you don't guide, but I am trying to get sort of a sense of where you see the growth, especially as the economy is showing you know, less inflation. So obviously, price is going to be less and less of a driver of sales growth. You know, where would your volume, you know, I guess to focus more on the volume growth, do you see it more in velocity in this kind of economy or more in your distribution gains? Thank you.

Great question, Andrew. To kind of highlight, I probably see it on both sides of it, right? I do think that we have the opportunity through some of the marketing activity that our team is doing to grow Velocity in locations that we're already in. And then I love, as we've talked about some of the new innovation that we have and some of the new products that we're releasing and their abilities to compliment and grow the business as well. And the teams are working really hard and have what I consider a really strong pipeline to look at for this next year. And so, You know, as I talked about before, there's some volatility in the market. We'll watch that closely. Part of what I love about our company is that we have a really balanced portfolio. And you've lived through this with us. There's a period of time when theaters were down, but retail was up. And now we're living in a period of time where theaters are up and retails come back to more of a normal level. I like the way that this business has been built with great products. and great customers around a portfolio that allows us to ebb and flow that way. I think this quarter we'll continue to see some growth, and then I look forward to seeing the budgets as they roll up over the next month or so for next year.

Great. I appreciate that color. And if I can add just one kind of follow-up on your commentary on the marketing budget being, you know, expenses being up, excuse me, When you talk about trade shows and sponsorships, is there some of the – and I think in the past you said to get some of the products like churros, all the churros into retail, there would be slotting and things like that. Is that kind of what this is about, or is this separate from that? And in the current quarter, we should look for the slotting fees as part of the marketing spend.

Yeah. It's really driven by kind of what we mentioned is both timing and I would even say kind of the level of investment we're making in trade shows and sponsorships, particularly trade shows. I don't know if you've been to one recently that we're at, but kind of the level of kind of bringing together a good brand presence and event and We've really blown that out. It's really amazing what the marketing team has done to bring all our brands together and display it in a way. We're making investments there. We believe that's paying off. It's driving new channels in. It's driving new conversations. It's really about that. Full year, we'll probably be in the ballpark of where we typically are, maybe a hair above that, Andrew. but it's money well spent. I think it's starting to really tie in to all the other strategies we're doing to drive interest in our brands.

I'll just add to that. Some of it is timing, Andrew, but we did make a really conscious decision at some of the major trade shows this year to really highlight all the great things that we do in our core products. And really proud of the team and the way that they put that together. You know, you heard us talk about one of our core strategies being cross-selling our portfolio. By doing what we've done, we've had some really, really tremendous efforts by the team. And some of our customers have just really seen how well they can complement one of our products to the next. And we think that's working. So we're proud of that.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Andrew. Please stand by for the next question. The next question comes from Robert Dickerson with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Great. Thanks so much. Good morning. Good morning, Robert. How's it going? I guess just first question just on Dippin' Dots. I'd say maybe it's a personal anecdote, but I don't know, the past few months have been kind of all over the place, and I've seen certain formats in places like Wawa's. I've seen my kids eat them, and now kind of more handheld frozen novelty kind of on-the-go packaging. So as you talk about all the distribution opportunities, whether it's in food service, retail, what have you, I mean, is it fair to say at this point, you know, kind of despite some of the innovation of the overall portfolio, that, I mean, it seems like kind of the more highly likely, more highly probable kind of revenue generation upside here at J&J is kind of primarily being driven by dip and dots. I don't mean that as a negative. I just sound like the runway is pretty long.

We love that acquisition. You've heard us talk about that, Rob. Again, I'm proud of that team. We've worked hard at integrating and then cross-selling and getting out and introducing them to some of the great relationships that we have out in the industry. It's really working. We see a really nice opportunity for that to continue to grow and are happy with what it's done to date. And also just thank you for your kids buying a product too, right? We appreciate that. But we really are happy with that acquisition. We're proud of the team and the way that they're managing it and the way that they have integrated with the whole J&J organization to find new growth and have a lot of hopes for it in 2024. Yeah. Go ahead.

I just could real quick just to add to that. Everything Dan said, yeah. Optimistic. And aggressive in the way we believe we can grow Dippin' Dots. But, you know, Dan rattled off in his script, you know, his focus on Churros, Ola as a brand, Super Pretzels as a brand, Icy as a brand. All of those businesses performed quite well in the quarter. You know, Salt Pretzels and Food Service, which is the biggest, you know, area that we sell pretzels in, was up 13.5%. Churros was up 19%. icy beverages by himself was up 26%. So, you know, I certainly want to give credit to what we're doing at Dippin' Dots, but our focus areas are growing and we feel really good about the opportunities down the road in those areas as well.

All right, super. And then I guess just to jump to the margin side, you know, clearly gross margins back strong. Yeah, as we think, and then also, Frozen beverage, I think that's maybe the highest margin I've ever seen. So I'm just curious, as we think forward into Q4, then clearly we start thinking about next fiscal year, where things sit today. Is some of this margin mix shift in the portfolio sticky? Is there anything that we saw in Q3 in frozen beverages, maybe kind of like a one-off so we don't want to get ahead of ourselves? because you look at the gross margin in the quarter, it's great, but then you look at the op margins, too, and clearly there are nice benefits flowing through. So I know that was the expectation kind of as we got into the back half. I'm just curious, at this point, kind of given normal seasonality as well, these improved margins now hopefully kind of where we sit for some time.

Yeah, as we go into Q4, we feel very good about the position we're in from a gross margin standpoint. I think if you look at Q4 to Q3 historically, given a little bit of slowdown as kids go back to school and that kind of thing, those margins will probably be a little bit south of what they were in Q3, but they should still be very good because we think we've passed the hurdle of some of the things that challenged us and most in the industry over the last several months. And if theaters continue to perform the way they are, you know, it's going to, it's going to be a big shot in the arm with both our IC business. And as we penetrate theaters in Dippin' Dots, again, both high margin parts of our portfolio. So yeah, I think we're pretty confident. You know, we've told you we're going to move this business to, getting it to be a 30 margin business year in and year out. And this is a really good start to that. And we expect to have good momentum going into Q4. Obviously, as you get into Q1 and Q2, the seasonality of that, those margins won't be at that level, but they will be much better than, you know, over the last year or so.

Rob, you've heard us talk about kind of working all angles of the P&L, and that's exactly what we're doing. And we're really proud of each and every one who's focused on that, right? We're certainly in the summer months where the mix helps us for sure. But also, you know, just the movement in the IC business, not only domestically, but a really strong quarter out of our Mexico operations. Proud of what that team is doing. We think that we can, have those margins up in that 30 plus area, like we've been talking about for a while. And it certainly gets a boost when you're in the summer months, but, but we're proud of the, of what teams are doing at all angles of the P&L.

All right, great. And then maybe just lastly, you know, I know clearly kind of overall basket and cost depletion sides improve, like you're saying, but also, you know, seeing, you know, some kind of material step up and sugar and sweeteners and, Anybody with decent exposure to those commodities have been saying the same thing, and we all see it. So it sounds like overall, clearly, pricing relative to your overall cost structure has really improved. But we've also heard from others that, look, if some of these inputs on the sweetener side remain elevated, the industry overall could potentially think about incremental pricing. Is there anything in that that's kind of come up internally in terms of kind of those two core commodities? Or, you know, you're thinking about it, you know, more from an overall portfolio dynamic versus kind of, let's say, frozen novelties? That's it.

Thanks. That's a great question, Rob. We do a monthly review with our different teams around the P&L program. In our review in the snack food side of our businesses this last month, we talked a little bit about the frozen novelties and what we may or may not do. And so we will look at it individually like that. We're going to watch it closely. And you're right, if that doesn't come down, then, you know, we may have to approach that in a different manner.

All right. Super. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thanks, Ron. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your keypad. Please stand by for the next question. The next question comes from Todd Brooks with Benchmark Company. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, guys, and congrats on the results in the last quarter. That was a very surprising margin improvement that you delivered, so congrats. Thank you, Todd. A few quick questions here, if I may. And this is just kind of getting this first year of Dippin' Dots correct. Can you talk about what the seasonality typically is for Dippin' Dots revenues in Q4 versus Q3? And I'm just trying to triangulate. You've talked about a couple of annual goals for Dippin' Dots, and I think we did a little bit less than $30 million here in Q3. Would you expect that business to to grow meaningfully in Q4? And if you look at overall company revenues, would you expect that Q4 will be your peak revenue quarter or Q3?

Yeah, Todd, you know, we've talked about and been very clear about the seasonality of dip and dots in Q4, particularly on the profit side. You know, I've talked about that. I would say Q4 is going to probably perform similar to Q3, you know, maybe a little bit better. Like you, we're still kind of learning this business. But we know obviously what they did last year. We know what some of the new initiatives and things they have in place and some of the areas of growth. But you're probably looking at a Q4 that behaves somewhat similar to Q3 for different nuts.

Okay, great. Thanks, Ken. And then based on dip and dots similar to a little bit better in Q4, more core products, the skew rationalization, just trying to think about what the headwinds are if revenues are relatively similar between the quarters that would cause much of a gross profit margin moderation sequentially. Okay.

Are you asking Todd about the headwinds on sales or on gross margin?

Well, if sales are relatively similar quarter over quarter and you're getting a little bit more dip and dots revenue and you rationalize some lesser margin products for core margin products, I'm just trying to figure out why gross profit should drop much from the 33% plus level that you did in Q3 when we get to Q4.

Yeah, it's really more about kind of historical seasonality. You know, as you get into mid to late August and certainly into September, you know, a lot of kids who are obviously when they're out of school active in theaters and amusement parks and others, your business skews a bit heavier in Q3 and Q4 in those areas. So it's just more of the seasonal behavior of the consumer, which... Traditionally, we've seen a little bit lower gross margin in Q4 than Q3, but I wouldn't say it would be dramatic time.

Okay, that's fair. And then one final follow-up question on the gross margin. I look back historically just to try to map that seasonal movement in gross margins, and you get back to 18, 19, and you were looking at maybe 200 to 300 basis point higher gross margins in the back half of the year than the front half of the year. Do you think that's where we normalize to? I know the Dippin' Dots is a new piece of business that may drag a little bit more in the first half, but what would you expect that go forward type of gross margin spread to be between the first half and the second half of the year?

Yeah, I think the spread, certainly I would say the next year or so will be similar, but I think all quarters will relative to what it was a year ago, particularly the two that we've already gone through, should be better. So Q1, this coming up year, should be better than Q1 of last year because we've gotten past some of the inflationary impacts and some of our initiatives are starting to pay dividends. But if you just look quarter to quarter and think about the behavior of margin, it'll continue to be strongest in Q3 and Q4. and then more relative to history in Q1 and Q2. Now, what we're focused on, like we did the action business years ago, is as we grow the penetration of Dippin' Dots into places like theaters, that provides a bit better seasonality for us and helps those winter months in Dippin' Dots, which we think will pay dividends for us down the road. But that'll be kind of a gradual process.

move to that i think as we build that business up okay great and then dan just a final one for you and i'll jump back in um you talked about the six new um production lines that have been launched over the course of this year as you start looking out to 24 how meaningful is that incremental capacity and throughput slash productivity as a revenue driver for J&J? Because it's levered on those core categories where you're seeing the best growth around novelties, pretzels, and churros. Thanks.

Yeah, good question, Todd. We're really excited about those six new lines. We've talked a little bit in the past about having capacity constraints in those core products that we think there's a lot of runway with. And so the teams are out there really actively being able to sell things like churros and different forms of pretzels and maybe even bringing some of that core into our bakery division as well. And that's being worked on right now. So they become really meaningful for us. They kind of are at the heart of the strategy that we have in place right now of being able to grow pretzels, churros, frozen novelties, and being able to broaden that, like releasing a new pretzel buyer or a pretzel stick that we have had some great early interest in. So I think it becomes very meaningful for us. It allows the teams to get out there and sell on the things that we do best and on the things that help us drive the margin mix that we've been talking about.

Okay, great. Thanks to you both.

Thanks, Todd. Thanks, Todd. I show no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Dan Feschner for closing remarks.

Well, thank you for your time today. In closing, we are excited about the opportunities to continue growing this great business of ours and confident that we have the right people, products, partners, and strategy to maximize these opportunities. We look forward to sharing our fiscal 2023 full year results later this year and updating you on the positive impact the various operational and strategic initiatives are having on our business. In the interim, should you have any questions or wish to speak to us, please contact our investor relations firm, JCIR, at 212-835-8500. Thank you and have a great rest of the summer.

This concludes today's conference call thank you for participating you may now disconnect.