Church & Dwight Company, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Church and Dwight First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. Before we begin, I have been asked to remind you that on this call, the company's management may make forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, the company's financial objectives and forecasts. These statements are subject to risk and insurgencies and other factors that are described in detail in the company's SEC filings. I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Mr. Matt Farrell, Chief Executive Officer of Church & Dwight. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. I'll begin with a review of the Q1 results, and then I'll turn the call over to Rick, our CFO. And when Rick is done, we'll open up the call for questions. Before we begin, I'd like to recognize all Church & Dwight employees around the world for their continued dedication to keeping our company going during the pandemic. especially our supply chain and R&D teams, as we overcame raw material shortages in Q1 as a result of the Texas freeze. Now let's talk about the results. Q1 was another exceptional quarter. Supported sales growth was 6.3%, and adjusted EPS was 83 cents, and that's three cents better than our outlook. Organic sales grew 4.9%, driven by higher consumption. E-commerce shows no signs of slowing. In Q1, our online sales increased by 54% year-over-year, and at a percentage of total sales, we're 14.8% in Q1 compared to 10.2% in Q1 of 2020. We continue to expect online sales for the full year to be 15% as a percentage of total sales. Vaccinations will significantly influence consumer behavior. The U.S. is slowly opening up, which means consumers are more mobile. 60% of vaccinated consumers are optimistic that they will return to a normal or new normal, as we are seeing the first signs that consumers are willing to spend more time in stores based on a study by IRI. In contrast, many countries outside the U.S. continue to experience lockdowns. As described in the release, we have been facing shortages of raw materials due to the Texas freeze. Raw material and transportation costs spiked higher in February this and were exacerbated by the Texas freeze. We expect a tight supply and higher input costs to continue for the balance of the year. To mitigate the cost increases, we have announced price increases in laundry and across our international portfolio, and we have reduced couponing and promotional spending. Rick will discuss this further in a couple minutes. At our analyst day in January, we outlined which categories and brands we expected to stay elevated throughout 2021, recover from COVID lows, decline from COVID highs, and which ones would remain steady. Overall, our full-year thinking has not changed. To name a few categories, demand for vitamins, laundry additives, and cat litter are expected to remain elevated in 2021. Condoms, dry shampoo, power flossers, and women's grooming are expected to deliver year-over-year growth as society opens up and consumers have greater mobility. Baking soda, pregnancy test kits, and oral analgesics are expected to decline from COVID highs. Of the 16 categories in which we compete, eight grew consumption in Q1, in some cases on top of big consumption gains in Q1 of 2020. Of those eight categories, five saw a double-digit growth. Gummy vitamins, toothache, battery-powered toothbrush, pregnancy test kits, and women's electric grooming. Household categories, such as laundry detergent and baking soda, were down in the quarters. unable to cop the huge COVID-19 sales spikes seen in Q1 2020. Looking at market shares in Q1, eight out of our 13 power brands met or gained share within our U.S. consumer domestic business, which grew organic sales 5.1%. I'll comment on a few of the brands right now. Consumers have made health and wellness a priority. VitaFusion and Little Critters gummy vitamins saw great consumption growth in Q1, up 24%. with the help of the new launches described in the release. It appears that new consumers are coming into the category, and they're staying. One survey showed that consumers who are new to the category had a 90% repeat rate. Waterpik grew consumption 15% in Q1, as it continues to recover from COVID lows and benefit from the heightened consumer focus on health and wellness. Waterpik is also benefiting from dental offices returning to pre-COVID patient levels. We expect the frequency of our Lunch and Learn program to return to normal levels in the second half of this year. Now, Batiste. While Batiste remains impacted by social distancing, consumption was up 6%, and we achieved a record high quarterly dollar share of 39% behind our International Women's Day campaign. Now, I want to talk about the international division. Despite European lockdowns, our international business came through with 3.2% organic growth in the quarter, primarily driven by strong growth in our global markets group. Asia continues to be a strong growth engine for us. Waterpik, Fenfresh, and Arm & Hammer led the growth for the international division in the quarter. Our specialty products business delivered a positive quarter with 6% growth, primarily due to higher pricing. Milk prices were stable in Q1 and are projected to increase later in the year due to higher demand. Now turning to new products. Innovative new products will continue to attract consumers. In 2021, we have launched many new products, which are described in our press release. In the household products portfolio, we are introducing OxiClean laundry and home sanitizer. It is the first and only sanitizing laundry additive that boosts stain fighting and eliminates 99.9% of bacteria and viruses. The product is also designed for cleaning throughout the house and on a variety of surfaces. In the personal care portfolio, VitaFusion launched elderberry gummies, triple immune gummies, and power zinc gummies to capitalize on increased consumer interest in immunity. Waterpik launched Waterpik Ion, a water flosser which is 30% smaller and contains a long-lasting lithium ion battery and is specifically designed for smaller bathroom spaces. To capitalize on its earlier success, Waterpik SonicFusion developed the world's first flossing toothbrush was upgraded to Sonic Fusion 2.0 with two brush head sizes and two brush speeds. And finally, Flawless is taking advantage of the at-home beauty and self-care trends with a facial cleanser system, a shower wand for a full-body spa-like experience, and at-home manicure and pedicure solutions. Now let's turn to the outlook. We're off to a good start in Q1. We continue to expect full-year adjusted EPS growth of 6% to 8%, which is in line with our evergreen target despite the heightened input costs. Given our expectations for consumer consumption, we have raised our full-year outlook for reported sales growth from 4.5% to now 5% to 6%. Organic sales growth expectations were raised from 3% to 4% to 5%. And if you look at consumption trends through the middle of April, 14 of our 16 categories were up in consumption year over year. Now in conclusions. I'd like to remind everyone of the many reasons to have confidence in Church and Dwight. Our track record shows that we are positioned to do well in both good and bad times and in uncertain economic times such as now. Categories in which we play are essential to consumers. We have a balance sheet of value and, pardon me, we have a balance of value in premium products. Our power brands are number one or number two in their categories, and we have low exposure to private lending. And with a strong balance sheet, we continue to be open to acquiring TSR accretive businesses. Next up is Rick to give us details on Q1.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everybody. We'll start with EPS. First quarter adjusted EPS, which excludes the positive earn-out adjustment, was 83 cents flat the prior year. As we discussed in previous calls, the quarterly earn-out adjustment will continue until Q4, which is the conclusion of the earn-out period. The 83 cents was better than our 80 cent outlook, primarily due to continued increase in consumer demand for many of our products. Reported revenue was up 6.3%. Organic sales were up 4.9%, driven by a volume increase of 3.1% and a positive price mix of 1.8%. Now let's review the segments. First, consumer domestic. Organic sales increased by 5.1% due to higher volume and positive price mix. Overall growth was led by VitaFusion, Little Critters gummy vitamins, Waterpik oral care products, Flawless Beauty products, Arm & Hammer clumping cat litter, and Kaboom bathroom cleaners, as well as Viviscal hair thinning products. Consumer International delivered 3.2% organic growth due to higher volume, partially offset by lower price and product mix. This was a great result despite European lockdowns. For our SPD business, organic sales increased 6% due to higher pricing partially offset by lower volume. Milk prices have remained stable month to month and are projected to rise as 2021 moves forward. Now turning to gross margin. Our first quarter gross margin was 44.5%. 120 basis point decrease from a year ago. Gross margin drag was impacted by 360 basis points of higher manufacturing costs, primarily related to commodities, distribution, tariffs, and COVID impacts. Commodities which were exacerbated due to the Texas freeze were a 90 basis point drag on margin. Tariff costs negatively impacted gross margin by 40 basis points. These costs were partially offset by a plus 190 basis points from price-volume mix and a positive 170 basis points from productivity programs, as well as a 10 basis point positive impact from favorable currency. As a reminder, our outlook for the quarter on gross margin was down 50 basis points. The entire variance was related to the spike in commodities and tight transportation market. The good news is for the back half of the year, we expect margin expansion. Behind the pricing and promotional actions we laid out in the release, as well as we start to lap some of the higher inflation and tariffs that we experienced in the back half of 2020. Moving to marketing. Marketing was up 2.3 million year-over-year as we invested behind our brands. Marketing expense as a percentage of net sales decreased 30 basis points to 8%. For SG&A, Q1 adjusted SG&A increased 60 basis points year over year, primarily due to acquisition-related intangible amortization. We also had higher investments within IT and R&D, as well as some transition costs from the Zycam acquisition. Other expense all in was $11.6 million, a $3.6 million decline due to lower interest expense from lower interest rates. And for income tax, our effective rate for the quarter was 24.2% compared to 23.2 in 2020, an increase of 100 basis points primarily driven by lower stock option exercises. And now to cash. For the first three months of 2021, cash from operating activity has decreased 57% to $100 million due to higher cash earnings, which was offset by an increase in working capital. Inventory is higher to support increase in sales as we continue to improve customer fill level. Accounts payable and accrued expenses decreased due to the time of payments. As of March 31st, cash on hand was $128 million. Our full-year capex plan continues to be approximately $180 million as we continue to expand manufacturing and distribution capacity, primarily focused on laundry, litter, and vitamins. For Q2, we expect reported sales growth of approximately 4.5%, organic sales growth of approximately 4%, and gross margin contraction of 350 basis points. As higher input costs continue, and we lapped artificially low promotional levels from a year ago. Adjusted EPS is expected to be 69 cents per share, a 10% decrease from last year's adjusted Q2 EPS. As you read in the release, we did a voluntary recall of selected products within our vitamin business. We expect the EPS impacting Q2 to be approximately 4 cents for the quarter, and we are seeking reimbursement by insurance. And now for the full-year outlook. We now expect full-year 2021 reported sales growth to be 5% to 6%, which is above our previous 4.5% outlook. We're also raising our full-year organic sales growth to approximately 4% to 5%, up from the previous outlook of 3%. Turning to gross margin, we now expect full-year gross margin to be flat for the year, primarily due to the impact of higher raw material and transportation costs in the Texas freeze in March. We had previously expected gross margin expansion of 50 basis points for the year, and recently we have seen a large increase in raw materials and transportation costs. We're absorbing $90 million of incremental costs for the full year. Higher sales, reductions in promotions, and price increases across all three of our divisions, representing about one-third of our portfolio, offset a large part of the cost increases. As a reminder, we price to protect gross profit dollars, not necessarily margin. Our full-year tax rate expectations are now 22%, higher versus our last expectations due to lower stock option exercises. This is a two-cent headwind versus our previous full-year outlook. Adjusted EPS expectations continue to be in the range of $3 to $3.06, a 6% to 8% increase year over year. Our cash from operations outlook continues to be a billion dollars while we continue to pursue accretive acquisitions. As you heard from Matt, the company is off to a great start, and we expect 2021 to be another strong year. And with that, Matt and I would be happy to take any questions.