Energizer Holdings, Inc.

Good morning. My name is Kelsey, and I'll be your conference operator for today's call. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Energizer's third fiscal year 2026 conference call. Please note that at this time, all lines are in listening mode, and following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please star zero for the operator. This event is being recorded Tuesday, August 4th, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Mr. John Poldan, Vice President, Global Finance Treasurer in Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning and welcome to Energizer's third quarter fiscal 2026 conference call. Joining me today are Mark LaVigne, President and Chief Executive Officer, and John Drabik, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In just a moment, Mark will share a few opening comments and then we'll take your questions. A replay of this call will be available on the investor relations section of our website, energizerholdings.com. In addition, please note that our earnings release, prepared remarks, and a slide deck are also posted on our website. During the call, we will make forward-looking statements about the company's future business and financial performance, among other matters. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties which may cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. We do not undertake to update these forward-looking statements. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements are included in reports we file with the SEC. We also refer in our presentation to non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures to Comparable GAAP Measures is shown in our press release issued earlier today, which is available on our website. Information concerning our categories and estimated market share discussed on this call relates to the categories where we compete and is based on Energizer's internal data, data from industry analysis, and estimates we believe to be reasonable. The battery category information includes both brick and mortar and e-commerce retail sales. Unless otherwise noted, all comments regarding the quarter and year pertain to Energizer's fiscal year, and all comparisons to prior year relate to the same period in fiscal 2025. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Mark.

Good morning, and thanks for joining us today. As in prior quarters, we've posted prepared remarks on our website that provide a detailed review of our third quarter performance and our outlook. But I wanted to begin with a few brief comments. As we move through fiscal 2026, our priorities remain centered on strengthening the earnings power of the business, generating strong free cash flow, and continuing to improve our balance sheet. In the third quarter, we delivered organic growth across both batteries and lights and auto care, while sustaining the margin recovery achieved since the beginning of the year. These results reflect the actions we've taken over multiple years to strengthen our brand Thank you for joining us today. At the same time, Project Momentum has improved our operational flexibility and positioned us to navigate a range of operating environments while maintaining a focus on profitability and cash generation. Looking ahead, we remain confident in our strategy and the actions already underway across the business. We expect strong fourth quarter earnings growth to be supported by productivity initiatives, supply chain optimization, and the work we have done throughout the year to strengthen the profitability of the business. We believe these actions position us well to continue creating value through strong free cash flow generation and disciplined capital allocation. Thank you for your continued interest in Energizer. And with that, let's open the call for questions.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Did you wish to decline from the polling process? Please press the star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from Lauren Liberman from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks so much. I wanted to start by just kind of getting more detail on the change in guidance. So, you know, one quarter left and he moved to the low end of the range after an inline delivery this quarter. So just wanted to better understand the drivers of that change. Thanks.

Good morning, Lauren. When we spoke in May, our expectation at that time was that the back half of the year we deliver around 4% organic growth. Today, we expect the back half to be roughly flat to up 1%. So clearly there's been a change in the demand outlook. The primary driver behind this is in the battery category. At the time of the Q2 call, we expected the category to be roughly flat through the balance of the year. Since then, consumers have remained more cautious than we anticipated, and the battery category trends have softened by roughly 200 to 300 basis points relative to those expectations. And those items have been reflected in the outlook we provided today. This is more of a category adjustment than it is really an energizer adjustment. The business is actually performing well within the environment that we're seeing. We continue to gain share. We're expanding distribution. We're launching innovation, and we're outperforming the category. So while we're taking a more prudent view on our top line demand, our confidence in the business has not changed at all. The actions we've been taking are working. We're improving the quality of the portfolio, rebuilding margins, and strengthening the earnings power. and increasing financial flexibility. I would also point out the earnings and cash flow story remains very much intact. Gross margin has improved more than 430 basis points from first quarter levels. We expect fourth quarter gross margin to be north of 40%. And we expect 25% adjusted EPS growth at the midpoint in Q4. And at the same time, we expect strong free cash flow generation and meaningful debt reduction. So all in, that's kind of the way we were thinking about the balance of the year and wanted to provide that outlook for Q4 as well as finishing up 26.

Okay, great. And just one, given the slowdown in category growth that you're calling, I was just curious about your read on retailer inventory levels. I know there's been some retailer inventory dynamics in the first half of the fiscal year, with the incremental flowing in the category. Is that something we should watch out for further from here?

Yeah, thanks, Lauren. It is something we watch. You know, we went through this. It occurred earlier this year, and there's actually a slide in the slides. We do not expect it to be an additional meaningful headwind, and really it's embedded in the revised numbers that we provided today.

Okay. All right. Great. Thanks so much. I'm going to pass it on.

Thanks, Lauren.

Thank you. And your next question comes from Andrea Texeria from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. I was just hoping to see if you can comment a little bit on that decline of 200 to 300 basis points. From a volume perspective, from a pricing perspective, it seems like it's both that consumers are also down trading, not only like volume-wise, but down trading from a value perspective. So can you elaborate on that and also speak to not only the U.S., but international?

Let me get started. I think it's important to separate near-term consumer environment from long-term health of the overall category. Consumers are being more selective today. They're looking for value. They're shopping across channels and pack sizes and managing overall basket spend more carefully. That can pressure dollars and mix in the short term. Energizers winning in this environment. In the U.S., our value grew 1.8%. Volume grew 5% while the category declined. We also gained volume and value share globally as well. You know, I think on the promotional front, we have no interest in buying share. I think for our business, the category is more promotional today because consumers are seeking that value that I mentioned. But the improvement we're seeing on our business is broader than just price. We're benefiting from better distribution, stronger execution, innovation, and the breadth of our portfolio. The actions we're taking are resonating. Distribution gains and the strength of our brands and the breadth of our portfolio allow us to meet consumers across both premium and value. So we're not assuming that the consumer improves from here, but we are managing the business to win with consumers where they are today. I think you're seeing that play out. I would say in Q3, you are seeing a bit of a pricing headwind in Q3, we would expect that to be neutral in Q4. So I would not extrapolate the trends we're seeing in Q3 into Q4.

And then can you comment on the cost side, how we should be thinking of your outlook now with oil prices. You get less impact because your cargo is value added. But just thinking of how to think about the commodity cost pressure also on the raw material side.

Sure. Andrea, you know, we've done a good job getting costs out of the system. We've seen improvement in gross margins from the beginning of the year to where we are now. As Mark mentioned, we're expecting fourth quarter gross margin to be in the low 40s. And that's really a clean number for the first time this year. By clean, I mean, we've had a lot of these in and outs. You know, for instance, there won't be any IEPA credits in our fourth quarter number. So we think that reflects, you know, a lot of the hard work that we've done and we're in much better shape. There's still a number of moving parts, and we've been talking about it for the last couple of quarters, commodities, tariffs, FX, logistics. We're going to be disciplined about providing a full view to that when we're ready. That should be next quarter. What I would say is we have a lot of levers that are available to us, including productivity, sourcing, network flexibility, operating efficiencies, and pricing where appropriate. So our goal as we go forward is going to be to maintain the margins we've worked to recover, as well as the overall earnings profile of the business. I would say the other area where I think we're seeing as we move forward some important factors that I think will bolster our free cash flow, which is really important to the story. So first, we're finishing up project momentum this year. So we expect related cash costs to execute that program, which were in large part like facility exits and severance. Those should be significantly reduced going forward. The CapEx that we've been spending really for digital transformation and some of that supply chain transformation, that's been elevated in recent years. in coordination with the momentum program. And we expect that to be down pretty significantly. We're pushing for like 1% of net sales or 30 million bucks to come back into the run rate basis. And then we've talked about it last quarter and it's starting to occur, but we've already collected about $11 million of IEPA tariffs. That's on the recovery side. We expect the remaining 53 million that we've booked to provide a meaningful source of cash generation as we kind of finish up this year and go into next year. So cash flow should be a strong story for us as we finish up the year and go into 27.

Thank you. Thank you.

And just as a reminder, if you do have a question, please press star 1. And your next question comes from Rob Eidenstein from Evercore. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you very much. First, just wanted to follow up on the category slowdown. You know, is this something that increased during the quarter or was fairly stable? Just kind of a little bit of color on the cadence of that. And then, you know, I think you mentioned 200 to 300 basis points. Would that have been split roughly equally between price and volume? You know, just any color around that. And then my second question is, you know, we get the Circana data. In that, your main competitor had pretty dramatic declines, very high double-digit declines in volume in the period. I was wondering if you can give any color around that. It looks like a lost customer. Any color in terms of if that's the fact, timing around that, and circumstances, whether that's something that will likely benefit you going forward? Thank you.

Good morning, Robert. I never like to speak on behalf of our competitors, so I think I would just direct questions that way. We see the scanner data just like you do. Rest assured, we are in the market competing and trying to win distribution and do it the right way, and it all plays out in the scanner data that you receive. I think in your first question around the dynamic in the battery category, I think we referenced it in our last quarter We were seeing a bit of pressure on the consumer, and I think as we worked our way through the quarter, we saw it accelerate a bit. We're not anticipating that it snaps back and improves in a meaningful way over the balance of the year, which led to the 200 to 300 basis call down that we made this morning. I do think that's a near-term dynamic, and I don't think it impacts our longer-term view of the category. Devices still continue to be healthy. Usage continues to be healthy. Change-out frequency is healthy. So all the fundamentals behind category demand are in place. And what you are seeing, though, is consumers reacting in a more near-term environment where they're making choices. They're making choices about frequency of their spend. They're stretching dollars further. and as a result, they're seeking value and they're more cautious and you're seeing that play out in the battery category, which results in our making a call for the Q4 that we did this morning.

And again, just is this weakness split equally between volume and value and price or is it biased in one direction or the other?

Well, so what you saw in the quarter is there's a little bit of promotional activity

and there's a little bit of volume erosion in the quarter. I think going forward, you're gonna see that split be, you know, it's gonna be split a little bit between both. And so I think it's just our job to manage, continuing to connect with consumers, invest in promotion where it makes sense, drive the appropriate volume dynamics, keep margin, you know, Keep the margin that we've worked hard to preserve intact so that we can go into 27 with a stable margin, which allows the rest of our investment thesis to hold.

Yeah, I think our fourth call specifically for us is that pricing would be neutral to slightly positive.

Great. Great. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Robert.

Thank you. And your next question comes from Brian McNara from Mechanical Ingenuity.

Please go ahead. Hi, this is Madison Callinan for Brian. Thanks for taking your questions. Not to beat a dead horse, but can you comment on the battery category and struggles there? Is there something structural going on, whether it's a push towards battery-free technologies or something else? Is it pantry destocking? Thanks for all you guys can give.

Yeah, sure. Appreciate the question. No, there's nothing structural going on. Foundational health of the battery category is intact. Again, I mentioned devices continue to be stable in the household, usage, frequency. If anything, you're seeing a little bit of increased frequency because the power that these devices require is greater than it used to be. So structurally, the battery category is healthy. I think what you are seeing play out in the scanner data numbers is simply a reflection of consumer caution, value-seeking behavior, and the dynamic nature with which they shop. And they're changing channels, they're changing pack sizes, all of that plays out in the scanner data. But no, we feel as positive about the battery category today as we ever have.

Great. And then are there any nuances to holiday shipment timing that we should be mindful of for Q4 and Q1 of fiscal 27? Thank you.

Holiday Timing. Anything that we're aware of was built into our call today. And, you know, again, our back half is right now between Q3 and Q4 will be flat to plus one. And that's built into any sort of pacing and phasing we had relative to holiday.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. And there are no further questions at this time. Mark, you may please proceed.

Great. Thanks for joining us today and your interest in Energizer. Hope everyone has a great rest of the day.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude your conference call for today. We thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.