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Operator
greetings and welcome to the hershey company third quarter 2021 question and answer session at this time all participants are in a listen only mode as a reminder this conference is being recorded i'd not like to turn this call over to your host miss melissa poole vice president investor relations for the hershey company thank you you may begin good morning everyone thank you for joining us today for the hershey company's third quarter 2021 earnings q a session i hope everyone has had the chance to read our press release and listen to our pre-recorded management
Melissa Poole
discussion, both of which are available on our website. In addition, we have posted a transcript of the pre-recorded remarks. At the conclusion of today's live Q&A session, we will also post a transcript and audio replay of this call. Please note that during today's Q&A session, we may make forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. These statements include expectations and assumptions regarding the company's future operations and financial performance, including expectations and assumptions related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Actual results could differ materially from those projected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other factors. The company undertakes no obligation to update these statements based on subsequent events. A detailed listing of such risks and uncertainties can be found in today's press release and the company's SEC filings. Finally, please note that we may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe will provide useful information for investors. The presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations to the GAAP results are included in this morning's press release. Joining me today are Hershey's Chairman and CEO, Michelle Buck, and Hershey's Senior Vice President and CFO, Steve Voskal. With that, I will turn it over to the operator for the first question.
Operator
At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary for you to pick up your handset before pressing the start keys. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. One moment while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from the line of Jason English with Goldman Sachs. You may proceed with your question.
Jason English
Hey, good morning, folks. Thanks for stopping me. Good morning. Good morning. Congrats on a strong quarter, particularly given the strength that you're cycling in the prior year. But despite the strength, I can't help but remember that sugary snacks have lost some of their sweetness pre-COVID with little if any volumetric growth. COVID has clearly rejuvenated demand. In your capacity expansion effort, it seems to suggest that you believe that demand is going to stick. So my question for you is why? Why shouldn't we believe that that demand is just going to leak back out in the next year or two?
Michelle
Yeah, Jason, so as we look at the growth that we've seen, the category growth has really been pretty broad-based. It's really cut across regions. It's cut across cohorts. As we speak with consumers, we hear that some of that elevation of those take-home behaviors and new routines that occurred during COVID, that some of those will stick and sustain. Perhaps not all of them, not to the degree to which people were suggested that they shouldn't leave their homes. But we do believe that some of those will stick and stay around based on what we're hearing and seeing. And we do also see some of that continued strength as people are out and about and mobility increases and that we're seeing a pretty good balance there. The other thing we've heard from consumers repeatedly that we've seen over the years is kind of the emotional aspect of the category and how it fits with kind of good and happy moments. And as those happy moments have continued to increase as people, I think, are starting to believe they see somewhat of a light at the end of the tunnel in us working through the pandemic. Those moments of happiness that we're really associated with, we see continuing. So that's really our perspective is a lot of those routines, we think some of which We'll just continue into the future that said there are a lot of unknowns, you know We certainly none of us know knew any of this was going to happen And so we can't perfectly predict the future as it comes to capacity investments What we've tried to do is be really prudent in our investment strategy so we've leaned in in places on brands where we have clearly seen sustained growth over time and And there's a lot of proof points that that capacity will pay off. You know, Reese is a great example of that. Frankly, there are a couple other places where we had elevated demands that we held for a bit before leaning into that capacity until we really thought we were at a point where we could guarantee the ROI. So it is a bit of a balancing act, but at this point, we are bullish on the future.
Jason English
That's helpful context. Thank you. And I, too, like happy moments. One more question, then I'll pass it on. In your prepared remarks, you touched on your collaborative space planning with retailers and resulting acceleration growth for both you and your categories. Can you elaborate a bit on that, what's going on with the initiative, and maybe provide some specifics on the changes that are being enacted by the retailers? Thank you, and I'll pass it on.
Michelle
I'm sorry, can you just repeat the very first part of the question I missed?
Jason English
Well, your collaborative space planning for retailers.
Michelle
Oh, yeah.
Jason English
You were talking about it in your remarks. Give us more specifics. What is it? What's happened? What are the changes that are being enacted on the back end of it?
Michelle
Yep, absolutely. So I would say over time, given that strong partnership we've had with retailers and particularly a lot of our category management expertise around analytics, we've always partnered with retailers in terms of how to think about the placement of confection in their store, and ways to optimize category growth, whether that's looking at heat maps of how people travel through convenience stores or years back when we found underutilized space under the checkout counter in convenience stores and we put category there. Recently, a lot of the focus from our retailers, or there's been a big focus around the labor shortage and thus a push for even more presence of self-checkout. And so we've partnered really closely with those retailers to increase the presence of the category at self-checkout and to maximize the presence in those queuing lines leading up to checkout and particularly self-checkout. I mean, it's a perfect fit with some of the struggles they're having around labor and a great opportunity to get the category out there and make sure that people don't miss that chance to have that last impulse purchase. So I think our retailers are always focused on what's going on in the environment that they need to address in terms of their store layout. And fortunately, we've been able to help them with some of that.
Jason English
Makes a lot of sense. Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Lazar with Barclays. You may proceed with your question.
Andrew Lazar
Great, thanks so much. Maybe just first off, I was hoping you could talk a little bit about what you were seeing in terms of competitive response with respect to the pricing moves that you've announced and how that impacts your expectations on elasticity. Because obviously thus far, while early, it would seem like volume trends have held up remarkably well in response to the pricing that you've taken.
Michelle
Sure. So as we have always seen in this category, it tends to be a very rational category relative to pricing. So our most recent pricing actions are on track, and we have seen several competitors take pricing actions this year, including over the past several weeks. And we don't really expect that we'll see any material changes in pricing on shelf versus the competition, any changes in gap, et cetera.
Andrew Lazar
Great. And then I guess more to Steve. I certainly understand all the moving parts on the supply chain right now, which makes getting overly specific on 22 certainly a bit of a challenge. But if we take it from the top line, consumption trends remain very elevated. Hershey's got more pricing coming through. and it's had inventories depleted for really what will be, I guess, two years in a row. So I would think all these things provide a reasonably good line of sight to at least kind of an on-algorithm sort of type of year, at least on sales in 22, again, unless I'm sort of missing something, and please point it out if I am. On the profitability side next year, obviously, you've already talked about, and I understand there'll be supply chain pressures at least through the first half of the year. I guess my question is, would you expect the that year-over-year gross margin pressure to sort of sequentially improve as you move through the first half, as sort of the pricing flows through and you make improvements to the supply chain? Or are gross margin pressures potentially expected to be as, let's say, severe in the first half as maybe what you're seeing in the back half of this year?
Steve
Sure. Maybe I'll just start with the top line as you started. I think you're right. As we look at it, Today, it's hard to point to something that would say you don't have an on-algorithm top line. We'll have momentum coming out of this year. We've got Long Easter. You mentioned pricing, which will be a bigger factor next year than it was this year. We also would hope we'd see some capacity improvements, would give us some upside. And then at some point, inventory replenishment. I think that's hard to call, but we would expect to see some of that, certainly, over the course of next year. So still volatile, but I agree with the first premise. And then As you get into gross margin, I think there still are a lot of moving pieces. You know, some of the things I think we can directionally point to, you know, obviously the pricing will have a tailwind on gross margin. As we look at raw materials, raw material inflation wasn't a big factor for us this year. We expect it will be a bigger factor as we look at next year. Logistics inflation that we're seeing now, you know, I don't think we see a reason yet for that to break, at least through the first half of next year. You know, we'll have less spot market activity. because some of the, you know, will be, say, better positioned for some of the stronger consumer demand than we were, particularly in the third quarter. We still expect to see some labor inflation, and as we said in the prepared remarks, you know, we've increased headcount to respond to some of the additional demand. Packaging inflation and residence, I think we keep waiting for that to break, and it's probably moderated, but it hasn't reverted back to other levels or lower levels. So I think at least through the first half, we're going to see that still remain a pressure point. and then we'll see how capacity plays out in the broader supply chain network, you know, the challenges we've had with logistics and trucks and warehousing and all of those labor implications. So when you step back from all of that, I'd say the gross margin piece still has a lot of moving pieces, and I think we'll get more clarity, obviously, when we get to February and provide full guidance, but right now I'd say, particularly if you're the first half of the year, we're going to see a lot of those cost pressures in place.
Andrew Lazar
Great. Thanks so much.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Robert Moscow with Credit Suisse. You may proceed with your question.
Robert Moscow
Hi, Michelle. I wanted to ask about the decision to reduce advertising for the year. I guess it makes sense in the context of supply chain challenges. And if you can't get the inventory where you want, you know, why advertise? But, you know, that the The stock's done well and your sales have done well because of the market share gains. And I just wanted to know if you think there's risk to market share erosion from this decision. Do you think your competitors are doing the same thing so it won't matter? How did you evaluate the risk and reward of that?
Michelle
Yeah, so first of all, I would say, there is not a strategic change to our business model. We remain committed to investing in brands at some of the highest levels in our industry across the peer group. So there's nothing that has changed about the strategy. So I want to be clear about that. Yeah. As we looked at the decision, you know, it really was driven by the fact that we have such elevated demand and given that the supply chain challenges just wouldn't enable us to be able to to meet the further demand that we would create through our very impactful advertising that it just didn't make sense. It put more pressure on the supply chain. And also, we probably wouldn't get a good ROI because we wouldn't be able to fulfill that incremental demand. You know, if we look at our market share right now, we don't think that the advertising cuts that we have executed impacted our share in Q3. And we're not the only ones having supply chain challenges and issues. So overall, I think across the board, even in the industry, we're seeing a lot of people manage advertising to supply as a challenge. We'll continue to focus on optimizing it. We will invest as much as we can, as much as we think we can sell. Certainly, we're investing in capacity going forward, and we are very agile in how we're handling support behind our brand.
Robert Moscow
Okay. And can you give us any update on Halloween? Will Halloween just kind of blow right through inventory, or were you also challenged to fulfill demand for Halloween just like other products?
Michelle
Yeah. So it is a very strong Halloween season, the biggest that we've ever had, with very strong double-digit growth on top of the strengths that we had last year. We have done our very best to get as much product out there as possible. Certainly, I would say, you know, supply pressures hit every aspect of the business. So, you know, Halloween season would be a piece of that. But we are really excited about the growth that we've seen year-to-date, both in the category as well as on our own business. seeing lots of very picked over shelves out there as a mountain stores. It's going to be a good trick or treat based on everything we've heard from consumers as well as people really flock back to that behavior.
Robert Moscow
Okay. Thank you very much.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Ken Goldman with JP Morgan. You may proceed with your question.
Ken Goldman
Hi. Thanks so much. I wanted to start by asking about your perception of your labor relations right now. We've had a couple strikes, obviously, in the food at home industry. So I'm just curious for any updates, how you see the risks there and so forth.
Michelle
Yeah, so absolutely. We are very focused on our labor. And first and foremost, I would just want to, again, publicly acknowledge and thank our manufacturing employees. We have folks in our plants who have been with the company for 20, 30, 40 years. And it's really their focus, their dedication from the very beginning that has enabled us to demonstrate and deliver the growth that we've been able to during this very dynamic environment. So we have very long focused and believed and operated in a way that we believe we are the best advocates for the needs of our people. We are in constant communication with our employees. And we're really focused on our total employee value proposition with those employees. We know that we have highly competitive wage rates, we have excellent benefits, and we routinely benchmark all of that. But we're also very focused on the softer factors that are very important to our employees. And that includes, especially during these times of global supply chain challenge, work-life balance, stress management, flexibility in hours, being able to get time off. And so we have enacted a lot of strategies to really try and help with that. You know, we have an always-on recruiting approach, and we have really amplified our recruiting efforts this year to be able to successfully manage through the challenges and increase our net headcount. We've also leveraged analytics to, as I said, understand some of the things most important to our workforce. So we're very focused on that. We are very focused on prioritizing the needs of that group and continuing to look at ways that we can optimize the situation in terms of supply and demand. So we feel pretty good about that.
Ken Goldman
Great. Thank you for that. And then a quick one for Steve. Steve, Year to date, your corporate other expense line has been up fairly meaningfully from both 2020 and 2019. I realize that grows somewhat in line with sales, but I'm just curious how we should think about what sort of an ongoing annual number for that corporate line is, especially as we think about modeling 2022. Are there any potential one-time headwinds we should be thinking about that maybe go away next year, or is this kind of a good run rate to think about?
Steve
Yeah, you'll see, you know, incentive compensation is one of the big pieces in there, and as we turn the page to next year, that'll be one item that resets. Otherwise, there's not as much change. You know, we talked about this year we had some planned investments in ERP and digital. We'll have some of those kind of investments, I expect, next year. We also had a little bit heavier medical claims and benefits impacts this year coming off of COVID. So, you know, that may or may not continue next year, but probably the incentive reset would be the biggest year-over-year change as we start the next year.
Ken Goldman
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Brian Spillian with Bank of America. You may proceed with your question.
Brian Spillian
Hi. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. So maybe just to tie one more up on 22. And I guess, Steve, just below the operating profit line, this year there's been some benefit from interest expense being lower. And so I guess my question is we're looking in the next year and we're just looking at our models below the operating profit line. Is there anything that we should be thinking about in terms of puts and takes there?
Steve
Yeah, nothing major. I think if I was to look at, you know, tax this year has been lumpy, but if I look at where we sort of set the final guidance for the year from a tax standpoint, and I look to next year, I'd expect, you know, relatively similar level for next year. You know, we had some one-timers this year that will not recur next year. We talked about it in the second quarter and to some extent this quarter as well. So if I kind of take those out and I look at the finishing tax position, I see that's the same. interest expense, I don't expect a lot of change, probably flat year over year. So I hope that helps. Not much movement year over year, other than the one-timers.
Brian Spillian
Yeah, no, that's helpful. And then just to follow up on the capacity expansion, I guess two questions related to that. One is, what type of investment is it? Meaning, is it like physical, you know, like actual physical product production lines, or is it investment in like further down the manufacturing, like packaging capacity or just trying to get a sense of actually what type of capacity you're adding?
Michelle
Yes, we're adding capacity on both, both in terms of production, product production, as well as packaging, you know, across multiple brands. I think we spoke before about building our Agile Fulfillment Center. That is up and coming online. So it's really across the board.
Brian Spillian
And then if we're thinking about, or if you could give us a sense of with the capacity now that you're planning to add, just where you stand now in terms of capacity utilization or available capacity. And I guess what's underneath my question is we've been sort of adding incrementally to CapEx over the last couple of years and just trying to get an understanding of whether we're going to stay in this elevated cycle for a while or... Are we getting to the point where you feel like you're going to have enough flexibility in capacity?
Michelle
I'd start by saying capacity utilization varies by brand and piece of the business, so each brand is in a slightly different position. We certainly have invested several hundred million dollars to install at least nine new lines since the pandemic began, and we do have more planned for 2023. and for 24. But Steve, do you want to talk a little bit more about where we are in that total investment?
Steve
Yeah, if you look back really the last two years and this year, you know, we have done a lot of infrastructure spending. So, you know, we talked about the Agile Fulfillment Center. We've got a Canadian DC that's in process. And of course, the ERP transformation, which is a big component as well. Now, I'd say we have to finish those projects, but are pivoting more towards the capacity side. So, I think like we talked about machines, packaging, So far, we haven't had the need to build buildings and infrastructure of that sort. But as we look at the total, you know, next year, as we talked about, a slight increase versus this year from a CapEx standpoint, really due to project timing this year more than anything else. And then as we look further on, you know, we'll give more guidance on that as we get into next year.
Brian Spillian
Okay, thanks. I'll leave it there. Thanks, everyone.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Nick Mori with RBC Capital Markets. You may proceed with your question.
Nick Mori
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Michelle, I wanted to ask about market share. You know, if you could just give us some context. Obviously, I think a big question has been how much of the share gains Hershey's had over the last, you know, 12 to 18 months and how much of that will stick. And it looks like quite a bit is sticking. So can you just talk about, you know, where you see the most stickiness, where things have retrenched? And then, you know, obviously discussions are taking place now about 2022 shelf allocation. Just wanted to get some of your early thoughts on how you think you'll progress there.
Michelle
Yeah, sure. So since the pandemic, you know, we have been able to hold on to about 50% of the market share gains that we had realized. We see certain areas of the business where those numbers are very strong and Seasons in particular, as we mentioned in our remarks, we had gained 500 basis points, and we held on to about 75% of that. Take-home also has been very strong in terms of our retention. So we're pleased with what we've been able to hold on to. And as we continue to unlock more capacity and reinstate some of that advertising, we believe that we'll see some continued strength going forward.
Nick Mori
And then just a follow-up on assortment, because I know that's been a big area that retailers have been focused on given all the supply chain challenges. So as you kind of engage with retailers regarding space with some of your initiatives, how are you guys thinking about your overall assortment on the shelf?
Michelle
Yeah, so I would say we know that – Assortment bags are really big sellers with consumers, and there's been a trend toward that, particularly during the seasons and especially during Halloween. So we have definitely seen that part of the category tick up relative to assortment bags. If I look broadly at assortments and what is on the shelf, what we've been trying to do is to optimize our portfolio of SKUs for right now based on what consumer demand is, where the demand is, and availability of capacity. And we've really prioritized a lot of our core items, you know, the core of the core of the core items, which are the highest velocity item, even to the point where we're focusing in some places on shelf, you will see, you know, double facing of those items as opposed to the presence of perhaps some second or third tier items. So we've spent a lot of time on this, and we think we've taken a really smart approach that has enabled us to generate that very positive demand and at the same time maximize the available output that we have on capacity and on supply.
Nick Mori
Excellent. Thank you. I'll pass it on.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Michael Lavery with Piper Sandler. You may proceed with your question.
Michael Lavery
Good morning. Thank you.
Operator
Good morning.
Michael Lavery
Just wanted to come back to the trajectory of some capacity relief. I know you've quantified the deload hit for this year. Just in terms of at least how you're planning for it, assuming that's all set for next year, can you give a sense of how you expect that to unfold and just how soon you can start to see relief and reloading of retailer inventories?
Steve
Yeah, I think it's hard to call exactly how that's going to phase over next year. You know, we've got, as we've talked about in the prepared remarks, we've got capacity that's come online this year. We've got more coming online next year. And I think, you know, between consumer demand and our capacity coming online, it's going to be a challenge to kind of quarterly profile that. We'll share more in February. We'll have a better picture at that point.
Michael Lavery
And is the issue more the production lines or labor, or is it both?
Steve
It's a bit of both. Labor only from availability. Like everyone, we've done a lot of hiring this year. We talked about it again in the prepared remarks. We've increased headcount, but we've also seen more attrition than we've had in the past. So there's a labor component, but there's also a machine capacity component.
Michelle
Yeah, I'd also say there's been a logistics and shipping component as well, although we've been able to take some actions and have seen some improvement on that.
Michael Lavery
Okay, thanks. And you mentioned in the prepared remarks about the strength in unmeasured channels and just how your total sell-through is stronger than what we see in the measured channels. Can you give a sense of if there's any certain products or channels in particular driving that and just how sustainable it might be?
Michelle
Yeah, I mean, we're seeing it be up versus the pre-pandemic levels. And, you know, I think over two years, you know, it's relatively in line with what we would call as normal. low single-digit growth is kind of what you should be thinking there.
Michael Lavery
Okay. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Alexia Howard with Bernstein. You may proceed with your question.
Alexia Howard
Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Great. So two questions from me. Firstly, you mentioned in the prepared remarks that some of the emerging markets are still holding up well. I wonder if you could give us a quick tour of India, Brazil, and Mexico. How large are they collectively, and what are the main initiatives in those areas? And then I have a follow-up.
Steve
Steve, do you want to talk about the size? Yeah, the three markets are doing well. I think we tried the same I think on the second quarter call, but we're gaining share in all three of those markets in our key brands. And so we're pleased with the progress that we're making. You can continue to see, aside from the top line, the benefits of some of the go-to-market work, including the model in China, but also efficiencies in the other markets. So we're pleased with the way things are going. As we look to the fourth quarter, some of the same capacity challenges that we've seen in the U.S. and North America are going to have some impact on those markets as well. but really pleased with the distribution gains we've seen, the velocity, and the share across those three markets.
Michelle
Yeah, and I'd say in terms of the key initiatives, I would probably bucket them across in terms of it is investing in the core. So India, we're still focused on the chocolate expansion and broadening that. In Mexico, you know, we have both a strong chocolate portfolio as well as in the sweets area. And in Brazil, continuing to fill out our portfolio, you know, we launched Halloween in Brazil for the first time. We had a premium dark wine that came out in Brazil a while back that's been very successful. And across all of those markets, investing to continue to build those brands and to build distribution I think are really the key priorities there.
Alexia Howard
Great. And then as a follow-up, I didn't see any reference to the e-commerce channels in the prepared remarks this time around. Has that channel slowed down materially? Obviously, it was very elevated during the pandemic. I'm just wondering what's happening over there and whether that's becoming maybe less of a focus this year.
Michelle
Yeah, so overall, I think perhaps not totally unexpectedly from a broad consumer perspective, overall trips to stores, both brick and mortar and e-commerce are up both versus 2020 and 2019. You know, in-store trips have pretty much rebounded to the pre-pandemic level. And in e-commerce, what we've seen is that trips have largely maintained versus last year, but we have seen the dollars per trip go down as many of those consumers who were more exclusively purchasing in e-commerce shifted more of their spend back into bricks and mortar. Most of the e-commerce shoppers are not exclusively e-commerce. They shop omnichannel. So we saw some of that shifting occur. Relative to our business in particular, our e-commerce retail sales are up versus last year with our omni-channel partners despite the significant growth that we had a year ago and also despite the significant growth that we're seeing in bricks and mortar as well.
Alexia Howard
Great. Thank you very much. I'll toss it on.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Steve Powers with Deutsche Bank. You may proceed with your question.
Steve Powers
Yeah, hey, thanks. Good morning. You know, with the time this back to the capacity question, again, just with the timing of exactly when you might be able to alleviate pressure on on those most capacity constraints, brands hard to call, as you talked about with Michael, I guess I wanted to cycle back to Rob's question, just get a sense for, you know, how long you think this lower run rate on marketing could continue? And how long do you be comfortable letting it run just given the competitive backdrop?
Michelle
Yeah, I mean, I think relative to the marketing investment, I mean, we are just going to, we are continuously being agile and flexible. And as we are able to either bring new capacity online or make adjustments in how we are operating, because we've had a lot of focus in things like freeing up additional capacity and by reducing changeovers, by focusing on core SKUs. So I'd say we're in a period of continuous improvement, both in terms of capacity investment and maximizing the capacity we have. So we closely monitor that so that as we do see upticks, we can then quickly reassess and adjust our spending accordingly.
Steve
Yeah, all I would add is we've talked in the past about the analytics that we have around our media investment, you know, and we put a lot of our own investment in building out that analytics capability. So don't think of the media cuts as sort of a peanut butter approach. It's very surgical, very precise to the areas where we have capacity constraints, and very protective of the high ROI core brand advertising.
Steve Powers
Yeah. I mean, that makes sense. Just if I could, how much of that analytics and those considerations are driven by your internal... you know, sort of aspects that are internal to you and your control and your capacity versus the competitive backdrop, right? So right now, it sounds like, you know, you and competitors are all in a kind of a similar spot. And so as you pull back, you're not overly concerned about, you know, share a voice being lost, et cetera. But if you kind of got, if you thought you were more offsides on capacity relative to competitors and saw them picking things up, How does that factor in? Would you be ramping up ahead of capacity on marketing just to maintain that shared voice, or how do you think about that?
Steve
Yeah, our retail sales team has very strong presence in stores. Between what's on air and what's on shelves and what's being promoted, we have very good data coming back on what's happening from a competitive set, and all of that does feed into the decision as we think about how we're going to optimize our marketing and media spend.
Steve Powers
Okay, great. And just one last question, if I could. You called out the price increase executed recently in the U.S. and your expectation for pricing to play a bigger role in next year's growth, which makes good sense. Is there any color you can provide just in terms of the cadence of how you expect net realized price to flow? Is it going to be relatively even throughout the year? Does it build? Just in any context there would be helpful. Thank you.
Steve
Yeah, we're going to have more in the first half of 2022. Think about the most recent price increase will kick in in the first quarter, plus we'll have carryover from the price increases that we announced earlier this year. So the first half will have more price relative to the back half.
Operator
Perfect.
Michael Lavery
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from Jonathan Feeney with Consumer Edge. You may proceed with your question.
Jonathan Feeney
Hey, good morning and thanks. Just a quick one for me. I'm trying to understand, for Q3, and your numbers, I'm off by a few days, and your numbers are probably better than mine, but clearly I have 9.7 for pricing in measured pricing in Q3 U.S. scanner channels. And that's significant. When pricing broadly is at retail, is ahead of what wholesale pricing appears to be, So what's going on, and does that tell us something about the kind of pricing you'd expect to flow through? And is there any possibility that retailers are kind of margining up a little bit, at least relative to what you would consider standard operations? Thanks very much.
Steve
We're not seeing retailers margin up in a material way. What you do see is a lot of impact of mix in retail, and you really got to click down to get down to pack type and see what's happening. And when you get down to that level, it's consistent more than what you see when you look at just at the top level.
Jonathan Feeney
Gotcha. So you'd say it's more of a mix phenomenon then that I'm looking at. Cool. Thanks very much. You bet.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of today's question and answer session. I would like to turn this call back over to Ms. Melissa Poole for closing remarks.
Melissa Poole
Thanks so much for joining us this morning. We'll certainly be available throughout the day for any additional questions you may have. Have a great day.
Operator
This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation. Enjoy the rest of your day.
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