Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc.

Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call

2/2/2023

spk10: The conference will begin shortly. To raise and lower your hand during Q&A, you can dial star 1 1.
spk09: Good day, and thank you for standing by.
spk07: Welcome to the Q3 2023 Prestige Consumer Healthcare, Inc. Earnings 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 that session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your phone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Phil Tripolilli.
spk09: Sir, you may begin. Thanks, Operator, and thank you to everyone who has joined today.
spk18: On the call with me are Ron Lombardi, our Chairman, President, and CEO, and Christine Sacco, our CFO. On today's call, we'll review our third quarter fiscal 23 results, discuss our full year outlook, and then take questions from analysts. A slide presentation accompanies today's call can be accessed by visiting PrestigeConsumerHealthcare.com, clicking on the Investors link, and then on today's webcast and presentation. Remember, some of the information contained in the presentation today includes non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the nearest GAAP financial measure include an earnings release and our slide presentation. On today's call, manager will make forward-looking statements around risks and uncertainties, which are detailed in a complete safe harbor disclosure on page two of the slide presentation that accompanies the call. These are important to review and contemplate. Business environment uncertainty remains heightened due to supply chain constraints, high inflation, and various geopolitical factors which have numerous potential impacts. This means results could change at any time, and the forecasted impact of risk considerations is a best estimate based on the information available as of today's date. Further information concerning risk factors and cautionary statements are available in our most recent FCC filings and most recent Company 10-K. I'll now hand it over to our CEO, Ron Lombardi. Ron? Thanks, Phil.
spk19: Let's begin on slide five. We are pleased with our third quarter results, which built on our first half momentum in what continues to be a dynamic supply chain and retail environment. Revenues of $276 million in Q3 grew about 2% organically versus the prior year, thanks to our diverse portfolio of trusted brands. Q3 revenues were driven by a continued rebound in cough cold, which I'll discuss in greater detail on the next page, the GI segment's Dramamine brand, as well as a strong international segment performance. Solid revenue continues to translate into strong profitability, generating $1.04 in diluted EPS and over $50 million in free cash flow in Q3, even with almost $20 million in inventory investment in the quarter to support service levels and future growth. Our consistent cash flow profile continues to enable our disciplined capital deployment strategy. These efforts resulted in a Q3 leverage ratio of three and a half times our lowest level of leverage in over a decade. We continue to anticipate gradually lower levels of leverage over time, which further enables future capital allocation optionality. Now, let's turn to page six and discuss the cough and cold category, which is experiencing extraordinary demand this fiscal year. Our cough and cold portfolio is comprised largely of two iconic brands, chloroseptic and Ludens, each with their own distinct heritage for sore throat treatment. Chloroseptic has a heritage in efficacious sore throat sprays and lozenges that began in the 50s. Ludens goes back even further with a brand created in the late 1800s. consumers continue to associate the product with its iconic, great-tasting, cherry-flavored throat drop. This longstanding history with consumers has allowed us to benefit from the extraordinary demand that's driven the category this fiscal year. Year-to-date, the category has grown well beyond our start-of-the-year expectations due to illnesses throughout the year, consumers being more proactive around health treatments, and a low level of inventory at stores due to the supply chain environment. The combination of these factors has enabled strong growth for both Ludens and chloroseptic beyond what we typically expect. As shown on the right of the page, each brand has grown over 20 percent year-to-date with the potential for additional growth hindered by supply chain limitations that have capped upside for us and others in the category. We have a clear opportunity to sell additional volume, and we've taken strategic actions, like adding new suppliers, to keep up with this demand and refill retailers' depleted stocks. Looking forward, although the category is as small as a percent of total company sales, we anticipate its strong demand to continue through the balance of the year, and these strategic actions helping to position these brands for long-term growth. With that, I'll pass it to Chris to walk through the financials.
spk16: Thanks, Ron. Good morning, everyone. Let's turn to slide eight and review our third quarter fiscal 23 financial results. As a reminder, the information in today's presentation includes certain non-GAAP information that is reconciled to the closest GAAP measure in our earnings release. Q3 revenue of $275.5 million increased 40 basis points versus the prior year and increased 1.8 percent, excluding the effects of foreign currency. North America revenues were down approximately 1% versus prior year, excluding currency, with sharp increases in the cough and cold and gastrointestinal categories, offset by declines in the women's health and eye and ear care categories. Our international segment revenues of $38.6 million were up over 25% in Q3, excluding FX. The performance included broad-based strength across regions and product categories. EBITDA and EPS were up 4 and 5 percent in Q3, respectively, from the prior year, with inflationary pressures and higher interest costs more than offset by higher revenues and lower marketing spend. Let's turn to slide 9 for more detail around year-to-date consolidated results. For the first nine months, fiscal 23 revenues increased 2 percent versus the prior year on an organic basis. The performance drivers were largely similar to what we experienced in Q3, with the largest benefits coming from our international segment performance, strength of Dramamine, and robust cough and cold category growth. We also continue to experience solid year-over-year growth in the e-commerce channel, continuing the long-term trend of higher online purchasing. Total company gross margin of 56% in the first nine months declined 170 basis points versus last year's adjusted gross margin of 57.7%. The gross margin change was anticipated and attributable to cost increases, partially offset by pricing actions across our portfolio, which offset the dollar amount of inflationary cost headwinds. For Q4, we anticipate a gross margin of approximately 54.5%. Advertising and marketing came in at 13.6% for the first nine months, down versus 14.7% in the prior year as a percentage of revenue. As a reminder, We anticipate spend for the year of about 13% of revenue, owing primarily to the timing of initiatives and reduced spending around certain categories due to strong consumer demand. G&A expenses were 9.5% of revenue for the first nine months. We still anticipate full-year G&A dollars to approximate prior year at around 9% of revenue. Finally, diluted EPS of $3.14 compared to $3.15 in the prior year as higher revenues were more than offset by the gross margin compression just discussed. Our year-to-date tax rate of 23% was slightly favorable to prior periods due to the timing of certain discrete tax items. We still anticipate a Q4 and long-term normalized tax rate of approximately 24%. Now let's turn to slide 10 and discuss cash flow. In the first nine months, we generated $165.5 million in free cash flow, down versus the prior year. Although quarterly variations can be affected by the timing of working capital, beyond this, we have strategically invested behind inventory in light of the current supply chain environment, finding opportunities where we can increase inventory to better support targeted service levels. This is the primary driver to our updated free cash flow guidance for the year of $220 million. Our stable EBITDA margins enable consistent and strong free cash flow generation. And as a result, we have the ability to invest behind our brands to support increased levels of customer service through working capital investments without derailing deleveraging efforts and targets. We anticipate Q4 free cash flow of about $55 million and year-end leverage below three and a half times, reflecting our disciplined capital deployment strategy that includes debt pay down. Looking beyond this inventory step-up and related cash flow timing, we anticipate a more normalized free cash flow profile in fiscal 24, and we'll provide a full outlook in May. At December 31st, our net debt was approximately $1.4 billion, and we maintained a covenant-defined leverage ratio of 3.5 times. We now anticipate interest expense of $69 million for the year, owing to the timing of debt paydown. With that, I'll turn it back to Ron.
spk19: Thanks, Chris. Let's turn to slide 12 to wrap up. With just one quarter to go in the year, we are refining our outlook. Our proven business strategy and leading consumer healthcare portfolio are enabling us to grow within our original outlook range for the year, even in the current supply chain and inflationary environment we and others are facing. For fiscal 23, we anticipate revenue growth of approximately 3% on both a reported and organic basis, consistent with our long-term target. Q4 revenues are anticipated to be approximately $278 million to $280 million, translating into growth of mid-single digits versus the prior year. We anticipate EPS of $4.18 for fiscal 23, which implies Q4 EPS of $1.04. Our disciplined pricing actions and cost management are helping to offset inflationary headwinds, while the benefits of our strong free cash flow continues to help offset the impact of higher interest rates. Lastly, we now anticipate free cash flow of $220 million or more, reflecting the strategic increases in inventory investments that Chris just discussed. So in summary, our business strategy is working. With one quarter to go, we anticipate solid fiscal 23 growth with record revenue and earnings that builds on our strong fiscal 22, despite a dynamic market backdrop. We also expect this momentum to result in continued growth in fiscal 24, which we'll provide a full outlook on in May. We remain confident in our business attributes and that our strategy is set up to reward our stakeholders over the long term. With that, I'll open it up for questions. Operator?
spk07: Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press Star 1-1 on your phone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press Star 1-1 again. Stand by as we compile the Q&A roster.
spk09: One moment please for our first question. And our first question will come from Susan Anderson of Ken Accord Genuity.
spk07: Your line is open.
spk10: Hi, nice job on the quarter. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering, maybe just to follow up on the supply chain, obviously there were some really strong sell-throughs in cost and cold. I'm curious, are you guys seeing still, you know, supply demand imbalances in the store? Do you guys feel like, I guess maybe if you could talk about by category too, that the in-stocks are getting better and the out-of-stocks fewer as we kind of look forward through the rest of the year.
spk19: Sure. Thanks, Susan. Good morning. So the supply chain, we've been talking about that topic I think on just about every one of these calls for a good year now. I think the positive thing is we've been able to keep up with record demand for our business through last year and through this year so far. but we are seeing certain categories that are challenged to keep up with demand. And cough cold is a clear example of that situation for us, and quite frankly, for many other players in the cough cold category. And you can see that shelf when you go to retail. I think we mentioned in the prepared remarks that we brought on some additional liquid, a liquid supplier to help with capacity there going forward. but it's clearly a category where we see limitations. The other thing I'll call out during the third quarter was our eye care category was another example where despite good continuity of supply so far through the year, the third quarter actually saw a slowdown and impacted our shipments there and something we're expecting into the fourth quarter. So I think the important note here on the supply chain is that we continue to operate in a challenged environment. We've been trying to add to inventory for a good year now. We made some progress in Q4 really as a way to add buffer to the categories that are doing well and get ourselves in a good position to support continued growth next year and improve our service levels.
spk10: Great. That's really helpful. And then maybe if I could just add one more on the international business, so another strong quarter there. Maybe if you could just talk about kind of the trends you're seeing there and particularly hydrolite and how you're expecting that to play out the rest of the year.
spk16: Yeah, good morning, Susan. This is Chris. So, you're right. International had another really strong performance coming off of a record year last year, right? And so, helped a little bit with illnesses, but we saw a strong performance across all regions, not just Australia in the third quarter. So, we feel good about HydroLite. You know, we're up to about 10% household penetration on HydroLite, which is a few points over the last couple of years, which is quite good. but obviously at 10% household penetration, still plenty of room to go. So we've continued to feel good about the growth prospects internationally, and we target, remember, a long-term growth rate of about 5% internationally, and we feel pretty confident about that going forward.
spk10: Great. That sounds good. Thanks so much. I'll let someone else drop in. Good luck the rest of the year.
spk04: Thank you.
spk07: Thank you. One moment, please, for our next question. And our next question will come from Rupesh Parikh of Oppenheimer & Company. Your line is open.
spk21: Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. So I just want to go back to the failure of guidance. If you can just give more color in terms of the sales reduction to the lower end of the range in terms of what drove that, and then also for EPS, it looks like higher interest expense may have had an impact on the EPS range. Thank you.
spk16: Yeah, hi, Rupesh. So the guide, you know, reported guide going from 4% growth to 3% growth is really FX driven. We've seen some currency headwinds as a reminder for us that in particular the Australian and Canadian dollars, there's been a lot of movement, particularly in the third quarter in the Australian dollar in particular. So from an EPS perspective, you know, as we just talked about, right, we narrowed our original sales guide to the lower end of the range. There is some currency headwinds sitting in the P&Ls. It's an other expense related to the currency headwinds I just discussed. And then interest got called up just about a million dollars for Q4, just given the timing of some of the rate hikes and the paydown. So those are the main drivers of the EPS calling down to the lower end of the range, but still within the targeted range.
spk21: Okay, great. And then just in terms of the categories that you guys called out this week are women's health and eye and ear care. When do you expect those categories to improve? Is that something Q4 or next year? Maybe just some thoughts there.
spk19: So let's talk about those both individually, starting with eye care, eye and ear. We actually continue to have great momentum in that category. Consumption is good. Sales are good. As I mentioned in response to Susan's question, the issue in the third quarter for us is really all about supply chain impact, and we expect a bit of that into the fourth quarter as well. And then on women's health, we've actually seen a decline in the total category. Again, we continue to see consumer changes as a result of COVID and everything else that's been going on, in particular women going back to the doctor's office, impacting the yeast infection category, and continued impact on the on-the-go portion of the Summer's Eve business. Again, it's easy to forget, but we're really in year three of three years of disrupted factors on the business. And in some cases, it's comps versus a funny number last year. In some cases, it's the continuation of a change in consumer habits or continuing to chase supply to keep up with demand.
spk21: Great. And maybe just one last question. So I know you're not ready to provide FY24 guidance, but I'm just curious if there's any puts and takes you can share at this point. And I am curious just on A&M. I know this year went down to 13% of sales. If you expect that to be a larger percent of sales next year. Thank you.
spk19: Yeah. So let me start, I guess, with a comment on overall momentum of the business. I think I said on the prepared remarks today, we continue to feel good about the positioning of the business. the consumption trends behind many of our brands. And we feel that we're positioned for continued growth in fiscal 24 after two record years, top and bottom line in a row. And I'll let Chris comment on A&M for next year.
spk16: Sure, so obviously more details to come in May, Rupesh, but we always talk about our A&M plans being built up from the bottom with our marketing teams, right? We talked about additional A&M support being pulled a little bit this year, really related to categories where we have strong demand regardless of our investment. And I would couple that with our ability to provide supply in this environment that we're talking about. So more to come next year. A&M spend is always driven by the timing of initiatives and, you know, new product launches and a whole bunch of variables. But we'll give you more details in a few months here.
spk21: Great. Thank you. I'll pass it along. Great.
spk16: Thanks, Rupesh.
spk07: Thank you. One moment, please, for our next question. And our next question will come from John Anderson of William Blair.
spk09: Your line is open.
spk02: Thank you. Good morning, everybody.
spk01: Morning, John.
spk03: I guess on the inventory step up, strategic investment in inventory, is that really kind of a short-term remedy for some of the supply chain disruptions or constraints i should say that you're experiencing you know juxtaposed against the strong demand for things like cough cold or is there also a longer term element to it in terms of retailers looking for um you know higher order fill rates or tighter delivery windows. I'm just trying to understand kind of the reasoning behind it.
spk19: Yeah, you know, the first driver is to better align ourselves to meet our retail customers' service requirements. So part of it's that. It's really short-term in nature, John. You know, as I said earlier, we've been looking to try to build inventory to give us a better buffer for for the next hiccup in the supply chain. And supply chains out there in general continue to be impacted by COVID impacting workforces, not only at their own facilities, but at our suppliers' suppliers, whether it's cardboard or an API or whatever it is. All it takes is one missing thing in the supply chain to disrupt finished goods, whether it's a label, a palette, or an API. So we've been focused on trying to give ourselves a better buffer for the next shoe to drop that we don't know about. As we get into fiscal 24 and we begin to learn more about how things are stabilizing, we'll adjust inventory back down over time. But right now it's all about getting that buffer in and being better positioned not only to meet service requirements, but to take advantage of those growth opportunities. And as I mentioned with to cough cold, we brought on a second chloroseptic gluten supplier, actually got the first shipments, I think the last week or two of December. So we're chasing things out there, John.
spk03: Okay. That's helpful. Gross margin stepped down a little bit sequentially again in the quarter. And I think Chris, you mentioned the gross margin you expect for the fourth quarter is kind of similar to what you just experienced in the third quarter. And I understand the math driving this, I think, is the cost increases juxtaposed again against the price increases. But do you think we've kind of leveled off at this point in terms of the gross margin performance? And is there... potential for some recovery as you look to 2024 and 2025. I'm not sure what would drive that recovery per se, but any thoughts around that would be helpful.
spk16: Yeah, John, I would just say, you know, gross margin is largely coming in in line with our expectations, right? And you're right, Q4 being consistent with what we saw here in Q3. You know, I think of, so if I start with about a 56% gross margin as the base, right, We'll continue to look for opportunities to take pricing actions. That can also come in the form of new product development, as it has historically, which is a big focus for our company, as you know, in addition to continued multi-year cost-saving projects that we have going on. So we've talked about, you know, in this environment going forward, looking at things a little bit differently than we've been operating for the last few years. in that cost savings will come in many different forms going forward. And it's certainly, you know, we've talked about not having a structural issue with our gross margin. So we'll be looking to increase our gross margin over time and reinvest those dollars into A&M to maintain our EBITDA margin, as we always say.
spk03: Great. Thanks. One follow-up. I think, Ron, at the start of this year, I think you talked about the possibility of perhaps shipping a bit ahead of consumption in fiscal 23 as there was still a need to establish better in-stock levels, maybe across certain categories coming out of the pandemic. It kind of feels like you might be in that same situation right now as you kind of looked at 2024. Is 2024 a year where, you know, net-net, You think it's possible that there might be a little bit of a benefit from restocking, given where you sit today? Thanks.
spk19: Yeah, as we started 23, we were focused on trying to recover and improve some of the out-of-stocks and service levels. And we didn't make the progress that we would have liked to, hence the focus on continuing to build that inventory buffer. As we head into 24, we think that'll likely be the case again where there's more opportunity for inventory recoveries or builds at retail than it going the other way.
spk02: Thanks so much. Congrats on the quarter.
spk09: Sure.
spk02: Thanks, John.
spk09: Thank you. And one moment for our next question.
spk07: And it looks like our next question will come from Mitchell Pinheiro of Sturbitant and Company. Your line is open.
spk06: Good morning. Just a couple questions here. Did out-of-stocks affect you in any of your categories?
spk19: Yes. Cough cold and certain SKUs in the ear and eye category are the big big call-outs for us, as well as Gaviscon up in Canada as well.
spk06: Okay. And in terms of having an impact on your revenue, was it significant? Was it just a couple percent or any way to put a number on that?
spk16: Yeah, Mitch, this is Chris. I wouldn't say it was material to the quarter in terms of sales. And what we're seeing largely is a skewer brand goes out of stock. We refill it. It goes out of stock again. We refill it now. It's another brand. So this concept that Ron mentioned about us wanting to make sure we have enough inventory on hand to provide a more consistent level of supply for unanticipated disruptions in the supply chain speaks to exactly what we're experiencing, which is a bit of a game of whack-a-mole, if you will. But despite that, I guess I would still just highlight that we had strong sales for the quarter. So having the diversified portfolio has really enabled that and helped us this year.
spk06: Okay. And then also on the revenue line, price increases accounted for what percent of the growth?
spk16: Yeah, so we're still – we had originally guided pricing to be about two-thirds of our growth for the year, and we're still on target. It might be slightly above that in terms of pricing for the year, but that's the way to think about pricing for the period.
spk12: Okay.
spk06: And then, you know, Ron, you had mentioned that you anticipate lower levels of leverage over time, and I don't understand – Does that mean that, you know, acquisition growth slows a little bit? Or is there anything implied there with that comment? No.
spk19: And I think a great example is what we did last year with the ACORN acquisition. So, we were able to do a $225 million acquisition in the year added to our ICARE platform. and still reduce leverage by about a half a point last year. So I think really the message is that, one, as we get bigger and generate increased levels of cash flow and lower our debt over time, it gives us the ability to do transactions and not go back to the peak levels of leverage we saw historically as we were building the business. In terms of M&A, if there is a compelling opportunity out there, It's really our job to figure out how to get it done within the right leverage profile for the company. So that's how we think about it. It's not really describing any limiter for us, Mitch. Okay, got it.
spk04: All right, that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.
spk07: Thank you. One more moment, please, for our next question. Our next question will come from Anthony Libizinski of Sedoti & Company, LLC. Your line is open.
spk15: All right. Good morning. This is Stefan Guillaume in for Anthony. How are you guys doing?
spk01: Good morning.
spk15: Hi. My first question is, can you comment on the level of pricing actions that you took in the quarter?
spk16: Sure. So we had announced pricing back at the beginning of the year, really. For some of our brands, we've gone to a second round of pricing. We talked about two-thirds of our growth this year expected to come from pricing, which is essentially with cost savings offsetting our inflationary pressures on a dollar-for-dollar basis for the year. So we talked about that being in the $15 million to $20 million range for the year. So the pricing that rolled through earlier in the year certainly helped in the quarter.
spk15: Thank you. And second question is, given the slower economy, are you guys seeing any meaningful changes to consumer behavior? If yes, like which categories?
spk19: You know, in our categories, what we've seen over time is that it tends to be the, you know, one of the last areas that might be impacted by a slowing economy or, you know, pinched wallets by the average consumer, right? If you wake up and somebody is sick in your household and you don't feel well, It isn't something that you generally look to postpone or forget about, you know, continues to be an opportunity where you look for that trusted brand to take care of your health. So it's something we continue to monitor and take a look at. But at this point, we don't see it impacting our business.
spk15: Thank you. And how much is e-commerce now as a percentage of revenue? And what was the growth rate in eQuarter?
spk16: Yeah, e-comm is now about 15% of our sales, and the growth has continued to be strong in the high single digits.
spk15: Thank you. And lastly, I'm not sure if you guys answered that, but it looks like you guys adjusted guidance. And I was just wondering why the company is adjusting the guidance for 23. I don't know if I missed that. I apologize.
spk16: Yeah, no, so, sure, so what we did today is we narrowed the original guide that we had to the lower end of the range on the top line. We talked about FX impacting the top line results a little worse, and it worsened a bit this quarter from our previous expectations, and the EPS guide at the lower end of the range really reflecting the top line we just talked about.
spk15: Thank you so much. Thank you for picking my questions.
spk16: Thanks.
spk07: Thank you. One moment, please, for our next question. And our next question will come from Linda Bolton-Weiser of DA Davidson. Your line is open.
spk13: Hi, good morning.
spk14: So on the question of innovation, I was just curious what you consider to be to have been your most significant innovation in FY23. And then for FY24 in general, do you expect a similar level of innovation to drive revenue or higher or lower? Thanks.
spk19: Good morning, Linda. You know, if you look across our portfolio, it's kind of hard to pick one, right? You know, if you look at our Dramamine business, we've had a string of great success expanding into nausea. And in 23, we saw a number of the nausea products continue to do really well. As one example, Compound W is another example where the recent launches of technology have done well there as a couple of examples. You know, we look to have a consistent pipeline of new products and innovation to come out every year. So 24 will be, you know, no different than we've seen over the last few years with a steady pipeline. And we generally don't talk about the things until they get out in the market for obvious reasons. So we continue to feel good about the efforts and the results in our NPD pipeline.
spk14: Okay. And then, you know... Years ago in your business, we would rarely hear about these sort of supply chain glitches and hiccups and everything. But, of course, now it's becoming a little bit more of a frequent thing. Does that change your view on having more internal manufacturing? And maybe you could update us. Do you still have that Lynchburg, Virginia facility? And what is going on there? What's manufactured there? And what's the capacity like in that facility? Yeah.
spk19: We still think that our business model of working and partnering with third-party suppliers and having the Lynchburg facility is the right mix. Lynchburg makes about 15% or so of our total revenue. It's a liquid mix and fill focused facility and does a great job for us. One thing that we have learned during COVID is that as the supply chain environment has evolved and changed, we've had to change the way that we partner with our suppliers. So over the last couple of years, we've done things like make investments at the suppliers for additional tooling or additional lines to get dedicated capacity. And we've also looked to add additional suppliers, and I use that chloroseptic liquid supplier as an example, where in the past we were comfortable with one main supplier on that chloroseptic product offering. Now we want to have two. So we're going to continue to think about different ways to partner to add robustness in the supply chain as a result of the new world that we're operating in.
spk11: Okay. Thanks a lot. Take care.
spk01: Okay, thank you, Linda. Have a good day.
spk07: Thank you. Again, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your phone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again.
spk09: One moment, please, for our next question. Our next question will come from Carla Casella of JP Morgan.
spk07: Your line is open.
spk20: Hi, this is Oliver Brotman on for Carla. Just to piggyback off of the prior question on the gross profit margins, the kind of sequential decline, is there a component of that that was related to a tick up in promotions in any category? And are you experiencing any retailer pushback on pricing?
spk16: Yeah, no. So in our categories, right, not a lot of promotion to drive consumers because they're linked to incidences. So The answer is no, the gross margin was not impacted by the timing or increased promotional activity. I apologize, I just missed the second part of that question.
spk18: Yeah, the gross margin really relates to the cost inflation that we've been talking about for the whole year. So that's partially offset, it's offset dollar for dollar by pricing, but from a margin perspective, that still lowers the overall percentage. And that's really where we are in Q3 and Q4.
spk20: Yeah, just the second part was any pushback from retailers on pricing?
spk16: Yeah, we haven't seen pushback from retailers on pricing. You know, I guess the environment is such that everyone is facing inflationary pressures and everyone is going to retailers with the pricing. And quite frankly, they've got cost inflation on the labor side and such for themselves. So, so far, we have not seen significant pushback from the retailers, no.
spk20: And just one more question. Do you have any thoughts or initial thoughts on timing potentially on refinancing your 24 term loan?
spk18: So the term loan goes through, I believe, 2027. So we'll continue to kind of actively look at that. If you're referring to our revolver ABL, that is maturing at the end of 2024, and we'll continue to kind of look at that.
spk17: But obviously a much different structure than the term loan, but we'll be opportunistic on both. Thank you very much.
spk07: Thank you. And I'm seeing no further questions in the queue. I would now like to turn the conference back to Ron Labade for closing remarks.
spk19: Thank you, Operator, and thanks to everyone for joining us today, and we look forward to providing an update in May on our finish to fiscal 23 and our outlook for fiscal 24. Thanks again and have a good day.
spk07: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect and have a pleasant day. you Bye. Thank you. Bye. Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q3 2023 Prestige Consumer Healthcare, Inc. Earnings 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 that session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your phone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Phil Tripolilli.
spk09: Sir, you may begin. Thanks, operator, and thank you to everyone who's joined today.
spk18: On the call with me are Ron Lombardi, our chairman, president, and CEO, and Christine Sacco, our CFO. On today's call, we'll review our third quarter fiscal 23 results, discuss our full year outlook, and then take questions from analysts. A slide presentation accompanies today's call can be accessed by visiting PrestigeConsumerHealthcare.com, clicking on the Investors link, and then on today's webcast and presentation. Remember, some of the information contained in the presentation today includes non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the nearest GAAP financial measure include an earnings release and our slide presentation. On today's call, manager will make forward-looking statements around risks and uncertainties, which are detailed in a complete safe harbor disclosure on page two of the slide presentation that accompanies the call. These are important to review and contemplate. Business environment uncertainty remains heightened due to supply chain constraints, high inflation, and various geopolitical factors which have numerous potential impacts. This means results could change at any time, and the forecasted impact of risk considerations is a best estimate based on the information available as of today's date. Further information concerning risk factors and cautionary statements are available in our most recent FCC filings and most recent Company 10-K. I'll now hand it over to our CEO, Ron Lombardi. Ron? Thanks, Phil.
spk19: Let's begin on slide five. We are pleased with our third quarter results, which built on our first half momentum in what continues to be a dynamic supply chain and retail environment. Revenues of $276 million in Q3 grew about 2% organically versus the prior year, thanks to our diverse portfolio of trusted brands. Q3 revenues were driven by a continued rebound in cough cold, which I'll discuss in greater detail on the next page, the GI segment's Dramamine brand, as well as a strong international segment performance. Solid revenue continues to translate into strong profitability, generating $1.04 in diluted EPS and over $50 million in free cash flow in Q3, even with almost $20 million in inventory investment in the quarter to support service levels and future growth. Our consistent cash flow profile continues to enable our disciplined capital deployment strategy. These efforts resulted in a Q3 leverage ratio of three and a half times our lowest level of leverage in over a decade. We continue to anticipate gradually lower levels of leverage over time, which further enables future capital allocation optionality. Now, let's turn to page six and discuss the cough and cold category, which is experiencing extraordinary demand this fiscal year. Our cough and cold portfolio is comprised largely of two iconic brands, chloroseptic and Ludens, each with their own distinct heritage for sore throat treatment. Chloroseptic has a heritage in efficacious sore throat sprays and lozenges that began in the 50s. Ludens goes back even further with a brand created in the late 1800s. consumers continue to associate the product with its iconic, great-tasting, cherry-flavored throat drop. This longstanding history with consumers has allowed us to benefit from the extraordinary demand that's driven the category this fiscal year. Year to date, the category has grown well beyond our start-of-the-year expectations due to illnesses throughout the year, consumers being more proactive around health treatments, and a low level of inventory at stores due to the supply chain environment. The combination of these factors has enabled strong growth for both Ludens and chloroseptic beyond what we typically expect. As shown on the right of the page, each brand has grown over 20 percent year-to-date with the potential for additional growth hindered by supply chain limitations that have capped upside for us and others in the category. We have a clear opportunity to sell additional volume and we've taken strategic actions like adding new suppliers to keep up with this demand and refill retailers' depleted stocks. Looking forward, although the category is as small as a percent of total company sales, we anticipate its strong demand to continue through the balance of the year and these strategic actions helping to position these brands for long-term growth. With that, I'll pass it to Chris to walk through the financials.
spk16: Thanks, Ron. Good morning, everyone. Let's turn to slide eight and review our third quarter fiscal 23 financial results. As a reminder, the information in today's presentation includes certain non-GAAP information that is reconciled to the closest GAAP measure in our earnings release. Q3 revenue of $275.5 million increased 40 basis points versus the prior year and increased 1.8 percent, excluding the effects of foreign currency. North America revenues were down approximately 1% versus prior year, excluding currency, with sharp increases in the cough and cold and gastrointestinal categories, offset by declines in the women's health and eye and ear care categories. Our international segment revenues of $38.6 million were up over 25% in Q3, excluding FX. The performance included broad-based strength across regions and product categories. EBITDA and EPS were up 4 and 5 percent in Q3, respectively, from the prior year, with inflationary pressures and higher interest costs more than offset by higher revenues and lower marketing spend. Let's turn to slide nine for more detail around year-to-date consolidated results. For the first nine months, fiscal 23 revenues increased 2 percent versus the prior year on an organic basis. The performance drivers were largely similar to what we experienced in Q3, with the largest benefits coming from our international segment performance, strength of Dramamine, and robust cough and cold category growth. We also continue to experience solid year-over-year growth in the e-commerce channel, continuing the long-term trend of higher online purchasing. Total company gross margin of 56% in the first nine months declined 170 basis points versus last year's adjusted gross margin of 57.7%. The gross margin change was anticipated and attributable to cost increases, partially offset by pricing actions across our portfolio, which offset the dollar amount of inflationary cost headwinds. For Q4, we anticipate a gross margin of approximately 54.5%. Advertising and marketing came in at 13.6% for the first nine months, down versus 14.7% in the prior year as a percentage of revenue. As a reminder, We anticipate spend for the year of about 13% of revenue, owing primarily to the timing of initiatives and reduced spending around certain categories due to strong consumer demand. G&A expenses were 9.5% of revenue for the first nine months. We still anticipate full-year G&A dollars to approximate prior year at around 9% of revenue. Finally, diluted EPS of $3.14 compared to $3.15 in the prior year as higher revenues were more than offset by the gross margin compression just discussed. Our year-to-date tax rate of 23% was slightly favorable to prior periods due to the timing of certain discrete tax items. We still anticipate a Q4 and long-term normalized tax rate of approximately 24%. Now let's turn to slide 10 and discuss cash flow. In the first nine months, we generated $165.5 million in free cash flow, down versus the prior year. Although quarterly variations can be affected by the timing of working capital, beyond this, we have strategically invested behind inventory in light of the current supply chain environment, finding opportunities where we can increase inventory to better support targeted service levels. This is the primary driver to our updated free cash flow guidance for the year of $220 million. Our stable EBITDA margins enable consistent and strong free cash flow generation, and as a result, we have the ability to invest behind our brands to support increased levels of customer service through working capital investments without derailing deleveraging efforts and targets. We anticipate Q4 free cash flow of about $55 million and year-end leverage below 3.5 times, reflecting our disciplined capital deployment strategy that includes debt paydowns. Looking beyond this inventory step-up and related cash flow timing, we anticipate a more normalized free cash flow profile in fiscal 24, and we'll provide a full outlook in May. At December 31st, our net debt was approximately $1.4 billion, and we maintained a covenant-defined leverage ratio of 3.5 times. We now anticipate interest expense of $69 million for the year, owing to the timing of debt paydown. With that, I'll turn it back to Ron.
spk19: Thanks, Chris. Let's turn to slide 12 to wrap up. With just one quarter to go in the year, we are refining our outlook. Our proven business strategy and leading consumer healthcare portfolio are enabling us to grow within our original outlook range for the year, even in the current supply chain and inflationary environment we and others are facing. For fiscal 23, we anticipate revenue growth of approximately 3% on both a reported and organic basis, consistent with our long-term target. Q4 revenues are anticipated to be approximately $278 million to $280 million, translating into growth of mid-single digits versus the prior year. We anticipate EPS of $4.18 for fiscal 23, which implies Q4 EPS of $1.04. Our disciplined pricing actions and cost management are helping to offset inflationary headwinds, while the benefits of our strong free cash flow continues to help offset the impact of higher interest rates. Lastly, we now anticipate free cash flow of $220 million or more, reflecting the strategic increases in inventory investments that Chris just discussed. So in summary, our business strategy is working. With one quarter to go, we anticipate solid fiscal 23 growth with record revenue and earnings that builds on our strong fiscal 22, despite a dynamic market backdrop. We also expect this momentum to result in continued growth in fiscal 24, which we'll provide a full outlook on in May. We remain confident in our business attributes and that our strategy is set up to reward our stakeholders over the long term. With that, I'll open it up for questions. Operator?
spk07: Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press Star 1-1 on your phone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press Star 1-1 again. Stand by as we compile the Q&A roster.
spk09: One moment, please, for our first question. And our first question will come from Susan Anderson of Ken Accord Genuity.
spk07: Your line is open.
spk10: Hi, nice job on the quarter. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering, maybe just to follow up on the supply chain, obviously there were some really strong sell-throughs in cost and cold. I'm curious, are you guys seeing still, you know, supply, demand, imbalances in the store? Do you guys feel like, I guess maybe if you could talk about by category too, that the in stocks are getting better and the out of stocks fewer as we kind of look forward through the rest of the year.
spk19: Sure, thanks Susan, good morning. So the supply chain, we've been talking about that topic I think on just about every one of these calls for a good year now. I think the positive thing is we've been able to keep up with record demand for our business through last year and through this year so far. But we are seeing certain categories that are challenged to keep up with demand. And cough cold is a clear example of that situation for us and, quite frankly, for many other players in the cough cold category. And you can see that shelf when you go to retail. I think we mentioned in the prepared remarks that we brought on some additional liquid, a liquid supplier to help with capacity there going forward. but it's clearly a category where we see limitations. The other thing I'll call out during the third quarter was our eye care category was another example where despite good continuity of supply so far through the year, the third quarter actually saw a slowdown and impacted our shipments there and something we're expecting into the fourth quarter. So I think the important note here on the supply chain is that we continue to operate in a challenged environment. We've been trying to add to inventory for a good year now. We made some progress in Q4 really as a way to add buffer to the categories that are doing well and get ourselves in a good position to support continued growth next year and improve our service levels.
spk10: Great. That's really helpful. And then maybe if I could just add one more on the international business, so another strong quarter there. Maybe if you could just talk about kind of the trends you're seeing there and particularly hydrolite and how you're expecting that to play out the rest of the year.
spk16: Yeah, good morning, Susan. This is Chris. So, you're right. International had another really strong performance coming off of a record year last year, right? And so, helped a little bit with illnesses, but we saw a strong performance across all regions, not just Australia in the third quarter. So, we feel good about HydroLite. You know, we're up to about 10% household penetration on HydroLite, which is a few points over the last couple of years, which is quite good. but obviously at 10% household penetration, still plenty of room to go. So we've continued to feel good about the growth prospects internationally, and we target, remember, a long-term growth rate of about 5% internationally, and we feel pretty confident about that going forward.
spk10: Great. That sounds good. Thanks so much. I'll let someone else drop in. Good luck the rest of the year.
spk09: Thank you.
spk07: Thank you. One moment, please, for our next question. And our next question will come from Rupesh Parikh of Oppenheimer and Company. Your line is open.
spk21: Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. So I just want to go back to the failure of guidance. If you can just give more color in terms of the sales reduction to the lower end of the range in terms of what drove that, and then also for EPS, it looks like higher interest expense may have had an impact on the EPS range. Thank you.
spk16: Yeah, hi, Rupesh. So the guide, you know, reported guide going from 4% growth to 3% growth is really FX driven. We've seen some currency headwinds as a reminder for us that in particular the Australian and Canadian dollars, there's been a lot of movement, particularly in the third quarter in the Australian dollar in particular. So from an EPS perspective, you know, as we just talked about, right, we narrowed our original sales guide to the lower end of the range. There is some currency headwinds sitting in the P&L. It's an other expense related to the currency headwinds I just discussed. And then interest got called up just about a million dollars for Q4, just given the timing of some of the rate hikes and the paydown. So those are the main drivers of the EPS calling down to the lower end of the range, but still within the targeted range.
spk21: Okay, great. And then just in terms of the categories that you guys called out this week are women's health and eye and ear care. When do you expect those categories to improve? Is that something Q4 or next year? Maybe just some thoughts there.
spk19: So let's talk about those both individually, starting with eye care, eye and ear. We actually continue to have great momentum in that category. Consumption is good. Sales are good. As I mentioned in response to Susan's question, the issue in the third quarter for us is really all about supply chain impact, and we expect a bit of that into the fourth quarter as well. And then on women's health, we've actually seen a decline in the total category. Again, we continue to see consumer changes as a result of COVID and everything else that's been going on, in particular, women going back to the doctor's office, impacting the yeast infection category, and continued impact on the on-the-go portion of the Summer's Eve business. Again, it's easy to forget, but we're really in year three of three years of disrupted factors on the business. And in some cases, it's comps versus a funny number last year. In some cases, it's the continuation of a change in consumer habits or continuing to chase supply to keep up with demand.
spk21: Great. And then maybe one, just one last question. So I know you're not ready to provide FY24 guidance, but I'm just curious if there's any puts and takes you can share at this point. And I am curious just on A&M. I know this year went down to 13% of sales. If you expect that to be a larger percent of sales next year. Thank you.
spk19: Yeah. So let me start, I guess, with a comment on overall momentum of the business. I think I said on the prepared remarks today, we continue to feel good about the positioning of the business. the consumption trends behind many of our brands. And we feel that we're positioned for continued growth in fiscal 24 after two record years, top and bottom line in a row. And I'll let Chris comment on A&M for next year.
spk16: Sure. So obviously more details to come in May, Rupesh, but we always talk about our A&M plans being built up from the bottom with our marketing teams, right? We talked about additional A&M support being pulled a little bit this year, really related to categories where we have strong demand regardless of our investment. And I would couple that with our ability to provide supply in this environment that we're talking about. So more to come next year. A&M spend is always driven by the timing of initiatives and new product launches and a whole bunch of variables, but we'll give you more details in a few months here.
spk21: Great. Thank you. I'll pass it along. Great.
spk16: Thanks, Rupesh.
spk21: Thank you.
spk07: One moment, please, for our next question. And our next question will come from John Anderson of William Blair.
spk09: Your line is open.
spk02: Thank you. Good morning, everybody.
spk01: Morning, John.
spk03: I guess on the inventory step-up, the strategic investment in inventory, is that really – kind of a short-term remedy for some of the supply chain disruptions or constraints, I should say, that you're experiencing juxtaposed against the strong demand for things like cough cold? Or is there also a longer-term element to it in terms of retailers looking for higher order fill rates or tighter delivery windows? I'm just trying to understand the kind of the reasoning behind it?
spk19: Yeah, you know, the first driver is to better align ourselves to meet our retail customers' service requirements. So part of it's that. It's really short-term in nature, John. You know, as I said earlier, we've been looking to try to build inventory to give us a better buffer for the next, you know, hiccup in the supply chain. And supply chains out there in general, continue to be impacted by COVID impacting workforces, not only at their own facilities, but at our suppliers' suppliers, whether it's cardboard or an API or whatever it is. All it takes is one missing thing in the supply chain to disrupt finished goods, whether it's a label, a pallet, or an API. So we've been focused on trying to give ourselves a better buffer for the next shoe to drop that we don't know about. As we get into fiscal 24 and we begin to learn more about how things are stabilizing, we'll adjust inventory back down over time. But right now, it's all about getting that buffer in and being better positioned not only to meet service requirements, but to take advantage of those growth opportunities. As I mentioned with to cough cold, we brought on a second chloroseptic gluten supplier, actually got the first shipments, I think the last week or two of December. So we're chasing things out there, John.
spk03: Okay. That's helpful. Gross margin stepped down a little bit sequentially again in the quarter. And I think Chris, you mentioned the gross margin you expect for the fourth quarter is kind of similar to what you just experienced in the third quarter. And I understand the math driving this, I think, is the cost increases juxtaposed again against the price increases. But do you think we've kind of leveled off at this point in terms of the gross margin performance? And is there... potential for some recovery as you look to 2024 and 2025. I'm not sure what would drive that recovery per se, but any thoughts around that would be helpful.
spk16: Yeah, John, I would just say, you know, gross margin is largely coming in in line with our expectations, right? And you're right, Q4 being consistent with what we saw here in Q3. You know, I think of, so if I start with about a 56% gross margin as the base, right, We'll continue to look for opportunities to take pricing actions. That can also come in the form of new product development, as it has historically, which is a big focus for our company, as you know, in addition to continued multi-year cost-saving projects that we have going on. So we've talked about, in this environment going forward, looking at things a little bit differently than we've been operating for the last few years. in that cost savings will come in many different forms going forward. And it's certainly, you know, we've talked about not having a structural issue with our gross margin. So we'll be looking to increase our gross margin over time and reinvest those dollars into A&M to maintain our EBITDA margin, as we always say.
spk03: Great. Thanks. One follow-up. I think, Ron, at the start of this year, I think you talked about the possibility of perhaps shipping a bit ahead of consumption in fiscal 23 as there was still a need to establish better in-stock levels, maybe across certain categories coming out of the pandemic. It kind of feels like you might be in that same situation right now as you kind of look to 2024. Is 2024 a year where, you know, net-net, You think it's possible that there might be a little bit of a benefit from restocking, given where you sit today? Thanks.
spk19: Yeah, as we started 23, we were focused on trying to recover and improve some of the out-of-stocks and service levels. And we didn't make the progress that we would have liked to, hence the focus on continuing to build that inventory buffer. As we head into 24, we think that'll likely be the case again where there's more opportunity for inventory recoveries or builds at retail than it going the other way.
spk02: Thanks so much. Congrats on the quarter. Sure. Thanks, John.
spk09: Thank you. And one moment for our next question.
spk07: And it looks like our next question will come from Mitchell Pinheiro of Sturbitant and Company. Your line is open.
spk06: Okay. Good morning. Just a couple questions here. Did out-of-stocks affect you in any of your categories?
spk19: Yes, right? Cough cold and in certain SKUs in the ear and eye category are the big big call-outs for us, as well as Gaviscon up in Canada as well.
spk06: Okay. And in terms of having an impact on your revenue, was it significant? Was it just a couple percent or any way to put a number on that?
spk16: Yeah, Mitch, this is Chris. I wouldn't say it was material to the quarter in terms of sales. And what we're seeing largely is a skewer brand goes out of stock. We refill it. It goes out of stock again. We refill it now. It's another brand. So this concept that Ron mentioned about us wanting to make sure we have enough inventory on hand to provide a more consistent level of supply for unanticipated disruptions in the supply chain speaks to exactly what we're experiencing, which is a bit of a game of whack-a-mole, if you will. But despite that, I guess I would still just highlight that we had strong sales for the quarter. So having the diversified portfolio has really enabled that and helped us this year.
spk06: Okay. And then also on the revenue line, price increases accounted for what percent of the growth?
spk16: Yeah, so we're still – we had originally guided pricing to be about two-thirds of our growth for the year, and we're still on target. It might be slightly above that in terms of pricing for the year, but that's the way to think about pricing for the period.
spk12: Okay.
spk06: And then, you know, Ron, you had mentioned that you anticipate lower levels of leverage over time, and I don't understand – Does that mean that, you know, acquisition growth slows a little bit? Or is there anything implied there with that comment? No.
spk19: And I think a great example is what we did last year with the ACORN acquisition. So, we were able to do a $225 million acquisition in the year added to our iCare platform. and still reduce leverage by about a half a point last year. So I think really the message is that, one, as we get bigger and generate increased levels of cash flow and lower our debt over time, it gives us the ability to do transactions and not go back to the peak levels of leverage we saw historically as we were building the business. In terms of M&A, if there is a compelling opportunity out there, It's really our job to figure out how to get it done within the right leverage profile for the company. So that's how we think about it. It's not really describing any limiter for us, Mitch.
spk04: Okay, got it. All right, that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.
spk07: Thank you. One more moment, please, for our next question. Our next question will come from Anthony Libizinski of Sedoti & Company, LLC. Your line is open.
spk15: All right. Good morning. This is to find you in for Anthony. How are you guys doing?
spk01: Morning.
spk15: Hi. My first question is, can you comment on the level of pricing actions that you took in the quarter?
spk16: Sure. So we had announced pricing back at the beginning of the year, really. For some of our brands, we've gone to a second round of pricing. We talked about two-thirds of our growth this year expected to come from pricing, which is essentially with cost savings offsetting our inflationary pressures on a dollar-for-dollar basis for the year. So we talked about that being in the $15 million to $20 million range for the year. So the pricing that rolled through earlier in the year certainly helped in the quarter.
spk15: Thank you. And second question is, given the slower economy, are you guys seeing any meaningful changes to consumer behavior? If yes, like which categories?
spk19: You know, in our categories, what we've seen over time is that it tends to be one of the last areas that might be impacted by a slowing economy or, you know, pinched wallets by the average consumer, right? If you wake up and somebody is sick in your household and you don't feel well, It isn't something that you generally look to postpone or forget about. You know, it continues to be an opportunity where you look for that trusted brand to take care of your health. So it's something we continue to monitor and take a look at. But at this point, we don't see it impacting our business.
spk15: All right. Thank you. And how much is e-commerce now as a percentage of revenue? And what was the growth rate in eQuarter?
spk16: Yeah, e-comm is now about 15% of our sales, and the growth has continued to be strong in the high single digits.
spk15: Thank you. And lastly, I'm not sure if you guys answered that, but it looks like you guys adjusted guidance. And I was just wondering why the company is adjusting the guidance for 23. I don't know if I missed that. I apologize.
spk16: Yeah, no, so, sure. So, what we did today is we narrowed the original guide that we had to the lower end of the range on the top line. We talked about FX impacting the top line results a little worse, and it worsened a bit this quarter from our previous expectations, and the EPS guide at the lower end of the range really reflecting the top line we just talked about.
spk15: Thank you so much. Thank you for picking my questions.
spk16: Thanks.
spk07: Thank you. One moment, please, for our next question. And our next question will come from Linda Bolton-Weiser of D.A. Davidson. Your line is open.
spk13: Hi, good morning.
spk14: So on the question of innovation, I was just curious what you consider to be to have been your most significant innovation in FY23. And then for FY24 in general, do you expect a similar level of innovation to drive revenue or higher or lower? Thanks.
spk19: Good morning, Linda. You know, if you look across our portfolio, it's kind of hard to pick one, right? You know, if you look at our Dramamine business, we've had a string of great success expanding into nausea. And in 23, we saw a number of the nausea products continue to do really well. As one example, Compound W is another example where the recent launches of technology have done well there as a couple of examples. You know, we look to have a consistent pipeline of new products and innovation to come out every year. So 24 will be, you know, no different than we've seen over the last few years with a steady pipeline. And we generally don't talk about the things until they get out in the market for obvious reasons. So we continue to feel good about the efforts and the results in our NPD pipeline.
spk14: Okay. And then, you know... Years ago in your business, we would rarely hear about these sort of supply chain glitches and hiccups and everything. But, of course, now it's becoming a little bit more of a frequent thing. Does that change your view on having more internal manufacturing? And maybe you could update us. Do you still have that Lynchburg, Virginia facility? And what is going on there? What's manufactured there? And what's the capacity like in that facility? Yeah.
spk19: We still think that our business model of working and partnering with third-party suppliers and having the Lynchburg facility is the right mix. Lynchburg makes about 15% or so of our total revenue. It's a liquid mix and fill focused facility and does a great job for us. One thing that we have learned during COVID is that as the supply chain environment has evolved and changed, we've had to change the way that we partner with our suppliers. So over the last couple of years, we've done things like make investments at the suppliers for additional tooling or additional lines to get dedicated capacity. And we've also looked to add additional suppliers, and I use that chloroseptic liquid supplier as an example, where in the past we were comfortable with one main supplier on that chloroseptic product offering, now we want to have two. So we're going to continue to think about different ways to partner to add robustness in the supply chain as a result of the new world that we're operating in.
spk11: Okay. Thanks a lot. Take care.
spk01: Okay, thank you, Linda. Have a good day.
spk07: Thank you. Again, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your phone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again.
spk09: One moment, please, for our next question. Our next question will come from Carla Casella of JPMorgan.
spk07: Your line is open.
spk20: Hi, this is Oliver Brotman on for Carla. Just to piggyback off of the prior question on the gross profit margins, the kind of sequential decline, is there a component of that that was related to a tick up in promotions in any category? And are you experiencing any retailer pushback on pricing?
spk16: Yeah, no. So in our categories, right, not a lot of promotion to drive consumers because they're linked to incidences. So The answer is no, the growth margin was not impacted by the timing or increased promotional activity. I apologize, I just missed the second part of that question.
spk18: Yeah, the growth margin really relates to the cost inflation that we've been talking about for the whole year. So that's partially offset. It's offset dollar for dollar by pricing, but from a margin perspective, that still lowers the overall percentage. And that's really where we are in Q3 and Q4.
spk20: Yeah, just the second part was any pushback from retailers on pricing?
spk16: Yeah, we haven't seen pushback from retailers on pricing. You know, I guess the environment is such that everyone is facing inflationary pressures and everyone is going to retailers with the pricing. And quite frankly, they've got cost inflation on the labor side and such for themselves. So, so far, we have not seen significant pushback from the retailers, no.
spk20: And just one more question. Do you have any thoughts or initial thoughts on timing, potentially, on refinancing your 2024 term loan?
spk18: So the term loan goes through, I believe, 2027. So we'll continue to kind of actively look at that. If you're referring to our revolver ABL, that is maturing at the end of 2024, and we'll continue to kind of look at that.
spk17: But obviously a much different structure than the term loan, but we'll be opportunistic on both. Thank you very much.
spk07: Thank you. And I'm seeing no further questions in the queue. I would now like to turn the conference back to Ron Labade for closing remarks.
spk19: Thank you, Operator, and thanks to everyone for joining us today, and we look forward to providing an update in May on our finish to fiscal 23 and our outlook for fiscal 24. Thanks again and have a good day.
spk07: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect and have a pleasant day.
Disclaimer

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