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spk00: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Jamieson Wellness Conference Call to discuss the financial results for the second quarter of 2024. At this time, all participants are enlist in only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions will be given at that time. Please be advised that the reproduction of this call in whole or in part is not permitted without the written authorization from the company. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. On the call today from the management are Mike Pilato, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Chris Nodan, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary. Before I turn it over to Mr. Pilato, please note that a press release covering the company's second quarter financial results was issued this afternoon, and a copy of that press release can be found in the Investor Relations section on the company's website. Please note that the prepared remarks, which will follow, contain forward-looking statements and management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. These statements do not guarantee future performance and therefore undue reliance should not be placed upon them. We refer you to all risk factors contained in Jameson's press release issued this afternoon in filing with the Canadian Securities Administrator's for a more detailed discussion of the factors that would cause actual results to differ materially from those projections and any forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly correct or update the forward-looking statements made during the presentation to reflect future events or circumstances, except as it may be required under applicable securities laws. Finally, We would like to remind listeners that the company may refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures during this teleconference. Our reconciliation of these non-IFRS financial measures was included with the company's press release issued earlier today. Also, please note that unless otherwise stated, all figures discussed today are in Canadian dollars and are occasionally rounded to the nearest million. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Palato to get started. Please go ahead, sir.
spk02: Thank you, Matthew, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join us on the call today. I'll begin with some high-level comments on our Q2 performance and highlight the key activities that contributed to our growth. Then Chris will share a detailed review of the financials before I wrap up and open the floor for questions. In the second quarter, we continue to execute our growth strategy. and leverage our global platform to deliver consolidated revenue of $185 million, an increase of 10% over prior year. We drove growth across all of our branded business units, resulted in branded revenue growth of over 17% in the quarter, led by our China business with growth of over 107% on a constant currency basis. Q2 of 2024 was our most successful promotional quarter to date in China. with programs in June significantly outpacing market growth. We continue to invest in marketing as planned, as our brand, marketing, and demand-generating activities continue to resonate with our target consumer, and growth continues across domestic and cross-border e-commerce segments. In Canada, revenue grew by more than 10% in Q2, as consumer consumption remained strong, and several innovations gained traction in the market, including our recently reformulated 100% complete multivitamins, and six new gummy products, building on our number one gummy position in Canada. Orders impacted by the Q1 labor disruption that were shipped in Q2 as expected also contributed to growth. Demand for our Utheory brand continues to increase. Utheory revenue in the quarter grew by nearly 6% reflecting this demand, but keeping in mind that this is comping Q2 of 2023, which included the initial fill of our new turmeric product. In the first half of this year, U Theory is up nearly 17% and on track to meet our full year expectations. Jameson International Revenue increased by more than 34% in Q2, as several product innovations, including a B12 complex and an omega-tumor product, exceeded our expectations in a few key growth markets. Growth in the quarter was also impacted by the movement of some shipments into Q2 as a result of the Q1 labor disruption. In prioritizing Jameson brand shipments and due to the previously announced transition out of a customer contract, as expected, strategic partner revenue was $5.6 million lower this quarter versus the same quarter last year. From a profitability perspective, consolidated normalized gross profit margins increased by 190 basis points as we drove significant growth in branded sales in the quarter and have a lower proportion of revenue coming from our strategic partners business. Adjusted EBITDA increased by half a million dollars to nearly 32 million dollars in Q2, reflecting higher revenues and profit but continuing to be offset by our continued investment strategy in China. In summary, we are exactly where we anticipated we would be as we reach the halfway point of the year. Our businesses in the US and China are growing strong as our investment strategy in these countries continues and consumers respond with increased demand. The phasing of our marketing plans impact the timing of our adjusted EBITDA growth, which remains on track to meet our outlook for the year. Shipments in both Canada and international have returned to normal after the Q1 labor disruption and are driving growth along with innovation and continued increased consumer consumption. As a result of our strong position today, we are also announcing an 11% increase to our quarterly dividend, which Chris will speak to in more detail shortly. As we head into the second half of the year, we remain focused on executing our remaining marketing, innovation, and promotional activities, delivering on our full-year guidance and ensuring that we continue to live our company purpose of inspiring better lives every day. With that, I will turn the call over to Chris to discuss our second quarter results in more details. Chris, over to you.
spk09: Thank you, Mike, and good afternoon. In the second quarter, consolidated revenue increased by 10.3%. to $184.8 million. This growth was driven by Jameson Brand segment and continued strong consumer demand resulting in an increase of 17.2% to $155.8 million of revenue in the quarter. In our strategic partners segment, as we continue to cycle against the closeout of a previous customer contract, revenue is $29 million in the quarter and anticipated decline of 16.3%. A few more details on our branded segment are as follows. Canada revenue increased by 10.1% in the second quarter, driven by strong consumer consumption, pricing, and the shift of revenue from the first quarter into the second quarter due to the labor disruption. U Theory revenue increased 5.6% in the quarter, reflecting increased consumer demand. partially offset by the initial fill of turmeric innovation in the prior year. China's shipments grew 106.6% compared with the prior quarter on a constant currency basis, driven by our marketing investment to drive brand equity, awareness, and a highly successful promotional program in June. Jameis International Revenue, increased by 34.3% on a constant currency basis, driven by innovation and the timing shift in revenue due to the labor disruption in the previous quarter. Consolidated gross profit increased by $10.2 million to $65 million in the second quarter, while normalized gross profit increased by $9.4 million, mainly driven by higher revenues and increased margins. Consolidated gross profit margin increased by 250 basis points to 35.2% in the quarter, while normalized consolidated gross profit margins increased by 190 basis points. Margin improved due to the significant growth in Jameson brand sales and a lower proportion of strategic partner revenues. In the Jameson brand segment, gross profit increased by $11.6 million, while normalized gross profit increased by $10.8 million, mainly driven by revenue growth and higher margins. Gross profit margin in the Jameson brand segment increased by 190 basis points, while normalized gross profit margin increased by 130 basis points to 40.4%, mainly driven by significant volume growth in China. In our strategic partner segment, gross profit margin decreased by 190 basis points to 12.9%, impacted by lower volumes and customer mix. In Q2, SG&A, up $43.9 million, reflected an increase of 25.9%. Excluding the impact of specified cost, SG&A expenses increased by $8.5 million, mainly driven by $9.8 million in investment to grow our brands as we continue to prioritize our global expansion initiatives. These costs were partially offset by $1.3 million in other SGN expenses due to the timing of variable compensation costs. Specified costs of $4.1 million in the quarter were largely comprised of $3.4 million of IT system implementation costs. Operating income in the second quarter increased by $0.8 million, driven by higher gross profit and partially offset by the timing of investments in SG&A. On a normalized basis, operating income increased by $0.6 million and adjusted EBITDA increased by $0.5 million to $31.6 million, reflecting the impact of higher sales volume and pricing, partially offset by higher investments in marketing and infrastructure. Adjusted net earnings in the quarter was $14.7 million, or $1 million higher than Q2 2023. A reconciliation of our adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net earnings is provided in today's press release announcing our second quarter results. Now turning to the balance sheet and cash flow. In Q2, we generated cash from operations before working capital considerations of $17.1 million. $4.4 million higher, mainly due to higher gross profit margins. Cash invested in working capital increased by $9.3 million due to the timing of accounts receivable collections partially offset by a drawdown in our inventories. In Q2, we distributed $7.9 million in dividends and ended the quarter with $190.1 million in cash and available revolving and swing line facilities. Based on our strong cash position and forecasts, we have announced a dividend of $0.21 per common share, or approximately $8.8 million in aggregate. This represents a $0.02 or 11% increase compared to the second quarter dividend in the prior year. This dividend will be paid on September 13, 2024, to common shareholders of record at the close of business of August 30, 2024. Now turning to guidance. All of our business units are continuing to perform as expected, as consumer consumption globally remains very strong. We maintain our previous guidance disclosed for the full year of fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025. With respect to the third quarter, we expect the following. Consolidated revenue to range between $167 and $177 million, an increase of 10 to 17%. Revenue in the Jameson brand segment is expected to increase by 14 to 20%, or approximately $147 to $155 million. Revenue in the strategic partner segment is expected to decline up to 10%, reflecting our transition away from the customer contract with a new business anticipated to begin shipping in the fourth quarter. Adjusted EBITDA to range between $31 to $34 million, broadly reflecting increased shipments, product innovation, and strong continued consumption, offset by investments to drive brand awareness and growth in both the U.S. and China. With that, I will turn the call back to Mike for closing comments. Mr. Palaudo.
spk02: Thanks, Chris. Before we go to questions, I want to reiterate that we are exactly where we anticipated we would be as we enter Q3. We are energized by the continued consumer demand for our products globally and the strong performance of our investment strategy in the US and China that is driving growth in those two key markets. I'm thankful and proud of our global team for their dedication to our company, our consumers, and our promise to drive value for all stakeholders. And now I'm going to turn it back to Matthew for Q&A.
spk00: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the number one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the number two. If you are using a speakerphone, please leave the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. And your first question comes from Eric Lessard of TD Cowan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
spk03: Yeah, good evening, Mike and Chris. Good to hear from you.
spk00: Good evening, Derek.
spk03: Maybe I just want to start on the press release. You talked about expanding the company's market leadership position in Canada. Just wondering if you can maybe add some color to that and maybe give some details as well around maybe the point of sales data that you're seeing. Yeah, thanks for the question.
spk02: Yeah, we continue to grow our market share here in Canada. We talked about it for the last few quarters. We talked about it again here in Q2. We're starting in Q2 now to see continued consumption growth, dollars in the mid single-digit range, units in the low single-digit range, and outpacing market at those levels. The one thing I would note is we did see a little bit of promotional shift from Q2 a year ago into Q3. A couple of retailers shifted a couple of promotions, so that would be impacting those. But we do continue to see strong consumer demand, strong consumption across many channels, many categories, and continue to expand our market leadership. So we're quite pleased with it.
spk03: Okay. And then maybe just switching gears, in your prepared remarks, you did say the that you had one of the most successful promotional campaigns in China. Could you just maybe highlight some of the details there and what that entailed?
spk02: Yeah, so if you look at China and you look at that promotional window, it's called the 618 promotional window. We saw category growth coming in in like low double digit range. Our business was growing at triple digits during that period. It really was just the investment that we put into the market focused on a few key promotional windows. Really, some of our marketing, our promotional activities, focusing on working with some of the key cross-border e-commerce platforms and e-commerce platforms to drive up those rankings and pick up market share in that period. The strategy that the team started to put into place in the 11-11 promotional window back in November when we saw some strong results and they were They were trying some new promotional activities. They were testing some things out and they were seeing success. They brought that forward into the June 18 promotion and really were able to drive us forward in a big way. I mean, we really could not be happier and more proud of the team in China and the work they did through the quarter and through that promotional window. Sure.
spk08: Congratulations, guys. I'll reach you. Thank you.
spk00: And your next question comes from T. Collins of 8Capital. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
spk07: Hey, good evening. Thanks for the question, guys. I'm going to stick on China for my first one. I'm curious if you have any data on customer loyalty or stickiness in China, particularly on the newer cohorts of customers you're bringing in with the elevated promo spend there. You're obviously having a lot of success bringing in new consumers. I'm just curious what your degree of confidence is that they were made with the brand.
spk02: Yeah, I mean, we're quite confident. We do have data that we measure historically that tells us that the Chinese consumer that resonates with the Jameson brand does have a high repeat rate, does come back to our brand once we drive trial. And really, it comes down to products, right? When you develop good products that are efficacious and high quality, and they delight the consumer, that traditionally will bring back the consumer. So we're quite confident that we continue to do that in a good way. You know, the other thing I would say is the consumer that we're targeting is a more affluent consumer. They are looking for more premium price foreign brands and they're looking for high quality brands that are efficacious. And when they come into our brand and they buy that and they're happy to buy that and it works and it resonates, that's where you see high loyalty rates. So we feel pretty good about what we see historically. As far as the consumers that have come in in the last 12, 16 weeks, we'll continue to measure that looking forward as we get longer term out.
spk07: Okay, great. Thanks. And then can you maybe just touch on how your different U.S. sales channels are performing relative to one another and maybe just give a bit of an update on your efforts to get deeper in the food drug mass channel in particular?
spk02: Yeah, I mean, we continue to grow distribution and see good POS across the board. A lot of it is innovation driven as we put new innovations in the marketplace like Ocean Friendly Omega and a few other products that have come into the market over the last year, our new improved turmeric, things like that. What I would say is that our club channel does continue to grow. We have expanded distribution into some key club customers that maybe didn't have full distribution or any distribution prior to us taking over. We continue to see growth and POS growth and distribution growth around innovation in some key retailers that we're keen on growing in the US. Like we've talked about many times, we're not looking to enter every retailer in the US. We're very focused right now on where our key target demographic is and where we think that they're shopping. And we are making continued progress there and growing those channels in the POS there. And then of course, in e-comm, we continue to focus on our e-comm business and continue to drive ourselves up those rankings and become a bigger piece of the e-commerce world with our brand.
spk08: Thanks, Mike. Thank you.
spk00: And your next question comes from Tom Callaghan of RBC Capital Market. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
spk04: Thanks. Hey, good afternoon, guys. Maybe just the first one for me is it should be geared to the strategic partner side, but just if we could provide an update there with respect to initiatives to backfill the business there from last year. I think the release did mention some new business into Q4, so just kind of some updated thinking there.
spk02: Yeah, I mean, we continue to work with multiple opportunities across the world to fill that gap. We have had some success to date, We will continue to work through the second half of the year to get contracts in place so that the expectation for 2025 are finalized. You know, we have lots of irons in the fire, Tom. I was at a conference last week meeting with four potential future customers. There's action on all of those. They're moving forward as well as many other that we have in the hopper. we're quite confident in it. I think we also reiterated our 2025 numbers today. And in those numbers have, have, have what we expect for a strategic partners in them. And in there is the growth back to back to where we were prior. So we feel pretty good about it. Um, nothing, uh, concrete that we would be prepared to put out there today, but, uh, lots of progress, some contracts signed and some more coming.
spk04: Got it. Thanks. Helpful. Uh, maybe second one for me is just, uh, On GLP-1, I know it's still super early days there, but anything incremental to share since last quarter? I know you mentioned there were some conversations ongoing with certain partners on that front.
spk02: Yeah, we continue to work towards a late-year launch, probably early Q4, maybe late Q3 right now. It's looking like we have a couple retailers lined up that want to go to market with it. A couple are running in tests. A couple want to launch. So we're quite bullish on getting the product out to the market. Again, we're not putting a lot of, I would say, bullishness in what we expect from the product right now because it's so new we just don't know. It's like a test right now and see where it goes. But it will be in market, and, of course, we will launch it on e-commerce channels as well as soon as it gets to the market. So continue to have regular dialogue with retailers. Continue to plan for an e-commerce launch And I imagine when we are speaking next time, we'll be able to talk a little bit more about those products.
spk04: Got it. And maybe just quick follow up on that. You know, based on that, there's nothing really baked into guidance in terms of contribution from this perspective, right?
spk02: I mean, it's very small in what we have. We have an innovation bucket in the guidance that we put in for you, Thierry. So that would be a portion of that innovation bucket, but extremely, extremely small. And they're nothing material that would impact our results for the year on anything negatively if it didn't happen.
spk04: Understood. Thanks, guys. I'll pass it back. Thank you.
spk00: Thank you. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your touchstone phone. And your next question comes from Justin Keywood of Seafood. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
spk01: Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my call. Nice to see the results. Just circling back on China, I'm wondering if there's a way to describe the potential for that segment, just given the high growth that we saw in the quarter, but it's still relatively small as far as market share in a large market. I believe it's around $30 billion. So if there's a way to look at the market share potential or or maybe another way just to try to gauge that growth going forward?
spk02: Yeah, I mean, China's a very hard place to read market share from data in the market. It's a very fragmented country, obviously, with lots of different platforms and different retailers. It's not like a Nielsen there where you can buy data like you can in North America. What I would say is this, Justin, we've talked about this quite often. It's not about what share can we reach in China at this point. This is about how do we take a business that Two years ago was $30 million, guided this year to between, I think, $80 and $92 million. How do we take that over the next 12 months above $100 million? And then how do we really drive that business to scale to be as large or larger than our Canadian business over time? We have strong long-range plans put in place that we put out into the marketplace back when we did our strategy update in May that says, you know, we expect that business, once we get through this year of investment, to grow 25% to 35% a year. Where we can accelerate, we will. We're all about just getting that business to scale with speed, and the share that comes along with that would be what we expect.
spk01: Thank you for that, Collar. And then I believe there was some commentary of potentially launching Utheory products or SKUs in China, if there's any update around that initiative.
spk02: Yeah, we talked about launching in Q2 in a very small test platform. We are in the midst of that test right now. It is literally like early, early days into that launch. Everything right now looks to be to our expectations. But again, I remind everyone our expectations are quite small as we get through this test and see what the longer range plan is here for Utheory in China.
spk01: And would the Utheories be launched within Costco or would it be more of a broad strategy?
spk02: There is a two-pronged strategy in China. One prong is a bit of retail distribution. One prong is e-commerce with a very small subset of platforms that we're testing with. And from there, we'll determine where we go.
spk01: Thank you for taking my questions.
spk02: Thanks for asking them.
spk09: Thanks, Justin.
spk00: Your next question comes from Nevan Yochi of BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
spk05: Yeah, thank you. Good evening, guys. Also, if we could start on the brand side, just on the domestic. Are you able to unpack the 10% revenue increase you saw in Q2 between pricing, underlying volume growth, and then the benefit received from the delayed Q1 shipments?
spk02: Yeah, so I would think of it this way, Devin. So units was low single-digit consumption growth. Again, we had a little bit of promotional shift out of the quarter. So low single digit unit growth, mid single digit dollar growth, which incorporated some of the pricing that we put into the market in the very, I'd say middle to the later stages of the quarter as it got to market. And then I would say mid single digit growth from the shift from Q1 into Q2.
spk05: Okay, perfect. And then maybe just on the mid-single digit price increases that you guys were putting in later in the quarter, are you seeing any change in consumer behavior, whether that be in the areas that they're shopping or the products at the purchasing?
spk02: We're not seeing any changes right now. We are continuing to see the changes we've talked about for, I'd say, the last year to 18 months, which is a continued shift to channels where the consumer can find value. So into the discount banners at grocery, into the club channel, into e-com channels where they're looking for value and looking for a value purchase. But we're not seeing anything from a brand perspective shifting away or anything like we talked about. Our consumption is up. It's up above market. We're growing share, and we continue to track it into Q3 and feel good about where we're going.
spk05: Okay, great. And then maybe just one final one on your inventory levels, down sequentially as well as on a year-over-year basis. How are you thinking about a potential build in the second half of the year?
spk09: So seasonally, we will peak inventory at the end of Q3. So there'll be an investment in Q3 and then cash flow from inventory into Q4. In totality in fiscal 2024, we will generate cash from inventory and that offsets our normalized trajectory from a working capital investment perspective. If you remember early in the year in our guidance, we got at approximately $20 million investment in total working capital for fiscal 2024. Perfect.
spk08: Thanks, guys. Thank you.
spk00: And your last question comes from Zachary Evershed of National Bank Financial. Thank you. Your line is open. Good evening, everyone.
spk06: Good evening, Zach. So maybe another question on inventory. I guess as China's growing by leaps and bounds, that's a pretty long supply line. Do you think that'll have an impact in 2025 and over the long term?
spk09: We will grow working capital there in line with revenues, but it is a smaller base. And when you look at the turnover from a receivable perspective, it's actually quicker on the receivable side. So longer inventory, much quicker on the receivable side. So you have a bit of offset, but net-net, yes, there will be some drag on the growth of that business. We're expecting to offset that with greater efficiency, both in Canada and the U.S.
spk06: Good color. Thanks. And then last one for me, Q2 EBITDA flat year over year, Q3 guidance looking for a slight uptick. at least some heavy lifting for Q4 for full year guidance. Can you remind us of the set of drivers behind that expansion?
spk09: It really is a timing of our promotional and marketing activity and when those dollars are planned to be spent in year. So we are not at all concerned by the the expectation for EBITDA growth to be primarily in the fourth quarter. When you look at the size of the fourth quarter, both from a revenue and EBITDA perspective, it's probably a little heavier than prior years, but not completely inconsistent with our normal seasonal trends.
spk00: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.
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