Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LW) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Tom Palmer: Good morning, and thanks for the questions. I wanted to ask on the guidance boost. I would assume some flow-through of the higher EMEA sales, but the bulk of the increase on earnings seems to be more related to the gross margin outlook. Is this mainly a reflection of pricing or a lower COGS inflation outlook? I realize there might have been some conservatism in the prior number, but just trying to understand the moving parts.

Bernadette Madarieta: Yes. So we feel good about the operating momentum that we have had. It’s been primarily related to pricing. When we think that those financial targets are really prudent given the macro-environment that we are faced — facing, as well as just uncertainty regarding consumer health. So most of that’s pricing and we feel really good about the operating momentum of the business.

Tom Palmer: Okay. Thank you. And then I wanted to just follow-up on that gross margin piece. Traditionally you had seen second quarter gross margin coming above the first quarter and then third quarter coming above the second quarter. Is this cadence reasonable when we think about the build for this year?

Bernadette Madarieta: Yes, so you’re right, typically we do see a sequential step up in Q2. I think we will still a see sequential step up, but it may be more muted because we are going to be lapping some of those pricing actions that were taken last year, as well as the timing of the customer trade claims that I talked about.

Tom Palmer: Understood. Thank you.

Tom Werner: Yes. Hey, Tom, remember that what Bernad had mentioned before, yes, we printed 29.4%, but if you take away some of the timing impacts of that trade spend probably a little bit south of 28% as a base.

Bernadette Madarieta: Yes, that’s right, Tom. So when I am speaking to the step up, I’m speaking up to more normalized 28% that I referred to.

Tom Palmer: Okay. Understood. Thanks.

Bernadette Madarieta: Thank you.

Operator: We’ll now take our next question from Adam Samuelson with Goldman Sachs.

Adam Samuelson: Yes. Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

Tom Werner: Good morning.

Bernadette Madarieta: Good morning, Adam.

Adam Samuelson: Good morning. So, I guess the first question is related maybe to mix, and clearly you are making some conscious decisions on moving away from low margin — from some lower margin business. But just more broadly, can you speak to maybe the — if we try to cut your volumes between kind of more traditional straight run fries versus some of the more upgraded products and battered encoded and the like that you’re now producing? Help — can you help quantify kind of what that represents as a proportion of the business today? And where that can be getting to, whether it’s with some of these business exits more recently, or over the next couple of years consider that’s the mix has been a very powerful margin driver margin driver for the business and trying to dimensionalize how much more room there’s there to go.

Bernadette Madarieta: Yes, Adam, strong price mix performance was the key driver of our better-than-expected financial results. As it relates to mix and how that relates to growth going forward, we will be covering that in our industry — investor call next week. And so, we will cover that more then, but again, strong price mix was the key driver of our better-than-expected performance.

Adam Samuelson: Okay. And then if I could just ask a second one. I know you talked about kind of customer trends in Europe. What the EMEA — the acquired EMEA business, what was their organic volume growth in the quarter? And the increased revenue contribution in EMEA, is that a more positive volume outlook, more positive price mix outlook, or both?