Lancaster Colony Corporation (NASDAQ:LANC) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

David Ciesinski: So, maybe I’ll jump in and then have Tom come in and add more color. On hedging on eggs, to remind you, eggs are an area where it’s difficult to hedge. With our whole eggs we buy on grain-based agreements. So, as grains move up and down so do the cost of our eggs. I would say there we’ve been able to somewhat take a more modest impact, but inflation nonetheless. But we also buy yolks for some of our formulas and you cannot hedge against those yolks. What we’ve been able to do is get forward protection which is 90-day pricing protection, which brings me to the second part that I want to bring in on things like eggs and even oil as we see it continue to move, we’re continuing to hedge where we can and then price where we can to make sure that we’re passing those along.

So, on these items where we saw the exposure in this period, we have pricing actions that have gone into flight, particularly for areas that — or products that are heavy consumers of eggs whether they’re in Foodservice or whether they’re in Retail.

Brian Holland: I appreciate the color. Last one for me and forgive me today for being very model-specific and not asking some of the fund strategy questions, I typically like to hear Dave opine on. Hopefully, someone else in the queue will get to some of that. But is there — as you look at your — as you look at where you are today, expectation that further pricing is needed do you think you’ve got it all in there at this point? Do you expect to have to take more? And if so, maybe where — is that Foodservice driven or Retail?

Tom Pigott: Yeah. So Brian, as Dave mentioned, there are a number of actions in flight. All of those have been successfully sold in. So we feel — we continue to feel good about our ability to price to cover this so — in both segments. So there’s not a concern for us in terms of retailer pushback at this stage. We’re able to get the pricing in. As Dave mentioned, with the more recent run-up there are additional actions that are in flight to help us.

David Ciesinski: Maybe I’ll add to that point. If you remember last year at this time, we were talking about the fact that our pricing was lagging the inflation. In Q1, we were PNOC positive, where actually our pricing exceeded the costs that were coming in helping us recoup. In this period we were PNOC positive again. And we expect that trend to continue forward. So I think even where we’re seeing this shift it’s on the margins. We should have been more PNOC positive were not for the run-up in that short-term in things like eggs. But I think what we want to convey Brian in terms of the model is as we’re seeing it come through. And we can’t hedge it or even if we can we’re pricing for it. And we’re pushing forward. So we feel like that muscle is fully developed. And we’re utilizing it.

Brian Holland: Thank you. It’s a good color everyone. I’ll leave it there.

David Ciesinski: Thanks, Brian.

Tom Pigott: Thanks, Brian.

Operator: The next question comes from Todd Brooks with The Benchmark Company. Please go ahead.

Todd Brooks: Hey. Good morning everybody. Hope, you’re well.

David Ciesinski: Hey, good morning.

Tom Pigott: Good morning, Todd.