PetIQ, Inc. (NASDAQ:PETQ) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Bill Chappell: Got it. Thanks so much.

Cord Christensen: Thanks, Bill.

Operator: The next question comes from Jon Andersen with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Jon Andersen: Hi everybody, thanks for the questions. Could you talk a little bit about I guess by this time of the year, you’ve had quite a few conversations with retailers on the spring resets or early 2024 resets. Just wondering if you could comment on the kind of the tone of those discussions, what you’re expecting in terms of perhaps incremental distribution and anything on the innovation front that that might be notable or worth mentioning as well. Thanks.

Cord Christensen: Yes. I’ll let Michael talk about the retailer line reviews and whether that, and then I can take him back to innovation for you, Jon, but go ahead, Michael.

Michael Smith: Yes. I would say it depends by category right now from a flea and tick category perspective, those line reviews are largely done. I’d say we’re happy with our results. We do expect some moderate gains, some further penetration and distribution for some of our kind of tertiary brands and additional pack sizes, health and wellness still a little bit in process, but very encouraged about how some of the retail partners are leaning into some of our new initiatives in that space, as you know, head supplements the biggest piece of that portfolio for us, or that category. We primarily play in the value oriented portion of that category today. We’re very excited about a launch we have next year that’ll position us well in the premium portion of the category, which is candidly where about two-thirds of the category volume lives.

And we’re very encouraged about the best our retail partners are placing on that investment we’re making in that innovation for 2024. And then in treats, we’re seeing a lot of momentum behind the Minties brand in consumption. Customers continue to vote for that proposition in the market, and our retail partners are proportionately voting as they lay out their shelf allocation and space plans, promotional plans for 2024 on the Minties brand in that category. So some of the parts definitely a net positive for us as we think about how we’ll be positioned to win with the customer and our retail partners in 2024.

Cord Christensen: And Jon, I would just say in general, we’ve been able to watch where we’re winning, we’re leaning where we’re winning, the innovation’s been built around it, and we’ll have a great year next year.

Jon Andersen: Okay. And with the growth that you’re seeing in your manufactured brand business, can you just remind us of from a capacity perspective, any limitations or any incremental CapEx required to kind of support that demand? And then finally on services, you mentioned in the press release and the prepared comments the collaboration with Walmart, could you talk a little bit more about what that is all about and how that maybe differs from what you’ve been doing up till now with Walmart with the wellness centers and why that might be a good or better economic model for you? Thanks.

Cord Christensen: Thanks, Jon. Look, I think in general, we’ve always stayed in front of the capacity with very minimal capital investments to keep up with what we need to do that. When we get surprised and we have a run that’s really strong in an area like the Minties brand, we’ve had to go out and aggressively pursue equipment and molds and things to keep up with that. But I would say, we’re in good shape going to next year with the amount of capacity we need to stay in front of the growth rates with plenty of excess to stay in a place where we can keep up with what needs to be done. So we’re in really good shape. Look, John, you’re the closest to the Walmart project, if you want to talk about it and you’ve give it up to that’d be great.