The Duckhorn Portfolio, Inc. (NYSE:NAPA) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Kaumil Gajrawala: Got it. Great. Thank you.

Operator: The next question comes from the line of Peter Galbo with Bank of America. Please proceed.

Peter Galbo : Good afternoon. Thanks for the question. Jen, if I could just follow-up on, back on Lauren’s question, obviously understanding there’s some, some nuance in the product availability, but anything more you can do to help us in the back half of the year, just to understand again that, how that ramp might look your comparisons are kind of a bit wacky just given I think some of that dynamics from 2Q of ‘23 as well? So just any more color, just as we kind of try to parse the quarters here on what we might see.

Jennifer Fall Jung : So, as we talked about on our last earnings call in 20 — sorry, are getting the years a confused here. For fiscal ‘23, when we put the Costa Brown offering in Q4, it drew a bigger comp in Q4. Now for this year, we’re moving it back primarily into Q3. Some will slip into Q4, so you will see more of an outweigh in Q3 versus Q4 just because of that shift in that offering. So, keep that in mind that we had it one way in ‘23, and that as we move forward, we’re switching it back to where we had it previously.

Peter Galbo : Got it. Okay, and that’s helpful. And then just in terms of — I didn’t know if you updated this just like gross margin cadence as well for the rest of the year. Maybe particular to 2Q and then if it follows that kind of same idea in the back half, if you’re shipping more close to Brown and 3Q then the gross margins are probably better, but just anything you can do to help us there.

Jennifer Fall Jung : Yeah, and as I said, our margin profile remains the same. For Q1 and Q2, we thought we would see slight improvement year over year, but Q3 and Q4, we would see more margin pressure as we anticipated more trade spin because we were extremely clean on trade ski trade spin in Q3 and Q4 last year. So, first half slight improvement second half margin pressure due to trade spin.

Peter Galbo : Got it. Thanks so much.

Operator: The next question comes from the line of Andrea Teixeira with JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Andrea Teixeira: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I wanted to drill back Deidre, you mentioned the Decoy red alto in your prepared remarks being a bit softer within the 15 to 25. So, I was wonder, and of course, you’re limited your selling as much as you produce, but just curious if that is specific and you pointed out the pricing, right? So, if we think we look back, do you think you overdid a bit on the pricing or that’s what you were expecting and, in that range, of course Decoy, the regular Decoy is a bit more on the lower end of that range? Is there any potential implication there in terms of like increased marketing or increased? I would say promotional activity on the promotion activity there in that specific price point.

And then if you can also parse out to the on-premise, you did call out number of accounts, both off-premise and on-premise. So, if you can talk about also how much is different between the performance was different for on-premise and off-premise, if you have that visibility in terms of trade down? Thank you.

Deirdre Mahlan: Yes. thanks for the question. Yes, the Decoy, white label. So not Decoy Limited, excluding Decoy Limited. The red wines, we did take price on them last year, and I think it’s you, it’s normal for there to be a period after a price increase as that price starts to come through on the shelf and the consumer digests that price, and the retailer digests it in terms of what’s happening in terms of feature and display for there to be a period where it’s digested and there’s some softness in the consumer take-off, that we haven’t learned anything that would suggest that there is any kind of issue or that we to use your words, gone too far on the pricing. Of course, we continue to evaluate how the consumer is responding to our brands and we will support our brands at the trade level, and with the consumer digitally over time to, of course reinforce the equity at that price point.

But we’re not seeing anything that would suggest that there is an issue with the positioning of the brand. And we expect it to continue. And as I said, I haven’t seen all of the detail yet on November, because it’s fresh, but our total portfolio in to Circana did return to growth in November. We haven’t had time yet since those came out to really dig into the detail, but again, the industry is still soft, so I’m not declaring victory overall, but we are encouraged by what’s happened in the November Circana data. And as we get through that, we’ll be able to tell you more about it at the end of the — after this quarter. In terms of the on and off premise, were you going to say something else? Sorry, did I interrupt you?

Andrea Teixeira: No, sorry. I was about to remember you — remind you for the on-premise and on-premise dynamics within the quarter and any trade down as you might see in…

Deirdre Mahlan : In terms of — in terms of the distribution in the on and the off-premise, they’re both up so…

Andrea Teixeira: And, but in terms of the consumer

Deirdre Mahlan : From a consumer point of view, the on-premise, I think has been slightly stronger in the most recent months than the off-premise. And again, I think we’re not the only ones in the industry talking about this as the consumer has kind of fully returned and gone to their post pandemic behavior, we are seeing more people out. And that has improved in particular at the more luxury, higher price points. It has improved the performance in the on-premise. But I wouldn’t say that the on-prem is driving the performance. I just think there was some slightly better performance in the on-premise over the course of the period.

Sean Sullivan : And I might just add that, we — I think take a lot of — we think that’s a real positive thing. That balance between growth in both on-premise and off-premise, that’s the confidence of retailers and that’s diversification of where folks find our wines, that we think is important in supporting our omnichannel strategy. We like those results a lot.