The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Andrew Lazar: I guess to start, your full-year gross margin outlook of 33.5% is still some, call it, 450 basis points below pre-pandemic levels. And some of this is clearly the mechanical impact of pricing on gross margin. But perhaps you could quantify maybe some of the key buckets as we think about sort of gross margin recovery moving forward.

Tucker Marshall: Andrew, good morning. While I won’t quantify the buckets. What I do want is lay them out for you as we think about gross margin improvement. Not only have we seen that sequentially in each quarter this year, but also as we think about next fiscal year and onward, we see the benefits from volume/mix within the portfolio. We see the lapping of the Jif peanut butter product recall as a benefit. We also see some moderation in cost inflation and stabilization in both our supply chain and manufacturing environments, along with benefits coming out of our transformation office and then the benefit of the divestiture after addressing stranded overhead that will all help us continue to support the gross margin restoration.

Andrew Lazar: And then you guided to low double-digit year-over-year decrease in EPS for fiscal 3Q, and obviously, results came in better than that. With organic sales and gross margin roughly in line with Street forecast, it seems the bulk of the upside came from SG&A. What drove the favorability there, at least versus Street estimates, given it looks like marketing spend for the full-year is expected to be on track with your initial estimates? Thank you.

Tucker Marshall: Andrew, our third quarter came in about $0.15 better to our expectations. And largely that was due to base business momentum some cost favorability and some timing of costs transferring from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. And as you can note in our raise of guidance at $0.10 at the midpoint, we, therefore, have shifted $0.05 into the fourth quarter.

Andrew Lazar: Got it. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Next question is coming from Ken Goldman from JPMorgan. Your line is now live.

Kenneth Goldman: Hi. Thank you. You posted a good free cash flow number in the third quarter. You talked about how fundamentals were €“ came in better than you expected. But you didn’t adjust your outlook for free cash flow for the year. I was just curious if there’s any read into that, if there’s any particular reason why maybe that wasn’t raised. And it does imply €“ but in the fourth quarter, it will be the lowest number for Smucker in any fourth quarter since 2013. So I’m just curious if there’s any conservatism in there.

Tucker Marshall: Ken, we have a commitment to a $1 billion free cash flow target annually, and we are below that target this year, largely due to the Jif peanut butter product recall, but also due to the impact of increased capital expenditures associated with our Uncrustables facility. So we are maintaining our capital spend at $550 million in support of that core growth. And as you think about free cash flow, we haven’t raised the estimate largely this year due to some additional cash tax payments that have come through this fiscal year in support of some restructuring that we’ve done along with the Jif peanut butter product recall.

Kenneth Goldman: Got it. And then just to build a little bit on the question about SG&A. It implies, if I’m doing the math correctly, that it will be a little bit over $400 million in the fourth quarter. It’s only been that high one-time in the history of the company. So I just wanted to dig a little bit further into what is the €“ if there is something discrete headwind or investment that you’re making in the fourth quarter in SG&A that will drive it up that high. Again, using just the rough math that you’ve provided.