The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Bonnie Herzog: So, but in the context of that, if I may, just the expectation for low-single-digit sales growth, you know, I assume pricing will be more muted, but is there essentially an expectation of a category slowdown?

Martin Roper: No, we’re expecting in our kind of a base assumption expecting the category volumetrically to perform in line with how it has historically. And then we have the price mix impact of the private label versus the branded heading into next year.

Bonnie Herzog: Sure. All right. Thank you.

Martin Roper: Thanks, Bonnie.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from Eric Serotta of Morgan Stanley.

Eric Serotta: Great, thanks. I’m hoping you could just give us some additional color in terms of your long-term adjusted EBITDA margin target? How has that been impacted by the changed business mix with you now holding onto a greater portion of that customer’s private label business and also growing very nicely in private label elsewhere? Last quarter, I think you took up your long-term targets from the mid to high-teens, the high-teens because of the expectation that private label would be a smaller piece. This quarter it looks like you left it at high-teens, just wondering what the moving pieces are below the surface?

Martin Roper: Yes, I think we’re still comfortable with that sort of long-term outlook. I think this quarter is an example of what we can achieve right now in, you know, obviously it’s a seasonal month and it’s a peak month, but it shows that, that outcome is possible. So we believe that long-term model is still achievable. The other moving piece is the branded business remains very strong. As Mike alluded to, we are winning private label, new private label business, and some of the growth in private label is reflective of that, but the business we’re winning we think still supports that long-term financial algorithm.

Eric Serotta: Great and then hoping you could give a little color in terms of innovation and particularly the C-Store channel. It looks like you had some modest sequential improvement in the juice product in convenience store ACV in the quarter, but can you talk a little bit more broadly in terms of your expectations for the C-Store channel? How the juice product is performing in terms of getting you additional placements in shelf space?

Martin Roper: Yes, I think we’re pleased with how it’s performing. We’re spending a fair amount of marketing sales, executional support in Q3 to sort of drive it and produce the velocities that will support additional distribution discussions. So at this point in time, again, we’re happy. Obviously, we always would like distribution to go faster, and we tell ourselves guys that and challenge them to go faster. But it’s building nicely, and we think it’s a good source of long-term growth opportunity for us.

Eric Serotta: Great, thanks, I’ll pass it on.

Martin Roper: Thanks, Eric.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from Jim Salera of Stephens.

Jim Salera: Hi, good morning everyone. Thanks for taking our question. I want you to if you’ll [Technical Difficulty], dig back in on the key private label customer. Because if my notes serve me correct, in the second quarter you guys had mentioned basically that the long-term contract wasn’t in line with your, kind of, long-term margin targets. So I was just wondering if when they came back or if you went back to them, can we assume that the offer is now in line with kind of the long-term margin expectations you had in 2Q? Or has your thinking around that changed or just any color you could provide on there I think would be helpful.

Corey Baker: Yes, our thinking around it has not changed. If we’re going to do private label it has to fit within our business model and we continue to believe that.

Jim Salera: No, no, go ahead.

Martin Roper: No, to answer your question, you know, in the end, this partnership will continue under, you know, terms that work for both of us, but work within our business model.

Jim Salera: Okay, that’s helpful. And maybe to follow on that, can we think about it as you guys mentioned, the strength of your supply chain and your ability to deliver consistently. When this customer went out into the market, they really found that there wasn’t another alternative that could deliver, kind of, the same quality and consistency that you could on this private label offering. And so that’s why we — because just candidly, it’s a pretty fast turnaround from 3Q to see this revert, obviously, incrementally positive for you, but just trying to get some context around what caused it to happen so quickly?

Martin Roper: Yes, I think, obviously, it’s hard to know because the customer does not always tell you exactly what’s going on. I think we would conclude, and obviously we announced with Q2 that we had reached an understanding that the business was transitioning, you know, both the oil and the water business. And then subsequently, obviously, we’re still in a relationship. So our conclusion would be that they concluded that whatever their plans were, were not going to work. But obviously, we don’t really know exactly what went on in the background. What we can tell you is we’re comfortable with the, continuing to supply a portion of the business and under terms that as Mike said, meet our models. And obviously we’re happy with the partnership and as we said at Q2, this retailer is important to us and we’re here to support them in any way we can under terms that work for us.

Jim Salera: Okay great, that’s all very helpful. Then maybe if I can sneak in one more question on slide seven, if I just look, you guys have the dollar per ounce percentage change, and it looks like you’re running ahead of, kind of, the broader coconut water category year-to-date. Is there a relative price gap that you think you guys can maintain relative to the category or is there kind of an upper bound that we should think of in terms of your pricing relative to the category?