Fresh Del Monte Produce - Q1 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day everyone, and welcome to Fresh Del Monte Produce's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference call is being broadcast live over the Internet and is also being recorded for playback purposes. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn today's call over to Vice President Corporate Communications with Fresh Del Monte Produce, Claudia Pou. Please go ahead, Ms. Pou.

Claudia Pou (VP of Corporate Communications)

Thank you, Christie. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our first quarter 2023 conference call. As Christie mentioned, I am Claudia Pou, Vice President, Corporate Communications with Fresh Del Monte Produce. Joining me in today's discussion are Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Monica Vicente, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I hope that you've had a chance to review the press release that was issued earlier this morning via Business Wire. You may also visit the company's IR website at investorrelations.freshdelmonte.com to access today's earnings materials and to register for future distributions. This conference call is being webcast live on our website and will be available for replay after this call. Please note that our press release and our call today include non-GAAP measures.

Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures are set forth in the press release and earnings presentation, which is available on our website. I would like to remind you that much of the information we will be speaking to today includes the answers we give in response to your questions, may include forward-looking statements within the provisions of the federal securities laws safe harbor. In today's press release and in our SEC filing, we detail material risks that may cause our future results to differ from these forward-looking statements. Our statements are as of today, May 3rd, and we have no obligation to update any forward-looking statement we may make. During the call, we will provide a business update along with an overview of our first quarter 2023 financial results, followed by a question-and-answer session. With that, I am pleased to turn today's call over to Mohammad.

Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you, Claudia. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining our first quarter 2023 conference call. Excuse me. Thank you, Claudia. Good morning, everyone. Overall, our first quarter results were positive, reflecting our unwavering commitment to profitability through efficiency and optimization of resources. During the first quarter, our gross profit was $97 million and gross margin of 8.6% were stronger than the prior year period, which is reflective of our ongoing strategic efforts to further increase our profitability despite the continued impact of inflation. We are starting to see more stability in the market. While worldwide inflation is moderating, we are still operating in an inflationary environment. Given our global footprint, foreign exchange rates pose significant headwinds for us this quarter, as did the continuing increase in interest rates.

We were able to achieve strong results despite the headwinds by remaining focused on optimizing our assets and unwavering commitment to improve profitability. This past quarter, we finalized the sale of three underutilized properties as part of our focus to optimize all corners of our business. We also recently upgraded the cargo capacity of six of our container ships by 10%, allowing us to expand our cargo services to fulfill new and existing customer needs. Additionally, we have solidified several new inland transportation and warehousing partnerships for our Tricont Trucking and Tricont Logistics companies. We are committed to expanding our third-party logistics business by land and sea as we further leverage our asset footprint in Latin America and the United States. Our continued focus on innovation and value-added products has led to a positive outlook and feedback from our customers, particularly our fresh cut business.

Consumers are looking for the convenience and value-added quality that Fresh Del Monte provides. We continue to work one-on-one with our top customers in North America to generate mutually beneficial opportunities. We have seen an uptick in orders for bulk cut produce, a new form of fresh cut for us, as it is fulfilling a need for major retailers. We continue to innovate fresh cut fruit and vegetables offering in collaboration with our customers to create win-win revenue scenarios and provide value-added products that meet our customers' and consumers' expectations. Finally, we have been recognized by Newsweek as one of America's most trusted companies of 2023 for the second year in a row. We were rated on customer trust, investor trust, and employee trust. We are honored to be recognized once again for our honesty and transparency.

As we look to the rest of 2023, we will continue to identify places where we can innovate and push the produce industry forward. We will work towards leveraging our strengths in agriculture and supply chain to become a technology-driven sustainable company. I will turn the call to Monica to talk about the financial results. Monica?

Monica Vicente (SVP and CFO)

Thank you, Mohammad, thank you for joining us on today's call. Let's first talk about our first quarter of 2023 financial results. Net sales for the first quarter of 2023 were slightly lower by $8 million or 1% compared with the prior year. The decrease in net sales was due to lower per unit selling prices of avocados and negative fluctuations in exchange rates, primarily in Europe and Asia, combined with lower volumes in the Fresh and Value-Added Product segment. Most of the decrease was offset by higher per unit selling prices across most other products and higher Banana sales volume. As Mohammad mentioned, we had a strong quarter. Gross profit for the first quarter of 2023 was higher by approximately $7 million compared with the prior year.

The increase in gross profit primarily relates to the higher per unit selling prices across most product categories. Partially offsetting the increase in gross profits were higher production and procurement costs, as well as higher ocean freight costs due to continued inflation. Adjusted gross profit for the first quarter of 2023 was $99 million compared with $90 million in the prior year. Adjusted gross margin was 8.8% compared with 7.9% in the prior year. Adjusted operating income was $51 million compared with $40 million in the prior year. The increase in adjusted operating income was primarily due to higher gross profit. Adjusted FDP net income was $27 million compared with $26 million in the prior year. Our diluted earnings per share was $0.81 compared with $0.54 in the prior year.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share remained the same as the prior year at $0.55. The difference between GAAP and adjusted diluted earnings per share during the first quarter of 2023 was $0.26, primarily related to the gain on sale of underutilized assets. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2023 was $65 million compared with $63 million in the prior year period, and corresponding adjusted EBITDA margin was 5.8 compared with 5.5 in the prior year. Let's now turn to the segment results, beginning with our Fresh and Value-Added Product segment. Net sales for the first quarter of 2023 decreased by approximately $29 million-$643 million when compared to the prior year period.

The decrease was primarily due to lower per unit selling prices of avocados due to market volatility, combined with a decrease in total sales volume for the segment. Most of the lower sales volume relates to fresh cut vegetables, prepared foods, and vegetables. The lower sales volume for fresh cut vegetables and vegetables was primarily a result of proactive steps we took to improve profitability. We expect these conditions to persist as we continue to focus on profitability and continue to experience avocado pricing volatility as compared to the prior year. The decrease in sales was partially offset by higher per unit prices across most other product categories and higher pineapple sales volume. Adjusted gross profit for the Fresh and Value-Added Product segment for the first quarter of 2023 was $49 million compared with $44 million in the prior year.

Despite lower net sales, gross profit was positively impacted by higher per unit sale prices for most categories. The segment continued to be negatively impacted by cost pressures of raw materials such as packaging, fertilizers, and also higher ocean freight costs. Gross profit for the Fresh and Value-Added Product segment includes a $1.7 million inventory write-off, primarily due to the sale of two distribution centers in the Middle East. Adjusted gross margin for this segment increased to 7.6% compared with 6.6% in the prior year. Moving to our Banana segment. Net sales for the first quarter of 2023 increased by $19 million or 5% compared with the prior year. The increase in net sales was primarily related to higher per unit selling prices in most regions and higher sales volume in North America and Europe.

Net sales of Bananas were negatively impacted by fluctuations in exchange rates, primarily in Europe and Asia. Banana segment adjusted gross profit for the first quarter of 2023 was $43 million compared with $38 million in the prior year. The increase in adjusted gross profit was primarily driven by higher net sales, partially offset by higher procurement and production costs such as packaging material and labor, as well as higher ocean freight costs. Adjusted gross margin for the segment increased to 10.2% compared with 9.3% in the prior year. Lastly, net sales in our Other Products and Services segment increased by $2 million or 3%, mainly due to higher net sales of third-party ocean freight services. Adjusted gross profit for our Other Products and Services segment decreased by $1 million as a result of higher costs. Now moving to selected financial data.

Selling general and administrative expenses was $48 million compared with $45 million in the prior year. The increase was primarily driven by higher employee compensation costs, higher professional fees, and higher advertising and promotional expenses. Net interest expense was $8 million compared with $5 million in the prior year, driven by higher interest rates. Other expense net for the first quarter of 2023 was $9 million compared with $4 million in the prior year period. The increase primarily relates to higher foreign currency related losses. Of the foreign currency losses in the first quarter of 2023, $6 million represented unrealized losses from our balance sheet position in certain foreign jurisdictions. Income tax provision was $10 million compared with $6 million in the prior year period. The increase in income tax provision was primarily due to increased earnings in certain higher tax jurisdictions.

Let's move now to our cash flow. Net cash provided by operating activities for the first quarter of 2023 was $16 million compared with net cash used in operating activities of $300,000 in the prior year period. The increase was due to working capital reductions mainly related to levels of accounts receivable and raw materials and packaging supplies inventory. Long-term debt decreased by $81 million-$473 million at the end of the first quarter of 2023, compared with $554 million at the end of the same quarter last year. As it relates to capital spending, we invested $10 million in the first quarter of 2023 compared with $11 million in the prior year period.

As announced this morning in our financial results press release, our board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share, payable on June 9th, 2023 to shareholders of record on May 17th, 2023. This is an increase from our previous quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share. This concludes our financial review. We can now turn the call over to Q&A. Christie?

Operator (participant)

At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Mitchell Pinheiro from Sturdivant & Co.

Mitchell Pinheiro (Director of Research)

Yeah. Hi.

Monica Vicente (SVP and CFO)

Morning.

Mitchell Pinheiro (Director of Research)

Morning. I guess a couple of questions. First, I want to start on the Banana business, just to get that out of the way. Yeah, you had a good quarter there. What's the... As you look, you know, you know, you don't have a long-term view, but as we look into this quarter, do we see stability in the market still? Is supply and demand in balance? What's the, will margins be reasonably strong? Do you still keep the pricing that you've been able to implement?

Monica Vicente (SVP and CFO)

Yeah. As we speak right now, Mitch, we see the market stable. Of course, the summer months usually is a little bit soft compared to the rest of the year. Surprisingly, Europe was very kind of stable and solid throughout the winter season, and we don't see much fluctuations. Actually, because of the financial situation over the last two, three years, we have seen many operators ripening operations and other traders in bananas have gone out of the market. The market has became more kind of stable, less volatile, especially in Europe. North America is normal. It's stable. Far East, you know, Philippines is coming down in production because of the disease.

Volumes are coming down in from the Philippines to the Asian markets, which gives room for Central America, Ecuador to have, you know, more outlets. All in all, I see the kind of banana market stabilize. With better kind of supply and demand planning, I see things going forward, you know, in a much more normal way than the previous years.

Mitchell Pinheiro (Director of Research)

As you did in the fourth quarter, do we expect to see, more of your own fruit sold rather than third-party purchased fruit?

Monica Vicente (SVP and CFO)

No, we do actually. We are more into opportunistic, let's say, management of our volumes. You know, we have our own volumes, which we are not planning to increase. You know, increasing our own volumes means heavy investments, which we are not planning to do, rather than working on third party, but leveraging that with opportunistic, let's say, management of the volume or the purchases.

Mitchell Pinheiro (Director of Research)

Okay. Moving on to Fresh and Value-Added. In the fresh cut business specifically, I think you said... I haven't seen your Q yet, but I think fresh cut, volumes were they up?

Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh (Chairman and CEO)

The volumes were a little bit down, but marginally really. I mean, it's because of either availability of certain fruits during the season, you know, like strawberries, mangoes, which are very volatile in terms of volumes throughout different seasons. That's why one of the reasons as well as shortage of pineapples during sometime during this quarter. That really helped. It was marginal. You know, we, during the next few months, we will be having hopefully a major kind of entry into the market in a new, let's say, Value-Added Product with a partnership. I can't disclose this at this time, but hopefully, you know, by sometime during the next few months, we will be announcing it.

Mitchell Pinheiro (Director of Research)

Okay. when it comes to margins, I mean they've improved nicely. Are these margins sustainable or does it depend on your product mix?

Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh (Chairman and CEO)

No, they are sustainable in my opinion. It's just a matter of better, let's say, supply kind of management and making sure your supply chain is more planned forward. This is what really our team is doing right now, is that as I mentioned all the time that we are using technology a lot more now in our business, and which we are leveraging more and more as we go forward. This will give us a kind of an edge of how to manage our supply chain and better planning going forward.

Mitchell Pinheiro (Director of Research)

Okay. My last question just is on, sort of your balance sheet and CapEx. I mean, you've, your balance sheet leverage has come down nicely with the, with the recent asset sales. What are your thoughts on the balance sheet? Do you know, you obviously you raised the dividend, so you feel pretty good about, you know, sort of your financial position. Do you intend to, you know, look at share repurchases? Do you intend to look at acquisitions, or do you wanna just continue to keep a low debt profile?

Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh (Chairman and CEO)

No, I think we're not planning to purchase share, I mean, buyback right now. I think we will probably focus more on retaining value to our shareholders as well as looking at consolidating our business and expanding it from within actually organically, which we have many areas where we are in the pipeline, which will come up probably by towards the end of the year. There will be projects that will start kicking in. Everything that we are working now is on added value. I mean, value-added products or value-added activities. Let's say it relates to our business in general.

Mitchell Pinheiro (Director of Research)

Okay. Well, thank you for taking the questions. I'll get back in the queue.

Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Jonathan Feeney with Consumer Edge.

Jonathan Feeney (Director of Research and Head of Product)

Good morning. Thank you very much, Mohammad and company. My first question is about the pricing environment and attitude retailers have towards your product and pricing. We're hearing a lot across the industry concern about, you know, stressed consumers. You know, Bananas tend to be a place where it's very visible price for consumers, and you had a good quarter there. It's also the least expensive and probably best value thing in the entire grocery store. You know, where a lot of I mean, the big debate in the space is, you know, how is pricing, how are all these companies able to price and hold on to margin at a time when consumers are stressed? How do you feel about that for your businesses, both Fresh and Value-Added?

Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh (Chairman and CEO)

Well, we are doing our best. You know, we have been sustaining. I mean, as you can see in our results, we have been impacted so heavily by the increased cost in all the materials, that be it in raw material, be it in packaging or transportation. We have been absorbing a lot of this cost ourselves. No matter how much we pass to the retailers or to the buyers, it is a fraction of what we really have incurred, you know, in our balance sheet in terms of costs. I think there is a limit to that. I hope that, you know, cost of raw materials start easing up a little bit, which I don't see at this time.

Hopefully, you know, within, by the next, you know, two quarters, hopefully things will start softening, you know, and this will reflect on our cost and our results as well. We haven't increased our prices in any significant way in the last few months to our buyers. I think in the case of, you know, produce and bananas in particular, I don't think that our prices have increased in relation to the general market, you know, if you look at consumer goods or even QSRs or whatever other sector in the industry, we are probably the least that have increased prices.

Jonathan Feeney (Director of Research and Head of Product)

Okay. I mean, yeah, it's been for a company of your, you know, competitive set and efficiency and, you know, the cost and re-replacement cost, your logistics. It's been remarkable how many costs you have absorbed and, you know, it's nice to see that at least working in the, in the Banana business right now. Second question, can you Maybe forgive me if you already answered this, where are we on strategic asset sales? Are we all done selling assets or are there more assets to sell?

Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh (Chairman and CEO)

No, there are more assets. You know, what we are doing is really becoming a light asset operator. Like what we sold in the Middle East, the two distribution centers, actually we have leased back only what we need for our operations. We did not get out of the business. We just sold the assets, leased back some of the space that we need, and that means that we are out of this huge fixed cost and big depreciation ticket. This is the kind of approach that we are doing. We have a lot of assets. You know, we are a very rich company with assets.

Jonathan Feeney (Director of Research and Head of Product)

Absolutely.

Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh (Chairman and CEO)

As a balance sheet. I mean, these assets are so much undervalued in our books. We will keep. You know, we have several assets that are still earmarked for disposal and sale if the market and the price is right. There will be some in the next few quarters.

Jonathan Feeney (Director of Research and Head of Product)

Thank you, Mohammad. Since you mentioned it, can you give, I know it's a complicated topic. We've been talking about it for 20 years. Could you give people a way to dimensionalize? You say assets are undervalued. How can people think about that? Like, you know, can I look at a recent transactions for key strategic assets of yours and say they're undervalued by half, they're undervalued by like, How can I know you can't give me a number, but, like, how can you think about that so, you know, people can look around and believe that, yeah, this is a company that's got assets far in excess of, you know, what it said they're on the books for?

Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh (Chairman and CEO)

Well, our assets today, if you look at them, I think they are valued around 6% in terms of EBITDA. I think that the market, fair market value is around 14%, in my opinion. We have other, you know, we have other assets in certain countries that are extremely valuable because these assets are almost, you know, farms that happen to be very close to the city. Now, urbanization is coming very close, and the value of these properties will become, you know, extremely valuable as we go forward in years, you know. This is farmland that turned out to be, you know, urban or commercial value. That's why we are very confident about our asset base.

I mean, if you look at our book value, you know, compared to our share price, it speaks for itself. That let alone that we haven't talked about the real value of the assets. You know, you're talking about book at book value, let alone real value. We are very comfortable, we are very confident and, you know, with all the projects that we are undertaking right now in the pipeline, I believe that Fresh Del Monte will be completely a different company in the next 12 months.

Jonathan Feeney (Director of Research and Head of Product)

Last question, I guess you took us there. You know, our work suggests the Del Monte brand name is extremely well known in American households compared to the number of people who are buying your products right now on the Value-added side. It suggests, you know, I know you have these JVs, you have some rights to, you know, make different categories of Value-Added products. I mean, what has been, you know, the bottleneck preventing you from having a wider array of, you know, more, you know, non-fresh value-added products under the well-known Del Monte brand name? And, you know, what can we look forward to in the next 12 months in terms of getting more products in consumers' hands?

Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh (Chairman and CEO)

You will be hearing hopefully in the next few months, that's why you said it very, very well that the Del Monte brand is extremely, you know, strong brand and recognizable. That's why we have been approached by some companies, you know, to partner and share our brand, you know, in some of the value-added products. You will be seeing in the next few months, hopefully, as you go forward in the year, what we are talking about. That's part of our kind of, a new kind of, approach to the market and the, our focus.

Jonathan Feeney (Director of Research and Head of Product)

That's awesome. Thank you, Mohammad. Thanks for all the time.

Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh (Chairman and CEO)

My pleasure.

Operator (participant)

There are no further questions at this time. Are there any closing remarks?

Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh (Chairman and CEO)

I would like to thank everyone for, having the time to share with us today, and I hope to talk to you soon. Thank you very much. Have a good day.

Operator (participant)

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.