Loews Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
April 27, 2023

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Q1 2023 Pilgrim's Pride Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. All participants will be in listen only mode. At the company's request, this call is being recorded. Please note that the slides referenced during today's call are available for download from the Investors section of the company's website atwww.pilgrims.com. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions.

Operator

I would now like to turn the conference call over to Andy Rojeski, Head of Strategy, Investor Relations and net 0 programs for Pilgrim's.

Speaker 1

Good morning and thank you for joining us today as we review our operating and financial results for the Q1 ended on March 26, 2023. Yesterday afternoon, we issued a press release providing an overview of our financial performance for the quarter, including a reconciliation of any non GAAP measures we may discuss. A copy of the release is available on our website atir.pilgrims.com along with the slides for reference. These items also have been filed as Form 8ks and are available online atsec.gov. Fabio Sandre, President and Chief Executive Officer and Matt Galvanoni, Chief Financial Officer, We'll present on today's call.

Speaker 1

Before we begin our prepared remarks, I would like to remind everyone of our Safe Harbor disclaimer. Today's call may contain certain forward looking statements that represent our outlook and current expectations as of the day of this release. Other additional factors not anticipated by management may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these forward looking statements. Further information concerning these factors have been provided in yesterday's press release, our Form 10 ks and our regular filings with the SEC. I would now like to turn the call over to Fabio Sandri.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Andy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. For the Q1 of 2023, we reported net revenues of $4,170,000,000 which was slightly below the same quarter last year. Our adjusted EBITDA was $151,900,000 with margins of 3.6% compared to 11.8% last year. Our overall portfolio of geographies and business demonstrated resilience over the last years.

Speaker 2

During this time, we experienced All time highs as well as near record lows in commodity values. We've also faced dramatic inflation throughout our The supply chain includes the grain inputs, labor and utilities, along with other distinct challenging economic conditions in each of our regions. To mitigate these challenges, we've also considered consistently driven our strategy of key customer focus and operational excellence. Our business, we're able to capture the benefits of exceptionally favorable markets, while minimizing the impact of extremely adverse market conditions. As a result, we can generate a more resilient earnings profile over the long term.

Speaker 2

Throughout Q1, our strategists demonstrated their criticality As our overall business in each region improved its profitability relative to prior quarter in a very challenging environment. In our U. S. Business, diversification with small bird and case ready, along with our branded offerings in Prepare, moderated the impact of depressed commodity cutout values. In addition, our key customer strategy was instrumental in driving improvements in our production volumes and in our supply chain.

Speaker 2

In the U. K. And Europe, our focus on operational excellence and the restructuring of our manufacturing network helped us increase production efficiencies. These efforts were extended beyond our production locations as we drove synergies in our back office support activities as well. Our innovation also continued to gain traction with key customers, further diversifying and adding value to our portfolio.

Speaker 2

As for Mexico, performance improved in supply demand fundamentals, become more balanced and inflation slowed. In addition, we continue to improve our efficiencies as we lap our issues in our live operations. We also benefited from favorable exchange rates in our diversified portfolio as both our fresh and branded offerings grew throughout the quarter. Turning to feed ingredients. Recent USDA reports show ending stocks estimate Steady at a historical tight 1,340,000,000 bushels.

Speaker 2

Demand has been impacted by the high prices in the 1st 6 months of the crop year, With U. S. Exports down approximately 37% year over year. Domestically, core demand for ethanol was also 5% And feed resistance was down 7% versus the same period in prior year. The ending stocks are expected to increase to more normal levels Depending on Brazil's 2nd crop, planting success and weather here in the U.

Speaker 2

S. And continued exports flows from the Black Sea. Although critical development stages are still ahead, current weather is favorable for the large planted area in Brazil. In U. S, USDA's prospective planting reports show a favorable response to the elevated prices and the corn to soybean price ratio With the planting intentions of 92,000,000 acres and planting is well underway.

Speaker 2

With titles crops in U. S. And much time ahead, the market currently carries a relative large weather risk premium. With the confirmation of more normal conditions And with the current market scenario, we expect those premiums to reduce. Regarding soy, Q1 saw price volatility As soybean production estimates diverge across South America, Brazil is harvesting a record crop, while Argentina crop is down 19,000,000 tons Versus last year.

Speaker 2

While South America saltbean production was net larger and global soybean stocks are at acceptable levels, The soybean meal supply is constrained as Argentina is dependent on soybean imports to run their crushing industry. However, Tepid soybean demand from China and weak soybean meal demand outside U. S. Have kept soybean meal prices from returning to the Q1 highs. UFDA prospective planting show intentions for the 23 to 24 soybean acres of 87,500,000 acres, Essentially flat year over year.

Speaker 2

Crop conditions will be critical as the West will enter the new crop year with historical tight ending Stocks of 210,000,000 bushels or 4.8 percent stock to use. On the weak, globally, Balance sheets have been relatively well supplied and offer alternatives for global feed grain importers. The U. S. Hard red winter wheat is the main concern for Northern Hemisphere due to the lingering dry conditions, while EU wheat conditions are promising.

Speaker 2

Much like corn, an operational Black Sea export corridor should be mentioned before beyond mid May. In the 1st 3 months of 2023, ready to cook production on U. S. Chicken experienced an increase of 3.4% relative to Q1 2022. The more substantial year over year growth occurring in January before slowing in March and recent weeks.

Speaker 2

Growth 1st quarter headcounts We're bolstered by year over year improvements in hatchability in late 2022, supporting mild cheek placements increase during the same period. Considering more recent trends, the rate of industry excess has slowed, and it has been flat year over year. The industry's hedging rate has declined year over year despite our own improvements. Taken together, Aggregate cheek placements over the trailing month have remained relatively flat year over year to negative numbers on recent weeks, And the USDA 2023 outlooks indicated lower growth for Q2 and a decline in production during the 2nd semester of 2023. On the cold storage, reported USDA inventories indicated an 8.3% reduction from the end of 2022 throughout the end of March, bringing inventories back near the 5 year average after seeing some rapid buildups towards the end of 2022.

Speaker 2

When analyzing the overall supply of protein, the USDA maintains the expectation of reducing domestic protein availability. This outlook includes the growth of chicken during Q1 and the growth of turkey production after the AI events of last year. Manufacturing over the red meat supply, USDA expects decline in the availability, primarily due to U. S. Beef production of 4.5%.

Speaker 2

As for pork, availability is expected to remain flat in the U. S. Year over year. U. S.

Speaker 2

Domestic demand showed mild growth in the Q1 of 2023. The retail channel experienced stable volumes sold, albeit at higher sales prices. In the fresh department, steadily increasing promotional activity provided volume support, enabling Sales volume to remain on par with year ago, while still maintaining elevated dollar sales. As a result, Chicken was able to grow both volume and dollar share in the meat category over the past year, demonstrating its remarkable resilience Despite a trend of reduction in unit purchases among consumers. Overall, frozen dollar sales grew on mild volume declines.

Speaker 2

However, we see divergent trends for the frozen value added and the frozen commodity categories. Dollar sales for the Frozen value added category continued to trend positive as both increased volumes and higher price. Meanwhile, the opposite remains true for the Frozen commodity category as declining dollar sales were the result of significant volume declines that were not offset by year over year price increases. From a location standpoint, the deli emerges the fastest growing location for chicken as it simultaneously grow price and units. Equally important, it increasingly became a destination for shoppers as the number of deli chicken trips increased 2.5%, A considerable increase relative to the same period last year, reflecting a broader consumer trend to seeking affordability and convenience.

Speaker 3

We are encouraged by

Speaker 2

the potential of the retail channel given the continued tightening of competing proteins and above average wholesale markup for chicken. As such, retailers can further drive promotional activity to gain momentum with consumers who are looking for more affordable protein options, especially In this inflationary environment, the foodservice category also showed increased demand. Throughout the Q1, Food service demand grew volumes of 7% as both QSR and full service restaurants experienced year over year growth. Consumer traffic has been stable, but we have seen more promotions of chicken items. In the commercial segment, Those promotions have generated volume growth of nearly 5%.

Speaker 2

Raw wings, tenders, legs and dark meat had experienced an exceptional rebound As all have grown volume double digits, value ended tenders, strips and legs has also enjoyed a strong growth rate. The non commercial segments continue to grow towards the pre pandemic levels, with volumes year over year increasing nearly 12%, led by the business and industry and the lodging segments. As workers increasingly return to the office, we expect these segments to continue to increase. On the export, we see demand is increasing strongly for U. S.

Speaker 2

Chicken after posting year over year growth in early 2023. Through the 1st 2 months of Q1, export performance were at an all time high with 3.3% growth year over year. Year to date export performance has also enabled cold storage inventories of dark meat to reduce significantly since the end of 2022, With February volumes 21% below December, we expect this inventory trend to continue for 2023 as export supply chains continue to improve. Regarding the prevalence of Hi Pat AI in the U. S, this continues to be of great concern to all industry participants.

Speaker 2

However, the number of total birds depopulated since the beginning of 2023 is less than 1,000,000, and the last reported case found in the commercial broiler 12 was mid February. Most of our trading partners are also responding by lifting the HiPad AI trade restrictions in accordance with our agreements, With many gradually reducing their restrictions from state to county level and some to zones, as well as following the World Organization of Animal have guidelines of limiting bans to 28 days post clean and disinfected. With the exception of China, This easing and lifting of restrictions are also aiding the industry record export performance. We have yet to make headway with Our geographical and channel diversification in U. S.

Speaker 2

Continues to benefit our exports, allowing us to access over 80 markets globally, including China. Our U. S. Business continued to adjust to these prolonged challenges in commodity supply and demand fundamentals. While market dynamics improved throughout the quarter, January was Exceptionally difficult, giving elevated grain costs and significantly low market prices, especially for breast, meat, and wings.

Speaker 2

Our Big Bird business was the most impacted by these conditions as revenues and profitability continued to suffer. Nonetheless, the business improved each month throughout the quarter Given enhanced fundamentals and intense focus on operational excellence, although significant progress has been made, substantial work remains to achieve sustainable margin levels. Our diversified portfolio across bird sizes and branded offerings moderated the impact of these challenging conditions. In our small bird segments, we continue to improve our results compared to last quarter and last year, giving our growth with key customers, Continued recovery of inflation costs and operational performance. In case ready, our growth with key customers continue to outpace industry averages.

Speaker 2

We expect additional opportunities to accelerate this growth through increased promotional activity, improvements in mix and partnership with key customers. Our Prepared Foods business realized similar success as sales and profitability improved throughout the increased business with key customers, operational enhancements and lower raw material costs. Our fully cooked brand that business continues to have strong momentum As our Just BARE and Pilgrim's offerings increased 68% year over year. Despite extended challenges in market fundamentals, Elevated input costs and stubborn inflation, we remain committed to profitable growth in our U. S.

Speaker 2

Business. Our expansion in Athens, Georgia to Key customer growth remains on track. Also, our investments to support operational excellence through automation And our new protein conversion plants in the South Georgia are progressing as planned. Throughout our U. K.

Speaker 2

And Europe business, Inflation continues to be at the highest level seen over the past 40 years. Despite these challenges, the chicken pork categories remain resilient as consumers continue to shift into those categories from other proteins. These categories benefit are further amplified by our growth with key customers as we have outpaced Channel averages in both retail and foodservice. From a supply chain standpoint, the team continues to mitigate costs Through operational efficiencies and cost recovery. Overall demand across our total portfolio has remained relatively stable across both branded and private label offerings, even as cost increases have been passed through the shelf to our menu.

Speaker 2

The team continues to drive growth through innovation with both customer and branded offerings. Moy Park recently became the supplier of choice for a key customer Involving a dedicated brand with distinct animal welfare standards throughout our entire supply chain. Our Premier's Food Masters team have continued to drive and And usage through flavor and pack formats, innovations in the Fridge Raiders line. In addition, the Richemont brand continues to increase share For its recent introduction of meat free lineup. The team has made significant progress in operational excellence throughout our network optimization, Given the substantial headway in the consolidation of our production facilities, to date, we have realized margin improvements for enhanced line efficiencies, Increased overhead utilization and better raw material sourcing.

Speaker 2

In addition, the integration of our back office support activities has taken a step forward as our new shared services support center is now functional. We will continue to explore alternatives to further enhance our Efficiency and realize the full potential of the business. Progress may also be amplified by continued stabilization of input costs, Increasingly steady staffing levels and enhanced market fundamentals. Pork and chicken supply demand is becoming increasingly balanced, Where utilities and wheat prices have recently moderated from all time highs. Our Mexico business also rebounded solidly throughout the quarter As protein availability stabilize and our difficulties in live operation diminish.

Speaker 2

These factors were further augmented by increasingly favorable Foreign exchange rates and inflation moderation. The team's branded fresh portfolio continues to perform as it grew in double digits Again, compared to the same period last year. Given our progress and desire to further diversify our portfolio into branded offerings, we launched 2 new brands, Unique taste and favoritos, and we will introduce the Just BARE into the Mexican market. The performance of our branded Prepared portfolio also has respectable performance given its sustained growth. We are driving promotional activity To broaden our presence in value added and across retail and foodservice.

Speaker 2

We are continuing to invest capacity and operational excellence to drive profitable growth. Our footprint expansion in the Yucatan Peninsula remain on track, and we anticipate production to become available in the second half of this year. As part of our journey to become an industry leader in sustainability, we've expanded our efforts beyond our processing facilities, And we work with the entire supply chain to achieve our ambitious sustainability targets. As an example, in Europe, our team recently unveiled A state of the art poultry farm in the U. K.

Speaker 2

This site employs a variety of innovative designs, technologies and equipment They can effectively enable the farm to be completely self sufficient in energy when operating at full capacity. We will continue to evaluate opportunities and bring innovation throughout With that, I would like to ask our CFO, Marc De Alguanoni, to discuss our financial results.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Fabio. Good morning, everybody. For the Q1 of 2023, net revenues were $4,170,000,000 versus $4,240,000,000 a year ago, with adjusted EBITDA of $151,900,000 and a margin of 3.6% Compared to $501,800,000 and an 11% 11.8% margin in Q1 last year. Adjusted EBITDA margins in Q1 were 1.8% in the U. S.

Speaker 3

Compared to 15.9% a year ago. For our U. K. And Europe businesses, adjusted EBITDA margins came in at 5.3% for Q1 compared to 1.2% last year. In Mexico, adjusted EBITDA in Q1 was 8.5% versus 16.1% a year ago.

Speaker 3

Moving to the U. S. Results, Adjusted EBITDA for Q1 came in at $43,600,000 compared to $411,700,000 a year Our U. S. Big Bird business was impacted by continued volatility in the commodity chicken markets.

Speaker 3

We entered the Q1 on a downward slope of the commodity market pricing. As we hit the end of January, we began to experience steady improvement in cutout pricing until we saw flattening of the curve towards the end of the quarter. Our diversified U. S. Product portfolio across bird sizes and brands, along with our key customer partnerships helped us capture the upside of the strong commodity market prices in Q1 2022, while helping us mitigate the impact of volatility in market prices in our Big Bird business during this quarter.

Speaker 3

In the UK and Europe, adjusted EBITDA in Q1 was $66,200,000 versus $14,800,000 in 2022. The UK and Europe business continues to face inflationary cost pressures. However, through its previously discussed mitigation efforts in 2022, The business has shown resiliency in its profitability growth journey.

Speaker 2

The business has benefited from

Speaker 3

the back office integration and its network optimization programs. We incurred approximately $8,000,000 of restructuring charges during this quarter in support of the UK network optimization program. Mexico generated $42,100,000 in adjusted EBITDA in Q1 compared to $75,300,000 last year and negative $15,800,000 in Q4 2022. Sequentially, the Mexican business profitability improved primarily due to more balanced supply demand fundamentals and the diminishing of recent bird disease challenges in its live operations. Our SG and A in the quarter was lower year over year.

Speaker 3

Key drivers included a decrease in legal defense funding, Certain lower people related costs, lower costs in the U. K. From impacts of the back office integration and a minor amount of net year over year foreign exchange favorability. Also during the quarter, we benefited from the conclusion of negotiations related to both property insurance and business interruption insurance claims in the U. S.

Speaker 3

And the UK. We spent $132,000,000 in CapEx in the Q1. The Q1 spending is higher on a run rate basis, Primarily due to our investments in the Athens, Georgia expansion and our new protein conversion plant being constructed in South Georgia. We reiterate our commitment to invest in strong ROCE projects that will improve our operational efficiencies through automation and tailor operations to address key customer needs to further solidify competitive advantages for Pilgrim's. Although Q1 was challenging due In the U.

Speaker 3

S. Chicken commodity market, our overall balance sheet and liquidity position remains strong with approximately $1,150,000,000 in total cash and revolver availability at the end of the quarter. And with the most recent completion of our $1,000,000,000 10 year notes offering, We further bolstered our liquidity position. We are very happy with the results of this offering, especially given the conditions in the capital markets. Given the high demand by our investors, we're able to increase the size of our offering while maintaining an attractive interest rate.

Speaker 3

In addition to adding cash to our balance sheet, We repaid our term loan with the proceeds from the offering. The offering provides us flexibility during this more volatile time in the U. S. Commodity markets It allows us to explore further simplification in our capital structure, such as the elimination of subordinations with a potential unsecured structure, As well as to be opportunistic with potential liability management exercises with our existing debt, including possibly paying down our 2027 notes. As of the end of Q1, our net debt totaled $3,000,000,000 with a leverage ratio of 2.3 times our last 12 months adjusted EBITDA, which is within our target ratio of 2 to 3 times.

Speaker 3

Net interest expense for the quarter totaled $39,000,000 We anticipate our full year net interest expense to be between $160,000,000 $170,000,000 Our effective tax rate for the quarter was impacted by our nominal pre tax GAAP Loss for the quarter and the multi tax jurisdictional nature of our business. As I noted in our February call, we still anticipate our full year effective tax Between 23% 25%. Our capital allocation approach will remain disciplined as we look to grow the company. We'll continue to outline our investment priorities with our overall strategic strategies of portfolio diversification, focus on key customers, Operational excellence and commitment to team member health and safety. Operator, this concludes our prepared remarks.

Speaker 3

Please open the call for questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. In the interest of allowing equal access, we request that you limit your questions to 2, then rejoin the queue for any follow-up. Before pressing the keys to minimize background noise. Sir. The first question comes from Ben Theurer of Barclays.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Yes. Good morning, Fabio and Mats. Thank you very much for taking my question. Congrats on the results.

Speaker 2

Good morning, Devin.

Speaker 4

So my two questions. Let's start off with the U. S. And obviously there was a nice sequential improvement And you kind of called out that January was still soft, but things got better. The question is, if we look into 2nd and then maybe a little bit of a sneak preview into the Q3.

Speaker 4

How confident are you of the ability to Drive higher profits, maybe getting that profit margin into mid single digit range. Do you think there's some Potential just given maybe some of the grain cost on a year over year basis coming down, prices seem to have Started to go into the right direction. So how should we think about the onset of summer and the grilling season and PPC's positioning as to That would be my first question.

Speaker 2

Of course. Thank you, Ben, for the question. Yeah. Looking into The future, right. We need to also think about the segments that we operate.

Speaker 2

I think we've always talked about The portfolio that we have and when analyzing Q4 and Q1, we see that the supply and demand has been imbalanced For the small birds and for the case ready category. I think the segment that is suffering from an imbalance in supply and demand is the commodity segment or the big birds. Looking into the data on the Q1 increase in production, we can see that Almost all of the growth occur in that same segment, in the big bird category. So what we are seeing is that A stable demand in food service and in retail, which once again has been very Positive for the small bird and kids ready categories of our portfolio, but the commodity category is completely out of balance. We're seeing an increase in production, and we don't see a strong demand for the commodity segment, especially on the On a boneless breath and on the wings.

Speaker 2

As we are seeing the excess coming down in our industry, and we believe it is in that category Because of the severe losses that the category is suffering, we will see the overall portfolio to go up. I think the main drivers for that is going to also be the grilling season, right? As we know, Demand during the growing season increases both in the foodservice and on the retail front. And when the demand on the retail front increases, we can augment our offerings on the case ready size, buying meat from the big bird category. So we expect that more promotional activity on the retail, The increased demand in food service and on the retail during the grazing season coupled with a moderation in the Increase of production or even a reduction as USDA is expecting to put more supply and demand balance for the commodity category, which will Take our portfolio higher.

Speaker 4

Okay, perfect. Very good, very clear. Thanks for that, Fabi. Then my second question is On the EuropeanUK business, it was interesting to see, because I think that $8,000,000 restructuring was still part of that UK business, what you've talked about in the last conference call. So just wanted to understand, where do you are right now on the restructuring?

Speaker 4

If there's still more to come and maybe the magnitude of it. And what do you think as the business normalizes, as you get Your production to the levels where you want to be, what's like kind of a level of operating income on a quarterly basis Triannual basis, you think is reasonable for that business, just given that you acquired the Carey business, but we never saw the business like in full Swing performing properly with the legacy Moy Park plus the carry. So what's like that go forward run rate? Because I remember prior to Moy Park was a very steady, stable, easy to forecast. So how does that combined with Cary look like?

Speaker 2

Yes, great point. I think there's a lot of moving parts in Europe, right? I think we do we were, over the last year, restructuring activities. We have some plants That have spare capacity, so we moved some of the capacity to more efficient plants, and that's what we saw on the restructuring. And that's The improvement in the results that we are seeing, because we're still facing some very high inflation on that, which We need to translate into prices, and we're always behind when capturing those Inflationary impacts into the pricings, right?

Speaker 2

I think we also saw an increase in wheat over the last year. But now I think the benefits Also, we are expecting are going to happen with the moderation of inflation, reduction of utilities, reduction of fleet. In terms of the network, we're always looking into opportunities of what we can do, especially because we are combining 3 businesses. As we mentioned, there are some benefits from the back office integration as well. But we believe that the Majority of the restructuring that we need to do was already done.

Speaker 2

So in terms of what we expect from this business, I think we have The clear vision of being the best operator in Europe as we have the same vision here in U. S. And Mexico. And Margins in the range of 6% to 8% are what we believe to be achieved in that segment.

Speaker 4

That's operating, correct?

Speaker 2

Operating, yes. Okay.

Speaker 4

Perfect. Thank you very much.

Operator

The next question is from Ben Bienvenu of Stephens. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions.

Speaker 2

Good morning, Ben. I want to ask,

Speaker 5

Fabio, thanks for giving that kind of framework as I want to ask about cold storage. Inventory levels are still elevated. In light of that supply demand framework that you gave us, how do you think about cold storage levels whittling down? And how many months do you think we have before we start to see those inventories become more reasonable on a path to what sounds like a stronger back half of this year?

Speaker 2

Yes, thanks. Looking into the post storage, I think the overall levels, we saw an increase in the 2022. But I think over the The beginning of 2023, you're seeing some significant decreases, right? The most impactful part on the cold storage Has always been on the legs, right, on leg quarters because that's a big impact for the export. We've been seeing Significant demand on the export front, and we are seeing the leg quarter inventory at record lows.

Speaker 2

The areas that we saw Some increases are in the breast meat and on the weights and a category called other. I think what we believe is in this other category It's a lot of further processing. So further processing means or further process bone, So when analyzing the size of that, it's almost a week of production. So it's not a significant amount. What we believe it is in this inventory is some further processors that took the advantage of very low commodity pricing to build some inventories.

Speaker 2

So the magnitude of that inventory compared to the overall consumption in the domestic market It's not something that we believe will be burdensome for the markets to absorb. It's more an opportunistic, in our view, Strategy of some further processing to put some wings and some boneless breast at very nice prices into inventory.

Speaker 5

Okay, that's great. Thank you. My second question is on Mexico. A nice sequential improvement. You discussed kind of the snapback and fundamentals there To a more balanced level, what's your outlook at the moment on the visibility you have for that business as we move into the Q2?

Speaker 2

Yes. Thank you. Mexico has been very volatile lately, and I think it's something that we always mention that they can be very volatile quarter over quarter. But year over year, they tend to be more stable. I think we are seeing a more balanced supply and demand in Mexico.

Speaker 2

I think we are still seeing a lot of Import from pork from U. S, from breast meat from Brazil, reaching the Mexican market. But yet, I think the industry in Mexico adapted their supply and demand to What they expect on the economy, the economy is doing better in Mexico lately. And as we always mentioned, chicken is the most resilient to the inflationary events. I think in Mexico, there was a little bit of trade down out Of proteins actually during the Q4 because of the economic environment, but we are seeing that economic environment improving And most of that operation is trading back into the protein and here's the entry protein in Mexico.

Speaker 5

Okay, great. Thank you so much.

Operator

The next question is from Peter Galvo of Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question.

Speaker 2

Good morning, Peter.

Speaker 6

Fabio, I was wondering Maybe if we could just get an update with regards to Athens, maybe a couple of details there. 1, I think if I have it correctly, you kind of announced the expansion program around this time last year. Just when you would expect that kind of to be completed And that we would start to see that showing up in the numbers. And then the second part of that is just upon completion, if you can give us a rough estimate, We've always thought about your business as a third, a third, a third, but between kind of the three segments. Just upon completion of that, where small bird We'll kind of land as a percentage of your overall U.

Speaker 6

S. Mix.

Speaker 2

Yes. Thank you, Peter. Yes. So that the Athens project is really important for us because It is to support the key customer growth, right, that we always mention about our strategy of growing together with our key customers. We are expecting to increase around 20% On our small boat category with that plant, we did 20% in Athens with that Expansion.

Speaker 2

So it's one extra line that we add there. It's not going to change considerably our portfolio. So It will be a little some points into the small bird category for us. I think the most important part is to continue to evolve our portfolio to something That is more profitable, more stable and allow us to grow in connection with our key customers. That's right.

Speaker 2

We expect I think we announced during July last year, and we expect that plant to start running in Q4 this year.

Speaker 3

Yes, most of the benefits will start seeing more beginning of next year because as we ramp up in Q4, it'll just take a little bit of time, but by Q1, we'll be seeing So you should be seeing the

Speaker 2

full benefits of that expansion.

Speaker 6

Got it. No, that's helpful guys. Thank you. And maybe just to go back to Ben Thir's question. U.

Speaker 6

S. In 2Q, I just want to make sure that we're kind of all on the same page here. You're expecting U. S. Operating profit to be positive, I would imagine, in the Q2?

Speaker 6

And then if I can just get you to comment, Consensus for the Q2 right now is around $250,000,000 of EBITDA. Just any comment you could make there on how you think see things shaping up relative to consensus in the quarter. Thanks very much.

Speaker 2

Sure. I think we're seeing all the positive drivers in the market, Right. We're seeing the industry reducing production. We are seeing some more demand in terms of retail with more feature activity And on the food service as we go to the grilling season. So the drivers are there, and we expect that to be in line with those expectations.

Speaker 6

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

The next question is

Speaker 7

Hi. So maybe coming back on the just the seasonal kind of improvement that we're seeing in boneless breast. And I guess I would just maybe push back or kind of test a little bit. I mean, we're sitting here at the end of April, prices have Kind of stalled out for a couple of weeks and pricing around $1.40 a pound. Obviously, that's considerably better than the lows you saw in December And January as it should be at this time of year.

Speaker 7

And so just relative to where things were Last year at this time relative to industry production, which I know I mean more of the production increases in Big Bird, but the industry production On a year on year basis, it's still is now slowed down relative to where it was several months ago. So just help me think about Kind of still seems like a pretty sluggish kind of demand in Myron for boneless breast and that reflecting Just weaker food service, kind of further processing demand, just lack of pull through of incremental boneless breast into retail for tray pack this point, I'm just trying to make sense of seasonally the magnitude of the increase that we're seeing has not been that significant. And I'm trying to just Reconcile that with your point that demand generally seems pretty good.

Speaker 2

Well, yes, I think you hit the correct drivers, right? So Looking into the supply, we're expecting the increases to moderate and on the 2nd semester to actually Last year increases and be down year over year. So in terms of supply, we're expecting a reduction compared to last year on the 2nd semester. And we can't forget that at this same time last year, with the same production and Sufficient demand for sure. We see some record pricing in boneless breast and also on wings.

Speaker 2

So we are expecting similar conditions to last year in terms of supply and demand. Of course, we are coming from a very A much lower price point as last year. But again, the fundamentals of supply and demand continue. I think you hit the right point. It's more future activity from the retailers.

Speaker 2

As we are seeing, Retail pricing is record high and much higher than the same time last year, which is Refraining the consumer to increase its spending, they're expanding more in dollars, but not a lot more in pounds. So We expect that to change with more promotional activity, especially as we are seeing the pricing of the other proteins to go higher as we are seeing lower production for both beef and pork on the 2nd semester. So we expect more promotional activity on the retail. You mentioned the foodservice as well. We're Seeing a lot of promotional activity being expected for the QSRs, especially On the 2nd semester of this year, again, driven by the lower availability of other proteins, especially beef and higher price.

Speaker 2

So we expect more demand there as well. And on the, we call industrial segments, it's the further processors, We saw some slowdown, especially because of the same factors on the retail, higher pricing, not creating a lot of demand. We saw some This industrial category to also be flat year over year, and we expect that to resume during the 2nd semester. So When looking into the excess and Chick's Place, we are seeing some moderation, actually, some negative numbers compared to the same period last year. We're seeing some strong signals of improving demand.

Speaker 2

That's why we believe that there is some good perspectives For the boneless breast. On the wing side, I think the lingering and the lower price has Being a lot longer than we expected, usually, wings rebound much faster than what's happening this year. But I believe that We're seeing more and more wings going back to the menu. I think what impacted the wing pricing was during last year's shortages And higher price. We saw a lot of food service to take wings out of the menu, and we're seeing those Wings coming back into the menu and we're seeing more promotional activity from the Wing concept, foodservice as well.

Speaker 7

Okay. And then I just may come back, I think in Rustom's earlier question, you talked, I think I thought I heard you say a 6% to 8% kind of Operating margin in Europe was kind of where you thought the business could get to. And if I missed it, I apologize. Did you say A time by which you thought you could get there? And maybe as a related point, how would you frame, I mean, given a lot of the changes in portfolio and mix That you kind of accomplished over time and understanding it's volatile, how would you frame that kind of margin potential

Speaker 5

Of the U. S. Business over time?

Speaker 2

Yes. I think Europe is a more stable business when we look into the history. So that's why it's easier to talk about some expected margins. Right? So we look at the reinvestment level.

Speaker 2

We look at our portfolio. Right? We have Beef, pork and prepared foods, we are well balanced there. So there is a lot of portfolio that we can Talk about it, differentiate ourselves to the competitors in Europe and do a better job of being a partner To the key customers. So that's why it's easier to talk about the results in Europe.

Speaker 2

Of course, we expect that to be more towards Q4 and next year As we see those inflationary impacts moderating to a more normal level. As we mentioned, we have a lot of And if we look at our portfolio of contracts, it's also important. We have a lot more contracts in Europe that are cost plus. I think we mentioned before that a lot of those that we believe were costless was more feed and grain plus Because there was not a lot of inflation in the other areas, that's packaging, utilities and labor, and we already moved all those contracts To a more holistic view of whole costs to be cost plus. That's why it's easier to talk about expected margins in Europe than in U.

Speaker 2

S. In the US, we have our portfolio. And as we saw, the volatility in the commodity segment has been Stream, right. All the other segments in the U. S.

Speaker 2

On the prepared foods, small bird, case ready, fresh food services has been very stable. But the volatility in the commodity segment has been extreme over the last 2 years, right? And we saw Record high prices, last summer, and we are seeing some very significant low prices during Q4 and Q1. That's why it's more difficult to talk about the expected profitability in the U. S.

Operator

All right.

Speaker 7

Worth a shot. I appreciate the color. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Adam.

Operator

The next question is from Andrew Strelzik of BMO. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. Good morning, Andrew. I wanted to try Good morning. I wanted to go back to the U.

Speaker 8

S. Chicken margins and try to put together all of what you just said. So it sounds like demand is good, supply It's going to be lower and feed costs, at least on the forward curve, are coming down. So and I understand what you're saying about the grilling season. But when we get post The grilling season, if I take those three things together, are you anticipating that kind of your all in portfolio U.

Speaker 8

S. Chicken margin would be back to normal levels? And if not, I guess, what would it take to get that back there from based on your expectations?

Speaker 2

Yes. We expect that to be Back to what we used to see in the past on normal levels. As I mentioned, looking into our portfolio, and we are Well balanced, but the commodity segment has been extremely volatile. And that's the segment that we expect to stabilize over the next The small bird and the case ready business has been stable year over year, and actually, we're seeing some nice improvements in our prepared foods offering. For that to happen, once again, we expect the more or normalization on the demand side, Especially in that segment of larger birds and more feature activity On the retail side and a lot of more promotions of chicken and chicken sandwiches in the food service.

Speaker 8

Okay, great. That's helpful. And then my other question is just on how you're thinking about the feed cost side With backwardation, particularly on the corn side, are you thinking of maybe getting more aggressive locking those in? Do you feel like you're in a good position to I see you to let that ride. Any kind of change in your approach as we get to potentially more favorable feed cost environment?

Speaker 8

Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes. We're always looking into the market and the drivers To establish a position more or less aggressive, right? What we are seeing, the indication today is a good acreage. I think the high prices that we saw, especially on corn, worked and we saw some record acreage Our planting intentions here in U. S, I think it's all going to be depending on the weather, as usual.

Speaker 2

The crop is actually Evolving really well right now. The planting is going ahead of the 5 year average, so we're seeing some good conditions on the crop. I think there's also a change in the weather patterns from the La Nina to El Nino, which typically brings good weather for the planting here in the U. S. We're starting from a very tight carryout, but we expect with normal yields and with the acreage that we are seeing in USDA Planting intentions, a much better stocks to use ratio and a much better carryout for The next crop, of course, that will impact more the end of Q4, beginning of Q1 as there is a lag between We're feeding the birds and the birds being processed.

Speaker 2

So we expect that benefit to be late Q4 and beginning of Q1. But There is some very positive perspectives in terms of the grain cost for our operations.

Speaker 8

Great. Very helpful. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Fabio Sandri for closing comments.

Speaker 2

Thank you again. Although we face exceptionally difficult market conditions, our strategies of diversification, key customer focus and operational excellence Our design to mitigate these challenging transitory issues and cultivate long term profitable growth opportunities. Throughout Q1, these strategies were once again affected As we drove improvements across all regions, despite depressed market pricing, elevated input costs and continued inflation. Moving forward, We'll continue to drive these strategies along with an unwavering commitment to our values and our team member well-being. Given continued focus and relentless execution, we can further cultivate competitive advantages for our business, enabling a better future for all of our team members.

Speaker 2

Thank you for joining us today.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
Loews Q1 2023
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