NASDAQ:DNUT Krispy Kreme Q1 2024 Earnings Report $4.29 +0.14 (+3.37%) As of 02:28 PM Eastern Earnings HistoryForecast Krispy Kreme EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.03Consensus EPS $0.03Beat/MissMet ExpectationsOne Year Ago EPSN/AKrispy Kreme Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$442.70 millionExpected Revenue$433.87 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$8.83 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/AKrispy Kreme Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2024Date5/9/2024TimeN/AConference Call DateThursday, May 9, 2024Conference Call Time8:30AM ETUpcoming EarningsKrispy Kreme's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Thursday, May 8, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 8:30 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Q1 2025 Earnings ReportConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Krispy Kreme Q1 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrMay 9, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 10 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Thanks for standing by. My name is Zadra, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Krispy Kreme First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. I would now like to turn the call over to Alexander Eldridge, Krispy Kreme Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:17Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Krispy Kreme's Q1 2024 Earnings Call. Thank you for joining us today. We will be referencing our earnings release and presentation during the call. Speaker 100:00:28These are available on our Relations website at investors. Crispykreme.com. Joining me on the call this morning are President and Chief Executive Officer, Josh Charlesworth and Chief Financial Officer, Jeremiah Ashukian. After prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this call contains forward looking statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities and Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements of expectations, future events or future financial performance. Speaker 100:01:02Forward looking statements involve a number of inherent risks and uncertainties, and we caution investors that these risks could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward looking statements. These factors and other risks and uncertainties are described in detail in the company's Form 10 ks filed with the SEC for the year ended December 31, 2023, and in the other filings we make from time to time with the SEC. Forward looking statements made today are only as of today. The company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward looking statements, except as may be required by law. Additionally, today's call will include certain non GAAP financial measures. Speaker 100:01:43A reconciliation between non GAAP financial measures and our closest comparable GAAP measures can be found in our Q1 2024 earnings press release and Form 8 ks filed today with the SEC and is also available at our investors. Investors. Krispykreme.com website. Jeremiah will take us through our financial performance in a moment, but first here's Josh. Speaker 200:02:04Thanks, Jay. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We had a strong Q1. Our strategy of making fresh Krispy Kreme Donuts more available around the world is working. Speaker 200:02:18Excitement for our fresh Krispy Kreme Donuts has never been higher. This photo is from our recently opened Hot Light Theater in France, where Parisians lined up, some waiting overnight for their first ever hot original based doughnut fresh off the line. I was able to join our team members in Paris who are doing a great job spreading the joy that is Krispy Kreme not just to eat, but to share and give to others. I wish to thank all our hardworking Krispy Kremers who get it done every day in now 39 countries around the world. Let me summarize today's key messages. Speaker 200:02:551st quarter organic revenue growth exceeded expectations at 6.7% year over year with strong consumer demand and increased sales through digital channels fueling the results. We're increasing the pace of expansion as we make our fresh donuts more available around the world. In Q1, we grew our points of access for Krispy Kreme Fresh Donuts by 19.4% year over year. We recently launched in France and we've announced our expansion into Brazil and Germany. In the U. Speaker 200:03:27S, we expect to add 15,000 points of access by the end of 2026. We're accelerating into more grocers and convenience stores. We're excited about our national rollout with McDonald's, which is expected to add more than 12,000 new points of access alone. And we're reaffirming our guidance for the full year with 6% to 8% organic revenue growth expected to translate into adjusted EBITDA expansion of 8% to 11%. This reflects our intent to drive increasingly profitable growth from our hub and spoke operating model. Speaker 200:04:05Let's double click into each of these topics. In the Q1, engagement with the brand hit all time highs. We had a record 17,600,000,000 media impressions, nearly triple the same quarter last year. We launched planned initiatives like our St. Patrick's Day specialty donut collection and nimbly responded to spontaneous events such as the AT and T cell phone outage when we offered free donuts to those impacted. Speaker 200:04:34Krispy Kreme's fresh and innovative doughnuts continue to resonate with our customers, especially on celebratory occasions. For example, our Valentine's Day specialty donut collection available in 33 countries led to our biggest sales day ever. Sales through digital channels, including for delivery and pickup increased by 26% in the quarter. And we're excited about our recently launched new and improved loyalty program in the U. S, which has been very well received. Speaker 200:05:06So much so at one point our app became the number one download on the App Store last week. Following our recent announcement to provide fresh donuts daily at McDonald's restaurants in the U. S, we have raised our long term global points of access goal from 75,000 to 1 100,000 to include the quick service restaurant opportunity. Our pace of expansion is also accelerating. For the past 3 years, our global points of access grew by an average 19% per year to just over 14,000 by the end of 2023. Speaker 200:05:42Looking ahead, we expect fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts to be available in 33,000 points of access already by the end of 2026. We expect this growth to be driven by a combination of both existing and new customers as well as new market expansion. For example, our nationwide rollout to McDonald's in the U. S. Gives us the opportunity to add distribution at other major customers such as Walmart, which still only lists us in about 25% of their stores and Target with whom we have already agreed to expand our presence. Speaker 200:06:19In new markets, our upcoming expansion into Germany, France and Brazil provide opportunities for thousands more points of access, and we expect to continue opening 3 to 5 new markets per year. Still, we do expect that the U. S. Will be the biggest driver of our profitable expansion. The recently announced agreement with McDonald's is expected to bring Krispy Kreme to more than 12,000 of their U. Speaker 200:06:42S. Restaurants by the end of 2026. We'll provide 3, chocolate ice with sprinkles and chocolate ice cream filled. Chocolate ice with sprinkles and chocolate ice cream filled. They will be available individually and in boxes of 6. Speaker 200:07:03McDonald's is making them available in restaurant, by drive thru and on their mobile app. This follows a successful test of more than 160 McDonald's restaurants in the Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky areas, where consumer excitement and demand exceeded expectations. We are partnering with McDonald's on a phased rollout through to the end of 2026, which we expect to begin before the end of this year. We anticipate nearly tripling our U. S. Speaker 200:07:34Points of access over the next 3 years from 7,775 today to more than 22,000 by the end of 2026. Much of the national rollout can happen using existing capacity, but we will also invest in our business to increase production hubs with spokes. We expect to do this in a couple of ways. We'll add approximately 30 new hubs, which will be optimized for the needs of our Deliver Fresh daily network. We'll also convert about 20 existing hubs that do not currently have spokes to make them able to fully support our DFD expansion. Speaker 200:08:10In all, we expect to have just over 200 hubs with boats by the end of 2026. This point of access expansion will allow increased utilization of our production hubs and increased distribution density on our delivery routes. This means that we expect to get more points of access from the same production hub. Currently, our 154 hubs with spokes each serve on average 47 points of access in the U. S. Speaker 200:08:40We expect this to increase to over 100 by 2026. The impact is best explained with a couple of examples. In Philadelphia, the productivity benefits of a more mature hub and spoke model are expected to bring margin accretive growth. And in Minneapolis, where we don't currently sell donuts, we have the chance to be fully optimized from the start. We have a tremendous opportunity ahead of us and I'm excited to partner with our teams to capitalize on this growth potential. Speaker 200:09:10Now I will turn it over to Jeremiah to talk more about the U. S. Business expansion opportunity and our overall financial performance. Speaker 300:09:19Thanks, Josh, and good morning, everyone. I wanted to start by illustrating the anticipated financial impact of adding up to 15,000 points of access to our U. S. Business. What you see here on this chart is a range of increases on key financial metrics in the U. Speaker 300:09:34S. Business on an annualized basis. From a growth perspective, we expect that the addition of 14,000 to 15,000 points of access would result in roughly $340,000,000 to $430,000,000 in annualized incremental revenue and $70,000,000 to $100,000,000 of additional adjusted EBITDA creating significant operating leverage on the existing business. Now, I'll discuss our Q1 results. We outperformed expectations as organic revenue grew 6.7%, adjusted EBITDA increased 5.9 percent and we maintained positive operating leverage in the quarter, holding adjusted EBITDA margin steady at 13.1%. Speaker 300:10:16Turning to our U. S. Segment results, organic revenue increased 7.4% despite weather disruptions to the business in January. Additionally, we continue to see strong growth in availability as points of access increased 17.5%. We have also improved the quality of points of access by adding another 96 secondary display cabinets to high traffic grocery doors. Speaker 300:10:38This takes us to 303 total grocery cabinets across the U. S. We have seen these add up to 70% incremental sales to a DFD door. The slight decline in average revenue per door was driven by a mix impact of the customer base with smaller grocery customers such as Save Mart being added in the quarter, while underlying door performance remains healthy, helped by the launch of minis. In turn, this drove a 6.5% increase in sales per hub to $4,900,000 up from $4,600,000 in the prior year. Speaker 300:11:10This improvement drove increased utilization across the network, which was a key factor in delivering 70 basis points of adjusted EBITDA margin expansion year over year to 14.4%. The international segment now reflects all of the equity owned international markets as we move the company owned Canadian and Japanese businesses into the international segment from the market development segment. Organic revenue grew 9.8% with all markets in Speaker 200:11:38growth, driven Speaker 300:11:39by record points of access growth of nearly 24% alongside successful marketing activations. From an adjusted EBITDA perspective, we also saw all markets expand margins in the quarter outside of the U. K. Market. Overall adjusted EBITDA increased 8.2 percent, resulting in a margin decline of 50 basis points to 16.5%. Speaker 300:12:01We have a holistic intervention plan in place for the U. K. And have rationalized parts of our manufacturing network to improve utilization. Similar to the U. S. Speaker 300:12:10Segment, average revenue per door was driven by mix of customers as we continue to expand into the convenience channel, including OXXO Mexico and Tesco Express in the U. K, which naturally has a lower revenue per door. Market Development is now solely comprised of our franchise businesses, both domestically in U. S. And internationally. Speaker 300:12:32Within the segment, organic revenue declined 14.1%, which was driven by timing of equipment sales versus the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA in the segment expanded 900 basis points to 54.1%, again largely linked to lower equipment sales, which are lower margin revenues. For the Q1, we delivered $0.07 in adjusted earnings per share. The higher depreciation and amortization in the quarter reflects the investments associated with the expansion of our hub and spoke network. The negative cash flow from operations in the Q1 reflected our strategy to reduce the reuse of vendor financing. Speaker 300:13:10This is now largely complete. We are still aiming to be cash flow positive in 2024. We also continue to have a healthy balance sheet with access to liquidity to fuel our growth agenda. Today, we are reaffirming our full year outlook. We have good momentum heading into the Q2, but are mindful of some consumer softness in the current market, which is impacting discretionary spend. Speaker 300:13:33While investing in our U. S. Expansion, including start up costs for the McDonald's national rollout, we expect to deliver positive operating leverage. Similarly, we anticipate incremental investments to open the new hubs Josh referenced earlier and expect to trend towards the high end of the range on capital expenditures in 2024. We anticipate this to continue in 20252026 before trending towards 6% thereafter. Speaker 300:13:58As it relates to the Q2 of 2024, we expect to deliver net revenue growth of 6% to 8% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 8% to 10%. We will continue to closely monitor and adapt the changes in the market and uncertainty in the consumer environment and remain confident in our ability to drive operating leverage consistently throughout 2024. With that, I will turn it over to Josh for his closing remarks. Speaker 200:14:24Thanks, Jeremiah. In summary, we are expanding availability by adding high quality productive points of access, driving operating leverage through the efficiency of our operating model and maximizing capital return, both by leveraging existing capacity and making selective investments in geographies, which have limited access to Krispy Kreme today. All in, I look forward to us building a bigger and better Krispy Kreme in the years ahead. Operator, let's now open it up to Q and A, please. Operator00:14:59Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. We'll go first to Sarah Senatore at Bank of America. Speaker 400:15:18Hi. This is Sara. Can you hear me? Speaker 300:15:21Yes. We can hear you, Speaker 400:15:22Sara. Okay. Thank you. So I guess I wanted to you mentioned McDonald's. I guess I wanted to dive in there a little bit. Speaker 400:15:31I have a few questions. So one is if you could just clarify what impact, if any, you're including from that partnership either on top line or as I think about G and A, I think you've invested ahead of that partnership rolling out. How to think about that growth going forward or sort of the big upfront cost behind you or how long how many quarters perhaps should we expect to see sort of outsized G and A growth ahead of revenue growth? So just that sort of broader view on the McDonald's partnership implications for your P and L. Speaker 300:16:16Yes. I'll take that, Sarah, and thanks for the question. We are collaborating with McDonald's to build a detailed rollout plan and anticipate the launch to start in the tail end of 2024. So from a revenue impact, we do expect that to be fairly minimal this year. What I would say with respect to cost, we are, as you mentioned, in the investment phase now and are incurring start up costs and SG and A and OpEx. Speaker 300:16:43We're not disclosing exactly how much we're spending on that, but we are pleased that we can reaffirm our guidance assuming those costs are in our business beginning in Q1. Speaker 400:16:53Understood. Okay. Thank you. And then, just the follow-up question on that is I know some of the concerns or some of the questions around McDonald's have do with sort of overlap with your existing distribution points of access. And can you maybe assuage some of those and talk about what if anything you saw during your test with respect to cannibalization? Speaker 400:17:16I know in the past, I think you said that doesn't seem to be really an issue because you're sort of under penetrated. But anything that you saw regarding your existing POAs in Kentucky and what happened when you launched McDonald's? Speaker 300:17:34Yes. I mean, we've done a bit of work around the incrementality of this, and we believe we expect to see strong incrementality of around 85%. That's what you see in kind of the charts we presented this morning reflects that, which will be a mix of higher incrementality in brand new markets, but obviously a little bit lower incrementality in existing markets. Speaker 400:17:55Thank you. Operator00:17:59We'll go next to John Ivankoe at JPMorgan. Speaker 500:18:03Hi, thank you. Few questions if Speaker 600:18:05I may. First, as you begin to kind of have plans for overall relatively national penetration, are you beginning to have conversation with taking various major grocery and other types of national accounts on a national basis? In other words, as you begin to have the capacity to go into McDonald's, do you expect it to have a number of different simultaneous agreements with other national type both larger and smaller format retailers? Speaker 200:18:39Good morning, John. Yes, by distributing to almost every McDonald's in the country, this does indeed give us the opportunity to profitably add distribution with other major customers, both existing customers that we are underpenetrated in and indeed new ones. And I think the conversations that we've had with them since the announcement have largely been positive because they can see that we're able to build out our operating model on a national scale and therefore serve them nationally. I mean, it's going to be really exciting to bring Krispy Kreme to Minneapolis, for example, the home of Target or to bring Krispy Kreme to Walmart in Arkansas. So these are things we haven't done up to now and we're really excited to do that. Speaker 200:19:36And so, yes, the data that we shared today and our goal of getting to 15,000 points of access in the U. S. By 2026, obviously includes expansion beyond McDonald's as a result. Speaker 600:19:53And it does remind me that I actually have 2 more questions. As you guys kind of think about the overall size of the donut market or sweet treat market, I mean, you obviously have a lot of interesting insights both at your current employer and also previous employers. But how big of a prize do you think the U. S. Krispy Kreme market really is? Speaker 600:20:17I mean, you can obviously if you look at it as a percentage of donut sales, you could argue that Krispy Kreme share gets to be very, very high kind of in the out years, but is the price something materially bigger than donut sales? How are you defining the overall TAM at this point? Speaker 200:20:34Well, I think today, we brought really good insight on the incremental revenue we expect out sight on the incremental revenue we expect out to 2026. Jeremiah shared $340,000,000 to 4 $30,000,000 revenue reflecting 15,000 points of access goal. We actually following the announcement of McDonald's that gave us insight on the QSR opportunity overall. We've continued to appreciate the opportunity to access these national accounts you referenced at the beginning of this discussion. So we've said we believe we can get about 30,000 points of access in the long run. Speaker 200:21:15Regarding the share of market and what have you, we're still actually a relatively small player with sharing the low teens in grocery stores today. And so there's plenty of upside for us because we are the best donut in the market. It's an awesome experience. We're constantly innovating, constantly bringing excitement to the brand and we're fresh, fresh daily. It's a really unique positioning. Speaker 200:21:42So, yes, absolutely, we want to take share from those who aren't able to bring such an exciting brand and product to the consumer. Speaker 600:21:54Understood. And I apologize if I missed that. It was a little slightly delayed getting Did you address kind of the current test and experience with Ryder handling your last mile distribution? I think it's in D. C. Speaker 600:22:08And L. A, kind of positives and negatives. And I guess at this point, what would keep you to perhaps making that an overall system wide decision? Speaker 200:22:21No, it's a good question. Actually, I was just up with the Krispy Kremeers and the Ryder team in DC myself riding the routes. And what I could see was that the service level and the quality of the doughnuts is being maintained, which is the primary focus of the test right now, make sure that those Krispy Kreme donuts show up in the way we would expect. And the partnership with Ryder has been great so far. Really, we now therefore need to move into more analyst analysis and understanding of what this could look like in terms of our economics and how it could support the rollout. Speaker 200:23:02We are looking to add another city to the test. And indeed, we're also talking to other providers. It's really important that the doughnuts and the delivery show up as it was Krispy Kreme, they're dedicated trucks, the drivers wearing Krispy Kreme uniforms and presenting themselves in a really positive way and it looks really promising. But we'll provide updates as we know more about the opportunity to extend that as we support the rollout nationally towards this 15,000 goal by 2026. Speaker 600:23:38Sounds good. Thank Operator00:23:42you. We'll move next to Aslan Grauninger at Piper Sandler. Speaker 700:23:49Hi. Good morning, guys. You've mentioned in the past you're focused around automating the doughnut production. Just wondering if you have any updates around this. I know in the international segment, some of your production facilities use automation. Speaker 700:24:02Just wondering about the opportunity this presents for the U. S. Market and just how this could help with the rollout of McDonald's? Speaker 200:24:09That's a great question. Good morning. We continue to work on the opportunity to modernize the making and indeed the moving of doughnuts to the earlier question. There are transformational improvements we can make and are making with automation. It's still proportionately a relatively small percentage of the business that we're applying this to largely are non consumer facing donut factories. Speaker 200:24:36We have a line, fully automated line running in our Bronx facility, for example, in New York, where we're topping and filling and even picking the donuts off the line automatically. But at this stage, that's still work that's ongoing. We're actually also finding ways to modernize production lines by improving yield, reducing waste by digitizing the lines and monitoring those variables in that way as well. So it is an opportunity. We definitely think that this is an area that can help us scale and help us be more efficient. Speaker 200:25:13But with the acceleration of points of access growth, we also need to support capacity expansion, particularly across the U. S. So we're being thoughtful how we bring in new technology as we also expand. Speaker 700:25:31Great. Thank you for the color. I'll pass it back. Speaker 200:25:34You bet. Thank you. Operator00:25:37Our next question comes from Bill Chappell at Truist Securities. Speaker 800:25:41Thanks. Good morning. Speaker 300:25:44Good morning, Bill. Speaker 800:25:45In your comments, you kind of talked about some recent softness around the category and kind of consumers pulling back. Just maybe a little more color on that. I mean, it's not unique, but I think we've seen kind of slowing volumes throughout all of packaged food over the past few months. And just anything more you can talk about that and if you think there are any other things that were impacting that? Speaker 200:26:09Actually, Bill, although we're mindful of the consumer environment, we actually see the brand being really healthy with people looking to Krispy Kreme as an affordable sweet treat for those special celebratory occasions. We mentioned earlier Valentine's and being the biggest sales day in history of the company. I mean earlier this month even in April, we saw tremendous engagement with our total solar eclipse donor. And so, although we're mindful of the consumer environment, particularly on the international side, the brand is really healthy, plenty of consumer engagement. I think it's because of the unique role that Krispy Kreme plays as an occasional sweet treat for special occasions and celebrations. Speaker 800:26:59So, I'm sorry, you're not seeing any softness. I may have missed that comment, sorry. Speaker 300:27:05No, I think the softness we would have talked about would have been in January just due to weather in the United States, but not necessarily broader kind of consumer. Speaker 800:27:13Okay. And then just to the McDonald's, I guess, two questions that I hear most often. 1, trying to understand kind of the level of commitment on McDonald's of and the franchisees down the road. I mean, you say you're going to, I think, 12,000 out of 13,000 doors. I mean, is there and you're obviously spending a lot of money behind it. Speaker 800:27:36Is there any way McDonald's can say a year, year and a half into this, this isn't working or this doesn't work for certain franchises or and that changes that or is it full ahead everybody's fully committed to going to that 12,000 by through 2026? McDonald's Speaker 200:27:55has been a great partner so far and we've really enjoyed the collaboration. The agreement last 1 year after the last rollout in 2026 and of course can be renewed after that. So we've already announced our share from partnership with McDonald's And it is about rolling out through to the end of 2026. And the intent is more than 12,000 restaurants and that is the phased rollout plan that we're working on with McDonald's. We don't expect it to start till the tail end of the year, but it's really thoughtful. Speaker 200:28:36We'll obviously naturally prioritize places where we at Krispy Kreme can provide availability faster. But the partnership is going really great so far after what was obviously a great Kentucky test and very thorough test that demonstrated that consumer demand outstripped both theirs and our expectations. Speaker 800:28:58Got it. And then I'll squeeze one more in on the and this is kind of a follow-up from an earlier one on the incrementality. Just trying to understand, I understand how it maybe interacts with your stores, but how it does when there is a Dunkin' store next buy or convenience store that sells donuts or stuff like that. Just trying to understand how it expands the overall donut market in the same way and kind of what your test showed from that standpoint? Speaker 200:29:24Well, we know that we create buzz and demand when we come to a new market. We've seen that again and again. When it comes to existing markets, obviously had a prolonged period of time with the Kentucky test to see the impact of that incrementality. But also bear in mind, we have many parts of the country where we already have good availability, taken Atlanta, take areas of the Carolinas, places where they may even be in a town, more of the others donut shops you referenced, but they're not really donut shops. They're generally beverage focused, sandwich focused. Speaker 200:30:00We are the ones who offer a unique, awesome, fresh donut experience, minis for mom this week, constantly bringing excitement and headlines to the category. So that doesn't surprise us. But yes, we've done the analysis and the numbers that the incrementality that Jeremiah shared today was based off a very thoughtful analysis. Speaker 800:30:26Great. Thanks for the color. Operator00:30:30We'll take our next question from Andrew Wolf at C. L. King. Speaker 900:30:36Thank you. I just had a couple of follow ups. First on McDonald's, do you expect the rollout just in terms of stores where it's rolled into Speaker 300:30:47over time to be kind of linear? Or do you Speaker 900:30:50is there an exponential build or even a front end loaded build, I would think more exponential, but just sort of the timing between now and 20 20 Speaker 200:31:01I'd describe it as balanced. It's balanced around where we have availability today, balanced around where we can bring on new capacity quickly. And then, of course, there are parts of the country where our development pipeline means it's going to take a little while to launch. And Donald's conversation has been fantastic as we share with them our development plans and they've taken through with us how they want to run it. And so it'll be balanced and thoughtful over the period from the tail end of this year up to the end of 2026. Speaker 900:31:40Thank you. And to the McDonald's franchisee relationship, I mean, what is your role? Is it more training or is it kind of getting them excited about it? And I'm sure McDonald's is kind of you're collaborating with them and how you're going to interact with the franchisees. But what is going to be Krispy Kreme's interaction with the franchisees to help them to help make this successful? Speaker 200:32:08Our focus is awesome donuts every time, every day delivered at the right time as agreed with the customer, perfect service level. So really we're really focused on strengthening operations right now, talked a lot about modernizing and improving how we make and move donuts. And I think all our customers expect that, whether it's a McDonald's franchisee, Walmart, Kroger, or indeed our international partners, which that's our primary focus. That's where our Krispy Kreme's excel. I mean, obviously, it's up to McDonald's themselves to manage their own relationships. Speaker 200:32:51We trust them. We've got a great relationship with them, and we'll take their guide and provide any insights to them. But do remember, it's a very simple operating operations activity, which is we bring fresh doughnuts already made. They just need to be taken from the tray, put in a bag or even a 6 count box handed over to the customer. So it should be a relatively easy activity for the McDonald's crew and the franchisees. Speaker 200:33:25So the real focus is just great donuts. Speaker 900:33:28Fair enough. And if I could just ask one follow-up, I was distracted away from the call for a minute, so you might have talked about this, but could you elaborate on the big increase in the digital sales and penetration in the U. S. And the sustainability of that? Speaker 200:33:47Well, the customers are looking, as we've said before, for us to provide a more convenient way to access Krispy Kreme. Number one reason why somebody still gives us that they may not purchase Krispy Kreme is it's just not convenient to them. And so it's been great both through our own app and partnering with third parties to grow the digital channel. And it's becoming a significant channel and a big growth driver indeed. I mean, so in terms of going forward, we actually just relaunched our loyalty program and we're seeing tremendous response there, tremendous engagement there, energizing both existing loyalty members and new ones. Speaker 200:34:29So we actually expect to drive future sales growth with that loyalty program. So digital is here to stay in the modern world for sure. And Krispy Kreme, we're really leveraging that. Speaker 900:34:46Thank you. That will do it for me. Appreciate it. Speaker 200:34:48Thanks, Andrew. Operator00:34:51We'll take our next question from Daniel Guglomo at Capital One Securities. Speaker 500:34:58Hello, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. The international segment has continued to perform well and now own Japan and Canada are in there. I just want to dig into the point of access mix. Seems like there are a lot more fresh shops there relative to the U. Speaker 500:35:13S. Segment. And would you ever think about adding more fresh shops into the U. S? It seems like the logistics and volume of donuts that would be delivered to McDonald's would be similar to what you would get at a fresh shop? Speaker 200:35:30The higher rate of fresh shops international reflects a number of local conditions, including local labor costs, the size of the big metro cities. One of the great things about the Krispy Kreme model is you can adapt to the different environment. Yes, we have a number of fresh shops in the U. S. In some of the big cities, they make sense. Speaker 200:35:55But with the vast opportunity of Deliver Fresh Daily with these great national partners, we're focusing our attention on the U. S. On what is a very capital efficient model, leveraging the excess capacity of the production hubs through these off premise DFD doors, which remember typically cost between $1,000 or maybe $3,000 to set up if it's one of the more premium cabinets. So that it's such a good capital return. We've got the excess capacity in the U. Speaker 200:36:32S. That's our focus rather than the fresh shops. Speaker 500:36:38Great. Thank you. Appreciate the detail. And then just one more on McDonald's. In the history of McDonald's, do they have a partnership like this in the past? Speaker 500:36:49I'm just curious if there's like a playbook you all are going off of or if it's kind of a new playbook that you all are putting together. Speaker 200:36:59One thing I've learned about Krispy Kreme is every day is a new thing. There's so much opportunity here. And I think McDonald's came to us thinking about doing something different, doing something different with that breakfast approach, doing something different with a partner with Sweet Treats. So I think certainly from our point of view, it feels pioneering, but it's a great question. Speaker 500:37:22Great. Thank you. Operator00:37:37And at this time, there are no further questions. And that concludes our Q and A session. I will now turn the conference Speaker 200:37:49all our Krispy Kremeers for your ongoing commitment to bring all our Krispy Kremeers for your ongoing commitment to bring joy to our customers through Krispy Kreme. Have a good day. Take care. Operator00:38:02And this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallKrispy Kreme Q1 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Krispy Kreme Earnings HeadlinesWe tried the new Krispy Kreme Easter donut that keeps selling outApril 19 at 6:43 AM | msn.comKrispy Kreme's Founder Didn't Actually Create The Brand's Iconic Donut RecipeApril 17, 2025 | msn.comThe Trump Dump is starting; Get out of stocks now?The first 365 days of the Trump presidency… Will be the best time to get rich in American history.April 21, 2025 | Paradigm Press (Ad)Tax Day deals in Texas: 1-cent Burger King cheeseburger, free Krispy Kreme donuts and moreApril 17, 2025 | msn.comKrispy Kreme (DNUT) Gets a Sell from Morgan StanleyApril 16, 2025 | markets.businessinsider.comKrispy Kreme® GREEN ORIGINAL GLAZED DOUGHNUT ReviewApril 15, 2025 | msn.comSee More Krispy Kreme Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Krispy Kreme? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Krispy Kreme and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Krispy KremeKrispy Kreme (NASDAQ:DNUT), together with its subsidiaries, produces doughnuts in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, Japan, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: U.S., International, and Market Development. The company offers doughnut experiences through hot light theater and fresh shops, delivered fresh daily branded cabinets and merchandising units within grocery and convenience stores, quick service restaurants, club memberships, drug stores, and ecommerce, as well as through its branded sweet treat line comprising Krispy Kreme branded sweet treats. It also provides cookies under the Insomnia Cookies brand, cookie cakes, ice cream, cookie-wiches, and brownies; and operates Krispy Kreme company-owned shops and franchise shops. The company was formerly known as Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. and changed its name to Krispy Kreme, Inc. in May 2021. Krispy Kreme, Inc. was founded in 1937 and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.View Krispy Kreme ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Archer Aviation Unveils NYC Network Ahead of Key Earnings ReportAlcoa’s Solid Earnings Don’t Make Tariff Math Easier for AA Stock3 Reasons to Like the Look of Amazon Ahead of EarningsTesla Stock Eyes Breakout With Earnings on DeckJohnson & Johnson Earnings Were More Good Than Bad—Time to Buy? 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There are 10 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Thanks for standing by. My name is Zadra, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Krispy Kreme First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. I would now like to turn the call over to Alexander Eldridge, Krispy Kreme Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:17Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Krispy Kreme's Q1 2024 Earnings Call. Thank you for joining us today. We will be referencing our earnings release and presentation during the call. Speaker 100:00:28These are available on our Relations website at investors. Crispykreme.com. Joining me on the call this morning are President and Chief Executive Officer, Josh Charlesworth and Chief Financial Officer, Jeremiah Ashukian. After prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this call contains forward looking statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities and Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements of expectations, future events or future financial performance. Speaker 100:01:02Forward looking statements involve a number of inherent risks and uncertainties, and we caution investors that these risks could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward looking statements. These factors and other risks and uncertainties are described in detail in the company's Form 10 ks filed with the SEC for the year ended December 31, 2023, and in the other filings we make from time to time with the SEC. Forward looking statements made today are only as of today. The company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward looking statements, except as may be required by law. Additionally, today's call will include certain non GAAP financial measures. Speaker 100:01:43A reconciliation between non GAAP financial measures and our closest comparable GAAP measures can be found in our Q1 2024 earnings press release and Form 8 ks filed today with the SEC and is also available at our investors. Investors. Krispykreme.com website. Jeremiah will take us through our financial performance in a moment, but first here's Josh. Speaker 200:02:04Thanks, Jay. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We had a strong Q1. Our strategy of making fresh Krispy Kreme Donuts more available around the world is working. Speaker 200:02:18Excitement for our fresh Krispy Kreme Donuts has never been higher. This photo is from our recently opened Hot Light Theater in France, where Parisians lined up, some waiting overnight for their first ever hot original based doughnut fresh off the line. I was able to join our team members in Paris who are doing a great job spreading the joy that is Krispy Kreme not just to eat, but to share and give to others. I wish to thank all our hardworking Krispy Kremers who get it done every day in now 39 countries around the world. Let me summarize today's key messages. Speaker 200:02:551st quarter organic revenue growth exceeded expectations at 6.7% year over year with strong consumer demand and increased sales through digital channels fueling the results. We're increasing the pace of expansion as we make our fresh donuts more available around the world. In Q1, we grew our points of access for Krispy Kreme Fresh Donuts by 19.4% year over year. We recently launched in France and we've announced our expansion into Brazil and Germany. In the U. Speaker 200:03:27S, we expect to add 15,000 points of access by the end of 2026. We're accelerating into more grocers and convenience stores. We're excited about our national rollout with McDonald's, which is expected to add more than 12,000 new points of access alone. And we're reaffirming our guidance for the full year with 6% to 8% organic revenue growth expected to translate into adjusted EBITDA expansion of 8% to 11%. This reflects our intent to drive increasingly profitable growth from our hub and spoke operating model. Speaker 200:04:05Let's double click into each of these topics. In the Q1, engagement with the brand hit all time highs. We had a record 17,600,000,000 media impressions, nearly triple the same quarter last year. We launched planned initiatives like our St. Patrick's Day specialty donut collection and nimbly responded to spontaneous events such as the AT and T cell phone outage when we offered free donuts to those impacted. Speaker 200:04:34Krispy Kreme's fresh and innovative doughnuts continue to resonate with our customers, especially on celebratory occasions. For example, our Valentine's Day specialty donut collection available in 33 countries led to our biggest sales day ever. Sales through digital channels, including for delivery and pickup increased by 26% in the quarter. And we're excited about our recently launched new and improved loyalty program in the U. S, which has been very well received. Speaker 200:05:06So much so at one point our app became the number one download on the App Store last week. Following our recent announcement to provide fresh donuts daily at McDonald's restaurants in the U. S, we have raised our long term global points of access goal from 75,000 to 1 100,000 to include the quick service restaurant opportunity. Our pace of expansion is also accelerating. For the past 3 years, our global points of access grew by an average 19% per year to just over 14,000 by the end of 2023. Speaker 200:05:42Looking ahead, we expect fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts to be available in 33,000 points of access already by the end of 2026. We expect this growth to be driven by a combination of both existing and new customers as well as new market expansion. For example, our nationwide rollout to McDonald's in the U. S. Gives us the opportunity to add distribution at other major customers such as Walmart, which still only lists us in about 25% of their stores and Target with whom we have already agreed to expand our presence. Speaker 200:06:19In new markets, our upcoming expansion into Germany, France and Brazil provide opportunities for thousands more points of access, and we expect to continue opening 3 to 5 new markets per year. Still, we do expect that the U. S. Will be the biggest driver of our profitable expansion. The recently announced agreement with McDonald's is expected to bring Krispy Kreme to more than 12,000 of their U. Speaker 200:06:42S. Restaurants by the end of 2026. We'll provide 3, chocolate ice with sprinkles and chocolate ice cream filled. Chocolate ice with sprinkles and chocolate ice cream filled. They will be available individually and in boxes of 6. Speaker 200:07:03McDonald's is making them available in restaurant, by drive thru and on their mobile app. This follows a successful test of more than 160 McDonald's restaurants in the Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky areas, where consumer excitement and demand exceeded expectations. We are partnering with McDonald's on a phased rollout through to the end of 2026, which we expect to begin before the end of this year. We anticipate nearly tripling our U. S. Speaker 200:07:34Points of access over the next 3 years from 7,775 today to more than 22,000 by the end of 2026. Much of the national rollout can happen using existing capacity, but we will also invest in our business to increase production hubs with spokes. We expect to do this in a couple of ways. We'll add approximately 30 new hubs, which will be optimized for the needs of our Deliver Fresh daily network. We'll also convert about 20 existing hubs that do not currently have spokes to make them able to fully support our DFD expansion. Speaker 200:08:10In all, we expect to have just over 200 hubs with boats by the end of 2026. This point of access expansion will allow increased utilization of our production hubs and increased distribution density on our delivery routes. This means that we expect to get more points of access from the same production hub. Currently, our 154 hubs with spokes each serve on average 47 points of access in the U. S. Speaker 200:08:40We expect this to increase to over 100 by 2026. The impact is best explained with a couple of examples. In Philadelphia, the productivity benefits of a more mature hub and spoke model are expected to bring margin accretive growth. And in Minneapolis, where we don't currently sell donuts, we have the chance to be fully optimized from the start. We have a tremendous opportunity ahead of us and I'm excited to partner with our teams to capitalize on this growth potential. Speaker 200:09:10Now I will turn it over to Jeremiah to talk more about the U. S. Business expansion opportunity and our overall financial performance. Speaker 300:09:19Thanks, Josh, and good morning, everyone. I wanted to start by illustrating the anticipated financial impact of adding up to 15,000 points of access to our U. S. Business. What you see here on this chart is a range of increases on key financial metrics in the U. Speaker 300:09:34S. Business on an annualized basis. From a growth perspective, we expect that the addition of 14,000 to 15,000 points of access would result in roughly $340,000,000 to $430,000,000 in annualized incremental revenue and $70,000,000 to $100,000,000 of additional adjusted EBITDA creating significant operating leverage on the existing business. Now, I'll discuss our Q1 results. We outperformed expectations as organic revenue grew 6.7%, adjusted EBITDA increased 5.9 percent and we maintained positive operating leverage in the quarter, holding adjusted EBITDA margin steady at 13.1%. Speaker 300:10:16Turning to our U. S. Segment results, organic revenue increased 7.4% despite weather disruptions to the business in January. Additionally, we continue to see strong growth in availability as points of access increased 17.5%. We have also improved the quality of points of access by adding another 96 secondary display cabinets to high traffic grocery doors. Speaker 300:10:38This takes us to 303 total grocery cabinets across the U. S. We have seen these add up to 70% incremental sales to a DFD door. The slight decline in average revenue per door was driven by a mix impact of the customer base with smaller grocery customers such as Save Mart being added in the quarter, while underlying door performance remains healthy, helped by the launch of minis. In turn, this drove a 6.5% increase in sales per hub to $4,900,000 up from $4,600,000 in the prior year. Speaker 300:11:10This improvement drove increased utilization across the network, which was a key factor in delivering 70 basis points of adjusted EBITDA margin expansion year over year to 14.4%. The international segment now reflects all of the equity owned international markets as we move the company owned Canadian and Japanese businesses into the international segment from the market development segment. Organic revenue grew 9.8% with all markets in Speaker 200:11:38growth, driven Speaker 300:11:39by record points of access growth of nearly 24% alongside successful marketing activations. From an adjusted EBITDA perspective, we also saw all markets expand margins in the quarter outside of the U. K. Market. Overall adjusted EBITDA increased 8.2 percent, resulting in a margin decline of 50 basis points to 16.5%. Speaker 300:12:01We have a holistic intervention plan in place for the U. K. And have rationalized parts of our manufacturing network to improve utilization. Similar to the U. S. Speaker 300:12:10Segment, average revenue per door was driven by mix of customers as we continue to expand into the convenience channel, including OXXO Mexico and Tesco Express in the U. K, which naturally has a lower revenue per door. Market Development is now solely comprised of our franchise businesses, both domestically in U. S. And internationally. Speaker 300:12:32Within the segment, organic revenue declined 14.1%, which was driven by timing of equipment sales versus the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA in the segment expanded 900 basis points to 54.1%, again largely linked to lower equipment sales, which are lower margin revenues. For the Q1, we delivered $0.07 in adjusted earnings per share. The higher depreciation and amortization in the quarter reflects the investments associated with the expansion of our hub and spoke network. The negative cash flow from operations in the Q1 reflected our strategy to reduce the reuse of vendor financing. Speaker 300:13:10This is now largely complete. We are still aiming to be cash flow positive in 2024. We also continue to have a healthy balance sheet with access to liquidity to fuel our growth agenda. Today, we are reaffirming our full year outlook. We have good momentum heading into the Q2, but are mindful of some consumer softness in the current market, which is impacting discretionary spend. Speaker 300:13:33While investing in our U. S. Expansion, including start up costs for the McDonald's national rollout, we expect to deliver positive operating leverage. Similarly, we anticipate incremental investments to open the new hubs Josh referenced earlier and expect to trend towards the high end of the range on capital expenditures in 2024. We anticipate this to continue in 20252026 before trending towards 6% thereafter. Speaker 300:13:58As it relates to the Q2 of 2024, we expect to deliver net revenue growth of 6% to 8% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 8% to 10%. We will continue to closely monitor and adapt the changes in the market and uncertainty in the consumer environment and remain confident in our ability to drive operating leverage consistently throughout 2024. With that, I will turn it over to Josh for his closing remarks. Speaker 200:14:24Thanks, Jeremiah. In summary, we are expanding availability by adding high quality productive points of access, driving operating leverage through the efficiency of our operating model and maximizing capital return, both by leveraging existing capacity and making selective investments in geographies, which have limited access to Krispy Kreme today. All in, I look forward to us building a bigger and better Krispy Kreme in the years ahead. Operator, let's now open it up to Q and A, please. Operator00:14:59Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. We'll go first to Sarah Senatore at Bank of America. Speaker 400:15:18Hi. This is Sara. Can you hear me? Speaker 300:15:21Yes. We can hear you, Speaker 400:15:22Sara. Okay. Thank you. So I guess I wanted to you mentioned McDonald's. I guess I wanted to dive in there a little bit. Speaker 400:15:31I have a few questions. So one is if you could just clarify what impact, if any, you're including from that partnership either on top line or as I think about G and A, I think you've invested ahead of that partnership rolling out. How to think about that growth going forward or sort of the big upfront cost behind you or how long how many quarters perhaps should we expect to see sort of outsized G and A growth ahead of revenue growth? So just that sort of broader view on the McDonald's partnership implications for your P and L. Speaker 300:16:16Yes. I'll take that, Sarah, and thanks for the question. We are collaborating with McDonald's to build a detailed rollout plan and anticipate the launch to start in the tail end of 2024. So from a revenue impact, we do expect that to be fairly minimal this year. What I would say with respect to cost, we are, as you mentioned, in the investment phase now and are incurring start up costs and SG and A and OpEx. Speaker 300:16:43We're not disclosing exactly how much we're spending on that, but we are pleased that we can reaffirm our guidance assuming those costs are in our business beginning in Q1. Speaker 400:16:53Understood. Okay. Thank you. And then, just the follow-up question on that is I know some of the concerns or some of the questions around McDonald's have do with sort of overlap with your existing distribution points of access. And can you maybe assuage some of those and talk about what if anything you saw during your test with respect to cannibalization? Speaker 400:17:16I know in the past, I think you said that doesn't seem to be really an issue because you're sort of under penetrated. But anything that you saw regarding your existing POAs in Kentucky and what happened when you launched McDonald's? Speaker 300:17:34Yes. I mean, we've done a bit of work around the incrementality of this, and we believe we expect to see strong incrementality of around 85%. That's what you see in kind of the charts we presented this morning reflects that, which will be a mix of higher incrementality in brand new markets, but obviously a little bit lower incrementality in existing markets. Speaker 400:17:55Thank you. Operator00:17:59We'll go next to John Ivankoe at JPMorgan. Speaker 500:18:03Hi, thank you. Few questions if Speaker 600:18:05I may. First, as you begin to kind of have plans for overall relatively national penetration, are you beginning to have conversation with taking various major grocery and other types of national accounts on a national basis? In other words, as you begin to have the capacity to go into McDonald's, do you expect it to have a number of different simultaneous agreements with other national type both larger and smaller format retailers? Speaker 200:18:39Good morning, John. Yes, by distributing to almost every McDonald's in the country, this does indeed give us the opportunity to profitably add distribution with other major customers, both existing customers that we are underpenetrated in and indeed new ones. And I think the conversations that we've had with them since the announcement have largely been positive because they can see that we're able to build out our operating model on a national scale and therefore serve them nationally. I mean, it's going to be really exciting to bring Krispy Kreme to Minneapolis, for example, the home of Target or to bring Krispy Kreme to Walmart in Arkansas. So these are things we haven't done up to now and we're really excited to do that. Speaker 200:19:36And so, yes, the data that we shared today and our goal of getting to 15,000 points of access in the U. S. By 2026, obviously includes expansion beyond McDonald's as a result. Speaker 600:19:53And it does remind me that I actually have 2 more questions. As you guys kind of think about the overall size of the donut market or sweet treat market, I mean, you obviously have a lot of interesting insights both at your current employer and also previous employers. But how big of a prize do you think the U. S. Krispy Kreme market really is? Speaker 600:20:17I mean, you can obviously if you look at it as a percentage of donut sales, you could argue that Krispy Kreme share gets to be very, very high kind of in the out years, but is the price something materially bigger than donut sales? How are you defining the overall TAM at this point? Speaker 200:20:34Well, I think today, we brought really good insight on the incremental revenue we expect out sight on the incremental revenue we expect out to 2026. Jeremiah shared $340,000,000 to 4 $30,000,000 revenue reflecting 15,000 points of access goal. We actually following the announcement of McDonald's that gave us insight on the QSR opportunity overall. We've continued to appreciate the opportunity to access these national accounts you referenced at the beginning of this discussion. So we've said we believe we can get about 30,000 points of access in the long run. Speaker 200:21:15Regarding the share of market and what have you, we're still actually a relatively small player with sharing the low teens in grocery stores today. And so there's plenty of upside for us because we are the best donut in the market. It's an awesome experience. We're constantly innovating, constantly bringing excitement to the brand and we're fresh, fresh daily. It's a really unique positioning. Speaker 200:21:42So, yes, absolutely, we want to take share from those who aren't able to bring such an exciting brand and product to the consumer. Speaker 600:21:54Understood. And I apologize if I missed that. It was a little slightly delayed getting Did you address kind of the current test and experience with Ryder handling your last mile distribution? I think it's in D. C. Speaker 600:22:08And L. A, kind of positives and negatives. And I guess at this point, what would keep you to perhaps making that an overall system wide decision? Speaker 200:22:21No, it's a good question. Actually, I was just up with the Krispy Kremeers and the Ryder team in DC myself riding the routes. And what I could see was that the service level and the quality of the doughnuts is being maintained, which is the primary focus of the test right now, make sure that those Krispy Kreme donuts show up in the way we would expect. And the partnership with Ryder has been great so far. Really, we now therefore need to move into more analyst analysis and understanding of what this could look like in terms of our economics and how it could support the rollout. Speaker 200:23:02We are looking to add another city to the test. And indeed, we're also talking to other providers. It's really important that the doughnuts and the delivery show up as it was Krispy Kreme, they're dedicated trucks, the drivers wearing Krispy Kreme uniforms and presenting themselves in a really positive way and it looks really promising. But we'll provide updates as we know more about the opportunity to extend that as we support the rollout nationally towards this 15,000 goal by 2026. Speaker 600:23:38Sounds good. Thank Operator00:23:42you. We'll move next to Aslan Grauninger at Piper Sandler. Speaker 700:23:49Hi. Good morning, guys. You've mentioned in the past you're focused around automating the doughnut production. Just wondering if you have any updates around this. I know in the international segment, some of your production facilities use automation. Speaker 700:24:02Just wondering about the opportunity this presents for the U. S. Market and just how this could help with the rollout of McDonald's? Speaker 200:24:09That's a great question. Good morning. We continue to work on the opportunity to modernize the making and indeed the moving of doughnuts to the earlier question. There are transformational improvements we can make and are making with automation. It's still proportionately a relatively small percentage of the business that we're applying this to largely are non consumer facing donut factories. Speaker 200:24:36We have a line, fully automated line running in our Bronx facility, for example, in New York, where we're topping and filling and even picking the donuts off the line automatically. But at this stage, that's still work that's ongoing. We're actually also finding ways to modernize production lines by improving yield, reducing waste by digitizing the lines and monitoring those variables in that way as well. So it is an opportunity. We definitely think that this is an area that can help us scale and help us be more efficient. Speaker 200:25:13But with the acceleration of points of access growth, we also need to support capacity expansion, particularly across the U. S. So we're being thoughtful how we bring in new technology as we also expand. Speaker 700:25:31Great. Thank you for the color. I'll pass it back. Speaker 200:25:34You bet. Thank you. Operator00:25:37Our next question comes from Bill Chappell at Truist Securities. Speaker 800:25:41Thanks. Good morning. Speaker 300:25:44Good morning, Bill. Speaker 800:25:45In your comments, you kind of talked about some recent softness around the category and kind of consumers pulling back. Just maybe a little more color on that. I mean, it's not unique, but I think we've seen kind of slowing volumes throughout all of packaged food over the past few months. And just anything more you can talk about that and if you think there are any other things that were impacting that? Speaker 200:26:09Actually, Bill, although we're mindful of the consumer environment, we actually see the brand being really healthy with people looking to Krispy Kreme as an affordable sweet treat for those special celebratory occasions. We mentioned earlier Valentine's and being the biggest sales day in history of the company. I mean earlier this month even in April, we saw tremendous engagement with our total solar eclipse donor. And so, although we're mindful of the consumer environment, particularly on the international side, the brand is really healthy, plenty of consumer engagement. I think it's because of the unique role that Krispy Kreme plays as an occasional sweet treat for special occasions and celebrations. Speaker 800:26:59So, I'm sorry, you're not seeing any softness. I may have missed that comment, sorry. Speaker 300:27:05No, I think the softness we would have talked about would have been in January just due to weather in the United States, but not necessarily broader kind of consumer. Speaker 800:27:13Okay. And then just to the McDonald's, I guess, two questions that I hear most often. 1, trying to understand kind of the level of commitment on McDonald's of and the franchisees down the road. I mean, you say you're going to, I think, 12,000 out of 13,000 doors. I mean, is there and you're obviously spending a lot of money behind it. Speaker 800:27:36Is there any way McDonald's can say a year, year and a half into this, this isn't working or this doesn't work for certain franchises or and that changes that or is it full ahead everybody's fully committed to going to that 12,000 by through 2026? McDonald's Speaker 200:27:55has been a great partner so far and we've really enjoyed the collaboration. The agreement last 1 year after the last rollout in 2026 and of course can be renewed after that. So we've already announced our share from partnership with McDonald's And it is about rolling out through to the end of 2026. And the intent is more than 12,000 restaurants and that is the phased rollout plan that we're working on with McDonald's. We don't expect it to start till the tail end of the year, but it's really thoughtful. Speaker 200:28:36We'll obviously naturally prioritize places where we at Krispy Kreme can provide availability faster. But the partnership is going really great so far after what was obviously a great Kentucky test and very thorough test that demonstrated that consumer demand outstripped both theirs and our expectations. Speaker 800:28:58Got it. And then I'll squeeze one more in on the and this is kind of a follow-up from an earlier one on the incrementality. Just trying to understand, I understand how it maybe interacts with your stores, but how it does when there is a Dunkin' store next buy or convenience store that sells donuts or stuff like that. Just trying to understand how it expands the overall donut market in the same way and kind of what your test showed from that standpoint? Speaker 200:29:24Well, we know that we create buzz and demand when we come to a new market. We've seen that again and again. When it comes to existing markets, obviously had a prolonged period of time with the Kentucky test to see the impact of that incrementality. But also bear in mind, we have many parts of the country where we already have good availability, taken Atlanta, take areas of the Carolinas, places where they may even be in a town, more of the others donut shops you referenced, but they're not really donut shops. They're generally beverage focused, sandwich focused. Speaker 200:30:00We are the ones who offer a unique, awesome, fresh donut experience, minis for mom this week, constantly bringing excitement and headlines to the category. So that doesn't surprise us. But yes, we've done the analysis and the numbers that the incrementality that Jeremiah shared today was based off a very thoughtful analysis. Speaker 800:30:26Great. Thanks for the color. Operator00:30:30We'll take our next question from Andrew Wolf at C. L. King. Speaker 900:30:36Thank you. I just had a couple of follow ups. First on McDonald's, do you expect the rollout just in terms of stores where it's rolled into Speaker 300:30:47over time to be kind of linear? Or do you Speaker 900:30:50is there an exponential build or even a front end loaded build, I would think more exponential, but just sort of the timing between now and 20 20 Speaker 200:31:01I'd describe it as balanced. It's balanced around where we have availability today, balanced around where we can bring on new capacity quickly. And then, of course, there are parts of the country where our development pipeline means it's going to take a little while to launch. And Donald's conversation has been fantastic as we share with them our development plans and they've taken through with us how they want to run it. And so it'll be balanced and thoughtful over the period from the tail end of this year up to the end of 2026. Speaker 900:31:40Thank you. And to the McDonald's franchisee relationship, I mean, what is your role? Is it more training or is it kind of getting them excited about it? And I'm sure McDonald's is kind of you're collaborating with them and how you're going to interact with the franchisees. But what is going to be Krispy Kreme's interaction with the franchisees to help them to help make this successful? Speaker 200:32:08Our focus is awesome donuts every time, every day delivered at the right time as agreed with the customer, perfect service level. So really we're really focused on strengthening operations right now, talked a lot about modernizing and improving how we make and move donuts. And I think all our customers expect that, whether it's a McDonald's franchisee, Walmart, Kroger, or indeed our international partners, which that's our primary focus. That's where our Krispy Kreme's excel. I mean, obviously, it's up to McDonald's themselves to manage their own relationships. Speaker 200:32:51We trust them. We've got a great relationship with them, and we'll take their guide and provide any insights to them. But do remember, it's a very simple operating operations activity, which is we bring fresh doughnuts already made. They just need to be taken from the tray, put in a bag or even a 6 count box handed over to the customer. So it should be a relatively easy activity for the McDonald's crew and the franchisees. Speaker 200:33:25So the real focus is just great donuts. Speaker 900:33:28Fair enough. And if I could just ask one follow-up, I was distracted away from the call for a minute, so you might have talked about this, but could you elaborate on the big increase in the digital sales and penetration in the U. S. And the sustainability of that? Speaker 200:33:47Well, the customers are looking, as we've said before, for us to provide a more convenient way to access Krispy Kreme. Number one reason why somebody still gives us that they may not purchase Krispy Kreme is it's just not convenient to them. And so it's been great both through our own app and partnering with third parties to grow the digital channel. And it's becoming a significant channel and a big growth driver indeed. I mean, so in terms of going forward, we actually just relaunched our loyalty program and we're seeing tremendous response there, tremendous engagement there, energizing both existing loyalty members and new ones. Speaker 200:34:29So we actually expect to drive future sales growth with that loyalty program. So digital is here to stay in the modern world for sure. And Krispy Kreme, we're really leveraging that. Speaker 900:34:46Thank you. That will do it for me. Appreciate it. Speaker 200:34:48Thanks, Andrew. Operator00:34:51We'll take our next question from Daniel Guglomo at Capital One Securities. Speaker 500:34:58Hello, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. The international segment has continued to perform well and now own Japan and Canada are in there. I just want to dig into the point of access mix. Seems like there are a lot more fresh shops there relative to the U. Speaker 500:35:13S. Segment. And would you ever think about adding more fresh shops into the U. S? It seems like the logistics and volume of donuts that would be delivered to McDonald's would be similar to what you would get at a fresh shop? Speaker 200:35:30The higher rate of fresh shops international reflects a number of local conditions, including local labor costs, the size of the big metro cities. One of the great things about the Krispy Kreme model is you can adapt to the different environment. Yes, we have a number of fresh shops in the U. S. In some of the big cities, they make sense. Speaker 200:35:55But with the vast opportunity of Deliver Fresh Daily with these great national partners, we're focusing our attention on the U. S. On what is a very capital efficient model, leveraging the excess capacity of the production hubs through these off premise DFD doors, which remember typically cost between $1,000 or maybe $3,000 to set up if it's one of the more premium cabinets. So that it's such a good capital return. We've got the excess capacity in the U. Speaker 200:36:32S. That's our focus rather than the fresh shops. Speaker 500:36:38Great. Thank you. Appreciate the detail. And then just one more on McDonald's. In the history of McDonald's, do they have a partnership like this in the past? Speaker 500:36:49I'm just curious if there's like a playbook you all are going off of or if it's kind of a new playbook that you all are putting together. Speaker 200:36:59One thing I've learned about Krispy Kreme is every day is a new thing. There's so much opportunity here. And I think McDonald's came to us thinking about doing something different, doing something different with that breakfast approach, doing something different with a partner with Sweet Treats. So I think certainly from our point of view, it feels pioneering, but it's a great question. Speaker 500:37:22Great. Thank you. Operator00:37:37And at this time, there are no further questions. And that concludes our Q and A session. I will now turn the conference Speaker 200:37:49all our Krispy Kremeers for your ongoing commitment to bring all our Krispy Kremeers for your ongoing commitment to bring joy to our customers through Krispy Kreme. Have a good day. Take care. Operator00:38:02And this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by