Odds Brands at Consumer Growth Conference: Strategic Expansion and Innovation

On Tuesday, 10 June 2025, Odds Brands took center stage at the 25th Annual Consumer Growth and E-Commerce Conference. The company, represented by CEO Howard Friedman and CFO Bill Kelly, shared strategic insights into its growth trajectory. While focusing on innovation and brand building, Odds Brands (NYSE:UTZ) acknowledged challenges in the competitive salty snacks category but remained optimistic about its financial outlook and expansion strategies.

Key Takeaways

• Odds Brands is focusing on marketing, innovation, and brand building, independent of the category’s performance.
• The company is optimistic about its innovation pipeline and expansion into new geographic markets.
• Odds Brands targets low single-digit organic sales growth and 6-10% adjusted EBITDA growth for 2025.
• Productivity improvements are a priority, with a revised target of $150 million.
• The company is prepared to adapt to potential impacts from GLP-1 drugs on consumer behavior.

Financial Results

• 2025 Outlook:

- Low single-digit organic sales growth.

- 6% to 10% adjusted EBITDA growth.

- 10% to 15% adjusted EPS growth.

• Q1 Leverage:

- Approximately 4 times, reflecting seasonal working capital and front-loaded CapEx.

• Productivity Program:

- Revised target of $150 million, with $60 million delivered in year one.

• Boulder Canyon Revenue:

- $100 million in retail sales over the past year.

Operational Updates

• Bonus Pack Program:

- Ended in April, offered 20% more product at the same price.

• Expansion Markets:

- Now represent 44% of the business, up from 41% two years ago.

- Growing in 25 of 26 tracked expansion market states.

• Innovation:

- New products include tortilla chips and cheese balls with Boulder Canyon, and spicy flavors with On the Border.

• Convenience Channel:

- Represents 11% of the business.

• Infrastructure Improvements:

- Consolidated six warehouses into one and reduced the number of plants from 15 to 8.

Future Outlook

• Category Growth:

- Expect flattish growth for the current year, with progression expected.

• Expansion Strategy:

- Focus on geographic expansion and leveraging a successful playbook in new markets.

• Productivity Initiatives:

- Continue to drive productivity through automation and logistics optimization.

• M&A Strategy:

- Prioritize organic growth and debt reduction, while being selective in evaluating M&A opportunities.

• Boulder Canyon Target:

- Achieved $100 million in retail sales, fulfilling the promise made at Investor Day in 2023.

Q&A Highlights

• Salty Snacks Category Challenges:

- Slowdown in price contribution to growth; marketing and innovation are crucial.

• Consumer Trends:

- Value-seeking behavior and preferences for non-seed oil and spicy flavors.

• Promotional Environment:

- Expected to remain consistent, with Odds Brands prepared to maintain price gaps.

• Distribution Gains:

- Driving momentum through distribution gains and innovation.

For more detailed insights, refer to the full transcript below.

Full transcript - 25th Annual Consumer Growth and E-Commerce Conference:

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us at Oppenheimer’s twenty fifth Annual Consumer Growth and Ecommerce Conference. My name is Rupesh Parikh. I’m the senior food, grocery, and consumer products analyst here at Oppenheimer. I’m very happy to introduce our next presenting company, Odds Brands. To joining us today are CEO, Howard Friedman and EVP and CFO, Bill Kelly.

So thank you both for being here. The format of today’s session will be a fireside chat, and they’ll move to audience q and a. So if you have questions, please enter them in the question panel below the video. Let’s get started. So I guess I wanted to kick it off with a question just on the salty snacks category.

What do you believe have been contributing to category challenges in recent quarters?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. of all, Rupesh, just wanna say thank you, for inviting us. It’s great to be with you today. And, you know, I I think one of the things that I’d like love to start with is, you know, as you think about our business, we we have said and maintained since Investor Day that we are not exclusively reliant on the category for it to be able to drive our growth. And that, you know, while I would say that to date, we’re pretty pleased with where we are, we’re not obviously not satisfied with where where we believe that our business can eventually grow and and take us.

And so lots of work to do still and lots of opportunities still in front of us. I think if you look at the category historically, we would say that it’s, you know, kind of a three to 4% category with, you know, call it zero to one on the volume side and call it, you know, three ish on the top on the price side, which has been contributing to the growth. You know, and recently, what we’ve seen is it is a more of a slowdown on the price contribution to the the category. I think not surprising when you think about the inflation over the last couple of years. And, you know, and that pre pandemic, you know, we you obviously saw that a relatively benign environment.

We saw a big step up. I kinda feel like the consumer may be taking a little bit of a break, and we we need to continue to do the things that have historically driven this category, which is really around marketing and and innovation and communication, which is a lot of what, know, as you know, our our playbook is. And I think that’s that is will ultimately be the most important thing. The last thing I’ll say before we we we move on is, you know, household penetration is growing in this category. And so if you look at the salty category overall, unlike some other categories in food, we are actually seeing more consumers year over year wanting the products in their pantries.

And to me, that is always a really great indicator of the long term health and opportunity in front of us.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: And as you guys look longer term, do you think that the category gets back to 3% to 4%? Or, you know, how do you how do you guys think about longer term category growth?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. I I think I think definition of longer term is the question. I I mean, we’ve obviously said this year flattish is kind of what we expected. We do expect that the category will continue will progress through the course of the year. Last year, you saw accelerated pricing investments show up sort of around the summertime and then Q3 and Q4 pricing increases promotional environment kind of normalizes, I think, as we get into the summer of this year.

So q one was a little more promotional than prior year. Q two, but that’s more of a lap question because the category and its participants remain pretty rational in what they’re what we’re all doing.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And then outside of the ongoing value seeking behavior, is there anything else to note from a consumer behavior perspective? Any new consumer trends of note in the category?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. So look. I I it’s actually I I do think that what you’re seeing on in value, just one comment on that is, you know, consumers are defining value as they as they choose. Right? So for some consumers, it’s a different oil base, right, a a

For some consumers, it’s an absolute price point. And so what you’ve not surprisingly, you’re seeing classes of trade catering to different consumers seeing experiencing different growth. So on the more high retailers, you’re seeing growth there and obviously and we’re certainly seeing that at buying Boulder Canyon. And on discount dollar and mass merch, you’re also seeing growth there as well as some of our more value oriented offerings show up. And then, of course, food has always been our been our home, and we continue to see good growth there.

In terms of other trends we’re seeing, certainly nonseed oil is a has been a tailwind on the Boulder Canyon business. We’re certainly seeing flavor and spite heat continues to be very appealing to to the consumer, and you can see that behind our Mike’s Hot Honey item, and you can also see that with with some of our our our cheese ball offerings. And so I think that that’s a place where you continue to see flavor exploration really. Zaps is a great example. And probably the one I’m most excited about is actually our lemonade potato chip this summer, which is a flavor experience for for the shopper.

So those trends, I think, are not necessarily new, but they endure, and they are places where we’re we’re choosing to compete.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And now switching gears to competition. Have you seen any changes lately on the competitive front? And then is there anything new out of private label just given the heightened uncertainty in the macro?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. Look. So we we actually are are seeing competition being pretty pretty consistent with what with what they have historically done. So we’re not seeing any sort of outsized change, you know, the environment, you know, we we tend to talk about being rational in terms of what’s happening. You’re seeing more innovation and communication coming back into the category, which I think is a good thing.

And then with respect to private label, look, you know, private label’s up about 1% and, you know, not and and fairly consistent with what you where you’d see us in the cycle. Right? There are some retailers who use their own brand as a as statement in the marketplace of who they are. They build that brand. There are some retailers who use private label or

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Howard, you may or

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: own brands to either drive profitability or to make sure No.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: You’re good. You’re good now. You’re good again. Yeah.

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Good day. Can you hear me? Oh, okay. Sorry. You know, sometimes you see private label manufacturers using it as a statement for themselves.

And in some cases, it’s either a margin opportunity or it is a you’re trying to get to an overall price point on the price ladder. But it’s still relatively small in our category because, again, we’ve always been much more of a marketing and innovation led category and I don’t suspect that will change.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: And then just on the promotional backdrop, do you expect it it to it sounds like it’s stable now, but do you expect it to intensify? Or is it or do you think it’s just gonna be level up with the prior year? Like, how are you planning for the balance of the year?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. So, you know, we we certainly have we certainly do have some expectation that the promotional environment will will remain pretty consistent. Right? We have and, you know, certainly, as we’re going into the summer, we’re not seeing the the levels of price promotion, depth of discounting quite the way we did we did a year ago. So, you know, I I I think we’re prepared to compete, and we’ll maintain our price gaps accordingly.

But I think we feel pretty good about where we are. Because I don’t know if you have anything to add on price.

Bill Kelly, EVP and CFO, Odds Brands: No. I think the, you know, I think when we think about kind of the the q one print that we had in our bonus pack program, you saw, some pricing come through there. What we said post that call was that balance of the year, we’ll see pricing, have about a one point impact per quarter, for the balance of the year. Some of that bonus pack will impact q two as it ended in April, but we are very focused on having the right between price and volume and execution, and that we will stay very much focused and disciplined on our commercial spend to maintain those price gaps.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. So now I’d to cover some more specific questions. So there’s a lot of focus on your q one call on bonus bags. So can you remind us of your playbook to improve your value proposition from here, particularly in light of an ongoing consumer value seeking behavior, significant macro uncertainty, and the potential inflation consumers might face with tariffs?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. So, you know, let let’s just start with the bonus pack to start. You know, it was it was something we launched in December of twenty twenty four, offering 20% more product at the same price across six HUDs and on the border SKUs. And it basically, you know, went from December until April of this year. You know, it did not have an impact on our on our organic growth numbers for q one as volume and value effectively offset each other.

What it was was an efficient way for us to be able to drive trial with with our consume with consumers, especially in our expansion markets and in places where they maybe they have not had as much experience with our items and to deliver and to deliver an opportunity for some consumers to to experience value. It it did finish up in April, and we’ve trans we’re transitioning to sort of our normal commercial plans as we go forward. But, you know, what I tell you is it is really just one one tool in a marketer’s tool tool chest, right, to be able to offer value. Sometimes you see it in self liquidating offers or in premiums, And we do you know, we continue to look at ways to be able to have consumers experience our brands and engage. And we’ll continue to do that through the course of the year of of looking for new ways to engage whether it again, it’s items, innovation or if it’s something else.

We don’t have plans at least at this point to be to bring anything like a bonus pack back in the near term because I think we have other tools to to continue to drive our business as we go forward. And you certainly see that in in the Nielsen and Surcana data both in Q1 and coming into Q2 so far, depending on what you look at, you are seeing our business continuing to grow.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. We don’t get the data. So trends are consistent is how you described q one to q two to date.

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. So I mean, so if you if you were to look at sort of where Nielsen or Surcana are today, we are seeing we are seeing similar performance in in the market today.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. So as these bonus packs go away then, it sounds like you guys are confident sustain the momentum because that’s already happening in in data. Okay.

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. Look. I think what’s drive gonna drive our momentum this year is the distribution gains that you saw in the first quarter. You’re gonna see Boulder Canyon continue to perform. You’re going to see our expansion playbook continue to do what it’s supposed to do and you’re going to see us remain focused on driving innovation and brand building as we go forward.

And those things give us optimism that kind of where we are where we’re sitting right now is is a pretty good place for us to be.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And switching gears just to innovation. So how are you feeling about the innovation pipeline from here? And how have recent innovation performed versus your expectations?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. So I I feel actually really good about the innovation so far this year. So we’ve launched tortilla chips in with Boulder Canyon. Obviously, we’re continuing on our cheese ball program with Boulder Canyon. We’ve launched a couple of items on with On the Border, a lime and sea salt and a Mexican herb and spice.

We launched as we were talking about the lemonade potato chips. We’re bringing out a Mike’s Hot Honey cheese pizza cheese ball as well, and we continue to innovate on on our core potato chip brand within Boulder Canyon to the natural channel. Overall, I would tell you that we’re we probably are at the right level of innovation for us. I think what what has been encouraging is is that we’re able to get to a fewer items launch, but bigger impacts to the overall business. And, you know, while it’s a little early to say what trial and repeat numbers look like, we feel like our innovation plan and program is really starting to demonstrate some maturity.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. And have you guys ever do you guys ever comment on like what percent of sales come from innovation or anything like that?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: I’m not sure that we’ve given a targeted number yet.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And then probably one of my favorite brands, Boulder Canyon. We’ve seen acceleration in demand in natural organic, particularly if you look at the specialty retails like Sprouts and Natural Grocers. So how are you thinking about further distribution opportunities from here for Boulder Canyon outside the natural channel and more mainstream players as consumers seem to be increasing gravitating towards better for you products lately?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. Well, the thing I’d say is certainly as you look at somebody like a the natural organic channel and and and some of the unmeasured channels that that that we compete in, they are very important to that brand and they continue to be and have been a they’ve been great partners for us as we’ve as we’ve started to grow. And and what you see is distribution gains and velocity gains sustaining as we’re going year over year driven by a a very strong relationship. We have actually introduced the brand into more conventional classes of trade and and into into the club channel as well. You know, we obviously talked about a 158% growth in last quarter on Boulder Canyon in conventional.

What’s encouraging is is that it’s actually been driven by distribution gains and velocity, and it is really not effect it has not demonstrated any sort of overlap with with our our existing franchise. So, you know, we we believe that that business is is growing quickly and we believe that it can continue to grow quickly. We promised a $100,000,000 in three years at Investor Day in 2023. We delivered the 100,000,000 in retail sales this past year and we believe that we’re just getting started on that brand.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay, great. And then outside of Boulder Canyon, do you see other better for you opportunities within your existing brands portfolio perhaps or M and A?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. Look, think we have we still continue to have an opportunity around our brand story and to continue to build that business with sort of traditional marketing tactics. We also are fortunate majority of our products are really very simple. Right? You’re talking about potatoes, oil, salts, or corn, oil, and salt.

So we have we have pretty a pretty good portfolio of of very simple ingredients. We also offer a gluten free range, and we have a low salt opportunity. So, you know, we do feel like we are a permissible indulgence, but we do cater to better for you. That said, there are there are continuing trends or whether it’s around non seed oil or other opportunities that we will continue to evaluate if consumers want them and we can do a good job. We’re going to do our best to enter into those segments.

With respect to m and a, you know, would I’m not sure that we need an inorganic opportunity to address this trend. We obviously would look at it if we needed to, but we’ve got a pretty robust portfolio of brands and an organic opportunity in front of us that I think we can probably do a lot of this ourselves, but we’ll always look. Right? And and we should.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And then, you know, I guess going to your other power brands. So we’ve touched on Boulder Canyon. Is there anything else that you think it’s important to highlight today on whether it’s Ots On The Board or Zaps?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. Look, I think that I feel really good about our Power four and sort of the rest of our branded portfolio. The the the two things I would would tell you is is as we’re expanding the the question we always consider is as we’re expanding into new markets with our powerful brands, how does the assortment look and will consumers accept? And what we’ve seen is consumer acceptance of of on the border of Zaps, of Ots as we’ve entered into new markets has been has been very strong. And so we feel really good about the portfolio as we go forward.

We have some little bit of cleanup work to do in in in some pockets, but nothing nothing significant.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And then on the convenience channel, can you remind us of your exposure to the convenience channel and what you’re seeing there? And then how you think about a return to growth growth in it?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yes. Yes. So so convenience channel has obviously been something we’ve talked a lot about. We we had some opportunities that we needed to correct in terms of our assortment and some of our distribution. You’re starting to see those benefits starting to come through, although it’s not yet to growth.

You know, we probably have about 11% of our business in convenience store where traditional for growth salty category is more like 18%. So we have a fair bit of headspace that we can go to try and run our playbook, is starting to show some fruit. If you look at some of the larger chains, you’re seeing us back at growth. It’s really a lot of the independents and some other work we need to do. And it’s really get the assortment right, make sure that our IOs are servicing the store and are excited to get there and bringing out innovation that appeals to the convenience store shopper, is, you know, a little bit more spicy and a little bit more me as opposed to we occasions, and that’s all all on the docket.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And I’m going to switch switch here to the expansion markets. Can you talk about what you’re seeing in your expansion markets and remind us of your playbook here? Where do you see the biggest white space opportunities geographically?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yep. So, you know, we’re feeling pretty good about where we are. We’re now about 44% of our businesses in our expansion markets. It that’s up from forty one percent two years ago. So and our average market share is really around 3% in expansion versus six and a half in our in our traditional core.

Probably most encouraging is if you were to look at yeah. There are 30 states that we would consider our expansion markets, and we can track and measure performance in 26 of them, and we’re growing in 25. So we are driving geographic, you know, performance geographies. We tend to either enter by pushing in, you know, we’ll we’ll look at a distributor that we have an opportunity to acquire or or we sometimes get pulled in where a retailer asks us to collaborate with them and that typically starts with some perimeter placement and something in the aisle and we start to build out some scale. You know, we obviously want, call it 18 to 20 SKUs to start so that we can actually have enough sense of brand portfolio bigness to know that we can perform and support the category.

We back it up with some retailer media and traditional a and traditional a and c socially and digitally, and then we slowly but surely continue to bring our normal playbook, our LTOs, our seasonal offerings into the marketplace to then mature it. What I’m proud to say is generally when we go in, everybody wins. Right? The consumer gets a product and a and portfolio that they love. The retailer gets some differentiation, and we tend to grow the category.

And then we continue to be able to expand and execute our playbook. And it’s it really turns out to be something that when we go in, we we tend to stay.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And then as you look at the efforts seeing expansion markets, have there been any positive or negative surprises you call out at this point?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: So I think I think, you know, the probably the big positive is, again, how our power four brands do travel and that we are seeing great consumer acceptance. They’re driving trial, but what’s interesting is is that our repeat rates stay high as well. So as you can imagine, if you get a whole bunch of new consumers to try the product, you’re going there are some people who are not going to repeat. But what we’re seeing is is that consumers come in and stay at a higher you know, stay at a similar level as our existing portfolio, which is probably the most pleasant surprise. I think the other thing is the how relevant our playbook and repeatable our playbook tends to be market to market, geography to geography and and the support that we’re getting as we’re executing.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And then Howard, one of the things you were focused on when you stepped into the seat was increasing marketing spend. Can you talk a little bit about your marketing efforts and how you think about marketing from here? And then what types of returns are you seeking on your marketing investments?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. So, you know, our philosophy is we wanna obviously build our sales overnight, our brands over time. And that means that, you know, as we’re entering into these new geographies, we obviously wanna drive consumer awareness quickly so that people can try it. That tends to be a little bit more arm’s length in retail media and that sort of thing. And then we bring in our digital and social programs as well.

So we’ve been focused on things like connected TV. If you watch the playoffs last year in football, you might have seen some of our advertising a lot more digitally and social is more of our portfolio mix because it just makes sense for kinda given where we are. And and we are seeing tangible results. Right? If you look at our household penetration, we’ve we’ve actually are up a 120 basis points to almost a little over 49.

We have almost 2,000,000 more buyers, 1,900,000 more buyers over the last twelve months. And our again, our repeat rates are around 69%, all of which are giving us a great deal of encouragement that our message is resonating and that our product delivers.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. And then just switching gears to another topic, we get a lot of questions on is just GLP-one. If you can remind us what your team has seen to date in terms of GLP-one impacts on your portfolio and then how you think that impacts going forward?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. It it’s interesting. You know, what I would tell you is, you know, at this point, we haven’t seen a whole lot of of impact of GLP ones for a couple of reasons, would imagine. One is still usage is still relatively small here in The US because it’s both expensive and, you know, can be uncomfortable, right, as as consumers are using it. The question to me that we’re still trying to think through is, is this a diet or is this a lifestyle?

And we what we’ve at least we haven’t been able to study it long enough, but what we do see is that people who go on the on the the the drug tends to use it like a diet and rotate off. And if that’s the case, then I we suspect that the that the impact may be less than, you know, has been debated, but we just don’t know yet. Now I think if it ever gets to an oral, comes like a statin, then I think it will be a more interesting debate as to what that impact is, but it’s still in front of us. But the last thing I’ll say is is if if the consumer adoption becomes significant, as a marketer and as a consumer goods company, our job is to find a new unmet need that we can deliver against. So if that’s more protein or smaller packs or more satiety, then that’s what we’re gonna do.

We’re gonna address the trend as it reveals itself, and and we intend to fully compete and meet the needs of all consumers who wanna buy our products.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. But bottom line at this point, you guys don’t think you’re seeing much of an impact? Okay.

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: We haven’t yet.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. Okay. Now I’m gonna switch over to a couple financial questions. So, Bill, you’ve now been with a little over a month.

What attracted you to the company? Thank you for your question. You know,

Bill Kelly, EVP and CFO, Odds Brands: Ots is an incredible company with a wonderful legacy. You think about the strong brands, the innovation, the great people, really, I thought it was a great fit for my background, particularly as we want to continue to build and scale grow, this business, and I’ve had a lot of experiences in that within CPG. I also see specifically from my my skill set an opportunity to leverage technology, as well as, continue to improve on the financial side, and transform our systems and our and drive better support around insights to support the growth.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And then in terms of longer term algorithm, in late two thousand twenty three, your team introduced three year targets for a 4% to 5% organic sales growth CAGR and double digit adjusted e p EPS growth CAGR. How should we think about potential return to these type of growth rates on the top line as the bottom line is still you guys seem well positioned to achieve the bottom line targets?

Bill Kelly, EVP and CFO, Odds Brands: Yeah. Thank you for that. So we we reaffirmed, our 2025 outlook, low single digit organic sales, 6% to 10% adjusted EBITDA growth, and 10% to 15% adjusted EPS growth. And then we want to continue to approach the three times leverage mark to get the balance sheet in order. Our revenue is an outcome of the expectation that we will hold core volume share and grow, slightly better, volume share in expansion markets as we continue to have distribution gains and continue to support the brands.

Now we’ve shown that we are not solely reliant on the category to grow, and we remain confident in our long term goals. The productivity program is the driver. That fuel for growth, will continue to help us. We delivered 60,000,000 of that in year one, and that was ahead of our plan.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And then from a productivity perspective, so we’ve seen a clear step up in productivity, and we see growth from three percent to cost of goods sold to 6% last year, and you’re targeting another 6% again this year. Remind us of the key buckets underlying the improvement.

Bill Kelly, EVP and CFO, Odds Brands: Yeah. So, you know, the, just a quick re reminder. The original target was a 135,000,000. 60, as I said, delivered year one. We probably now track more toward the one fifty.

Our our execution delivery really builds our confidence as we meet and exceed those targets. In terms of recent milestones, the Rice distribution center consolidation, we put six warehouses into one, and we modernized our trip lines. You know, our average age improve on chip lines from thirty five years to fourteen years, and that drives efficiency, quality, and and really growth readiness. Our supply chain really trans transformation really positions us to continue that productivity and have margin expansion.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And then, you know, over I guess, whilst you’re all greedy, but, you guys got to 6%. What’s your team’s confidence in maybe even getting 6% in cost of goods sold. What’s your team’s confidence in driving a larger percent of cost of goods over time?

Bill Kelly, EVP and CFO, Odds Brands: You know, we’ll continue to to deliver on the programs that are in flight, and there is even more opportunity around automation and procurement, improvement and some logistics as well as network optimization. You know, the idea that our footprint has now consolidated from 15 plants to six excuse me, to eight, gives us a chance to really, improve on that. So we’re very confident to drive that productivity, and we’ll continue to use some of that fuel to invest and further our capabilities.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And then just on the leverage front, just remind us of the of the latest what you guys you know, what your latest leverage is. And I think you mentioned earlier, you guys are still on plan to get closer to three times. So if you can just update us on on the latest on the leverage front.

Bill Kelly, EVP and CFO, Odds Brands: Yeah. Our q one leverage is around four times. That reflects the normal seasonal working capital and and front loaded CapEx. You’ll see that be a familiar, number for us in the half, but we will continue to, target the approach to three times as, we unlock some of that working capital in the back half of the year. Our productivity savings, kick in, and we continue the revenue growth.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. And then I know we touched on m and a a bit in terms of better for you category, but just overall, where does m and a rank for the company in terms of priorities at this point?

Bill Kelly, EVP and CFO, Odds Brands: I think Howard has said this many times, you know, we look at everything, but we will remain very disciplined and selective. We continue to remain committed to the capital allocation priorities, which are unchanged, and that is organic growth is our number one priority, particularly with the significant geographic white space, still to capture. We will continue to pay down our debt. And and, you know, from M and A perspective, you know, we are good buyers to our history, and we’ve proven that. And we believe there is an attractive asset that we will be good owners of.

We are positioned to take, take a look at that as well. We’ll continue to protect our dividend, and, obviously, stock buyback could be a part of the allocation theory as we go forward.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. And then just from an opportunity perspective, like, now, just overall, what do guys see in the landscape? You know, I was at Expo West, I guess, a few months ago. Obviously, a lot of a lot of snacky brands there, but just curious overall what you’re just seeing from an opportunity perspective.

Bill Kelly, EVP and CFO, Odds Brands: Howard, you wanna take that?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. Look. I look. I I think we we there’s always all XOS is always awesome because it’s such a great forward thinking event. And, you know, and so it’s always a good place for our marketers to also go and and push their thinking.

You know? But we’re paying attention to all any assets that come, we will we’ll take a look at and read. But, again, to Bill’s point, to BK’s point, you know, getting making sure that we’re good owners and making sure that if that asset came to market, that we would we would actually be able to help that business achieve its full potential is really kind of the question that we look at. I’m not I’m not sure if there’s anything out there at the moment where we would say we have to have it, But, you know, we obviously will continue to be selective within our exist with within our with within our business and understand, you know, meat popcorn continue to be play

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: I already may have froze for a And we’re just gonna go back to the m and a question due to some audio difficulties. So Yeah. I guess, Howard, just from an m and a perspective, you know, just overall, what are you seeing right now from an opportunity perspective?

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Yeah. Look. I I you know, again, I I say I would tell you, we tend to look at everything because we wanna make sure we understand what’s out there. You know, again, BK made the comment of would we be a good owner? You know, meat and popcorn continue to be two two subcategories that we will continue to to look at and and try and see if there are opportunities for us.

But, you know, I don’t necessarily feel like at the moment that there is a brand out there that we necessarily, you know, can’t that there’s a brand out there that we have to have and that there are opportunities that we can’t do ourselves with the within our existing brand portfolio.

Rupesh Parikh, Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. Great. Well, that’s we’re out of time. So thanks, Howard, and thanks, Bill, for joining us today.

Howard Friedman, CEO, Odds Brands: Thanks, Rupesh. Good to see you.

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