Utz Brands at Barclays Conference: Supply Chain Transformation and Growth Plans

On Wednesday, 03 September 2025, Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) presented at the Barclays 18th Annual Global Consumer Staples Conference 2025. The company highlighted its strategic focus on supply chain transformation, productivity improvements, and future growth. While Utz reported strong sales growth and productivity gains, it also acknowledged challenges such as increased net leverage.

Key Takeaways

• Utz Brands is ahead of schedule on plant consolidation and expects mid-teens EBITDA growth in the second half of the year.
• The company achieved 6% savings in cost of goods sold (COGS) and plans to normalize productivity gains to 3%-4%.
• Boulder Canyon’s retail sales are projected to double to $200 million by year-end.
• Net leverage increased to 4.1 times but is expected to approach three times by fiscal year-end.
• Utz anticipates significant free cash flow acceleration in fiscal year 2026.

Financial Results

• Productivity Program: Achieved 6% COGS savings last year; plans to maintain 3%-4% productivity gains. The Grand Rapids facility closure is set for late Q4, with benefits expected this year and next.
• Capital Expenditures (CapEx): Spent $100 million last year, with similar spending expected this year. CapEx will decrease to $70-$79 million next year.
• Advertising and Consumer (A&C) Spending: Planning a 40% year-over-year increase in A&C spending, aiming for 2% of revenue by year-end, with a target range of 3%-4% over time.
• EBITDA: Expected to grow 100 basis points this year, with 57% of EBITDA delivered in the second half, up from 54% last year.
• Net Leverage: Increased to 4.1 times but expected to approach three times by fiscal year-end.

Operational Updates

• Boulder Canyon: Surpassed $100 million in retail sales last year, aiming for $200 million by year-end.
• Expansion Geographies: Achieved 18% distribution gains in expansion areas and 10% in core markets.
• Core Markets: Recorded both value and volume market share gains last quarter.
• Convenience Channel: Trends are improving, with expectations to stabilize by year-end.

Future Outlook

• Category Growth: The salty snack category is expected to normalize this year, with modest growth anticipated in 2026.
• Organic Sales Growth: The outlook for organic sales growth was raised to 2.5% or better for the full year.
• Free Cash Flow: Significant acceleration is expected in fiscal year 2026 as CapEx decreases.
• M&A Strategy: While open to acquisitions, Utz maintains high standards for potential deals and focuses on organic growth.

Q&A Highlights

• Retail partners have become more collaborative, challenging Utz to explore joint growth opportunities rather than proving growth potential.

For further details, please refer to the full conference call transcript below.

Full transcript - Barclays 18th Annual Global Consumer Staples Conference 2025:

Unidentified speaker: Both of you for being here with us. Yes. Thanks for having us. Sure.

B. K., CFO, Oetz: Good to see you.

Unidentified speaker: I guess normally, we’d start with sort of the category and top line trends, and I’m sure we’ll get to that shortly. But maybe we can start a little differently and talk about the supply chain transformation and CapEx cycle that really ramped up last year and continued into 2025. You’ve been outgrowing the category, partially driven by your investments in A and C and distribution that are funded by the supply chain productivity and CapEx. How do feel about the progress on the manufacturing network transformation and the path from here? And relative to other packaged food companies, I guess, does your supply chain stand in terms of efficiencies and whatnot at this stage?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. Look, I appreciate the question. I think we feel really good about the work we’ve been doing in the supply chain. And sort of over the last couple of years, if you went all the way back to our Investor Day, we basically explained that we had fifteen, sixteen plants total and that we thought that over time, we could actually drive that overall plant network down to become a little bit more to standard. And over that period of time, we also did a transaction where we sold a few plants and a couple of brands, and that actually necessitated us pulling forward some of the capital investments.

So we spent $100,000,000 last year, and we’re guiding to something similar this year and feel like we’re making a lot of progress and it’s translating into the productivity path that we’ve had. We’re 6% of COGS last year and we are on path to do the same again as we go into next year. I think when you get to the end of sort of 2026, the network will be relatively set for where we want to be, and then we’ll move more into a more maintenance and sort of standard capital structure. So far, good. I think we’ve done a lot of work to get there, and we’re very proud of what we’ve built and very proud of kind of where we are to be able to now start to drive the westward expansion in the geographies that you’re seeing.

Unidentified speaker: Understandably, the CapEx has been a bit of a drag on free cash and certainly represented a significant investment cycle. You mentioned you also accelerated CapEx. So what’s the CapEx path from here?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. Look, I think it’s a very fair question. I think we talked about peak CapEx this past year, and obviously, it is impacting sort of the cash flow as we’ve gone. I think it is, again, important to know that we’re a couple of years ahead of schedule on that plant consolidation, and we’ve said that we’re at sort of at peak CapEx as we’re in this year. I think what you’ll see as we go into next year and the years beyond is you’ll start to see a step down in the amount of capital that we’re spending.

And I think it’s fair to say there will be a significant step down next year. I think CapEx will probably start with a seven next year. And then the year after, you’ll see the next step down after that. Great.

Unidentified speaker: And since we’re on the topic of, I guess, supply chain transformation, can we touch on the productivity program? It will be about 6% of cost of goods in 2025. This will be the second consecutive year near this level of savings. How much opportunity remains with respect to productivity? And should investors be thinking about the next year or two being around that elevated 6% level?

And where lie the greatest opportunities from here?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. So I think I’ll start, and then I’ll hand it over to B. K. To give you a little bit more. If you went back to my first year in the role, we wound up getting to about 4% cost of goods, and then we stepped up to 6% last That was from and prior to

Unidentified speaker: you being there, it was like 1%.

Howard, Oetz: Yes. I think we finished at 2% the first the year before me. And so obviously, a lot of early stages in terms of the productivity program. And we’re not doing anything exotic per se. We started to look at our procurement structure.

We started to look at our costing models, and we actually were able to drive efficiency within the box and then with the number of boxes that we went to. So that stepped up from 46%, 6% again this year. And then I think we’ll start to move toward maturity, but I think you’re starting to see the benefit of all that capital and the work we’ve been doing in building capabilities in order to actually start to deliver the gross margin expansion I think we all aspired and hoped for in the category that then funds the A and C and capability building. But BK?

B. K., CFO, Oetz: Yes, sure. So I think the first thing is the 6% was quite a remarkable number for us, and we’re very proud of that. I think it’s really driven, as Howard just said, around the capital. If you go back to even the second half of last year and the first half of this year, our CapEx really ramped up. It will ramp down here in the second half, and as Howard said, it’ll moderate significantly next year.

But those benefits really drove the productivity piece. Also and more discreetly, we did announce the facility closure of Grand Rapids that will happen here in late Q4, and we’ll see some of those benefits this year and some of those benefits and some benefits next year. But I think that’s been very, very helpful. I think we’ll normalize productivity around 3% to 4%. We’ll always be able to cover our inflation.

And as Howard said, we’ll be able to invest in our brands appropriately. But I think in 2026, we’ll talk about those building blocks when we get there, but we may see productivity just be a bit elevated off of that baseline.

Unidentified speaker: Great. Maybe it’s a good time to transition to sort of the category and sales trends. I think a good place to start is what’s driving the well above category growth rates at Oetz. I guess despite the continued struggles for the broader salty snack category, which we’ll get into later, the company has been able to deliver relatively robust organic sales growth. Two key drivers of this outgrowth, right, are Boulder Canyon and the expansion geographies.

Maybe walk us through opportunities from these two key levers going forward.

Howard, Oetz: Yes. I mean so look, I think we’re very happy with our top line this year. We got to a we’ve gotten to sort of a rhythm where we’re starting to grow the way I think we all would have expected to. In years past, we did some portfolio shaping and some cleanup, which I think is now allowing our Power Brands and our brands overall to that growth to come through. Boulder Canyon, obviously, has been a great contributor to our top line sales, and it’s sort of a perfect combination of the trend around non seed oil, a trend toward consumer shopping for premium and also looking for value.

And so we promised that we would get to $100,000,000 by the end of next year. We passed $100,000,000 at the end of last year. And look, we expect to be closer to $200,000,000 as we get into the year end. So obviously, a business that has doubled over the last period of time and continues to be growing really nicely with both its natural channel and natural organic channel, but also entering into the conventional channel and growing both velocity and distribution simultaneously in both. So that is something we have a lot of high hopes for and expectations.

On the expansion geographies, look, our promise was always to do our best to hold the core and then to be able to expand and grow more. And a wise man once used that expression, and we have used it internally since. And what you see right now is our distribution gains in our core have been around 10% in TDPs, and in expansion geographies, it’s been more like 18%. And that’s been bringing our UTS brand, Boulder Canyon on the border and ZAPS into new markets and be able to begin to demonstrate that our model can repeat itself and the success we’ve had in Florida can actually transcend as we move westward, which you can certainly see in the growth rate. And I think we’ve got several more years of growth to come in that regard, regardless of what the category ultimately does.

Yes.

Unidentified speaker: It’s an idiosyncratic driver here to the story, for sure, that we don’t see for many of the companies that we follow in the space. Maybe we can dive a bit deeper into the both of these. I guess regarding Boulder, brand, as you mentioned, is already blown by its initial target to be $100,000,000 retail sales brand. I guess in the next three years, how big could this brand be? And what would sort of be the key drivers of this outcome?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. So I probably the couple of things that we are we’re most excited about Boulder is, again, I think if you try the product, it’s a non seed oil, but there is no taste sacrifice. So you can feel great about serving it. It actually performs for the consumer that wants that and there isn’t something that you’re like, it’s great, it’s not as good as its conventional counterpart, it actually performs pretty much identically. And but more importantly, the brand itself has actually demonstrated some stretch.

So we were able to enter into cheese balls. Last year, we entered into Tortilla Chips. We’ve actually expanded the range of offerings in Wavy, and we brought in some flavors as well, etcetera, sour cream this year. And it continues to perform in every channel that we move into. It’ll be $200,000,000 this year.

Could it be $500,000,000 I’m not quite sure we are ready to say that, but I think we believe that there’s a lot of upside yet to go on that brand, and it will be a growing and much more significant piece of our portfolio as we continue to execute. Not surprisingly, the success of the brand has attracted competition to the avocado oil space. I guess,

Unidentified speaker: how do you view the more competitive landscape? And how do you remain advantaged in this space?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. Look, I think the root of our advantage is always going to be in the speed and agility with which we can react to the environment that we’re in. And I think if you look at the competition, we love competition. We think the competition is healthy and important for the category. And I don’t think that this space is yet by any means limited at this point in terms of how much more area that avocado oil can grow.

So I think as competition comes in and introduces other consumers to the space and to the benefits of the oil, I think as the number one player in the segment right now, I think that does nothing but help us as we continue to drive adoption.

Unidentified speaker: Yes. Maybe switching gears to the white space distribution opportunities and expansion markets. At this stage, what’s the key opportunity? Is it expanding the company’s presence in FDM channels with new customers and increased shelf space? Or is it expanding into other channels like club or convenience?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. It largely depends on what geography you’re talking about. I think if you were to look at somewhere like Florida or some of our expansion geographies that are starting to mature, then clearly, it is continuing to spread the channels that are being sold in. We typically will start with a in the food channel, we enter into a market because there are large anchor customers who want and support our brands and give us the support that we’re looking for. And then over a little bit of time, start to build out and proliferate into classes of trade.

So C store, as you know, is a place where we’ve talked a lot about over the last couple of years being an area of attention. It has been improving for us. But clearly, there’s some more work to do. As you look at expansion geographies, really food and club and mass are the places that we look to go, typically entering with food and then building out an IO network and then filling in the rest of the channels because it tends to be the place where we can start to drive the revenue certainty we need to get our independent operators in and stood up. In expansion markets where the company has cycled initial distribution gains, so Florida as an example, I mean what

Unidentified speaker: does growth look like? And how have you used that data to convince retailers and other new expansion markets to sort of take on the brand where it’s new to that space?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. I mean, obviously, Florida has been a wonderful success for us. It’s something that I inherited when I joined the company. And what we have been able to see is we first got chain wide in a large retailer. And then actually, over time, we’re able to not only build the original core assortment, but broaden the assortment and bring more of our portfolio in, be able to invest more meaningfully in some of the merchandising and co promotional opportunities that, that merchant has and then build out infrastructure around it.

We bought the IO network or the national distribution rights back last year as you look in Florida. And that has, I think, been a proven model for us. The nice thing is in the 30 markets we’re in, we’re growing in all 30 and we’re taking share. But a lot of the retailers that we would want to talk to about entering into new geographies, we actually have existing business with them in other geographies. So they’re actually able to look at their own data.

And it’s much more about talking about the shelf space and talking about the assortment and getting the preconditions right to be able to enter in and then continue to advance. So it’s a much better story where like we can all debate a lot of things. But when everyone is looking at

Unidentified speaker: the same data and it’s coming from them, it’s been very helpful. Great. Maybe shifting gears to core markets. This past quarter, the company delivered both value and volume market share gains in core markets, where it already has very strong market share. I guess for the first time in several quarters, that was the case.

So what enabled this outcome? And would you expect this dynamic to continue going forward?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. So you’re right. I think there are a couple of things that were happening in the core in the last quarter and a couple of things that we’ve been talking about historically. One is around this notion around portfolio shaping, where we are actually able to we’ve now brought in our Power four brands. If you look at On the Border or Zaps or Boulder Canyon, all of them had significant distribution gains in the quarter.

So we’re optimizing our mix, which was always part of the story. And then the second is our convenience store channel trends, which had been a little softer over the last, call it, several quarters actually started to improve. They’re not yet where we want them to be, but convenience store tends to be supportive to our core market share. So we wanted to be at a zero. We were at basically 0.2 points of volume share in the quarter, and that was actually a was a welcome outcome

Unidentified speaker: of all the work we’ve been doing there. The white space opportunity that we’ve talked about in expansion markets is pretty clear. How would distribution opportunity that’s still available in core?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. I think it’s I think our core markets are actually, again, have quite a bit to go because when we talk about the core, what we’re really talking about is the OTS core, right? We’re talking about the OTS brand and kind of the distribution that it has more so than we’re talking about sort of the remaining Power three and some of the other SKUs. So we have an opportunity to continue to bring Boulder Canyon, OTB and Zaps in. We have continued opportunity to bring innovation in as well and to also play the price ladder with some of our assortment.

So I think there’s still quite a bit of distribution opportunities for us within the core, which are really noncore for the rest of our branded portfolio. And then obviously, the reciprocal is true as you think about the West.

Unidentified speaker: And I know that the summer back to school is a key time frame for the salty snack category overall. What have you seen of late in terms of category performance? And what is that seeing in terms of the competitive environment?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. I mean I think we are the competitive environment has actually been pretty rational for us. I mean you’re not seeing any sort of unusual activity from any of the competitors, which has actually been great to see. I think that this is a category that has historically been built on brand building, marketing, innovation and then a rational promotional environment, and I think that is what you’re seeing right now. And I think for us, that’s always a positive tailwind when everybody is competing to build this business and build this category for the long term.

Unidentified speaker: Salty snack category obviously has remained sluggish, probably a lot longer than anyone would have initially anticipated and I think then longer than anyone really would like to see. I guess what do you expect from the category for the remainder of this year? And while early, are there reasons to believe the category could return to some modest form of growth in 2026? And then what are you expecting from the pricing environment in the back half of this year?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. Look, so I mean I think we’ve talked about this a little bit. I actually have a I’m pretty positive on the salty snack category overall. I think if you look at the metrics that really truly matter over time, household penetration continues to grow, which would at least suggest to me and to us that consumers and shoppers want these items in their pantry. And I think that we’ve been a zero to one price and a three to four I do this each time, a zero to one volume and a three to four price category.

I think, obviously, when inflation happened, the category got quite a bit of its ahead of itself. And I think we’re just seeing some of that kind of work through as we can, again, continue to build back into what builds this category. I think as you look at the back half, last year we’re anniversarying, I think, a much more competitive environment. So there was a sort of a step up in promotional activity in H2 of last year that kind of more or less carried over pretty consistently into H1 of this year. There was no sort of incremental step higher.

And so I think you’re going to see a category that starts to normalize a bit as we go into the rest of the year is kind of what I’m expecting. And then I think longer term, I do think that being able to put price into this category is really about driving consumer engagement and value in the brands and the category that we support.

Unidentified speaker: Last quarter, the company raised its outlook for organic sales growth for the full year from up low single digit to up 2.5% or better due to the first half sort of outperformance. What came in better than you expected in the first half? And the guidance implies a bit of a sequential deceleration in trends from the 3% result in the first half. What would be causing that?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. So I’ll start, and I’ll give it to B. K. Look, I think if you look at our building blocks, we had said at least 2.5% or better. And if you think about the distribution gains that we’ve had and sort of the strength of Boulder Canyon, I think we continue to feel pretty good about that our drivers are in place.

But the competitive environment is dynamic and the category continues to evolve. And I think that we would expect that we should have a pretty good quarter and a pretty good year. But we’re, I think, continuing to just watch what’s happening and watch the adoption. PK?

B. K., CFO, Oetz: Yes. I think that’s a good point. We did say 2.5% or better. And what drove that is we thought we had some room, given the favorable lapse that we’ll have in the second half here that Howard just mentioned. Howard expressed our view on the category, but I think overall, the category does have a bit of uncertainty to it.

We want to continue to monitor that. And then the consumer macro trends are a bit of a debate as well. But I know everyone looks at our scanner data, and so I’ll let that speak for itself, but we feel pretty positive on the top line for the year. Yes.

Unidentified speaker: And maybe shifting to profitability. So on the EBITDA side, implied in the full year outlook is the expectation in the second half for EBITDA to grow at sort of

Howard, Oetz: a mid teens level year over year,

Unidentified speaker: which would represent nearly 200 basis points of year over year EBITDA margin expansion. I guess what are the key drivers to this level of margin expansion in the back half?

B. K., CFO, Oetz: Yes. I think the first piece for us is that we expect EBITDA to grow 100 bps for the year, and our midpoint of our guide confirms that. EBITDA in our business model is always a bit back half loaded. I think last year, we delivered 54% of EBITDA in the second half. This year, that number, to your point, is up higher at 57%.

I think the productivity gains we’ve talked about is really the big driver for us. The CapEx we spent in the second half of last year and the first half of this year really is going to drive the productivity. And the things that we have in terms of our ability to be more efficient in the factory, putting in better equipment around palletizers, taking out some of the labor pieces with automation. Those have all been very helpful. And this year, particularly, we had a discrete item in Q4 as we talked about our Grand Rapids closure.

So all those will ramp nicely into a strong EBITDA close for the year.

Unidentified speaker: Got it. And following a year in which the company expanded its A and C spend by some 60%, Fitch is planning for another sort of 40% year over year increase this year. As a percent of sales, what level of A and C will the company exit the year with? And do you still expect that target to be in a sort of 3% to 4% of sales range over time? And when would you expect to reach that level?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. I think the first thing I always want to reiterate as we think about spending is A and C, we’re a branded business, and we want to continue to build and have healthy brands, but it’s not an article of faith. We want we expect to save money before we spend money. And so as the productivity has continued to ramp, it actually gave us some room last year to accelerate that. Nancy.

We are committed to get to, let’s call it, 3% to 4% over time, and that’s sort of the sequential 40% that you’re talking to. I think we’ll end this year probably closer to around 2% of revenue. So we still have several more years of opportunity. And we talk about margin momentum and materiality. We want to spend it on our biggest businesses that we make money on that actually have momentum.

And as long as we can continue to do that, we think that the returns will be positive until we get to sort of a more normal state. Yes.

Unidentified speaker: Net leverage ticked up to 4.1 times this quarter, but it’s maintained its expectation for net leverage to approach three times at fiscal year end. I guess what happened in the quarter with respect to leverage? And why did us feel comfortable reaffirming its guidance?

B. K., CFO, Oetz: Yes. I think that’s right, Andrew. Our leverage was higher. We had an opportunity to accelerate some of the CapEx spending, and that was driving our productivity program. So we took advantage of that.

Also, the seasonality opportunity in our business where we were able to build some additional working capital will be helpful. I think our original target at our Investor Day was to be at three times net leverage at 2026. We did update that guidance to say we approach 3x here in 2025. We think we’re on track for that. Free cash flow will be the key.

I talked about the EBITDA ramping up being helpful to us. Howard also mentioned that CapEx is at our peak, and that will step down here in the second half. And I’ll walk through building blocks of the future as we guide into next year. But it will be a very important focus for us to really improve our free cash flow yield. We’re comfortable with our cash conversion cycle.

It’s pretty performs very well for us. We think we can improve it on top of that. And then obviously, CapEx will be a really big driver of that as we go forward. And we’ll do other things that you expect us to do around managing working capital and structurally reducing it. We have an integrated business plan program that will reduce inventory levels for us and all the things that you expect us to do around receivables and payables.

Unidentified speaker: But we feel very comfortable with our approach here. And realize you’re not getting into specifics about next year at this point, but maybe can you dimensionalize what sort of free cash acceleration we could see in fiscal twenty twenty six?

B. K., CFO, Oetz: Yes. It’s probably too early for us to talk about it. But as Howard said, we expect CapEx to come down meaningfully. He said, we’ll have a seven handle. That’s quite a bit different than the $100,000,000 we’ll spend this year as we confirmed at our Q2 call.

And we think, along with that, our OpEx spend and our onetime friction costs will come down as well. So we do think there is some opportunity here to drive free cash flow. This is an important part of our story, we think, in the future, and we’ll come back and talk more about it. But our free cash flow yield will be a very big focus for us.

Unidentified speaker: Okay. Great. The company has been pretty active in the M and A market over the years. Took a bit of a pause the past couple of years as it focused on sort of debt paydown. How much was the slower pace of M and A for it’s a reflection of leverage rather than maybe timing of deals?

And should investors expect that to pick back up again? And what kind of assets would the company even target at this stage?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. Look, I mean, I think a couple of things that we’ve maintained. We’ll look at everything, but we’ve always had a high hurdle for things that we would be interested in acquiring. It always starts with do we think we would be good owners of it. And if there had been a got to have it asset, then we would have looked at the balance sheet and the full force of what we could do.

But obviously, paying down our debt was a priority. I think the more important thing is that we don’t necessarily need an inorganic transaction to meet our growth goals. We have so much growth opportunities as you think about our expansion geographies, our A and C opportunities, the ability to build out our DSD network that M and A has an even higher hurdle because it has to, by definition, take some of those resources away from the organic opportunity. I think as you look forward, I think there are a couple of areas. We’ve talked about meat and popcorn historically.

We are We tend to be good buyers after synergies. We’re in the mid single digits in terms of what paying for it, and we’ll continue to look. But I feel very good that our top line momentum and the top line that we’re chasing would only be enhanced if we were to do a deal, but it’s not something by any stretch we need to do right now.

Unidentified speaker: Salsa and dips and partner brands have been sort of material headwinds to the top line growth the past few What’s your expectation for each of those going forward? And I guess when can we get to a point where they’re really no longer a drag, which will only accelerate the type of growth that you’re seeing on the top line from where it is already?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. I mean, for context, we’re talking about 12% of the business, right, and sort of equally split between dips and salsa and partner brands. Obviously, on partner brands, I’m not really qualified to say what the people that we are carrying products for are going to do. So let me spend more of the time on dips and salsa. Last year, we had a distribution change.

We had a large retailer who consolidated. We were in the Hispanic set and the conventional set. They consolidated into the conventional set. And so we had to lap that. That largely is past us through the end of the second quarter, leaked a little bit into the third quarter.

Then we have a little bit of merchandising timing in terms of some club channel activity that we had a year ago. But we think that those businesses are important, and we will restore them to growth. Right now, the other piece of it is, is that it’s an area where the margins are not particularly strong, and we’ve been focused on margin improvement and pricing in that subsegment. But I think if you were to look at the more recent scanner data, you’re starting to see some improvement in those businesses, and we would expect that to continue.

Unidentified speaker: Got it. How is UTS performing in the convenience channel of late? I know this is an area where the company still sees opportunity, but it’s been slower than desired. And I know part of that is the overall channel, but then part of it’s UTS’ performance within it. So where do we go from here in C stores?

Howard, Oetz: I think that’s right. I think we had some assortment management choices and some distribution losses a couple of years ago that disproportionately affected the business. So while the convenience store while the convenience channel had actually slowed, we slowed even more. I think if you were to look at the most recent periods, there are a couple of the larger chain accounts where you see the distribution gains and you actually see top line growth. And I think the channel overall is improving.

So while we’re not yet to bright, I think you’re seeing an improvement in the trend, and we would expect to be around flattish before the end of the year. Great. Bill, having now been in

Unidentified speaker: the CFO seat for about a quarter or so, I mean, what have been your biggest takeaway so far? Because you’ve been in a number of CFO roles in the industry, both public and private.

B. K., CFO, Oetz: Yes. I’m happy to be at it. It’s been a great opportunity for me. I think my first observation is that we have a very clear strategy, and it’s working. I think as we talked about using our productivity gains to drive our wonderful brands and expansion, that’s on track.

I think the other the work is that the team’s work on productivity, in particular, has really been best in class from my perspective, and the brand building opportunities are very strong there as well. And then finally, for me personally, I’m working with the team to bring forward just new capabilities, particularly in the areas around technology, particularly in the support functions and around the DSD model. I think we can be helpful there as we go forward. But just thrilled to be here. Obviously, I’ve known Howard years now, started days at Kraft Heinz, and it’s been a good opportunity for me.

Howard, maybe in our sort of remaining moments. I mean when you were

Unidentified speaker: first brought on board, the thinking was that this would be a new stage of growth for us, moving from more of a DSD led sort of push model to more of a marketing and innovation driven, more of a hybrid consumer pushpull model. Obviously, environment has changed meaningfully in the last couple of years. But I guess how would you characterize Let’s just performance in these areas over the last couple of years? And do you have confidence that the company is set up for continued volume gains even when distribution white space opportunities sort of eventually wind down?

Howard, Oetz: Yes. Look, I think when I got here, there were a couple of mandates that we were trying to build. And I think this was an incredibly well run company, and it was a company that had been built over a generation of pushing into new geographies and moving quickly and being willing to take entrepreneurial risks in the pursuit of and building scale. And then the question was how do you then take that scale and make it really beneficial. And so I do think that we’ve always said, I think, you call it seventy-thirty push versus pull or sixty-forty, that over time, once we get to the point where all of the consumers understand and get out of the availability, people have to want and desire these brands.

And so spend a lot of time building a marketing function and building analytic capabilities and forecasting capabilities, revenue management, all the things that you would expect to see. And I think what I’m particularly proud of is that our communication plan is on track and that our innovation agenda is also on track. Once you get to national distribution, you can actually take bigger bets in innovation and growth. And I think we’re pretty much where we want to be with those capabilities, and we’re starting to kind of show it in kind of in our results and kind of where we are. I think our brand builders are doing a great job of understanding the consumer in ways they haven’t before.

We were talking about lemonade chips earlier with some folks, and it was something that I probably would not have done on my own, but they had evidence and data and facts that said the consumer would actually respond really well, has clearly been a wonderful success for us in the consumer response. And the buzz that we got for it was great. We’re much better in digital and online now than we’ve ever been before. And we still have a relatively modest A and C budget with an opportunity

Unidentified speaker: whole lot more. Yes. I’m curious, as one of the only sort of large mainstream salty snack players that’s really driving growth in a more sluggish category right now, how I’m curious how your meetings with your top to top meetings with key retail customers have gone as a key player that’s driving growth for them. How do those conversations go? And are you able to sort of take this moment and say, hey, we’re the one driving growth.

That should translate into either more TDPs or better shelf placement. I don’t know, maybe some examples or whatever you can share on that front.

Howard, Oetz: Yes. Look, I think, for sure, the conversation is different, right? I think when we if you went back a few years ago, the question was, are you a regional brand and can you move westward? And the answer we had was, yes, we can move westward, and we’ve done that. I think we were growing Boulder Canyon and could you actually get to a number one share position in natural, and we did that.

And so I think that the retailers are now much more willing to give us the challenge of what else can we do to grow together as opposed to prove to us that you can grow. And that, I think, is manifesting itself in participation in bigger programs with them. We’re a nice sized business, but there are programs that we’re being included in that I’m not necessarily sure that our size in the category would have necessarily demanded a couple of years back. And you’re certainly seeing them giving us more distribution space, which is the highest compliment any merchant can give you is to say, I’m going put more of your products on the shelf. So I think from here, the biggest difference is we’re being asked our opinion, and we’re being asked to actually demonstrate some category leadership that we’ve spent three years trying to build to be ready for those questions.

And we’re when you went from being in the mid tier to a moving toward a top tier supplier, the expectations are that you’ll have a point of view and that you’ll help drive the growth. And our retailers have been and our IOs have been incredible partners. Great.

Unidentified speaker: All right. I think that’s a great point to take it over to the breakout session. Thank you both for being here. Please join me in thanking Howard and Bill for being here. Thank you.

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