Good morning to our call participants in the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, those who are calling in . This is the conference call for the second quarter results of Del Monte Pacific, or DMPL, for FY 2021 ending October. Representing Del Monte in this call are Cito Alejandro, Chief Operating Officer of DMPL, Parag Sachdeva, Chief Financial Officer of DMPL, Greg Longstreet, Chief Executive Officer of Del Monte Foods, DMFI. This is Iggy Sison, Chief Corporate Officer of DMPL. Before we start the call, may we request everyone to please mute his phones? Thank you. Parag Sachdeva will now present our second quarter results.
Hi. Good morning, everyone in Asia, and good evening or good afternoon in the U.S. I will start with slide four. Just to reiterate, on 30th April 2020, the group recognized the sale of a 12% stake in Del Monte Philippines, and started recognizing this as non-controlling interest on 1st May 2020. In addition, DMPL's effective stake in Del Monte Foods, Inc increased to 93.6% starting mid-May 2020, and henceforth recognized the 6.4% on controlling interest. These two comprise the NCI line in the P&L. Net profit or loss is net of the NCI. On slide five, second quarter highlights. Group sales grew by 11.6% due to higher consumption of healthy shelf-stable food at home, with U.S. sales up 12.9% and Philippine sales expanded by 10.4%.
Del Monte Pacific delivered EBITDA of $94.4 million and net profit of $21.9 million, a complete turnaround from losses last year due to one-off expenses. Pleased to report that there were no one-off expenses or items that were recognized this period. Del Monte Philippines generated a net income of $23.9 million, while Del Monte Foods achieved a net profit of $9.1 million, driven by increased sales and improved gross margin. Reduced group to $1.5 billion from $1.7 billion, gearing was improved from 3.6 x equity to 2.6x. Slide six on the outlook. Just wanted to touch on a few highlights. Aside from the DMPL base business, DMFI is also well-positioned to improve performance in fiscal year 2021 with better sales mix and focused management of costs. We do not anticipate material one-off items in the coming fiscal year.
The DMPL group is expected to return to profitability in fiscal year 2021, barring unforeseen circumstances. On slide seven, we present the group results summary. Sales of $623.5 million for the quarter, as mentioned before, is an increase of 11.6%. U.S. sales up 12.9%, Philippines higher by 3.9% in local currency and 10.4% in U.S. dollar terms. S&W brand in Asia declined by 10.3%, mainly due to lower sales of fresh pineapple in Asia. JV in India declined by 3.2% in local currency as B2B business did get impacted by COVID-19. EBITDA of $94.4 million, up 35.8% from $69.5 million due to higher volume and better sales mix in U.S. and Philippines. Really getting a lift from pandemic-driven higher consumption of trusted, healthy, and shelf-stable products. Our operating profit, in line with EBITDA of $67.7 million, was up 43.4%.
Net profit, in line with operating profit of $21.9 million, is up 37.2% from $15.9 million. Just to remind, it does include the impact from minority interest changes explained on slide four. There are no one-off items this quarter. All figures above are versus prior year quarter, excluding one-off items last year. In terms of non-recurring expenses, this is just to remind on what we incurred last year. This year, as I mentioned, there are no one-off costs. Last year, we did incur a significant cost of $76.8 million on a pre-tax basis, and out of which $75.5 million was towards the closure sale of four production facilities. I'm pleased to report this has all been completed, and the sale closure of all the four production facilities was executed by the end of October.
Production at the rationalized facilities has been transitioned to other production, DMFI production facilities in the U.S., as well as to the strategic packers. The sale proceeds from the sale of four plants was approximately $27 million. On slide nine, we'll share more detailed results on a reported basis. Second quarter sales at $623.5 is 11.6% higher, and it's driven by higher sales in the U.S., Philippines, and S&W Packaged sales in Asia. Of course, to a large extent driven by the pandemic. This will be explained more in the turnover analysis. Gross profit at $159.7 million, higher by $25.6 million, driven by higher volume. Gross margin at 25.6%, higher by 160 basis points, led by lower trade spend and improved sales mix both in the U.S. and the base business.
Margin for the base business improved by almost 270 basis points, and for DMFI by 160 basis points during the same period. EBITDA of $94.4, up 35.8% on a recurring basis, mainly due to increase in volume, improved sales mix, and lower trade spend. Last year included one-off costs as explained on slide eight, and hence a complete turnaround and an increase of $101.7 million versus last year in profitability. Just to remind everyone that due to change in accounting of leased assets, the increased depreciation versus last quarter is just to the tune of $2.6 million. OI of $67.7, up 0.4% on a recurring basis. A complete turnaround again on a reported basis with an increase of $97.3 million, very much in line with EBITDA. Net finance expense, financing cost of $27.9 million reflects higher interest cost driven by higher coupon rate on high-yield bonds issued in the U.S.
DMPL's share in FieldFresh joint venture in India was a loss of $0.2 million, which is an improvement versus last year, reflecting the recovery from the pandemic impact, and also last year included strategic investments in marketing. Higher tax expense due to net loss before tax last year. Net debt, again, pleased to report that at $1.46 billion, lower by $274 million due to significant improvement in cash flow from operations both in fiscal year 2020 and fiscal 2021. Gearing ratio, which follows the net debt at 2.6 x, lower by 1x , mainly driven by significantly lower loans due to higher cash flow from operations, plus higher shareholders' equity as well. Slide 10, an update on the bond issuance that got executed end of October. We successfully raised PHP 6.47 billion worth of fixed-rated bonds.
The issuance, which consisted of three-year bonds at 3.484% per annum interest and five-year bonds at 3.7563% per annum, they were oversubscribed. Our credit rating, as mentioned in the last quarter's update for this bond is AAA, and is the highest rating assigned by the Philippine Rating Services Corporation. The proceeds of the offering were used to refinance existing loans with lower costing fund and longer maturities. Slide 11. We'll talk about the turnover analysis. Our Americas business constitutes 72% of the total group sales, higher by 12.9% in the second quarter to $450.8 million, mainly driven by higher volume due to increase in demand from COVID-19 across categories and also higher USDA sales. DMFI benefited in the category and segments with strong leadership positions as consumers turn to trusted names.
If you look at our market share on 52 and 13-week, our share growth outpaced category growth across all major categories except for one. New products contributed to 7.4% to DMFI's retail and food service sales in the second quarter. Asia Pacific sales in the first quarter increased by 10.1% to $166.5 million from $151.2 million, mainly due to growth in all major segments, including Philippines, S&W Packaged, and recovery of fresh pineapple sales as well. Sales in the Philippine domestic market was up both in PHP and USD terms by 3.9% and 10.4% respectively, mainly due to higher volume both in general and modern trade, favorable sales mix, and sales price variance. Group continued to progress with distribution transition in general trade coming from FY 2020. We'll provide a quick summary of our first half results. Sales of $1 billion, up 10.9%.
U.S. sales, again up double-digit at 13.1%. Philippines, higher by 10% in local currency and 15.3% in US dollar terms. S&W-branded sales in Asia declined 14.4%, mainly due to lower sales of fresh pineapple in North Asia. Our JV in India declined by 20.8% in local currency as B2B business, which is a significant part of the operations, did get impacted by COVID-19. As mentioned, we are on the recovery path, and particularly our B2C business and e-commerce business is doing pretty well. EBITDA of $136.8 million, up 26.4% from $108.2 million due to higher volume and better sales mix in U.S. and Philippines, getting a lift from pandemic-driven higher consumption of trusted, healthy, and shelf-stable products. Operating profit, as you would have expected, at $88.4 million, also grew significantly in line with EBITDA.
Net profit of $18.6 million in the first half is down by 7.3% on an organic basis as compared to last year. Just to remind everyone, this year does include the impact from minority interest changes that have been explained on slide four. Pleased to report there are no one-off costs in this first half. All figures above in the slide are versus prior year first half, and they exclude one-off items from last year's results as well. On a reported basis, we'll share with you a more detailed performance review for the group. Our H1 sales at $1.04 billion, up 10.9% from higher sales in U.S., Philippines, and S&W Packaged sales in Asia, driven by the pandemic. We'll talk about it more in the turnover analysis. Gross profit at $253.9 million, higher by almost $29 million, driven by higher volume, better sales mix.
Pleased to report that gross margin at 24.5% is higher by 40 basis points, led by lower trade spend and improved sales mix, both in the U.S. and the base business, offset partly by higher pack cost from prior year inventory sold in the first half in the U.S. Margin for the base business improved by almost 260 basis points. EBITDA of $136.8 million is up significantly from $29.4 million, mainly due to increase in gross profit as explained above, and reminding everyone that last year also included one-off costs, as explained in slide eight. Increased depreciation from change in accounting of leased assets is $10 million in fiscal 2021. OI of $88.4 million, up 27% on a recurring basis, and again, a complete turnaround on a reported basis with an increase of close to $100 million.
Net finance expense, financing cost of $52.4 million reflects higher interest costs, driven by higher coupon rate on high-yield bonds issued in the U.S. Our DMPL share in the FieldFresh joint venture in India was a loss of $0.9 million, but contained, and lower than last year due to lower sales for food service and key accounts, which have been impacted by COVID-19. Higher tax expense last year includes Del Monte Philippines declaring a dividend to its parent, which was taxed at 15% and amounted to $39.6 million. We have already talked about net debt, significant improvement due to improvement in cash flow from operations in fiscal 2020 and 2021. On slide 15, we'll close it with the turnover analysis.
Americas constituted almost 70% of the total group sales and was higher by 13.1% in the first half to $723.4 million, mainly driven by higher volume due to increase in demand from COVID-19 across categories. We benefited in the categories and segments with strong leadership positions, and new products ended up contributing to 7.5% to DMFI's branded retail and food service sales in the first half. Asia Pacific sales in this half increased by 7.7% to $302.4 million from $280.8 million, driven by Philippines and S&W sales of shelf-stable packaged products, partly offset by lower sales of fresh pineapples in China from lower demand attributed to COVID-19. I'm sure Cito will talk more about that as part of the business update.
Sales in the Philippines domestic market were up in both peso and dollar terms by 10% and 15.3% respectively, mainly due to higher volume both in general and modern trade, very much in line with what you saw in second quarter. Also, the sales mix ended up being favorable with higher sales to retail plus positive price variance due to lower trade spends and also some increase that we would have taken in line with inflation. The strong retail growth was driven primarily by the beverage category and the culinary segments as consumers continue to prepare more meals at home. Europe sales declined at $10.8 million by 24%, mainly from lower sales of beverages. With that, I would hand it over to Greg for an update on the U.S. business.
Thank you, Parag. We'll now turn to.
Can we just have a question?
Slide 17. Oh, yes?
We're using net income and net profit interchangeably. Are they the same?
Sorry. Yes. Can we entertain the questions later, George? When we're done.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Can we do the presentation now?
Yeah.
Okay. Sorry about that.
Thank you. Sorry about that.
Okay. Go ahead, Greg.
No problem. Okay. On slide 17, what we'll see is a review of our market share leadership in the U.S. This data reflects A.C. Nielsen EQ volume share from all outlets for the latest three months ending October 31st. As you will see, we maintain our share leadership, our number one share position in the largest category, our canned vegetable category, a strong number two position in canned fruit, a growing number two position in fruit snacks, and a growing position in canned tomato as well. Our market share for canned vegetables, fruit, and tomato was temporarily impacted during the quarter, particularly in the months of September and October by some out of stocks due to very strong demand, COVID-driven demand.
Consumers during this time of the pandemic have continued to choose trusted brands, in the U.S. marketplace to help them prepare more meals at home and seek healthy snacking and healthy food choices. Del Monte is committed to driving the long-term growth of our business by investing in building our brands, bringing differentiated and innovative products to market, and expanding our distribution channels. On the next slide 18, we'll take a look at our second quarter results. Del Monte Foods' second quarter sales improved by 13% to $446.7 million due to higher branded retail sales of 21% arising from the pandemic. Consumers are choosing to stay at home. They're preparing meals and in some cases, learning how to cook and snacking on our trusted products for healthy shelf-stable vegetable, fruits, tomato, and broth products. We've really benefited from this time of unprecedented demand.
Higher sales of new products launched in the past three years accounted for 5% of DMFI's net sales and 7% of branded sales in the second quarter. We continue to be pleased by our new product growth. Several examples this quarter that were particularly successful include our collagen bone broth products, which are rapidly growing across the U.S. marketplace and are very on-trend, both our chicken and our beef bone broth. In the club stores, we're having a lot of success with our traditional products and some new products like Bubble Fruit, our new innovative line of fruit snacks for children. We're getting back into the business of pineapple in the U.S., and we're having some great success. The launch of a more premium product called Deluxe Gold Pineapple is far exceeding our distribution goals and really helping to drive positive growth.
The chart at the bottom of slide 18 takes a look at the categories in which we compete. It looks at, in the top row, you'll see data that says pre-COVID. Those are the dollar sales change for the 26 weeks before the March spike in COVID in the U.S. market. As you'll see, several of the categories are relatively flat with growth. What you see below that is the 26 weeks following the March spike in COVID and what's happened to our categories and our business. Clearly, consumers are seeking trusted brands in trusted categories as they prepare more meals at home. We are currently, over the past several months, seeing another increase in category growth due to a rise in COVID cases in the U.S. marketplace and an increase in U.S. stay-at-home policies. We're certainly seeing that right now, during the holiday season.
Slide 19. Talks about some more of our results. One area that we're proud of our growth within and one area that we're very focused on is e-commerce. Coming off a relatively low base, we were up significantly despite tight supply. Our marketing investments continue to support building brand awareness, findability, and conversion online. Very important for us and a big area of growth over the next several years will be e-commerce for this company in the U.S. Gross margins in the second quarter, pleased to report at 22.8%, up 1.6% due to lower trade spend and improved mix. This is a 520 basis point improvement over our Q1 margins. EBITDA of $57.7 is significantly higher by 43% on higher sales and lower marketing costs. Net profits at $9.1, a turnaround from many quarters of losses.
The work we've done with asset-light, the work we've done to reinvigorate our brands and contemporize our portfolio and grow in new channels, collectively, all of that work is helping to drive some very positive net profit growth. Pleased with the results this quarter, and continue to be pleased with the work we're doing on cost saving. We're doing cost saving every day in the U.S. We've experienced $10 million in savings in the second quarter, $15 million in savings in the first half, and we have much more work to do here. Slide 20 talks about some of our new products that were launched this quarter. On the left, you'll see Del Monte Veggieful Pocket Pies. These products capitalize on three current trends in the U.S.: plant-based, frozen, and convenience.
These products are very healthy, very good tasting, very convenient, and we're encouraged by the acceptance by the retail trade, and we're investing in significant marketing dollars to drive trial and awareness. On the right-hand side, you'll see a new product from our College Inn brand. This is designed to capitalize on interest in home meal prep, simplification of ingredients, and a need for increased flavor. These products perform very well. They're very easy to use, and we're again investing marketing dollars to reach consumers to drive trial and awareness. Slide 21 are a couple of examples of marketing efforts in the second quarter.
We continue to invest in marketing activity around our authentic Contadina Italian brand of tomato products, really working to establish ourselves within modern Italian cooking and cuisine, partnering with a chef and influencer, Laura Vitale, to do a lot of work digitally to reach consumers, and that's really where consumers are looking right now, online, digitally, to find new recipe ideas, new ways to prepare home meals. On the right-hand side, we have a very strong growth story occurring in our Fruit Cup fruit snack business. We advertise over the fall back to school period with new creative, new social, digital, and PR efforts, as well as shopper marketing, and encouraged by our share growth, our distribution growth. One segment that's done particularly well for us are the multi-pack 12 count products in which we are the share leader.
Slide 22, just some brief highlights on PR activity in the second quarter. 3.8 billion impressions that we've gained in the quarter. A number of media press placements that are driving this growth around Del Monte brands and our Del Monte corporate positioning. Really working with top tier media to increase top of mind awareness with parents and families. Really reaching more and more consumers, obviously, at home and online. Encouraged by those efforts. We've amplified our GrowingGreat partnership, which is designed to really help educate children about health and wellness and good eating practices. Really reaching parents through these educational efforts to stress the importance of raising healthy eaters. We're getting a lot of industry and media recognition. A lot of coverage from the press, including "The Wall Street Journal" several times in the quarter.
Really being recognized for the efforts we're doing to promote health and wellness and our new products. Encouraged by that feedback and that recognition. The last slide I'll talk about is slide 23. It's been a difficult food service environment globally for everyone, but our food service team has been working very hard to try to find outlets to grow our products. We've gained new distribution with a very large chain called Schlotzsky's, a fast casual restaurant with 350 units in the U.S. Excited about building our pizza sauce business with them. We've been doing a lot of work in food service to help with COVID relief.
Working with the food service distribution network to help supply much needed meal kits to relief organizations, and really encouraged by what we're doing to help during this time of the pandemic, and we'll continue that work, obviously, for the several months ahead that we're facing. With that, I will hand it over to Mr. Cito Alejandro.
Thank you, Greg. Chart 24. We exited the second quarter with very strong growth in the Philippine market. As you can see on this chart, our growth led to expansion of our market leadership across nearly all categories. Del Monte products are sought after by consumers because of its trusted, healthy, and high-quality reputation. We also continue leveraging the trend towards increased home cooking, our spaghetti sauce category being one of the major beneficiaries. Chart 25. Philippine market sales grew 10% in dollar terms, driven by retail and some from e-commerce. Our issue is food service. It remains very soft due to establishments still below pre-COVID business levels.
Our retail sales surged 13%, more than offsetting the decline of food service. Retail is led by flagship Del Monte brands, 100% pineapple juice, all juices for that matter, our premium condiments line, and our Quick 'n Easy meal mixes, just to name a few. Pleased to report that Del Monte Mr. Milk yogurt drink, our entry in the dairy category, continues to do well in the market. Chart 26. The next couple of charts will show our marketing activities across our categories, all of these aimed at increasing the consumption of our products. In this chart, you will see our advertising initiatives that enhance the relevance and versatility of pineapple in home-cooked meals and desserts. Pineapple can indeed make food and desserts more fun and exciting for the family, as they spend more time at home. Chart 27.
We have maintained very strong communication of the health benefits of our beverage products. Our fruit juice provides immunity protection, as we call it, an extremely sought-after benefit during these times. Pleased to report that our juice business has exceeded historical growth trends. Chart 28. After beverage, our second fastest growing and equally profitable category is our cooking aids portfolio. We have focused our initiatives on the growing trend towards more home cooking. Our goal is to make the family's time staying at home never a dull moment when it comes to delicious, healthy food cooked with Del Monte products. Chart 29. These are more examples of our marketing efforts in culinary, specifically Del Monte Quick & Easy, and our spaghetti sauce. Chart 30. Moving now to S&W.
As we all know, COVID started in China, this major market, accounting for 50% of our fresh pineapple volume, affected the S&W business the most, particularly in quarter one. That's from May to July. Pleased to report that starting quarter two, our fresh volume has started to recover, especially in China. We're also present across digital formats in North Asia. S&W is in most of the portals in China and South Korea. Fresh e-commerce sales in China were significantly up, although from a small base. Chart 31. Quarter two sales of S&W packaged products in Asia and the Middle East grew significantly by 34% over last year. We expect to sustain growth in the remainder of the year. Sales of fresh pineapple rebounded to 7% growth compared to the 28% baseline in quarter one at the height of the pandemic.
We expect the fresh business to do better in the coming quarters. Chart 32. This shows there has been no letup in our efforts to accelerate our fresh business in China and Korea, be it food service, in-store retail, or e-commerce. Chart 33. Here we have examples of our e-commerce promotions on S&W packaged products. All of these add to continuously increasing the traction of the S&W business. Chart 34. Moving on to our India business. DMPL's share loss in India was lower than prior quarter as business continued to recover on food service and QSRs, or quick service restaurants. Retail and e-commerce sales have surged. We have modified our product portfolio given the demands of the times. We have also embarked on major productivity and cost savings to ensure we optimize our costs and protect our margins.
Finally, on chart 35, this is just another example of some products specific to e-commerce. With that, I turn you over to Iggy.
Thank you, Cito. Improving sustainability is one of the five strategic pillars of Del Monte Pacific, supporting our vision, nourishing families, enriching lives every day. In the second quarter, Del Monte Foods and Del Monte Philippines issued their sustainability goals to the employees of the company effectively. Key priorities in our sustainability report, which we published last September and is downloadable in our Del Monte Pacific website. Del Monte Foods also appointed in the second quarter, a seasoned Senior Sustainability Manager, which will help promote our sustainability goals in the U.S. Our research developed a new water treatment design that improves fruit quality and saves fresh water consumption. We continue to support COVID-19 efforts in the U.S. by utilizing the food service distributor network and supplying shelf-stable products for meal kit distribution to government food relief operations in the U.S.
We also continued donating food and beverage in the Philippines, private and local government organizations, to support marginalized communities and frontline workers during the ongoing pandemic. On slide 37, to recap our outlook. We will continue to optimize our production in the Del Monte Pacific while implementing strict safety measures against COVID-19 in order to meet sustained demand for our trusted, healthy, and shelf-stable products, as you will have noted in the update of Greg for our U.S. market, and Cito for our market in the Philippines and rest of Asia, where demand continues to be strong. We will continue to strengthen our core business, expand the product portfolio in line with market trends for health and wellness, and grow our branded business while reducing our non-strategic business segments.
We are well-positioned, Del Monte Pacific, in this current environment, given our nutritious and long shelf life products, which allow our consumers to prepare healthy meals at home and build their immunity against the pandemic. Del Monte Foods is also well-placed to improve performance in the U.S. in FY 2021. As you will note in the report of Parag, that Del Monte Foods reported a net profit in the second quarter, which is our first profit in Del Monte Foods in several years. This is helped by a more efficient supply chain accomplished from the execution of asset-light strategy, better sales mix, and continued management of costs. Del Monte Pacific Group, in summary, expects to return to profitability this financial year 2021. As you will note in our second quarter net profit of almost $22 million, and our first half net profit of $18.6 million.
With that, we would like to open the floor for questions. Thank you.
Okay. My name is George Tan. Can I ask questions?
Go ahead. Yes, please, Mr. Tan.
Earlier, I was trying to clarify. You were using the term net income and net profit interchangeably. Do they mean the same thing?
Yes, please. Yes, George. Thank you.
Yeah, because you used net income and then net profit, so I just want to make sure it's the same. Okay. Thank you for that. First question is probably dividend policy. Is there a dividend policy for Del Monte Pacific?
Yes, we do, and we will look at the full year results, and as long as we retain profitability, which we expect to, there will be a dividend of 33%.
Oh, 33%
policy or more. Yes, that's the minimum dividend payout.
Okay. Next question is really on the financial report. Fiscal year 2020, six months of October, and then fiscal year 2021, for the same period. Our interest expense for the current fiscal year is about $55.8 million, compared to the prior year of $52 million. I understand our leverage and borrowings have gone down, but interest expense actually went up. Could you please explain this?
Yes. As I mentioned in my update, our interest expense did go up marginally by $3 million- $4 million, as you outlined, because we financed our long-term loans in the U.S., as you know, through high-yield bonds at a coupon of 11.875%, which was definitely higher than our long-term loans that we had in the last year or in the last four or five years. Hence, our interest cost has gone up.
Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. I was thinking we could have borrowed in the Philippines and get a coupon of what, 3%- 3.5%?
Yeah, as you know, we absolutely keep the financing separate. We ring-fence it, and we are actually doing quite well on that front too. I think the other point I would like to note is we did reduce our long-term borrowings as the business continues to improve from a good $650 million of long-term debt to $500 million.
We have a robust EBITDA, which is probably good enough to trim down those long-term debts.
Yeah
the benefit will only be realized somewhere down the line.
Yes. Absolutely, George.
Yeah. Thank you for that. The next question is on our, I would say, segment income. We have a big operating loss from packaged goods, which is probably worse than the first quarter. Did I get it right?
Yeah.
I'm sorry. Our packaged goods operating loss is about $13 million for this month, and $5 million for the last quarter. I guess it has gone down from $10 to $5.
Yes, please.
Okay. Can you please just explain why this business is not making money?
Generally, our food business has low margins, particularly the plastic cup business in the U.S. We are absolutely taking measures to improve the profitability of the business. We have a clear path to improve margins by almost 10%-12% on some of the key product lines and also our multi-serve plastic fruit business, which is doing very well.
I see. There's some potential improvements along the line also on this product segment.
Yes, please.
Will we be able to trim down this even on a break-even basis by the end of this fiscal year?
We would definitely.
On a quarter-over-quarter basis.
A path to improving it by fiscal year 2022. There are some capital investments also being made that will further improve the profitability in 18 months' time. It's a 6-24 month program, which we have embarked on to improve the profitability of our fast-growing plastic cup business.
Yeah. Thank you for that. I have a third question, if it's okay. Well, I'm glad to note that DMFI actually made money already for the quarter, principally from the asset-light strategy. We did talk of some benefit of $10 million for the quarter. For how long more will this asset-light benefit run?
We expect this benefit to be ongoing, and the margin improvement that you are seeing is sustainable from the asset-light strategy that Greg has implemented and executed. We do not expect that these savings would be diluted or go away. Obviously, there are always puts and takes. We would see some impact of inflation as it sort of rises in the coming quarters. Absolutely, the impact of asset-light was expected to be long-term and sustainable.
Are we looking at another $10 million for the next quarter, I would suppose?
Yes. We expect the run rate to continue for the full year when it comes to asset-light.
Yeah. That's a welcome news. Yeah. Right. I think it got disclosed sometime anyway. I just want to confirm that that is still valid. Yeah.
Yeah.
Basically, those are the questions I have here listed in my notes. Yeah. Thank you very much, Parag.
George, thank you.
Hello?
Go ahead. Thank you.
Hello.
Go ahead, please.
Hello, can you hear?
Yes, go ahead, please.
Oh, okay. My name is Chee Kiong. I have few questions regarding this report. Okay. First of all, I would like to know, as what George has said, our company actually, the interest expense increase is because of DMFI of the loan, which is 11.675%, which we actually refinance. I know that actually the company has a plan to do refinancing at a lower interest. Is there anything concrete about this?
If everything goes off as per plan, we would look at revisiting this in three years' time.
Oh, you do it for another two years?
Yeah.
Another question related to this refinancing, but this time it's actually about DMPI, which is a Philippine. It did a refinance of $134 million. I just wanted to find out how much saving with the lower refinance for DMPI.
On an average, because you have to look at long-term, not just at the prevailing interest rate scenario, our average cost of borrowing in PHP is around 5.5%-6%. Net savings on interest over a longer period that we are getting is around 150-200 basis points.
150 and 250 basis points. 1%-2%, around there.
Correct.
Okay. Then the another question I have is regarding about the COVID-19 cases in U.S. I just want to find out for this DMFI or this Del Monte U.S., any of the employee contacted cases for COVID-19, and how serious, and how many cases? Just want to find out. It's Yeah, I just want to get more information on this area.
Yeah, I think,
Yeah. Yeah. I can help with that, Parag.
Thank you, Greg. Yeah.
We took extreme measures to protect our employees and create a safe working environment, and have done everything very proactively and really in a leading manner in the U.S. We've had less than 2% of our employees have contracted COVID, they have not contracted that essentially at our workplace. That would be contracted in other areas we do. When it does occur, we do a tremendous amount of social mapping and have really done a good job containing our COVID cases. Thus, we've been able to keep all of our sites, whether it's a manufacturing site or a distribution site, operating during the pack season. We have not had any shutdowns due to COVID.
There's no impact on the production. I just want to verify, you say that's 2%. How many absolute number of employee has been contacted with COVID?
Yeah. It's in the neighborhood of a couple hundred employees off a base of close to 8,000.
Oh, okay. I understand. Okay. Greg, thank you. That's all question I have. Yeah. Oh, sorry. I have another question, sorry. The question I have regarding about the dividends. I think, in 2013, Del Monte used to pay dividends in half-yearly. When will this policy be resumed? Because now I know that, I noticed that Del Monte is only pay dividends at the end of the year. Is there any plan to go back to half-yearly dividend policy other than just at the end of the year?
Obviously, if the business performance continues to grow as per plan, we would be welcoming the policy of going back to half yearly dividends. Since we had paid the common dividend just in the last few months, we would like to wait for the full year results, and then take a call at the end of the year. Yes, we would welcome going back to the policy that you reminded us, and what we did in 2013.
Yeah. I appreciate for your consideration because I think, personally, investor definitely prefer half yearly. For my case at least, in terms of cash flow, it will be better for us instead of the lump sum, which we have to wait for quite some time. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Chee Kiong.
Hi, I have some questions. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Yeah, go ahead.
Okay. Congratulations on the good results. In the U.S., can we conclude from one of the charts that the market size would have increased by about 20% or so for all the various segments that we are participating in?
Yes. Through traditional scanned A.C. Nielsen outlets across primarily grocery, on average, the categories have been growing at around 20%.
Great. Given that vaccine has been announced, do you see a post-COVID-19 period where the market size will go back to the normal?
We believe that we will benefit from what's occurred, in the U.S. We believe that we're gonna benefit from a couple of reasons. One, we've been able to create much larger household penetration during COVID. We have up to a third of our consumers are new consumers that have tried our products for the first time, and they've come back and bought them a second and third time. They've engaged with our products. They've used our products to learn how to cook again, in many cases in the U.S., and they've enjoyed it. We've helped make that experience a good experience for them and their families. We've created a relationship with these consumers, and we believe that many of these trends will continue. We also believe that in this environment, even post-COVID, you're gonna have more consumers, more workers working remotely.
More and more of the U.S. jobs will be located remotely. There'll be a need to prepare meals throughout the day, especially for lunch. Our products are well-suited for healthy home meal consumption throughout the day. Lastly, we believe that there is a movement to value in this emerging economy and this recessionary state that we'll be in, that our products provide a value. If we provide accessible nutrition at a value to consumers, and these categories that we compete in traditionally do quite well in a recessionary environment. We do feel there's tailwinds that will help us keep most of this growth as we project into the next few years.
All right. Good. You see some stickiness with your customers as well as the consumer behavioral change?
Exactly. That's well said. Yes.
Okay, good. Traditionally, this coming quarters, being the Christmas season, is a strong quarter for us. Do you see the same trend, that we are trending up this quarter?
Yes. A couple of things have happened. We did see some earlier demand for the holidays. We had a good October. As we look at this current month of December, continue to see strong order patterns. We actually think because of the shelter in place situations that most states in the U.S. are under, more consumers are at home again, as opposed to dining out, and they're using our products more and more. Our initial scan data from the Thanksgiving holiday looks quite promising. We're encouraged by our growth at those couple of weeks around Thanksgiving, and we anticipate a strong Christmas. We're feeling good about the outlook for overall holiday consumption of our products.
Wonderful. We have seen a lot of change since you and the new teams came in. The EBITDA margin has increased. Will the current EBITDA margins be a good model going forward, or do you see further improvement in the EBITDA margin?
We expect further improvement.
Wonderful. Okay. Last question on the U.S. You have e-commerce platform, although small, is growing. The e-commerce platform, is it on Amazon and others, or do you have your own sites for e-commerce?
Right. Correct. We don't sell direct to consumers. We don't have our own website, our own direct fulfillment. We go through customers. We have a growing business and a good relationship with Amazon, but we're also having a lot of success working with customers like walmart.com, kroger.com, target.com here.
I see.
Really seeing that emerge as something that will continue. There's a lot of stickiness with that activity. Consumers will be ordering more and more product online and picking that up at the grocery store or having it delivered to their home. We're working with all of those customers.
Okay. When you go to the traditional model of distributor-retailer versus to all this e-commerce platform, is the margins the same?
We believe that the overall margin, the investment required to promote is reasonable. When we sit down now, what's happened in the U.S., most of our customers now are looking for our sales team to provide solutions to promote products in-store and online.
I see.
They're really viewed as, so we can show total investment, and we can shift dollars if necessary. If they want to invest more in a given time period for e-commerce, we'll move the in-store dollars there, so we maintain a healthy margin on our products. We see this just growing over time. We're adding new resources in this area to keep ensuring that we're a leader in e-commerce solutions, e-commerce promotions, and connectivity with consumers in this new platform and are encouraged by what we're seeing.
Wonderful. Yep. Looks like we are doing the right things there, and can't wait to see the good results next quarter. I'll switch back to Philippine and Asia PAC. The question is again on the e-commerce. Notice in North Asia, you use a lot of existing China giant e-commerce platform. There's a trend in China towards private traffic, where you integrate all this together with your own e-commerce platform. Are you exploring that?
Sorry.
Yeah.
In China, if you look in the presentation. Yeah, we have different partners. We are number one in Pinduoduo, for example.
Yeah.
Cito will build on. We have several e-commerce platforms in China, not our own direct commerce platform.
I see.
Direct to consumer.
Yeah. Okay.
We're still starting e-commerce in China. We're not yet fully developed, but we're within the big portals there. We're with Alibaba, Pinduoduo, and we're just starting. It's actually up significantly in the second quarter, but that is coming off a very low base. It's still very early, but I think we will be in good shape in the next perhaps 2-3 years.
Okay. Sorry. Versus the traditional distributors-retailer model, is your e-commerce margin better or worse off?
They are in line with our traditional business.
Okay. They're about the same.
Margins and e-commerce, yes, in Philippines.
Okay. Yes. Okay.
Again, coming off a very small base, and we have plans to really capitalize on our existing assets.
Okay
to make it bigger.
Okay.
Yes.
Wonderful. In Philippine, I noticed that you have recovered almost fully from the change of distributor, at one point when your business was affected. Has that change been complete, and do you see any problems with the new distributor that you have bring in?
So far, the new distributors have worked well. Especially in Metro Manila, which was a troubled spot before, about 18 months ago. That has all been fixed, and in fact, Metro Manila is one of our fastest-growing areas now in the channel. As far as the other regions are concerned, no serious matters so far. There may be just one distributor that we are watching out for, but other than that, all the distributors are continuing to do their job.
Wonderful.
Okay, that's all my questions. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Sorry, can we have your name, please? Is this Mr. Tan?
Yes. My name is Wey Ling. I'm a shareholder.
Yes. Mr. Tan Wey Ling. Thank you.
Yep.
Thank you again for your question.
Hello. Can I come in with a question?
Yes, please.
Okay. My name is Ramesh Chandiramani, Forte Capital. A couple of questions. In your slide presentations and notes, I noticed certain supply chain disruptions. Can you give us some color as to whether that has improved, or what are the bottlenecks?
Would you like me to answer that, Parag and Cito?
Yeah, go ahead, Greg.
Yeah. I wouldn't call it as much a disruption as we have a seasonal business where we pack our core products. We have a growing period where we harvest products throughout the summer and fall months. That's when we build our inventory for the year, and we always build extra stock and extra supply to have enough on hand to keep up with demand. As we experienced surges in excess, at times, of 50%-100%, certain items we ran low on supply. What we did was we started our harvest earlier this spring and summer. We increased production, and we also worked to source more raw material and finished product globally to keep up with demand. There were a few instances where we just couldn't keep up with the order patterns that were continuing to grow week upon week.
We had some temporary out of stocks. We are now back in supply. We have adequate stocks. We had adequate stocks to actually support some very aggressive holiday merchandising and display activity that our customers asked for. We spent less on promotion this holiday, but saw a very strong demand for merchandising. We are feeling very good about supply at the moment and our outlook for the rest of the year.
Good to hear.
It's an interesting challenge that we have to continue working on in the coming six months because it has an impact on the following year, and we just need to be at it and continue looking at various avenues to source the product.
Right. Was that the similar situation in the Philippines, or was Philippines stable?
We're more stable in the Philippines. Our pineapple plantation continues to operate. There's not much disruption in supply chain. Of course, during the early parts of the pandemic, about six months ago, the general trade was not operating because the distributors could not go out. We fully supplied the modern trade, and that helped us a lot. Far right now, everything is normal. The modern trade continues to operate. Our distributors, all of them continue to distribute to the mom-and-pop stores and to the other groceries. We're in good shape, particularly going into this month, this holiday season.
We continue running tight on inventory in Philippines as well, which is a good problem to have.
Yes. I noticed in the 2Q report, inventory numbers went up a fair bit, which is the stocking ahead of holiday season.
Holiday season.
Yes.
Yes.
Will that typically run down into the following quarters?
Yes, it will. The best way to compare is with the inventory numbers at the same time last year, and you will see the inventory significantly down.
Right. Can you provide some color in the two big markets of India and China? They appear to have their own challenges. Some color into how to address those markets.
Sure. First, let's talk about China. Our China business is primarily on fresh pineapple.
Right.
As you know, we've had some problems six months ago because of the lockdown and because of the decreased demand in China. That impacted our first quarter results. First quarter meaning May, June, July. The second quarter actually improved, and the business has recovered, particularly in China. We're now probably back to about 70% of our normal business in China. That's a big improvement six months ago, where we were actually way below 50% of our normal business. We continue to improve, and I'm optimistic about getting back to our normal levels in China, particularly for the fresh pineapple business. In India, as you know, the portfolio was divided 50/50 between food service and the retail.
Yes.
The food service business is down, as in all food service businesses around the world.
Yes.
Retail has surged, and that is the one carrying most of the heavy load for India. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, our share loss in the second quarter actually decreased because there have been improvement in retail and also some in food service that we saw.
Great. New product launches in those markets, I noticed pineapple juice seems to be doing exceedingly well in the U.S. and Philippines. Similar product launches in India and China?
This year in India, we held onto new product launches because we wanted to focus on the fundamentals.
That's correct.
Build our B2C business now. The same thing in China. Our China focus was just fresh. We wanted to focus on that because that is our key profit driver. Even in the Philippines, we held on to some of our new products because it would not be good to introduce them during the pandemic.
That's right.
We have an arsenal of new products coming in the new fiscal year next year. Starting May, starting first quarter of 2022, and we expect things to be better.
Excellent. My final question. Both the Philippines and the U.S. have seen external investors. Any updates about potential flotations and listings on their respective exchanges?
Parag, you want to?
Not in the near vicinity, to answer your question. The focus is really building on the good momentum that we are seeing in the first six months, and really executing on a long range plan in the next 3-5 years. On the DMPI side, in the short term, we may be looking at an IPO in the next 12 - 15 months.
On DMPI, 12-15 months. U.S., not in the near term.
Yes.
Okay. That's it for me. Thank you.
Thank you, Ramesh.
Hi, this is Cynthia from Rabobank. I have a question. Three years back, you announced some joint ventures with Fresh Del Monte. May I know any updates on these joint ventures?
Greg, you want to answer that?
Sure. We've established a very good relationship with Fresh Del Monte, both in the U.S. and internationally, and we partner with them. We have a trademark council where we review usage of the brand and brand rights. We've established terms where we compete. Regarding the joint ventures, the current status of those, they're still ongoing business units that we oversee. I think more and more we're seeing that we're each having success in our individual channels of distribution, and they're very good at the fresh business. We're very good at packaged foods business. To sum up the relationship and the joint venture, I think we're in good standing with Fresh Del Monte. We're pleased that we now have a partnership with them that allows both of us to succeed.
Would you elaborate on how you collaborate? Because both of you are in different business, as you mentioned. How do you collaborate? I would like to just understand that.
Yeah. We meet on a quarterly basis to review usage of the brand mark on new products and promotions. We also collaborate on opportunities for us to promote together. The consumer in the U.S. market doesn't know there's two companies there. They believe Del Monte is one company with one brand. In many cases, we can work with retailers to do a cross promotion with their products and our products or do display activity together and share in those investments. Those are some examples.
We continue to have good cooperation with them on the Asian side as well, and we do some business with them, which is growing both on the fresh side and also on processed, including juices. There is definitely increased cooperation. We also had some brief discussions with them around a strategic cooperation in India, which was interesting but did not conceptualize. Yeah, more and more opportunities are coming up to do business together with them.
All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Cynthia. Are there any other questions?
Well, can I ask a follow-up question? George Tan here.
Please go ahead.
Yes, George.
Go ahead.
Yes, George.
In your presentation of market share, I think in the U.S., you were number two. I am just wondering who is number one.
What category is it, George?
Yes.
Yeah.
I think we are number two in almost all. Are there number one different categories?
Yeah.
Greg.
George, I'm happy to help you with that. In the U.S. market, in our largest category, we're number one, in the vegetable business. We're number two in fruit. We're number one within the fruit categories, deciduous fruits like peaches and pears. Products of that nature. Dole currently has the larger share in canned pineapple in the U.S. That's something that I mentioned that we're working on with some new products to help regain some of that share, to give them a challenge in attempt to take that number one position. If you add up all of the fruit categories in the U.S. market, if you add up refrigerated fruit, our fruit snack business and canned fruit, our share becomes much larger and much more competitive with Dole. The other categories, George, that you mentioned, we are number three in the tomato category.
There's lots of companies and lots of competition in tomatoes. There's over 20 large brands competing in that category. We're currently number three, but we are growing, and we're encouraged by Contadina's presence in the U.S. and how that's expanding.
Okay. Well, it's just interesting to always know who is ahead of us.
Yeah. We compete with companies like Conagra. Conagra owns the Hunt's label in tomatoes.
Okay
successful business. Every category is different, George. We compete against Campbell's in some categories, and Dole in others. The investments we're making to invest in marketing and activation as well as new products are paying off, and we're seeing more growth. As Parag mentioned earlier, our share growth over the 52 weeks is faster than the category growth in all of our businesses.
I see. That's a pleasant news. Yeah. Excellent. We're looking forward to see Del Monte being number one in those categories some future time, yes.
Are we.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Are there other questions?
Parag, this is Iggy. This is Jason. Just congrats on a great quarter.
Hi, Jason.
The market is, I don't know if you've seen this, you're up well over 20% right now so far today. Obviously the market agrees. Congratulations, guys. Terrific.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Jason. Yeah.
We'll continue to work hard every quarter.
Jason.
Yeah.
Thank you.
We know you will.
Hope it was a good guys, yeah.
Thank you.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks, guys.
joining our conference call, and thank you.
Thank you
for joining us. We'll be in contact.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Bye.
Thank you. Goodbye.
Thank you.