Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the High Liner Foods Incorporated conference call for results of the third quarter of 2021 . At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode, and following the management's prepared remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at the time for you to queue up for your questions. If anyone has any difficulties hearing the conference, please press the star key followed by the zero for operator's assistance at any time. This conference call is being recorded today, Wednesday, November 17, 2021 at 2:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Charlene Milner, Vice President of Finance for High Liner Foods. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining the High Liner Foods conference call today to discuss our financial results for the third quarter of 2021. On the call from High Liner Foods are Rod Hepponstall, President and CEO, and Paul Jewer, Executive Vice President and CFO. I would like to remind listeners that we use certain non-IFRS measures and ratios when discussing our financial results as we believe these are useful in assessing the company's financial performance. These measures are fully described and reconciled to IFRS measures in our MD&A. Listeners are also reminded that certain statements made on today's call may be forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Management may use forward-looking statements when discussing the company's strategy and business in the future. Actual operating or financial results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements.
High Liner Foods includes a thorough discussion of the risk factors that can cause its anticipated outcomes to differ from actual outcomes in its publicly available disclosure documents, particularly in its annual report and annual information form. Please note that High Liner Foods is under no obligation to update any forward-looking statements discussed today. Earlier today, High Liner Foods reported its financial results for the third quarter ended October 2, 2021. That news release, along with the company's MD&A and unaudited condensed interim consolidated financial statements for the third quarter of 2021, have been filed on SEDAR and can also be found in the Investor Center section of the highlinerfoods.com website. If you'd like to receive our news releases in the future, please visit the company's website to register.
Lastly, please note that the company reports its financial results in U.S. dollars and therefore the results to be discussed today are also stated in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. High Liner Foods common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and are quoted in Canadian dollars. I will now turn the call over to Rod for his opening remarks.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss our results for the third quarter of 2021. We delivered improved financial performance during the third quarter versus a year ago. We increased volume by 100,000 pounds and net sales by 10.1%, generated further profitability gains with a 240 basis point increase in gross profit as a percent of net sales, and delivered higher adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter of 2021 versus a year ago. We also executed on our strategy to become the North American leader in branded value-added seafood during the third quarter.
We grew our branded value-added volume by approximately 8% versus the same period last year and shifted our product portfolio even further towards higher margin branded products, which now represent 62% of our portfolio compared to 54% a year ago. As Paul will discuss shortly, our branded value-added growth had a favorable impact on our gross profit as a percentage of net sales. It also continues to strategically position us in the market, especially in food service as operators continue to look for greater convenience as pandemic related challenges persist. Our results this quarter demonstrate that our business is trending in the right direction. This is particularly apparent when you look past the year-over-year comparisons and compare our performance to 2019.
We achieved a two-year compounded annual growth rate of 6.2% on gross profit and 16.8% on adjusted EBITDA. These achievements are more significant when considered in the context of our operating environment. Like other global manufacturers, our supply chain continues to be impacted by shipping container availability issues, labor shortages, material supply issues, port and land congestion, and inflationary cost pressures. We are experiencing supply chain disruptions and inflationary pressures at levels we haven't experienced in the recent past. Most notably, we are seeing container freight rates that are up to 10 times higher than pre-pandemic levels. We benefited in the third quarter from our early action on pricing and further supply chain diversification. This, together with the benefit of our integrated supply chain, allowed us to mitigate much of the negative headwinds facing our business.
It also enabled us to capitalize on the resurgence in food service we saw during the quarter as consumers started to return to eating outside of the home. Our customers are telling us that they appreciate our fill rates at a time of supply challenges and that we stand out from the competition in this regard. This is helping strengthen our relationships with food service operators who know that they can rely on us for products and that our branded value-added offering is well suited to their needs. We are confident that there is more upside for us as food service continues to recover. It was also a solid quarter as it relates to our retail business. We sustained retail performance versus the prior year despite shifting consumer behavior back to eating out and had some significant new business wins.
Sales in the category have stabilized at levels that are higher than both 2020 and 2019 as consumers work and eat at home more than they did before the pandemic. Overall, our performance this quarter demonstrates the improvements we are making across the board on our business and the hard work of our team. We remain extremely mindful of the ongoing pressures of the pandemic and continue to focus on supporting our people. We were recently a recipient of the 2021 Cigna Well-Being Award in recognition of our programs to support health and wellness in the workplace. I am proud of the culture we are building, and it's playing a critical role in driving our success.
Before I hand the call over to Paul, I can reaffirm that we remain on track to deliver adjusted EBITDA growth for 2021, and that the CAD 0.03 dividend increase announced today preserves our ability to invest in growth while bringing us closer to our targeted payout ratio. Paul, over to you to walk us through the financial performance of the third quarter.
Thank you, Rod, and good afternoon, everyone. Please note that all comparisons provided during my financial review of the third quarter of 2021 are relative to the third quarter of 2020, unless otherwise noted. Sales volume increased in the third quarter by 100,000 pounds to 54.8 million pounds. In our food service business, sales volume was higher due to the impact of significantly reduced COVID-19 restrictions on the company's food service customers as compared to the third quarter of 2020. This increase was partially offset by our retail business, where sales volume was lower compared to the same period last year due to evolving consumer behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales volume in the third quarter was also negatively impacted by the global supply challenges that have resulted in shipping container shortages and reduced raw material supply.
Sales volume was favorably impacted by new business and new product sales. Sales increased in the third quarter by $19.7 million to $214.3 million due to the higher sales volumes, pricing actions related to inflationary increases on input costs and favorable changes in sales mix. In addition, the stronger Canadian dollar in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same quarter in 2020 increased the value of reported US dollar from our CAD-denominated operations by approximately $3.2 million relative to the conversion impact last year.
Gross profit increased in the third quarter by $9 million to $47.9 million, and gross profit as a percentage of sales increased by 240 basis points to 22.4% as compared to 20% in the third quarter of 2020. The increase in gross profit reflects the higher sales volume discussed above in combination with favorable changes in product mix reflected in the improved gross profit as a percentage of sales. In addition, the stronger Canadian dollar increased the value of reported US dollar gross profit from our Canadian operations in 2021 by approximately $800,000 relative to the conversion impact last year.
Adjusted EBITDA increased in the third quarter by $3.3 million to $22.4 million, and adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of sales increased to 10.5% compared to 9.8%. The increase in adjusted EBITDA is a result of the increase in gross profit, partially offset by the increase in distribution expenses and net SG&A expenses. In addition, the stronger Canadian dollar increased the value of reported adjusted EBITDA in US dollars from our Canadian operations in 2021 by approximately $400,000 relative to the conversion impact last year. Reported net income increased in the third quarter by $5.4 million to $9.2 million, and diluted earnings per share increased by $0.15 to $0.26.
The increase in net income reflects a decrease in finance costs and a decrease in income tax expense. The higher net income was also due to the increase in adjusted EBITDA and a decrease in share-based compensation expense. Excluding the impact of certain non-routine or non-cash expenses that are explained in our MD&A, adjusted net income in the third quarter of 2021 increased by $5.4 million or 91.5% to $11.3 million . Accordingly and correspondingly, adjusted diluted earnings per share increased by $0.14 to $0.32 . Turning now to cash flow from operations and the balance sheet.
Net cash flows provided by operating activities in the third quarter of 2021 decreased by $42.1 million to an inflow of $4.2 million compared to an inflow of $46.3 million in the same period in 2020 due to less favorable changes in non-cash working capital balances, partially offset by lower income taxes paid, lower interest paid, and higher cash flows provided by operations. Our cash flow position is allowing us to increase inventory to help mitigate the supply chain challenges we are facing.
Net debt at the end of the third quarter of 2021 increased by $4.4 million to $252.6 million , compared to $248.2 million million at the end of the second quarter, primarily reflecting a lower cash balance, partially offset by lower lease liabilities. Net debt to adjusted EBITDA was 2.8 times at October 2, 2021, compared to 2.8 times at the end of the second quarter of 2021 and 3 times at the end of fiscal 2020. In the absence of any major acquisitions or unplanned capital expenditures in 2021, we expect this ratio to remain below the company's long-term target of 3 times at the end of fiscal 2021.
As a result of our strong balance sheet and cash flow, we remain confident in our liquidity position. We do not have any impending debt maturities and will continue to utilize our $150 million working capital credit facility that is currently undrawn. The $0.03 per share dividend increase announced by the board this morning reflects our improving financial and operating performance and represents a 42.9% increase. This decision was made with great care by the board with due consideration to the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on our business. As Rod mentioned earlier, the increase moves us closer to our traditional trailing EPS payout ratio while still allowing for investment in growth. I will now turn the call back over to Rod for some final remarks before opening up the call to questions. Rod?
Thanks, Paul. I would now like to touch on how we are driving commercial growth and continuing to improve our sales execution. Overall, we grew our U.S. food service frozen value-added category by over 36% from a net sales perspective versus the third quarter of 2020. Compared to two years ago, the category grew on a net sales basis by approximately 12% as a result of price increases and growth in private label and premium species, but remained down by approximately 9% on volume basis as a result of supply and labor shortages stemming from the pandemic. High Liner's strong food service performance in the third quarter was driven by the return of hospitality-dependent segments, growing share in long-term care and K-12, and seeing positive momentum in casual dining segment.
Our volumes were inevitably impacted by the supply chain challenges I mentioned earlier, but had we not taken preemptive measures, it would have been even more pronounced. I'm most encouraged, however, by how our food service business in the quarter is recovering faster than the category did overall, and that in the process, we are growing share in all of our key species and across most operator segments. This has contributed to our improved performance this quarter and has created a strong baseline of customer loyalty that we can continue to build upon as the industry recovers and supply chain issues are resolved. Our portfolio continues to be well suited to the challenges of our food service operators are facing.
In the third quarter, our food service operators have become increasingly challenged by labor availability and cost, which adds to the appeal of our branded value-added offering across all price points. We continue to take pricing action in both retail and food service in response to the inflationary pressures in raw material, ingredients, and freight. Our price increases have been passed on and we are well positioned vis-à-vis other protein sources that are seeing much more pronounced cost increases. As we've talked about in prior quarters, we are going to market much more aggressively in putting marketing dollars behind this approach. In the U.S., we continued our Sea Cuisine marketing campaign, specifically aimed at accelerating the momentum in our skin pack product that we have seen this year. Our plan to drive awareness and penetration gains through TV and print resulted in increased brand awareness in buyers this quarter.
We look forward to further gains as this campaign continues through the fourth quarter with shopper marketing activation with key retailers to drive conversion to purchase. In Canada, we are continuing our marketing efforts on our pan-seared products with a focus on the two packs. Through digital media and shopper marketing activation in the third quarter, brand awareness was up 4 points and ad recall was at 30% in line with our target. We also made good progress this quarter from a sales execution perspective, securing new retail business in the third quarter of approximately 1.3 million pounds or $8 million of sales across several retailers and products, with the majority in the U.S. In food service, we secured new business wins representing 4 million pounds in food service for $10 million of sales.
Once again, these examples demonstrate how we are going to market differently and the opportunity that is out there for us. Our financial performance demonstrates our ability to maintain bottom-line improvement in the face of challenging market conditions. As we look ahead, we will continue our proactive efforts designed to help mitigate the impact of ongoing supply challenges on our business and remain focused on serving the evolving needs of our customers to satisfy consumer demand for healthy and affordable seafood. Given the strength of our business today and the market opportunity in front of us, we believe that it is an opportunity for us to start to explore additional growth opportunities that together with the ongoing organic commercial growth will accelerate our path to North American leadership in branded value-added seafood and long-term sustainable value creation for our shareholders.
We are prepared to hit the ground running in 2022 in this regard, and I look forward to updating you more on our plans on our next earnings call. With that, I'll hand the call over to the operator for questions and answer period. Operator, please go ahead.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your touch tone phone. You will then hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request, and your questions will be polled in the order that they are received. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press the star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment please for your first question. Your first question comes from George Doumet from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, guys. Congrats on the strong quarter. Paul, I wanted to ask you about the top line. I think you gave some color on the FX benefit. Can you maybe talk to how much of that growth was also related to pricing versus the positive impacts from mix?
Yeah. I think in terms of the growth on the top line in dollars, you can see how much inflation is included that number when you compare it to volume for sure. I would say overall, George, most of it was inflation. There was some favorable impact.
Due to mix, because we did see our branded business in particular, grow, compared to the prior year. Inflation would be more of it than mix.
Okay. On that point, would you expect the level of pricing, I guess, I'll call it mid- to high single digits, would you expect that to continue, you know, next couple of quarters as we're faced with the higher input costs? Or would you expect that to increase even further? Just trying to get a sense of how pricing reacts to, I guess, the much higher levels of input costs that we're seeing kind of roll through the P&L in the next couple of quarters.
Sure. Yeah. I mean, we have had to pass on increased prices because of the increased costs we've seen in the business. In 2021, that was primarily driven by increases in transportation and logistics costs, international shipping, those kinds of things. You're right, there will be some increase in seafood raw material costs as we look to 2022. And our view is we will need to take price to cover some of those as well. The reality is, you know, all categories are up in terms of cost and pricing. We believe it's an environment where, when necessary, the price increases will come through.
We'll focus on maintaining the profitability in the business that we've been able to build over the last couple of years.
Okay. Fair enough. Just one more, if I may, on leverage. It's been coming down to levels where historically we've been pretty quick to deploy capital towards M&A. Should this time around it be any different? I'm just wondering to what extent you view our valuation may be prohibitive to doing some of these M&A deals out there.
Yeah. From a capital allocation perspective, as we mentioned in our prepared remarks, certainly our first priority is the growth in our business. We're investing more CapEx than we have historically. We're investing in marketing initiatives to support our sales and marketing execution. We'll continue to do that as a first priority. Obviously, we increased our dividend because of our improving cash flow. We recognize that returning capital to shareholders is also important. For sure, we've strengthened our foundation overall as a business. We've strengthened our financial position as a business. It does put us in a better position to evaluate M&A opportunities. We will be disciplined in doing that. We will make sure that there are strategic opportunities that fit well with our business.
To your point on valuation, we're intending not to overpay. You'll see us be more active in evaluating opportunities. Whether or not any of those come forward will depend on how value accretive we see them.
Okay. Thanks for answering the call.
Thanks, George.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Kyle McPhee from Cormark. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. On the supply chain constraints impacting revenue, can you quantify how much the lost sales opportunities were similar to the color you gave us last quarter?
Yeah. I'll give you a perspective in volume. As you know, Kyle, this is always a bit of an estimate 'cause you're not sure how much is true shortages versus how much may be customers overordering because of the environment that they're in. Our estimate in the quarter is that it would have been at least 4 million pounds of volume that we would have liked to have been able to fulfill demand on, but the supply chain challenges were a constraint. Having said that, our ability to diversify our supply chain, the robustness of our supply chain, the efforts of our people internally were able to manage it down to that number. Otherwise, given the environment out there, it would have been more challenging.
Got it. Are you seeing any alleviation of these issues into Q4? I'm curious if it's still skewed to the commodity type stuff that's getting shorted.
Well, I think it's two things there. We tend to see alleviation, and then we tend to see challenges come again. It's been that kind of an environment really through COVID, and particularly more recently for us. At this point, you know, we do believe we'll still face some shortages in Q4, but we're working hard to try to minimize the impact that they'll have on our business, and to meet the strong demand that's out there for our product right now.
Got it. Okay. Is it fair to say that it's skewed to commodity, though, these issues versus value add?
You're right. Yes. It impacts us more significantly on our commodity business than our value add business. Our ability to produce our plant capacity is very strong. If we can get the raw material, then we have not seen disruptions there. Where there are some disruptions, in many cases, it's a disruption in terms of the length of time to get the raw material because of the supply chain disruption. It's less about whether or not the raw material is actually being caught.
Yeah. Kyle, if I may add, you know, we've talked in the past around the diversification we've done to quite frankly put us in this strong position. The significant challenges we face today are very consistent with what we see in other consumer packaged goods companies, and that is certainly ocean freight. While we're seeing some relief there, kind of to Paul's point, you know, we're seeing other challenges get created as a result of product getting off of the ships and onto shore and onto chassis and into the market. But we're managing those as closely as we possibly can, but they would be consistent with what we're seeing across the industry.
Now, the positive side is our scale, and again, diversification has mitigated many other situations that are impacting the industry.
Got it. Okay. That's helpful color. The next question, I apologize if you talked about them, and I think Rod might have addressed them in your final prepared remarks. My audio cut out. On the food service channel, you know, last quarter you were thinking was that the drag from COVID was still kind of 15%-20%. You know, what do you think that drag was like in Q3? Like, how much improvement was it?
Yeah, I would say the improvement in our food service business in Q3 was significant, right? On a net sales basis, I believe the number was we're up 36%, while volume still compared to 2019 was down around 9 million pounds. The momentum in our food service business is absolutely substantial. We're seeing significant share gains across all of our core species. We're seeing a growth in segments that are extremely important to our business, long-term care, K-12, casual dining. We're exceptionally well-positioned from my perspective. Not to mention the customer loyalty that we've been developing as a result of our service levels during the pandemic here.
Got it. Okay. On gross margin, you put up the big year-over-year gain, 250 basis points. Great to see. It seems like all the species and pricing that I think you would've been hit by, though, wasn't necessarily all offset by pricing. You know, what am I missing here that inflation should have been a drag on your gross margin, but you posted this huge gross margin outperformance. Am I wrong and pricing more than offset all your inflation?
Yeah, no, I think overall we're pleased with our pricing in order to deal with the rising costs. The other thing you got to remember, our gross margin number doesn't include distribution costs. They're below the gross margin line. When you factor the distribution costs in, then you would see, I think a more realistic picture in terms of what the net performance was. Overall, we're happy with what we were able to do from a pricing perspective that we needed to do. The mix in our business has continued to improve, which is beneficial to gross margin. Rod talked about in the script the fact that our branded volume increased from the mid-50s to the 60-
62%.
62%. That is beneficial to margins for us.
Got it. Okay. Is it fair to say that you are passing on the species inflation kind of such that it's margin neutral? Or do you think your pricing has been margin enhancing?
I would say overall, when you look at it over a reasonable period, it's more margin neutral. 'Cause what it may be is in some areas it may be margin enhancing and in other areas, because of the delay in passing price, it actually is not margin accretive, and it's actually margin negative. You know, overall, I would say we're pleased with what we've been able to do from a pricing perspective out of necessity. On, as we look forward, we may have to do more as we see rising costs. 'Cause the one thing I just wanna highlight there, Kyle, it's not just raw material costs that are going up, right? In particular, in the past, it has been more about distribution, international, freight costs that have gone up.
Yeah. Kyle, maybe if I could add some additional color. You know, the journey we've been on has been heavily focused historically on cost efficiency, and it's certainly in a continuous improvement environment. That aspect has certainly supported what has been quite frankly several quarters of slight margin enhancement. There's a lot to unpack in this discussion, but I think it's a combination of multiple things. Certainly Paul's discussion on pricing, but also the efficiency that we're driving in our business.
Got it. Okay. Thanks for all the answers. That's it for me.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one. Your next question comes from Sabahat Khan from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks so much. Just wanted to get some additional color on the commentary you shared earlier around the branded value-added offering. When you talked about the progress to date, can you maybe share some thoughts on, you know, the potential for that business in terms of increased penetration or more of your new product offerings focused on that area? Just kind of the thought process and strategy for that business going forward.
Yeah. I think you have to take a look at it, maybe, with a multiple question as we think about our branded value-added products, in Canada, versus retail or U.S., retail. Two very different things. I can speak to food service in a second. There's ample opportunity to continue to leverage our strength, in Canada, where, you know, 99% ACV, high forties share, great brand awareness. Opportunities for us to continue to engage in the consumer, expand our product offerings, think about how we drive, the right trade activity to deliver marketing to the product conversion or product purchase. Great opportunity for us yet in the Canadian marketplace.
I would say if you take a look at the U.S. marketplace, it is certainly a significant growth opportunity for us. We have single-digit share in the United States. As I mentioned, we're not prepared to talk about the actual customer name, but we've secured several new customers in the U.S. at this point, which we believe are gonna continue to drive branded value-added product awareness in the States for us. We are doing the right things from a direct-to-consumer communication, which is driving, again, increased frequency of purchase as well as increased brand awareness, and we'll continue to build off it.
For me to give you an exact number of what we think the opportunity is in retail on a North American basis, it's certainly significant when you consider, again, maybe the single-digit share we have in the United States versus the opportunity we're gonna continue to execute against that. In food service, it's very, very similar. We are the branded value leader in Canadian marketplace, and we'll continue to drive and leverage the strength of our brand in food service in Canada. As we continue to work with the industry-leading distributors as we've talked about in previous calls, we're the strategic partner for certainly four of the largest national distributors, and with strong positions in both branded value-added and complementary their brand private label.
Again, I can't give you a hard statistic, but rather can give you order of magnitude, significant opportunity for growth on both sides.
Sabahat, what I would add to that is in the current environment, we believe value-added product is really well positioned to meet consumer and customer demand. On the retail side, obviously, with elevated consumption at home, we saw an increase in value-added opportunity for us. While that has come down as food service has improved, it hasn't gone all the way back to previous levels. There is still elevated demand for eating at home in terms of seafood. In food service, what we continue to see is challenges with labor in our operator environments, and we believe our branded value-added products are well suited to address that.
Okay. Thanks for that. I guess, just following up on the last comment there, you know, the gains you had with the retailer that were mentioned just a few minutes ago. You know, are these just a function of kind of market share capture? Is that kind of share you are going after? How much of it is just maybe retailers allocating a bit more shelf space or freezer space to this category, given the broader consumption trends towards at home? Just wanna get an idea of, you know, how the market is doing overall for it. You know, it sounds like you may be capturing some additional share within that as well.
Yeah. Particularly in the retail, as we talked, retail has maintained the levels of 2020 and 2019, so that's very good for the overall category. We're certainly gonna take advantage of that. I would say our gains in the U.S. are further penetration into existing customers, which is certainly continue to strengthen our position and value proposition, not only with the customer, but the consumer. It's also around new customer acquisition, which we're very pleased with, and we're looking forward to really talking about some of this as we can as those products can begin to roll out, more likely early second to mid-second quarter of next year just due to mod changes or shelf changes and so on.
Okay. Just one last one there, I guess. When you talk about the new customer acquisition, should we think about future progress with this category or this sort of business line being doing more with what you have, kind of getting more efficient with trade, getting more listings? Or should we also look forward to more targeted product launches to get some of the shelf space?
Well, I think it's a combination of both. The white space for us on existing products is immense, right? Not only with new customers, and we have an opportunity given the scale of the business in the U.S. and in some cases, the fragmentation of retailers to secure new customer growth that will certainly you know, drive and deliver on the growth aspirations we have. We also have ample opportunity as we continue to evaluate the right innovation and product offerings to meet the consumer's needs.
Okay. Thanks so much for the call.
Thank you. Your last question comes from Jonathan Lamers from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Rod, the commentary on food service revenue versus Q3 2019 was very helpful. I believe you said food service revenue overall is up 12% versus Q3 2019, but still down 9% on a volume basis. Is that correct?
Let me get that exact number for you. I think the volume number was down 9%, and it was up approximately 12%. Yeah, 12% and then down 9% of volume. That's compared to 2019, right? When we look at our value-added category this quarter over 2020, it was up 36%.
Would you have the same figures for retail?
Let me see if I've got that data here right now. If we look at retail.
Yeah, retail versus 2020, in terms of volume, is relatively flat. In terms of dollars, it would be up because of inflation. Retail compared to 2019 would be down, but it would be down because of a particular customer loss we had in 2019 that we lost in early 2020.
Right. Thank you. Another detail. On the new customer wins, Rod, you mentioned, which should add, I believe it was 3 and 4 million pounds. Are those figures net of customer losses?
Yeah. The customer loss number this quarter was actually quite insignificant, thankfully, Jonathan. Both the innovation and the new business distribution gains were in excess of a small amount of lost business.
Thanks. One more thing to circle up. During the quarter, it was widely reported that there was a large amount of Alaska pollock being held at the U.S.-Canada border for one of your competitors. Was this an issue that either benefited or hurt operations in Q3 in any meaningful way for High Liner?
No, I would say, we continued to watch that as that may have continued to evolve, but was relatively insignificant in the quarter for us. It does certainly support our position as the only North American supplier with plants on both sides of the border to be in a position to help the industry should that arise.
Okay, thanks. Now, Rod, I know you said that you'll give us more comments on the 2022 outlook in the next release. This press release highlights that gross profit dollars have increased at a 6% CAGR since 2019. Year to date, that would be up about 3% at a 3% CAGR. Would you highlight that as a reasonable organic growth target for the business going forward?
Yeah, I think it's probably premature for us to give a perspective on 2022. We're in the process now of building those plans and dealing with what we know is going to be some additional inflation. I mean, we've said where our view is we can continue to grow adjusted EBITDA. That would continue to be the case as we look forward. We may see some shift in mix that will have some impact on gross profit as we continue to see some of the commodity business come back that was down in food service. You may see gross profit dollars go up, but you may see rate not go up just because of the fact when you're passing on a lot of inflation. That is part of the reality as well.
Can you comment at all on the level of investments you're contemplating for fixed costs and CapEx? I know you haven't finalized, but I'm just trying to put some brackets around maybe a high end and a low end.
Yeah, no, sure. On the CapEx side, I mean, this year we're expecting we'll spend roughly $20 million in CapEx. Next year, I would expect that to be, at least as a planned position, closer to $25 million. But that'll be subject to the ability to execute well on it. One of the challenges in the CapEx environment, like every other environment, is there's inflation and there's delays in terms of getting material and labor. But our desire is to continue to invest heavily in our existing infrastructure. That's on the CapEx side. On the marketing side, which we talked about as well, that investment is reflected in our numbers in 2021. And we anticipate we'll continue with a similar level of investment in 2022.
not a similar rate of increase, but just a similar level.
Similar level of investment, yeah. Yeah.
Thank you. Last question. On the dividend, following the increase this quarter, could you comment on how the board is thinking about the dividend? I believe prior messaging was around payout ratio in the range of 30%-35% of adjusted EPS and gradual increases as earnings recover.
Yeah. No change to that. That would still be our long-term desired payout ratio. We will continue to support the dividend as we continue to grow the profitability in our business. We're not all the way up to our payout ratio yet, and one of the reasons for that is we continue to see opportunity to invest in the growth of our business, and that will remain our top capital allocation priority.
Paul, the adjusted tax rate has been very low in some quarters. What type of tax rate would you use to assess the payout ratio?
Yeah. For 2021, we have been lower than we anticipated. Normally we would typically guide to, you know, the low 20s. We've been more like the mid-teens. For now, I would say we expect to stay in that range. That's just reflective of, you know, some of the mix in our business, geographically, and also some of the tax planning that we have in place.
Thanks for your comments.
There are no further questions at this time. You may please proceed.
To close, I wanna thank you for joining the call today. We look forward to updating you with the results of the fourth quarter of 2021 on our next conference call in February. Please stay safe and well.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you very much for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.