The Campbell's Company (CPB)
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M&A Announcement

Dec 18, 2017

Speaker 1

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Campbell Soup Company to acquire Snyder's Lance Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Ken Gosnell, Vice President, Finance, Strategy And Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Candice. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our call to announce that Campbell will acquire Snyder's Lance. With me here in New Jersey are Denise Morrison, President and CEO of Campbell Sue Company and Anthony DeSalvestro, CFO, Campbell Soup Company. Also joining us by phone is Brian Driscoll, President and CEO of Snyder's Lance.

Brian will make be making a few comments, but will not be joining us for the Q And A portion of the call. As usual, we've created slides to accompany our presentation. You will find the slides posted on our website this morning at investor. Campbellsoupcompany.com. During today's call, we may make reference to certain non GAAP measures.

Reconciliations of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure are included in our Q4 fiscal 2017 and our Q1 fiscal 2018 earnings presentations, which can be found at investor. Campbellsoupcompany.com. The call is open to the media who participate in

Speaker 3

a listen only mode.

Speaker 2

Today, we will make forward looking statements, which reflect our current expectations, These statements rely on assumptions and estimates, which could be inaccurate and are subject to risk. Please refer to Slide 2 or our SEC filings for a list of factors that could cause our actual results to vary materially from those anticipated in forward looking statements. With that, let me turn the call over to Denise.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Ken. Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm pleased to announce that Campbell has agreed to acquire Snyder's Lance. This is a transformational acquisition that will significantly expand our snacking business and shift Campbell's center of gravity toward faster growing spaces. The combination of Campbell's iconic brands at Pepperidge Farm, Arnus and Kelson, with Snyder's Land's complementary portfolio.

Will create a diversified snacking leader and provide consumers with an even greater variety of better for you snacks. We're excited about Campbell is a purpose driven company. As many of you have heard me say before, we use our purpose real food that matters for life's moments as a filter for decision making. It informs everything we do including serving as a guide for our disciplined approach to M And A. The combination of Campbell with Snyder's Lance will accelerate Campbell's strategy.

1st, it will optimize our core business enhance our real food credentials and strengthen our position in the macro snacking market Snyder's Lance portfolio includes real food snacks that complement our own real food philosophy and capabilities. While also leveraging the macro snacking trends we've discussed with you in the past second, As I said before, health and well-being means different things to different people. The addition of Snyder's Lance to Campbell will increase our ability to provide consumers gluten free, non GMO, and provide other functional benefits. And third, The acquisition will help us accelerate our efforts to expand into faster growing distribution channels. The addition of Snyder's Lance will increase our exposure to convenience and natural channels, while also providing products that lend themselves to e Commerce.

This is complementary to Campbell's existing strength in grocery and mass channels. Anthony will provide an in-depth review of the transaction details but let me offer you some highlights. As you can see on slide 6, we've agreed to acquire Snyder's Lance for $50 per share in an all cash deal. Snyder's Lance has a history of strong sales growth. They reported net sales of $2,200,000,000 and adjusted EBIT of $193,000,000 for the trailing 12 months ended September 30, 2017.

Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the company has approximately 6000 employees and operates 13 manufacturing sites. The combined pro form a annual net sales is expected to exceed $10,000,000,000, We're confident that the combination of these snacking portfolios through continued margin improvement, driven by ongoing cost savings and cost synergies. The agreement is subject to Snyder's Lance shareholders approval and customary regulatory approvals. We anticipate the deal to Those who follow Campbell have heard me talk about our plans to shift our center of gravity by diversifying our portfolio. Since 2011, we've made solid progress against this goal.

With the addition of Snyder's Lance to Campbell, we will dramatically shift our portfolio towards a faster growing snacking category. As a result of this acquisition, Our new snacks portfolio will represent nearly half of Campbell's annual net sales, while Soup will become about 1 quarter of our annual net sales. This is a truly remarkable transformation for Campbell. And I'm confident that it will lead to an improved growth profile. This deal is compelling for many reasons.

First and foremost, it strengthens Campbell's core business and provides us with new capabilities. It accelerates our expansion into the faster growing better for you snacking market and nearly doubles the size of our global baked snacks business. 2nd, snacking is a business we know very well, and I'm confident in our ability to execute in this space. Snyder's Lance will become a part of our global biscuits and snacks business led by Luca Magnini. As some of you know, In the first quarter of fiscal 2018, Campbell's Global Biscuits And Snacks division delivered sales growth of 3% and segment operating Pepperidge Farms Operations in the U S, which has consistently been one of our best performing businesses.

3rd, as I mentioned earlier, the transaction will diversify our portfolio and move us decisively into the faster growing snacking categories while enhancing our distribution capabilities And finally, we expect there will be significant cost synergies, which Anthony will expand upon momentarily. As I've discussed with many of you on previous calls, snacking is a highly attractive consumer space, with growth rates that outpaced many center store categories. In fact, the macro snacking trend is quite literally becoming the way we eat today. Snacking occasions are expanding rapidly and even extending In the U. S, more than 50% of all eating occasions are snacks, and nearly half of U.

S. Consumers replace meals with snacks at least three to four times per week. It's no wonder snacking is an $89,000,000,000 market in the U. S. With a 3 year compound annual growth rate of approximately 3%.

As many of you snacking business today, which includes iconic brands such as Goldfish, Milano, Tim Pam, Shapes, and Keltsons. These brands are loved and enjoyed by consumers around the world. Through the acquisition of Snyder's Lance we will add more leading brands As you can see here, Snyder's Lance has a powerful stable of brands, which hold leading positions in the categories in which they compete. We believe Campbell's capabilities in consumer insights, research and development and marketing will help drive sales growth of the Snyder's Lance brands. Offers an exceptional opportunity to build with a diversified portfolio of brands across attractive categories.

We'll be able to provide consumers with a wide range of snacks, literally from soup to nuts. I've been dying to say that.

Speaker 1

In all

Speaker 4

seriousness, we'll have an unrivaled portfolio of snacking options that include sweet, savory, fresh, and convenient mini meal offerings. From sweet snacks such as cookies and biscuits, savory snacks like crackers, chips, pretzels, and nuts, to fresh snacks, including salsa, hummus and carrots, and even convenient mini meals with soup and other simple meals. This portfolio truly offers real food that matters for all life's moments. In closing, we're excited about this opportunity. We believe in our ability to execute and we're confident that the transaction will create value for our shareholders and other stakeholders.

I'm pleased that Brian Driscoll, the CEO of Snyder's Lance has joined us today to share He is a well respected leader in the food industry. Following Brian's brief remarks, Campbell's Chief Financial Officer Anthony DiSilvestro will discuss the financial impact for Campbell and additional details about the transaction and synergies. Brian, over to you.

Speaker 5

Thank you, Denise, and good morning, everyone. I'm excited to be here today to talk about this transaction. This past summer, we received an approach from Campbell. Following that, our board of directors and senior management team conducted a thorough review process of strategic options with the assistance of our outside financial and legal advisors. We believe this transaction maximizes value for our shareholders.

In addition, we are pleased that it delivers an immediate and significant cash Our board and I are confident this transaction is the best way to unlock the value of our portfolio. Clearly, Campbell recognizes the progress we have made planning and executing our transformation. We are pleased to note that they intend to continue that work following the close of the transaction, which builds on all the hard work and effort of the Snyder's Lance team. I'd like to acknowledge and thank all of our employees for their important contributions, which have positioned Snyder's Lance for this historic milestone. We look forward to working closely with Campbell in planning a seamless integration As we've gotten to know each other, we recognize how similar our cultures are with a shared focus on high quality products and ingredients and driven by family founded brands.

With that, I'd like to turn the call back over I'm sorry, turn the call over to Anthony D. Sylvester.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. I'll start my comments with an overview of the transaction which we are confident will create significant shareholder value. Which equates to an enterprise value of $6,100,000,000. Our estimated adjusted EBITDA of Snyder's Lance for calendar year 2017 of $305,000,000, When you factor in the expected cost synergies, the adjusted EBITDA multiple is 12.8 times. The purchase price per share represents a 27 percent premium to the Snyder's Lance closing price on December 13, 2017, the day before media reports on the transaction.

Before proceeding, I wanted Foods acquisition as disclosed last week, there is no change to Campbell's 2018 sales and earnings guidance. As I mentioned, we expect this transaction to create significant value. As many of you Snyder's Lance has recently launched a cost transformation program targeting $175,000,000 in savings, some of which is expected to be achieved in calendar year 2017. We have reviewed this program in detail and expect that a majority, approximately $125,000,000 of the targeted cost savings will be achieved. In addition, We have identified a cost synergy opportunity of $170,000,000 in run rate savings, which will be achieved by of the incremental depreciation and amortization related to purchase accounting.

We expect the transaction to be 5 to 7 percent accretive in our fiscal 2019. This assumes that the incremental debt carries an average interest of 3.5%. As we expand margins through synergies and achieve cost savings, the level of EPS accretion increases to 15 to 20% by fiscal 2021. Supporting our agreement to acquire the outstanding shares of Snyder's Lance, we have a committed bridge financing in place. Prior to the closing, we expect to issue $6,200,000,000 of new debt through a combination of term loans and long term notes The vast majority of incremental financing will be fixed rates and based on current market levels, we forecast the weighted average interest rate on the aggregate financing to be approximately 3.5%.

We will leverage our With the transaction, Campbell's pro form a leverage measured as net debt to adjusted EBITDA and including the recently closed acquisition of Pacific Foods increases to 4.8x. We are committed to de leveraging and are targeting a reduction in our leverage ratio to 3 times by fiscal 2022. To assist the deleveraging, we are suspending our share repurchase program going forward. Consistent with our past practice, with the peer group and expect to increase the dividend over time with earnings. Based on these plans, we expect to maintain an investment grade rating.

In fact, both Moody's and S and P have issued press releases this morning with S and P assigning a rating of BBB and Moody's indicating a rating of no less than Baa2. Completion of the transaction is subject to approval by the Snyder's Land Shareholders and customary regulatory approvals. We expect to close the transaction by early in The combination of Campbell's and Snyder's Lance will yield significant cost synergies benefiting from the overlap in our snacking businesses. As I mentioned, we expect to achieve $170,000,000 in cost synergies, which equates to about 7.5%. Of Snyder's Lance sales.

These synergies come from several areas. Both our Peppix Farm business and Snyder's Lance operate warehouses and depots to distribute products, and there is opportunity to improve the overall efficiency of the combined company. We have also identified opportunities in manufacturing to optimize the network. Also we anticipate the ability to In the areas of sales and marketing and administration, we'll optimize the scale of the combined entity and leverage the shared services opportunity. While we're not counting it as a synergy, we believe there are revenue opportunity created by the combination of the two companies.

We have complimentary distribution with their strength in immediate consumption and the natural channel and our strength in grocery and mass. There are unique capabilities in sales and marketing and innovation, which can also be leveraged. There are opportunities to extend certain brands into kids snacking, and the combined entity can accelerate the capture of the e commerce opportunity. Summarizing, we have a detailed cost synergy planned, and we are confident in our ability to achieve the $170,000,000 target. To achieve the synergies, complete the transaction and integrate the business, we estimate one time costs of $275,000,000 to $325,000,000.

I'll wrap up with this chart. We are very excited about this transaction and are confident in our ability The acquisition of Snyder's Lance is aligned with our strategy for Campbell and will significantly advance our execution. The addition of Snyder's Lance will meaningfully shift our portfolio to higher growth snacking categories. As we discussed, the combination of Campbell And Snyder's Lance will yield significant cost synergies as well as potential revenue opportunities. And lastly, we see this transaction creating significant value for our shareholders.

With that, I'll turn it back to Ken for Q And A.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Anthony. As I mentioned earlier, Denise and Anthony are here with me in New Jersey and will handle the Q and A session, since we have limited time out of fairness to the other caller questions.

Speaker 1

And our first question comes from Andrew Lazaro of Barclays. Your line is now open. Good morning, Andrew.

Speaker 6

Hi. Alright, I'm choosing 1. Let me go with, I guess, I guess, my question has to do with the the pretz franchise. It certainly stood the test of time very well, at Lance. But I guess perhaps more recently, maybe has not grown as quickly as it has previously and relative to other snacking options.

And I guess given that's still the biggest part of the lands portfolio, do you ensure this business can stay relevant and drive growth in addition to the other pieces of lamps, which have been growing more quickly?

Speaker 4

Yes. We believe that the consumer snacking trends are really strong and that the, the Snyder's brand and also the snack factory, pretzelcrisp brand are very strong entries into this particular potential and our intention is to nurture that.

Speaker 1

Thank you. And our next question comes from Brian Spillane of Bank of America.

Speaker 3

I guess I wanted to ask a

Speaker 7

question about the, just the ability to, like, combine distribution or leverage each entity's distribution. And forgive me, I don't know enough about, Lance's, distribution itself. But given that Campbell's has some direct store distribution, with its snack portfolio, are there any limitations, I guess, or any, accommodations that you'll have to make in order to try to cross sell the products I'm just trying to understand how quickly you can get to a point where you're actually able to take advantage of the cross selling and the channel opportunities.

Speaker 4

Yeah. Well, today, we're operating, 2, direct store delivery systems in Pepperidge Farm with snacks and also with bakery. This will add a third, DSD system. The commonality or or all of these systems have independent business owners or independent distributor operators. So we're very familiar with how to, how to reach the potential of these systems.

I think as you know, as we get to know the companies, we will be looking at, at potential synergies, we believe those exist mostly in the area of depots and warehousing.

Speaker 7

Okay. And so the model doesn't accommodate or contemplate any like, sort of buying of routes or trying to combine some of these routes

Speaker 3

No, we haven't assumed any of that. We operate 2, systems today for Pepper, one for snacks and 1 for bakery. And this DSC Network would be a third one. And that's, you know, Denise mentioned where we see significant savings opportunity is in the warehouse and and depot system that distributes product to those independent operators. And the way it's not our science operates today, they're about half DSD and the other half direct to warehouse, but we plan to operate their DSD system independently.

Speaker 1

Thank you. And our next question comes from Chris Growe of Stifel. Your line is now

Speaker 8

and congratulations on this announcement here. Just a quick question for you if I could. Looking out with the expectation, you'll achieve these g's by fiscal 22, call it roughly 5 years away, 4 or 5 years away. What is taking so long along the way to achieve all the efficiencies? Is it just to integrate or affect the plan that Lance had in place, or is it going to take a little longer to achieve savings in the area of efficient, and I'm sorry, in the depos and warehouses.

And that kind of thing with the DSD system. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Yes. So, we get a little hung up in the transition between calendar year and fiscal year. So They are a little earlier than they may appear. And we think we'll realize synergy right out of the gate but, majority will be a little bit back end loaded. And the reason for that is, you know, we need to implement you know, our ERP system, to unlock, you know, the combination and the leverage between the two companies.

And that's the reason it's a little bit later, a little bit longer

Speaker 1

Thank you. And our next question comes from Ken Goldman of JP Morgan. Your line is now open.

Speaker 5

Hi. So,

Speaker 9

hey, good morning. So I have a question on DSD. The world is shifting to e comm right? Obviously, a little more slowly in food, but 10, 20 years from now, we'll have a lot more sales in e comm than we do now. DSD obviously doesn't help with that.

One of your major competitors in cookies and crackers has shifted away from DSD. And I realize you have a very different system of DSD with your independent operators, but running 3 DSD systems at a time when the world, especially in sort of snacking seems to be going away from that. And I know one of your DSDs is in bread, but seems to be sort of the opposite trend of where things are heading. So I just wanted to know if you can comment on that. If there are any plans over time to sort of restrict the use of DSD, or if it's really just so ingrained, no pun intended in what Campbell does that it's you're going to just have to run these 3 separate businesses as it's it's very expensive.

Speaker 4

Sure. I think it's accurate to say that most of the sales in grocery and food, still exists in the store base. And that e comm today is low single digits. And the expectation is that e commerce will grow, and will we're expecting that to be about $66,000,000,000 by 2020 for the industry. That said, there's a huge omnichannel play as well.

I mean, when you think about what conventional customers have done with things like click and collect, order online, pick up at store, and also what pure play e tailers have done, including the purchase of regular stores. We still think there's definitely a role for the store and food. And in a snacking business, it's not just about grocery and mass, there are multiple channel formats that carry snacks where impulse purchasing in store is a huge part of the business. So we still see a very vibrant role for DSD. And I think one of the things that makes the DSD systems different for both of these companies is the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well and the independent operator.

And they've done an exceptionally good job for us and for Snyder's Lance.

Speaker 10

Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you. And our next question comes from Robert Moskow of Credit Suisse. Your line is now open.

Speaker 11

Integration with Diamond. And even within Steiner's Lance, there's probably different cultures at play from past acquisitions. And now you're there's another acquisition on top of it and another ERP overlay. So can you talk a little bit about how you you plan to to manage through those integrations. Does one integration, I think you said, is still going on.

And then there's another integration on top of it. Is that how you think about it?

Speaker 4

We've had a lot of experience since 2011 with acquiring businesses that that have different cultures and different ways of operating. I think one of the things that we have found with the acquisitions that we've made, and this one is no different, is that we all share the same basic values and we all are passionate about the purpose. It might be expressed in different words, but they're basically pretty aligned. And so we'll be looking, as we as we work with the Snyder's Lance team on integration and culture, we'll be looking for those things that represent points of parody, and we'll deal with the things that are points of difference.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I would just add to that. So we intend to establish, you know, an integration team, for this. It'll be dedicated. It'll be cross functional. It'll be around for a while.

It'll include members of our global biscuits and snacks division, people from our corporate operation, people from Snyder's land, we have, you know, set aside significant resource to do that. And this, planning has already begun. And will continue obviously, for a while. There isn't an integration going on right now. Between Smatter and Diamond.

That's mostly complete. What I was referencing before is they have a cost transformation plan that they announced that we've reviewed in significant detail and agreed that, you know, we'll be able to achieve a majority of those targeted savings. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you. And our next question comes from David Driscoll of City Research. Your line is now open. Hi, David. Great.

Speaker 12

Thank you, and good morning. I wanted to ask about just the magnitude of these synergies. So I think just quick math, it's north of 13% of lantive revenues. And I just wanted to get your sense here. This is a really big synergy number expressed as a fraction of the revenues more so than what we see typically.

And then given the very extensive nature of of Spider Lances, changes their air cost optimization portfolio. I'm concerned that this is a lot of work for you guys to chop, and that there's a lot of risks here naturally achieving these synergies. And I just appreciate if you could respond to that comment, and maybe just give me some understanding at your thought process on the risk of achieving the very significant synergies outlined today.

Speaker 3

Yeah. I could take a crack at that. And, you know, as I step back and look at this, we are very confident that we can deliver both the twist of, sorry, Snyder's cost transformation plan and the synergies. And we've been very careful and deliberate to separate the 2. They announced their plan to achieve $175,000,000 of cost savings.

The elements of that plan are very similar to the cost savings program that we embarked upon in 2016. It includes 0 based budgeting. It includes an organizational change. We're reducing, they're reducing layers of management. It includes, the manufacturing efficiency of plant closing, some procurement savings, and some of the things they're doing around their portfolio.

We have been through that plan in excruciating detail and been very careful to say, what do we believe, can be delivered? And we're very confident, that we can that we can deliver $125,000,000 of that program. And we're, again, we've been very careful separate that from what we consider true cost synergies, which is the combination of our business with theirs and what opportunity does that unlock, which is really incremental to what I just talked about, right? So all the areas I went through earlier, in my my discussion, around sales and marketing around the plant network, around the the distribution warehouse and depot consolidation. So we have a line of sight to all of these savings.

Now, you mentioned 13 points of margin. That's not what we're expecting on a net basis. We have, set aside and expect to reinvest a portion of that back in the business to support the brand, to drive innovation, to, enhance some of the supply chain protocols And again, I think we're very confident that we can deliver this.

Speaker 4

Yes. David, the only thing I'd add to that is over the past couple of years, We have been on a very aggressive cost reduction program for Campbell's and have gone through many of the same kinds of things that, Brian and his team have outlined in their transformation plan. And we delivered those savings over deliver those savings a year earlier. So we know how to do this. We recognize that it's complex but we have had experience and success in doing it in our own company.

Speaker 12

Anthony, one quick follow-up. What's the tax rate that you guys assume in your accretion calculation. And then assuming tax reform occurs, what do you do with the extra funds? Do you all go to get pay down to go faster on that pay down?

Speaker 3

Yes. So all of our modeling, in terms of valuing the company and the accretion uses existing tax rate we'll see what happens on tax reform is that obviously there's a significant reduction in in the corporate rate. Campbell would benefit. This transaction will benefit But, you know, and that would be upside to what we're talking about here. We are committed to deleveraging and getting back to three times debt to EBITDA.

And if there was a tax reform and the benefit, it it would go to, accelerating that deleveraging. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you. And our next question comes from Matthew Granger of Morgan Stanley. Your line is now

Speaker 10

Hi, Nick. Good morning, everybody. Hi, hi, Nice. So, Denise, you talked about the portfolio transformation here and you're ending up with a portfolio that's roughly half meals, half snacks, 2 different businesses, different distribution, different supply chains. How should we think about the complimentary relationship between these two halves of the business?

And In terms of how you manage Simple Meals and try and generate profitable growth over time, does the need to deleverage, and on the growth in the snack business change, how you think about the balance between margin and growth in Simple Meals going forward?

Speaker 4

Yes. Matt, it all starts with the consumer and we had identified 2 faster growing spaces that we wanted to expand in. 1 was health and well-being, and the other was snacking. And we've been able to, buy both internal innovation and also external development advance our portfolio in both of those areas. I think that there is some overlap, in the, in the core business in that, our soup and simple meals business can also be expanded into more convenient meals and and super snack, etcetera.

So there's some work that we can do there to capitalize on the macro snacking trend. And I also think too that Snyder's Lance has over a third of their poor Folio and better for you snacking. So bringing health and well-being credentials to snacking is something we've been working on with our real food snacking in Pepperidge Farm and Arnott's. So I do think that, that these converge in a way, but both spaces helping well-being and snacking are 2 large and growing consumer spaces.

Speaker 10

Okay. Great. Thanks. Thanks.

Speaker 1

Thank you. And our next question comes from John Baumgartner of Wells Fargo. Your line is now open.

Speaker 13

Good morning. Thanks for the question.

Speaker 4

Anthony, just wanted to

Speaker 13

clarify in terms of the route to market and your comments there keeping the Snyder's DSD separate. Given the IPO structure of these DSDs, is it just that you don't necessarily have the flexibility or the authority to go and put Lance products on Pepper trucks and vice versa, or would the owner operators be willing to cross sell, or they're really just not complementary geographies here in terms of synergies with that last mile of distribution?

Speaker 3

Well, I think there's certainly complimentary geographies the thing is, you know, these are independent, businesses owners, you know, that operate, under, under, contracts. Those contracts that effort farm has are different than the contracts that Snyder's Lance has. So we, we really need to get in there and understand it. I think I just started going in assumption is that, you know, we need to operate that independent, system separate from ours. But we'll certainly look for for opportunities to cross sell and to expand the distribution of both Pepperidge Farm and Snyder lines project product through those those systems.

Speaker 13

Okay. So it isn't a table at some point down the road then?

Speaker 3

We'll have to see.

Speaker 13

Great. Thanks for clarifying.

Speaker 1

Thank you. And our next question comes from Steve Shikula of UBS. Your line is now open.

Speaker 14

Hi guys. Congratulations on the deal.

Speaker 4

Thank you.

Speaker 14

So two quick questions as it relates to Lance. I think you already touched on this, Denise, but they are undergoing right now an early stage transformation involving SKU reductions or budget and factory footprint efficiencies, etcetera. How do you think about talent retention and keeping key personnel to ensure a smooth transition over the next call it 2 or 3 years, given the complexity of what they're undertaking. And then the second piece of my question would be, as it relates to their secondary businesses of partner brands and contract manufacturing, how do you think about whether that's core or necessary revenue to kind of keeping the pro form a portfolio? Thanks.

Speaker 4

Well, I think I think the people aspect of this, acquisition is very important. And I look forward to meeting the people at Snyder's Lance, and we will be developing a comprehensive program regarding the talent. The second piece of your question regarding the partner brands, I think it's very intriguing what they've been able to do with partner brands, particularly smaller challenger brands, providing a distribution system. So we will be taking that into consideration as we review the business going forward.

Speaker 1

And our final question comes from the line of Michael Lavery of Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

Speaker 15

Thank you. Just a little bit of a follow-up up on Matthew's question, your portfolio is almost half snacks and close to half meals, but you do have that sort of 10% beverages where you've had some struggles in V Eight and and on the Bolthouse side, and you you're up against, obviously, much bigger competitors typically in in beverages in general. How do you see your portfolio evolving maybe further? Is beverage is a core part of it? Certainly, without that, snacks would be more than half.

Is that the direction you think you'd prefer to go?

Speaker 4

Yes. We consider the beverage business a very important part of our Campbell Fresh business. And, you know, we've been, have a $1,000,000,000 platform in fresh food and and beverage and snacks. So, that's a very strategic business for us And in V Eight, we've had, a tale of 2 cities. As you know, we've had some growth on our, core V Eight Red Juice our VA plus energy is very robust.

We've had some issues on our, VA Defusion and VA splash. That we're dealing with. So but we will continue to review the portfolio as we do systemically as part of our annual strategic plan.

Speaker 1

Thank you. And that concludes our question and answer session for today. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Ken Cosnell for any closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you everyone for joining our call today. A full replay will be available about 2 hours after the call concludes by going online calling 1 4045373406. The access code is 896-9888. You will have until December 31st midnight, at which point we move our earnings calls and these calls strictly to the website, investor.camplessaccompany.com. Just click recent webcasts and presentations.

If you have further questions, please call me at 856-342-6081. If you're a reporter with questions, please call Thomas Hussian at 856-342-5227. If you are a sliders lance investor, please contact Kevin Powers at 704-557-8279. Thanks everyone.

Speaker 1

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude the program and you may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

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