CFO Tracey Joubert. Molson Coors has had a strong start to the year as the company continues to make encouraging progress on its transformation journey. As the beer category trends are slowly starting to improve, Molson Coors has moved to the next leg of its revitalization journey, which is to accelerate growth in its portfolio and deliver sustainable top and bottom line growth. Thank you so much for joining me, Rahul-
Thank you.
Tracey. Nice to see you both.
Nice to see you.
Just trying to make sure the chairs are right.
Yeah.
Welcome. I wanted to, you know, kick things off today with a question for you, Rahul. You've been in your seat now for, I think, a little over seven months.
I'd love to hear from your perspective sort of what surprised you the most in this, you know, relatively new role, and then maybe what you underestimated?
Oh, wow.
I know.
That's a nice question. Did not expect that from a. No, thank you, Bonnie Herzog. Firstly, thanks for having us here. You know, the way I think all of us in the company and I particularly think is, we get the privilege of working with a company that's 240 years old. You know, I'm the new guy in the seat, but I've been in the company 25 years. You know, our job is to make this company bigger, stronger, better for the future, and, that's how we think about it, I think. You know, new I would say understood the business, understood the company. Probably the thing that, you know, your question of surprise or change is, the impact you have on a lot of lives, right?
I mean, we got 16,000 people. We got distributors. The impact you have on them, and their families probably is a little bit more deeper than I, you know. You know it.
Right
the weight it carries. You know, as a business, I've had the privilege of understanding and knowing our business for a long time, so that part, I think, has not been any big surprise.
Just in terms of, like you mentioned, the whole organization and the culture.
Yeah
change that maybe you're trying to implement.
Yeah. No, that's where I would say is just that takes time, right?
Yeah. Right.
The change because, you know, I say this to our teams all the time. We're a good company. We have a strong brands. We have good foundation. We have great profit pools. We gotta go find growth.
Yeah.
To go find growth, we gotta think differently. We gotta move with some urgency. We gotta move with a little bit speed, risk-taking, you know, and that sense of ownership.
in this company. It's a great business. It's a great platform.
As you know, I mean, our challenge is go finding growth and, you know, we believe with the new plan we can go get that. The exciting part is we can get our teams excited about that.
Right.
Right? I think that's the part we look forward to.
Okay. Sounds good. You know, thinking about the category too and where you play, you touched on this, you know, in your earnings, like, a couple weeks ago just in terms of the industry being down.
Yeah.
I think it was, like, 1.6%. More recently, we've seen, you know, some of the growth decelerate, I guess.
Yeah.
I'd love to hear your perspective on what on earth is going on now.
Yeah.
within the broader beer category
Yeah
How do you think about it? I mean, we're still not quite at summer, but optimistic that maybe weather and some events can, you know, accelerate this growth.
Yeah. Yeah, I think coming into this year, I know, everybody in the category was a little cautious coming out of last year, right? Last year was, anomaly. You know, you look at whatever time span. I think coming in this year, we felt that this year is gonna be better, right?
You have these, all these events last year. I think that's where coming in, we were, like, a little bit more confident about the category. I think Q1, as you rightly said, was a little bit much better than.
Yeah
broadly, I would say, we expected. April's been a little bit of a zigzag again. you know, your question of if you think about the consumer.
I mean, the consumer health coming into this year, Q1, I mean, the trips were higher.
Number of buyers higher. Maybe basket size still cautious, you know, we're feeling good about the year.
again, macro issues, if you think about the war, that happened end of March.
Yeah.
gas prices started hitting, you know, accelerated levels at the end of March, early April.
It is gonna be a volatile year.
It is gonna be a volatile year. I think that broadly the team I know some of the questions.
in Q1 was, "Well, do you see this seeing forward?" I think our comments was, "Well, we like what we saw, but let's be cautious.
Right.
On the other hand, you rightly called out, I mean, we got some big occasions.
Right
in summer. You know, we've talked about and the category's talked about is our challenge is not, you know, people not drinking. I mean, people are drinking.
They're drinking differently.
Yeah.
It is occasions, and the summer gives us a great platform for great occasions.
Right? You got the World Cup. You got America's 250th.
You know, weather always helps.
I know.
I think we're pretty energized about going into summer. We'll see what April is again. All of us need to learn, deal with volatility.
Yeah.
We're excited about summer. I think we got a lot ahead of us, you know, May, June, and then you start the build up into the summer. That's exciting.
I forget in the context of this with your top line guidance this year. Have you stated what that suggests for the category? Have you put a figure on what you expect the category to do this year?
Yep. No, we did not.
Okay. All right.
This year, you know.
Right
Given the volatility of the category, we give some ranges. This year we didn't.
Okay.
I think Coming in, if you look at last year's category within the -5-ish range.
Yeah
We, you know, we expected this year to be better.
To be better.
Yeah. Right now, whether it's, yeah, we'll see how the year plays out. I mean, it's been a pretty volatile start anyway.
Thought it could be the year of beer stocks, right? Considering everything, the factors you just mentioned. You know, obviously things always change, and you touched on the war and gas prices.
Yeah
The consumer. You know, very recently, maybe we're starting to see some signs, right, whether it's down trading, et cetera. Thinking about your portfolio and, you know, the value segment.
Yeah
How you're stabilizing that, you know, are you starting to see any signs of maybe consumers trading down to some of those brands? If so, you know, can you talk about any of the strategies?
Yeah
You're implementing to meet the consumer where they're at?
No, that's a great point. Again, if you think about the consumer, you know, I know you asked about the value one, just briefly, the top end of the economic consumer, they're doing okay.
Yeah.
They're resilient, right? For us, making sure we have a portfolio for them, whether it's Peroni, Fever-Tree, is important.
You know, obviously there we're leaning in on some of our above premium pieces, even like things like Banquet. Trade down is a little bit.
Okay
in our category, right? folks who love Coors Light are gonna come to Coors Light. Miller Lite, they come to Miller Lite. maybe we gotta think pack sizes.
That's where we lean on a little bit single, small packs and large packs.
We see a little bit of that trading. Value is a big part of our business.
Right.
It is a big part of where consumers are leaning in, not for trade down, but because they care about those brands. We are seeing some progress. This is, I want to be cautious because I know there's more work to be done on this. There is definitely more work. It's a long-term thing. You know, if you think about High Life.
High Life is, you know, holding on to share. I mean, we're on premise, we're gaining share. Off premise, we have, you know, we have work to do on Keystone. We have some new plans coming in that I think we're getting excited about. This one's gonna take a little time.
Okay.
You know, I'm gonna take this Forum to make a small plug.
Okay.
If that's okay, a 5-second plug. If you guys have not seen the new Keystone Light Apple ad or video or TikTok or whatever that is, if you want a 2-minute fun, you know, just smile, go take a look at it.
Yeah.
I use that as an example, is we gotta find.
Yeah
a way of connecting better with consumers with that portfolio, which historically we have not supported.
Now we just need to show a little bit of support and love, and we got two big ones, High Life and Keystone. There's a lot of brands that we have, which are very local that requires different ideas, different execution on that.
Almost leaning in on, you know, some of the strengths, stabilizing those brands, especially given the broader consumer backdrop could actually work.
Yeah, absolutely.
in this environment.
I think for us, like Keystone, I mean, we're gonna have Keystone Ice coming in later in fall, which is a little bit of on the ABV side.
higher ABV, as exactly you said.
stabilize High Life and Keystone, and then local execution on the rest of the portfolio.
Okay. Thinking about guidance, your full year, you know, top line guidance of flat ±1%, which you just recently reaffirmed. You do expect, I guess, U.S. shipments to be down 6%-9% in Q2 because of what occurred in Q1. Maybe walk through that for us, you know, just kind of, you know, what's happening between Q1 and Q2, then ultimately what gives you the confidence that you'll see the recovery-
Yeah
in the second half?
Tracey, you wanna take that one?
Yeah. What we did say on our Q1 call is, we went into Q2 with higher levels of inventory. We feel very confident in the levels of inventory that we will have going into the summer. Last year Q, Q2, we had higher levels of inventory. We were a little bit impacted by glass supply.
I think you've heard some other folks talk about that. You know, cycling some of the headwinds from last year, we have built up inventory. We do feel good. You know, there's always gonna be somewhere where there's a package that maybe is out of stock, but that's normal. We're working with our suppliers, our distributors, and so we feel confident going into the summer with the inventory levels that we've got.
Okay.
Just due to some headwinds and cycling from last year.
Okay
you know, Q2 is gonna be lower.
Okay.
We do plan on shipping to consumption for the full year.
Yeah.
For the full, yeah.
You'll see, you know, in Q2.
Q3, and sorry, the second half of the year, our STWs will outpace, you know.
STRs as we, as we ship to consumption.
Mm-hmm. In the context of that, Monaco, which we're going to talk about, that is part of, you know, factored into the guidance to get to that, I guess.
It is.
±
It is.
yeah, 1%.
Yes.
Okay.
Yes.
Good visibility. See the recovery. Just some noise, if you will, between Q1 and Q2.
A lot of the initiatives.
Yeah
that are being implemented.
Yeah. I mean, if you look at Q1, we shipped ahead of consumption.
Yeah.
We, you know, built inventory.
Yeah.
There's a little bit of a phasing as to all the things Tracy talked about.
Okay
you know, full year we can still see the -1% to -2% guidance that we laid out.
Okay. Wow.
Minus 1, plus 1, sorry.
Yes, exactly.
Plus.
Not changing guidance today.
Not changing guidance.
No. No. Okay. Okay.
No new news.
No, exactly. core brands.
Yeah.
You know, I wanted to switch gears. You talked about regaining focus and then winning back share, you know, for the core brands, which is critical given-
Yeah
the size and probably the profitability of those brands. What are the specific strategies that you are implementing behind Coors Light and Miller Lite? Ultimately, how do you evaluate if those strategies are working? I mean, I know we've talked about this.
Yeah
for a number of years, but just thinking through.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Yeah.
That's a fair question, Bonnie. If you think about our big brands, right, I mean, Coors Light, Miller Lite, I'd put Banquet in that.
Okay
You know, Miller High Life in that. If you think about our core portfolio, we gotta make sure they are strong and healthy. I would say we've done a decent job on things like Banquet, things like Coors Light to some degree.
You know, the easiest measure to share, right? I mean, obviously we think of volume, we think of NSR. For the external world, the easiest measure to share. If you see our progress since 2023 or even in recent times, you know, we've held that part of the category share has been okay. Now we have some work to do on, for example, like Miller Lite.
Yeah.
You know, this year we knew coming in it was gonna be a competitive context. You know, in a couple of regions in the United States, Miller Lite's been a little bit challenged. We knew it's a competitive context, but that's where we need to react. You know, to your point of looking forward, if you think about the plans we have laid out over the summer. In Coors Light, we got the World Cup. We're pretty excited about how we're gonna show up in the World Cup. As they say, there's, you know, seven, eight Super Bowls in Houston.
Yeah
six Super Bowls in Dallas and obviously regional, but great way to activate and make sure our brand show up in a strong way.
You know, Miller Lite, we launched some of the campaigns early, just a way to make sure we've been competitive, so. The last piece I'll call out, which I know sometimes people don't get out of our new plan that we laid out, is the local execution.
Okay.
Right? We've changed our operating model. We're looking at our brands very locally. We're looking at how do we make sure these brands resonate in those particular geographies, and then we can react to that. Whether it's promotions, whether it's pricing, whether it's activation, we can use the levers there. Core brands, super important.
Okay.
You know, obviously volume and NSR is key. Share becomes an important way of measuring progress.
In terms of making sure we have all the right plans leading into summer, I think we're feeling good about it going into the summer.
Yeah. You mentioned, you know, Miller Lite maybe needing some more work. Can you share with us, you know, maybe what's not resonating with the consumer with that brand? I mean, as you think about kind of trying to improve share, is it innovation? Is it better price pack architecture? You mentioned some campaigns.
Yeah
Maybe different messaging. You know, what are some of the key initiatives?
Yeah. No, I wouldn't say there's.
All available.
the Yeah, the campaign and the thinking and, you know, the focus we have on the live I think is the right one.
Okay.
That is resonating with consumers. You know, I think if you've seen the Christopher Walken message.
the message around the liquid, all of those are resonating. It's just competitive. I think a lot more things to focus on.
in those particular geographies. you know, thinking through pricing and promotional activity.
in those particular geographies. It's a little bit of execution-
and making sure we are reactive to what's happening. In terms of what the brand stands for and how the brand's showing up.
I think we're feeling pretty good about it. The other thing I know I didn't mention is.
America's two-fiftieth celebration.
Yeah.
Right? Again, Miller Lite's a big brand that talks a lot about Americana, I think that's the other thing we're pretty excited about coming into the summer. Yeah, I wouldn't say this is a national, you know, we gotta rethink on the brand. It's more about local execution, given how competitive this context is gonna be this summer.
If we're sitting here again in a year.
Yeah
and I hope we are-
Yeah
Would success to you be that these brands, you know, Miller Lite, Coors Light, are essentially flat with share? Are you expecting to grow share? I'm just trying to think through.
Yeah. No, absolutely.
Okay, great.
That's a great question. I think success for me.
share, growing of share of total category is a easy one. You know, I think you've seen our numbers.
We gotta change the trend.
If the core is healthy, our business, you know, becomes pretty stable in that context. I mean, for me in a year's time, yeah, we should be in the position of at least holding and, you know, in the right trajectory for share volume.
Okay. Maybe I'll switch to cost and the lovely Midwest Premium, that's very topical. You know, you've been talking about this obviously maybe earlier than some.
For years.
Right? I know. That's true too. You know, really kind of, you know, started talking about this being obviously a major headwind to your business this year, and I think you called out a $30 million, you know, cost increase in Q1. You expect it to be inflationary every quarter for the remainder of the year.
Yeah
with I think the largest increase in Q2. You have pretty good visibility in terms of that?
Yeah.
You know, how do we think through?
You know, we feel very comfortable with our hedge position for this year. We did layer on more hedges in February. We've got pretty good line of sight as to what the, you know, what it would cost us. You know, I would say we've probably mitigated, for the most part, any further increases, you know, the impact that it would have on our business. You know, having said that, though, you know, I'll just keep saying, I mean, it's a difficult commodity to hedge. You know, I think I've spoken before, you know, for every 1,000 aluminum hedges, there's 3 Midwest Premium hedges. It's not a transparent, it's not a great market to hedge, et cetera.
You know, we'll continue to have a look at it. For, you know, for this year, we feel pretty comfortable with our hedge position and that we've mitigated, you know, most of any increases, you know, that may come forward.
It's just hedged through this year, right?
No, we do have some hedges on for next year. Typically we have more hedges in the first year. Again, it's very difficult to hedge, especially out, you know, longer term.
Okay. How do we think about that in context? Because I'm pretty sure you're staying disciplined with the 1 to 2 points of pricing. Is that correct?
This is why we're just ultimately gonna see some of the margin, you know, headwinds.
Yeah.
Any other factors that you can, I don't know, implement to help mitigate some of this, whether it's?
Sure
you know, marketing spend, cost optimization, et cetera?
Yeah. I mean, we've obviously got the $450 million dollar.
Yeah
cost savings program that we announced. If we look at, you know, some of the actions that we took at the end of last year for the Americas G&A.
you know, we'll start seeing that flow through. We took out 400 roles. We started to see the impact of that on our G&A. We've also taken some actions in the APAC region, where we've closed a brewery and we're looking at using technology and capabilities to drive further cost savings. I would say we're on plan. We're on track with that, with our cost savings. Now, the 450 is over 3 years.
Right.
You know, you'll start seeing that come through this year. That's one of the things that we are doing, and we started last year to mitigate, you know, the inflationary pressures that we are seeing.
Tracey, on that, because I know I've talked to a number of, you know, staples companies, and they have identified, you know, already plans, cost optimization, productivity savings. Have you been able to accelerate any of that or pull it forward? I mean, you mentioned it's on plan, but is there a way to accelerate or move some of the projects earlier given these darn cost headwinds?
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we are looking at that.
Okay.
The, you know, the capabilities that we're building is certainly helping us and then, you know, implementing some of the new systems and technology.
is helping as well. Yeah, we're trying to pull forward as much as we possibly can.
Okay.
I think, I mean, you said this well, Bonnie. I mean, in terms of us being disciplined about our business, I think we started that journey in Q4 last year.
Okay.
Right? We knew some of these headwinds ahead of us.
Yeah.
Some of the hard decisions around our team structure, people, hard decisions around supply chain, we put it in place in Q4. We obviously are gonna see those benefits as it translates. Tracey and the team, in terms of hedging and trying to mitigate risk, I think we've tried to do that. I think the brand one, I mean, we obviously wanna make sure we get the right return out of our investment.
Right.
We also wanna make sure we're being competitive in the marketplace, right? That's what we took into consideration when we gave guidance this year.
Right.
That's what we wanna try to make sure we deliver against, you know, as a business.
To be clear on that point, if I'm hearing you correctly, the spend levels are not decreasing, you know, in terms of behind the brands to you know, re-accelerate, you know, maximize share, et cetera. You're gonna continue to.
Yeah. Yeah. I think, again, we said it in our earnings, right? I mean, if you think about our, you know, broad MG&A spend over the next three quarters, it's gonna look higher than last year.
Yeah.
Some of it has one-time issues from last year of incentive and stuff, but we wanna make sure we have competitive pressure in the market, right? You know, tough context in terms of aluminum and input costs.
Right cost savings program to optimize, manage the risk, but making sure that we can have the right commercial pressure in the market.
Yeah. One thing I would say about our marketing investment, I mean, if we look at our core brands and what's important for us.
Yeah
whether it be Miller Lite, Coors Light, Banquet, High Life, Keystone Light Apple, as Rahul mentioned, even Fever-Tree. We've got a, a campaign, a new commercial for Fever-Tree, which we haven't had before. We are putting more dollars behind, you know, that core, but against fewer, bigger bets.
Yeah.
Like the World Cup, you know, like America's $250. There's more dollars going towards that, but we're making sure that it's in the big bets that are going to provide a return.
Yeah. I mean, just last comment there. I mean, if you think about our visibility in live sports-
We probably have the highest investment in live sports this year than we've had in a long, long time.
Wow. Okay.
Right?
Yeah
Try meeting consumers where they are as relevant for our brands.
Okay.
Tracey's point, appropriate level of investment, but making sure we can, you know, win with our, with our consumers.
Let's switch gears a little bit to the somewhat recent acquisition, Monaco Cocktails. You just closed, I believe. It does help close the gap in your RTD, you know, or the portfolio gap that you might have. I'd love to hear more about your strategy to scale that brand, increase distribution, et cetera. I think you've talked about that acquisition contributing a point of growth to the top line, but importantly, accretive.
Yeah
you know, on the bottom line.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Maybe walk through that for us and how your strategy is evolving as it relates to M&A and kind of like you mentioned earlier, maybe a little bit more risk-taking.
Yeah. I mean, I can do the brand and portfolio, Tracey, and the numbers. If you think about the brand, right, we knew we had a gap in our portfolio.
Yeah.
I mean, the whole flavor category has been so volatile from a consumer perspective. We knew we had a gap on the RTD stuff. I think, if you think about Monaco, you know, it's been a business that's been around 10, 12 years.
Right.
This is not a new brand. The business was built in a very disciplined way on the back of singles in convenience stores in a very controlled geography. Right? I think the top 5 states probably make up 60%, 70% of the volume. If you think about a big part of it is in singles. It is a very disciplined business, which we can then take and scale. Right? I mean, as an organization, we're pretty good at taking things that have got scale, have got proven, but then really making sure we can really make it bigger. I think that's why it gets us and our teams excited. You know, your point, if it is about distribution, it is about capabilities, right? Convenience.
If you look at our strengths, you know, we have good strength in convenience, but our big strength is in other big channels. Therefore, we can play that and then build some capabilities with the people that have come on board. That's where it's a right fit from a portfolio perspective. It's the right thing for us from a premiumization also.
Right? Compared to our normal NSR per hectoliter, this is a premium product.
It does the right thing for us on premiumization. It is top line and bottom line accretive.
Yeah
Gives us a good platform to really scale from there. It's the right fit for us. It fits the model, it does fit within the metrics we laid out earlier, right, Tracy?
Yeah, I mean, we've said M&A going forward is gonna must contribute between 1% and 2% of NSR and so on a, on a trailing 12-month.
Importantly also, you know, the bottom line, it must be profitable from day one. You know, this brand is for us.
As I think about this acquisition that did just close, is it the priority to kind of, you know, focus on integrating this? Will you continue to look at other potential M&A? You know, how do you, how do you think about prioritizing those two?
In terms of execution.
we gotta make sure we, you know, the way we talk about it internally is don't drop a case.
Yeah.
Right? We obviously had Fever-Tree last year. We executed that, integrating that, making sure we transition into our network.
With our distributors, you know, get everything working. We, you know, continuing the growth momentum we had on Fever-Tree last year.
Continuing with this year. That is an important aspect, right? Then we think about Monaco.
Right? Then how do we really make sure we integrate this business, keep the commercial momentum that the brand has, accelerate the momentum, and then, you know, look at all the other things that come along, with that.
Probably, focus, Bonnie. I mean, if you think of it, you know, we don't need 10 more brands.
Right.
We have a pretty strong portfolio.
Right.
There's a few gaps we need to fill.
Okay.
you know, and I'm sure you know, Tracy will talk about capital allocation discipline, et cetera, but for us it is about fill a gap in the portfolio.
what makes sense for consumers, distributors, and us, and then integrate and accelerate, right? Everything else, Tracy, you wanna add on the capital allocation discipline?
Yeah. Just before I get there, on the sort of capabilities, I mean.
Yeah
you know, what we do now going forward is.
you know, we make sure that we can continue the business, and hence we took over about 80 folk from Monaco business into our business, so they can continue to run the business and, you know, sell the brand and get the distribution. Then we have another team doing the integration.
Okay
you know, we don't lose focus. In terms of capital allocation, I mean, you know, I've spoken about what a, what a great job the company's done with their balance sheet, and so it does give us optionality that we can do more.
from an M&A point of view. In the same time, you know, return cash to shareholders as we have been doing with our share buybacks and paying dividends.
just keeping our balance sheet healthy.
Right.
We do have significant free cash flow.
Right
Which is great. You know, therefore we can do all of it.
Which has certainly changed, I know, when we've talked, you know, in the last few years.
Yeah.
You're in a much better place today. As you mentioned, Rahul, you see still some gaps in your portfolio.
Yeah.
Do you care to expand where those gaps are?
You know.
I'm curious what you-
Yeah, I mean, if you think about it, I mean, the RTD space or the flavor space.
Yeah.
I wouldn't call RTD. If you think about the flavor space, it's a big category now.
We wanna make sure I mean, we love the fact what we've done with Topo Chico. We obviously have new ideas with Simply in the market.
You know, we wanna make sure we get that brand healthy and then, so there's work to be done there. I mean, those are great brands to keep building on.
You know, then I think Monaco adds a good complement to that in terms of channel, consumer.
Right
For us, the priorities is beyond beer.
Okay.
If you think about capital deployment, it is going to be probably in the beyond beer side. We will always look at beer.
Sure.
You know, beyond beer is probably where we need some scale, Bonnie.
Again, right now integrate Fever-Tree, integrate Monaco Cocktails. As Tracey said, we, our balance sheet gives us optionality, but we'll be disciplined about it.
Disciplined that we have the right brand, and disciplined more importantly that we integrate top, bottom line accretive, and we can scale.
Right.
That becomes important.
Yes, beyond beer being your priority. What percentage is beyond beer of your portfolio maybe today, roughly?
Yeah.
In the next 3 years-5 years, what would be the ambition, do you think?
Yeah. I mean, if you think about it, we are approaching it about 10-ish %, right?
Okay.
I mean, we started with zero.
Yeah.
Maybe not zero. Less than one, right? I mean, in beyond beer, we're approaching 10-ish% of our total company NSR.
we need to make sure we get to be meaningful.
Because we are, and even I think we said this in our Q1 results, our beyond beer portfolio is growing faster than the rest of the company.
It is growing, you know, at a much higher rate.
We, unless we have that to scale.
it's, it doesn't do stuff to move the company forward.
Right.
Right? We don't want to have a beyond beer portfolio that's 50 brands, right?
Okay.
You know, we're gonna be disciplined about the categories we work in, disciplined about the brands we have, but we wanna get it scaled. We haven't shared ambition externally, Bonnie.
Okay.
I mean, you know, you can think about the math.
Right
Unless it's not big enough, it doesn't do much for the $11.3 billion company, right? We're pretty excited on that journey.
Okay.
We're early. We have more tools to work with, whether that's people, whether that's investment or the balance sheet, right?
I think the point Tracy made about getting capability in people is equally.
important in that space because it's a different muscle.
No, true. As, you know, I think about your business and your portfolio, I mean, the complexities have increased, but if you feel good about your ability to execute on all these different initiatives because, you know, any, you know, change capabilities that you think you have where you feel like you can execute on all of these different growth initiatives?
Yeah. I think that's a great question about complexity, right?
I mean, we've been disciplined to remove complexity.
Okay
from our business also.
Right? If you think about the structure, if you think about the cutting off some of our co-manufacturing arrangements, it was about removing complexity.
We are leaning into areas that make our business stronger for the long term.
Yeah.
Right? By the way, this is not just us. If you look at our network-
Yeah
our distribution network, right? They're leaning into similar capabilities.
For us, this is more of, you know, making sure we have the right capabilities, not just for today's business.
Also the long term.
We're doing it in a disciplined way, right? Whether it's the G&A with the right brands-
making sure we are building out, teams with capabilities that are important. Again, I think we've shared this previously.
Our non-alc team used to be six, seven people, I think.
Now we're about less than 200.
Wow.
Right?
Yeah.
To your point.
Right. Yeah
Yes, that comes with some complexity.
You're building capability.
Right
along with that complexity.
We feel good about, you know, making sure we have ambitious goal for Beyond Beer, and then how are we best leaning into that?
I know we've touched on this or you know, mentioned it, whether it's Fever-Tree, Peroni, you know, what has you the most excited, or Monaco, you know, as you think about the next year? I mean, is there anything that you think right now maybe is broadly underestimated?
I would definitely I mean, obviously those are the big growth brands that we have.
Yeah.
Right? They are exciting. Peroni, Fever-Tree, Banquet.
Banquet.
Monaco. I think those will be. You know, I think, again, I know we don't talk a lot about Molson.
Oh, yeah.
the trademark in Canada, right? I mean, that brand is doing well, gaining share in a good place. Coors Light continues to be the number 1, like, you know, beer in Canada. We got a lot of good, you know, highlights. The thing that I would love to be, you know, your point of a year from now.
you know, the excitement around Keystone and.
High Life.
How do we make sure we can get some energy behind that.
That's the things I'm.
Okay
looking forward to, right? That, you know, what as a team we can really do to get that healthy, not just for consumers and our distributors, but for even us.
Right
you know, because we are big brands.
Right. Then that brings me maybe to my final question, because it's your long-term.
Yeah
which I know you've mentioned you expect to return to your long-term algo of low single-digit top-line growth and mid-single-digit underlying pre-tax income starting next year, right? In the context of what you just mentioned, you know, what will be the key drivers that will allow you to hit those targets?
Yeah. I know we've said that that's the goal. I don't think we gave 2027 guidance.
Okay
this morning.
Maybe it was me being optimistic.
Yes. Yeah.
Optimistic
no, I If you step back on our business, right?
I mean, obviously, you know, we again feel we've got a pretty good foundational business. We've been very disciplined about returning cash to shareholders through dividend and through buybacks. If you look at, you know, since 2025, I think, you know, our TSR, I think we reported in our 10-K.
earlier this year was 22 odd %. We recognize for the next chapter of creating value for shareholders.
Right
we have to get this business to that algorithm.
Yeah. Okay.
Right? The low single and mid-single. You know, obviously volatile times right now, but between the right, making sure our core of the portfolio is strong and stable.
Transforming our portfolio with the shape for the future, you know, we think that's the right place to be.
Right now, you know, whereas we get through the year, we'll talk about 2027 and what that looks like. We, you know, still believe that that is the right algorithm.
Right
where we think we create the most value for our shareholders. Right. We will stay disciplined on the balance sheet. We'll return cash. We recognize we gotta get our business top and bottom line growing.
Optionality, as you mentioned, given the core and then everything you've been, you know, executing on.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
All right. Well, all of that sounds good, and thank you so much for the conversation today.
Thank you. I appreciate your calling.
I appreciate your time. Good. Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Bonnie. Thank you.