Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc.PBH
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Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc. Canaccord Genuity's 46th Annual Growth Conference

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PeriodFY 0Duration23 minParticipants3

Transcript

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Susan AndersonAnalyst for Consumer Space

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending our conference. I'm Susan Anderson, one of Canaccord's analysts in the consumer space, and we're very excited to have here with us Prestige Consumer Healthcare, and in particular, CFO and COO, Chris Sacco, and VP, IR, and Treasury, Phil Terpolilli. Chris, maybe if you could just start off by giving us a brief overview of Prestige for those in the room that are not that familiar with the business, the brands, and the long-term strategy.

Chris SaccoCFO and COO

Sure. Thank you. Morning, everybody. Prestige has been executing a three-pillar strategy for some time. Phil and I've been with the company about 10 years, and strategies remain the same. Of course, we've been through a lot of volatility, all of us, macro environment. The tactics have changed, but the strategy has not. We're going to invest in the brands we have. We're a marketing brand-building company. It's what we show up to do every day. We have a superior financial profile. These are need-state products that people, incidence base, they go to the store, they're not really looking to save a dollar. Not a lot of sold-on promotion, as an example, in our category. Strong margins, which enable us to then deploy the capital, that's the third pillar, effectively.

Chris SaccoCFO and COO

A lot of time that comes through de-leveraging, which through M&A, we kind of have gotten ourselves, bring on some new brands, get into some new categories, de-leverage back down, and then start the model all over again. That's been the strategy. It's been consistent over time and continues to be the strategy today.

Susan AndersonAnalyst for Consumer Space

Great. You've had a lot of activity lately, two acquisitions after Pillar5 Pharma Inc. as well. Maybe if you could just give us a brief overview of those two acquisitions, Breathe Right and LaCorium Health. Tell us about the main Breathe Right brand and then maybe some of the smaller brands in the portfolio. Then same thing with LaCorium Health. Tell us about the size and kind of the opportunity there as well.

Chris SaccoCFO and COO

Great. So, middle of June, we closed on the Breathe Right acquisition. Breathe Right is about two-thirds of the portfolio that came with that acquisition. Better Breathing is the positioning for Breathe Right. It is a brand that defines the category, similar to Dramamine, with over 90% consumer awareness. The key there is really just 3% household penetration. So in North America, we see a lot of runway for growth as we brand build, we innovate, kind of our normal wheelhouse. And then internationally as well as we expand into new markets. Breathe Right is in about 20 countries. We will look to expand that over time. Strong margins, feel good about the portfolio. It is exactly what we are looking for. A leading brand in a niche category. That is kind of the secret sauce to Prestige.

Chris SaccoCFO and COO

And we have a number of leading brands that are holding meaningful positions in their categories as a result of staying disciplined in that strategy. The LaCorium transaction, about 75% of those sales are in Australia. This is therapeutic skincare, anchored in the Dermal Therapy brand. Again, niche categories, think cold sores, eczema, not beauty, not general skincare. And so brand has been doing very well. The portfolio has been growing double digits for many years now. So we are excited about what that will be, largely international and different markets. Again, 75% sold in Australia. We will look to expand that into other international markets as we move forward. So, with international at about 15% of sales, our long-term growth target for our international segment is 5% plus growth top line. The entire Prestige portfolio is 2%-3% growth, so international a little bit outsized growth.

Chris SaccoCFO and COO

And we think these two acquisitions will help firm that up. And as we look over time, we would expect internationals to become about 20% of the portfolio as a result of the higher growth coming from these brands.

Susan AndersonAnalyst for Consumer Space

Okay, great. Of course, we cannot have a conversation without mentioning eye care. But it has become a very small portion of the portfolio, low single digits, even smaller now with the two acquisitions. But maybe just give everyone a quick update on where you are at with the eye care business and getting it back on track with the new acquisition and the high-speed line.

Chris SaccoCFO and COO

Yeah. Clear Eyes is about 3% of sales as we sit here today. A number of things have happened in the past, call it six months. We acquired our sterile eye care facility up in Canada back in December. We are about two quarters in. We feel good about the progress we are making. We have made investments in infrastructure. We have made investments in equipment. Most importantly, probably, we have changed out some leadership positions there. The most recent of which started on Monday of this week. We are excited about that, including making the general manager of that facility a long-term employee there who was back in the Pfizer days in that facility. Feeling good about the moves that we have made. What we have talked about is the improvements that we are making are going to cause some near-term variability. We saw that in Q1.

Chris SaccoCFO and COO

We expect to continue to see it in the second quarter, with more consistent supply expected in the back half. We have talked about expecting sequential improvement in each quarter of this year, building off of that Q1 base. Again, continue to feel like it was the right decision to bring that facility in-house, take control of our destiny. Quality is number one in everything that we do and will continue to be our focus. We will continue to make investments in the facility, and look for more consistent output. The Clear Eyes story is a supply story, not a demand story. Over time, we think about it in a couple of steps. We have got to get consistent supply on the shelf of the retailers. We have been focusing on base red and max red, our kind of core anchor SKUs with Clear Eyes.

Chris SaccoCFO and COO

As we do that, we will then look to fill the retailers' DCs. We will then look to rebuild safety stock. It has been some time. We have been having some supply chain issues around the brand. We are kind of feeling every bump in the road, if you will, right now. When we are carrying three to four months of inventory, the line down for a week, you will not feel it. But right now we are feeling it. Over time, we will look to bring that back on. Then we will be able to introduce new SKUs. Some of the SKUs that we have kind of put on the back burner right now, dry and itchy, and things like that. Then we can turn the marketing on.

Chris SaccoCFO and COO

It is going to take a couple of years to get back to where we were, but I think the retailers understand the importance of trust in this category. There has been a number of major recalls at other folks. There has been news, obviously, a few years ago around this space that was pretty alarming and concerning, and so focusing on quality, bringing the facility in-house and taking control of it, I think was the right move. Over time, we think Clear Eyes will continue. We have seen the category decline as Clear Eyes has come out. That is pretty powerful to take back to the retailers and show them how important a brand like Clear Eyes, that has the trust of the consumer, is really important, and now so more than ever.

Chris SaccoCFO and COO

Going to take some time, but again, as we work through fiscal 2027, we feel good about getting more consistency in supply as we exit the year.

Susan AndersonAnalyst for Consumer Space

That was going to be my next question, just the confidence level in gaining back that share once you are able to stock the shelves. It sounds like just given, obviously, consumers' desire for a brand within the category, and you guys- Yep being one of the leading, you are pretty confident- Yep in getting that share.

Chris SaccoCFO and COO

Brands that consumers trust. At its peak, Clear Eyes was clearly by far the unit leader. It is why we needed to purchase the facility. There is not an abundance of global sterile eye care supply out there for the kinds of demand that Clear Eyes can dictate. But again, opening price point with red relief, important to the consumer and important to the retailers.

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