MKC:CC - McCormick & Company Incorporated (MKC) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-03-26 13:30:09 ET
McCormick & Company, Incorporated (MCK)
Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call
March 26, 2024 08:00 a.m. ET
Company Participants
Brendan Foley - President and Chief Executive Officer
Mike Smith - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Faten Freiha - Investor Relations
Conference Call Participants
Andrew Lazar - Barclays
Peter Galbo - Bank of America
Max Gumport - BNP Paribas
Adam Samuelson - Goldman Sachs
Robert Moskow - TD Cowen
Matthew Smith - Stifel
Tom Palmer - Citi
Rob Dickerson - Jefferies
Presentation
Faten Freiha
Good morning. This is Faten Freiha, VP of Investor Relations. Thank you for joining today's First Quarter Earnings Call. To accompany this call, we posted a set of slides on our IR website, ir.mccormick.com. With me this morning are Brendan Foley, President and CEO; and Mike Smith, Executive Vice President and CFO.
During this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. The nature of those non-GAAP financial measures and the related reconciliations to the GAAP results are included in this morning's press release and slides. In our comments, certain percentages are rounded. Please refer to our presentation for complete information.
Today's presentation contains projections and other forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those projected. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or other factors. Please refer to our forward-looking statements on slide two for more information.
I will now turn the discussion over to Brendan.
Brendan Foley
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. As many of you have probably seen on the news this morning, the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in Baltimore. Our thoughts go out to everyone impacted by this terrible tragedy. We have activated a team and are monitoring the situation.
We are pleased to start the year with a strong first quarter. Our performance reflects the early success of our prioritized investments to improve volume trends and drive profitable growth. I will begin my remarks this morning with an overview of our first quarter results, focusing on top-line drivers. Next, I will provide perspective on industry trends, highlight some early signposts of success, as well as areas we continue to work on and review our growth plans. Mike will then go into more depth on the first quarter financial results and review our 2024 outlook, and finally, before your questions, I will have some closing comments.
Turning now to our results on slide four. In the first quarter, sales grew 2% in constant currency, reflecting a 3% contribution from pricing, partially offset by a 1% decline in volume and product mix, primarily driven by the pruning of low-margin business and our canning business divestiture.
Underlying volume was flat compared to the prior year. Sequentially from the fourth quarter, volume trends improved in both Consumer and Flavor Solutions. We believe this improvement is an indication of continued progress as we remain focused on driving quality top-line growth throughout our portfolio.
In Consumer, volumes improved substantially from the fourth quarter in the Americas. In EMEA, we drove positive volume growth while continuing to benefit from pricing actions. In Asia Pacific, volume performance was impacted by the macro environment in China, as we expected. We continue to expect full year 2024 China Consumer sales to be comparable to 2023. Outside of China, we delivered strong sales growth driven by both price and volume.
In Flavor Solutions, our results were solid and growth was driven by price and underlying volume growth, partially offset by the impact of our canning divestiture. We are pleased with our performance recognizing many of our customers, including Consumer Product Companies or CPGs and Quick Service Restaurants or QSRs, continue to experience volume softness in their businesses. We are continuing to collaborate with our customers to navigate this challenging environment and we remain optimistic about our growth for the year. ...
McCormick & Company, Incorporated (MKC) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript