John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBSS) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call November 1, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jeffrey Sanfilippo – Chief Executive Officer

Frank Pellegrino – Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Nick Otton – CWB Wealth

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. First Quarter Fiscal 2024 Operating Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers’ presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

And I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, the CEO, Jeffrey Sanfilippo. Sir, please go ahead.

Jeffrey Sanfilippo

Thank you, Chris. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our 2024 first quarter earnings conference call. Thank you for joining us. On the call with me today is Frank Pellegrino, our CFO; and Jasper Sanfilippo, our COO.

We may make some forward-looking statements today. Statements are based on our current expectations and they involve certain risks and uncertainties. The factors that could negatively impact results are explained in the various SEC filings that we have made, including Forms 10-K and 10-Q. We encourage you to refer to the filings to learn more about these risks and uncertainties that are inherent in our business.

Starting with overall corporate performance. We delivered a 12.7% increase in diluted earnings per share for our fiscal 2024 first quarter, as the execution of our plan to control costs and invest in growth initiatives was accompanied by a challenging nut category and softness in consumer confidence, which resulted in a decrease in our sales volume.

We made a significant investment – marketing investment to relaunch the Orchard Valley Harvest brand in the first quarter, which resulted in a 3.2% year-over-year sales volume increase for our reimagined Orchard Valley Harvest product line.

Although, we are in a difficult brand environment in the snack category, our marketing and sales teams are working hard to gain new distribution and differentiate our brand through innovative products and customer programs and creative social media campaigns. We will continue to strategically invest in growth opportunities as we monitor changes in consumer purchasing preferences.

With the inflationary environment, we are seeing signs of consumers shifting to more value-focused retailers such as mass merchandising retailers, club stores and dollar stores, not all of which we currently distribute or sell to, but our teams are working hard to expand our retail distribution especially in the club channel with innovative products and pack sizes, and we continue to respond to the challenging and dynamic operating environment that we face today including the effects of inflation as we approach the holiday season and throughout the balance of this fiscal year.