Start Time: 09:00 January 1, 0000 10:32 AM ET
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG)
Q4 2024 Earnings Call
November 06, 2024, 09:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Jim Hagedorn - Chairman, President and CEO
Matt Garth - EVP, CFO and CAO
Nate Baxter - EVP and COO
Chris Hagedorn - EVP and Division President, Hawthorne Gardening Company
Aimee DeLuca - SVP, IR
Conference Call Participants
Jon Andersen - William Blair
Joe Altobello - Raymond James
William Carter - Stifel
Peter Grom - UBS
Chris Carey - Wells Fargo Securities
Eric Bouchard - Cleveland Research
William Reuter - Bank of America
Carla Casella - JPMorgan
Aimee DeLuca
Good morning. Welcome to Scotts Miracle-Gro's Fiscal '24 Year-End Earnings Webcast. I'm Amy DeLuca, Head of Investor Relations. Speaking today are Chairman, President and CEO, Jim Hagedorn; and Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, Matt Garth. Jim will provide an overall business update, followed by Matt with a review of our financial results.
During our review, we will make forward-looking statements and discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please be aware that our actual results could differ materially from what we share today. Please refer to our SEC filings for details of the risk factors that could impact our results. Following the webcast, Chief Operating Officer, Nate Baxter; and Hawthorne Division President, Chris Hagedorn will join Jim and Matt for an audio-only Q&A session.
To listen to the Q&A, simply remain on this webcast. To participate, please join by the audio link shared in our press release. As always, today's session will be recorded. An archived version will be published on our website at investor.scotts.com. For further discussion after the call, please email or call me directly.
Now, let's get started with Jim's update.
Jim Hagedorn
Good morning. Before I get into our 2024 performance and guidance for fiscal '25, I want to reflect on our journey and discuss my midterm priorities. Doing so will help everyone appreciate the progress we've made and provide context for where we're headed. It was just two years ago we were strapped for cash and saddled with high debt. We were burdened by a cost structure we built up for the pandemic-era demand, but could no longer afford. We were managing an extremely high leverage ratio on a daily basis, and we had to go to our banks several times to navigate it. But we owned our situation.
Faced with very hard choices, we made decisions in the moment and were determined to right-size our business. We cut over $400 million in operating expenses. We dismantled Hawthorne to make it a much smaller and more profitable business. And we honored our bank covenants and were accountable on every level. At the same time, we reinvested $100 million to protect what I call our superpowers; our brands, our sales force, supply chain and innovation.