FINAL TRANSCRIPT
Conference Call Transcript
ODC - Q3 2011 Oil-Dri Corporation of America Earnings Conference Call
Event Date/Time: Jun 17, 2011 / 03:00PM GMT
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Jun 17, 2011 / 03:00PM GMT, ODC - Q3 2011 Oil-Dri Corporation of America Earnings Conference Call
CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS
Dan Jaffe
Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Ronda Williams
Oil Dri Corp Of America - Manager - IR
Jeffrey Libert
Oil Dri Corp Of America - CFO
Doug Graham
Oil Dri Corp Of America - VP, General Counsel
CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS
Ethan Starr
Private Investor
Robert Smith
Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
PRESENTATION
Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the third-quarter 2011 Oil Dri Corporation of America earnings conference call. My name is
Kendall, and I'll be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we'll conduct a question and answer
session. (Operator Instructions). I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today, Mr. Dan Jaffe, President and CEO. Please
proceed.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Thank you, Kendall, and welcome everybody to our third-quarter and nine-month investor teleconference. With me is Jeff Libert, our CFO, and
Doug Graham, our General Counsel, and Ronda Williams, who heads up all of our Investor Relations, and Ronda will you take us through the
Safe Harbor?
Ronda Williams - Oil Dri Corp Of America - Manager - IR
Certainly. Thanks, Dan. Welcome, everyone. On today's call, comments may contain forward-looking statements regarding the Company's
performance in future periods. Actual results in those periods may materially differ. In our press release and our SEC filings, we highlight a
number of important risk factors, trends and uncertainties that may affect our future performance. We ask that you review and consider those
factors in evaluating the Company's comments and in evaluating any investment in Oil Dri stock. Thank you.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Thanks, Ronda, and we'll stick to our usual format. Jeff, if you'd walk us through the financial results.
Jeffrey Libert - Oil Dri Corp Of America - CFO
Sure, Dan. As those of you who have read the release know, this was a challenging quarter financially. Sales were down 1% for the quarter, but
up 3% year-to-date, a little over $56 million in sales for the quarter and $169 million in sales for the year. EPS for the quarter was $0.28 per
share, down 26% versus a year ago, and for the year EPS, was $0.60 a share, down 10% versus a year ago.
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The story, the top line has been essentially flat for a number of reasons, which I'll cover when I discuss the business group performance, the
bottom line, as we said in the last teleconference, really suffered due to escalating commodity costs, primarily oil-related but also somewhat
paper-related. Those of you who follow us know that oil is a major factor in our costs and for freight and packaging. Additionally, our foreign
subsidiaries have struggled, as they have in the past quarter. Also, as disclosed in our release we spent more than usual on market research and
advertising. As we said in the release, we spent $400,000 in the quarter for a new product to be launched in fiscal 2012, which Dan will cover in
just a few minutes.
Covering the business groups, in the business-to-business segment, sales declined 1% for the quarter or last year's quarter, but income was down
13%. Co-packaging international, animal health and bleaching earth sales declined during the quarter. For co-packaging international, those are
primarily of course cat litter and of course cat litter segment of the cat litter market has continued to decline. We are still studying the matter, but
we believe that some of the decline may be due to just say sluggish retail environment because of the economy in general. Animal health declined
due to a change in our distribution internationally, which we believe will be beneficial in the long-term but hurt us in the short-term.
Bleaching earth declined due to slower sales of bio diesel products, the crop is especially good this year, and as a result, there was less needed for
bio diesel. Additionally, some government subsidies were ratcheted down during the quarter and some bio diesel producers went out of business.
One other point related to bleaching earth. Last year, the third quarter was the strongest quarter we ever had so it was still a very strong quarter
for bleaching earth, but not as strong as a year ago. On the bright side, field and agricultural carriers were up during the quarter.
For retail and wholesale, sales were down 1% for the quarter but income was down 27%. As I mentioned earlier a lot of this was due to slow sales
of coarse litter that adversely affected our consumer business with a lot of our other business remaining somewhat flat. As we've said in the past
quarter, this has been a challenging environment to obtain price increases. We have plans in place that we are finalizing, but we have not
achieved those price increases just yet.
On the positive side, our balance sheet remains very strong. Our cash and investment balance is now $36.2 million. That gives us a substantial
cash reserve to combat any slow times and also for expansion opportunities, we spent during the quarter, $10.2 million not during the quarter, but
through three quarters, $10.2 million for capital expenditures. That's higher than average for Oil Dri. We expect our spending this year to
approach somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 million as we prepare our plans to launch our major new product. Of our total of $15 million,
we expect $9 million to be related to this new product launch.
As in the past, we remain committed to dividends. Our core dividend of $0.16 per share represents a yield of 2.9% at the quarter's closing price
and also during the quarter, we continued to repurchase shares, buying back almost 14,000 shares and spending $0.5 million during the quarter
and $2.5 million for the year. That pretty much sums it up.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Thanks, Jeff. Appreciate it and before we open it up to Q & A, I will highlight or address one question which is I'm sure is on everybody's mind
which is to elaborate a little bit on a sentence from the quarterly release which said this year we have made substantial investments in developing
a new consumer product, quite cryptic there in the news release, and we could be getting into competing with Apple tablets, but we're not. We're
sticking to cat litter.
This is something that's -- really it's a product that's 20 years in the making. We've been working on this very hard for the last 24 months. It was a
particular focus in the last 12 to 18 months but what it is, we always have known that cat litter was used by volume, yet it was determined by the
Department of Weights and measures to be sold by weight, and so, because it was the solid. Although there are some solids that are sold by
volume. For whatever reason they decided weight was the best value measurer for the consumer, and so what that really incentivized everyone to
do was to come up with the heaviest weight products, because then you could drive down your cost per pound, but really that was not in the
consumer's best interest.
Well, the environmental movement has really turned that whole concept on its ear because as the liquid detergent guys proved, that by taking
water out of detergent, they were able to shrink the number of ounces you were getting as a consumer, and prior to that move, liquid detergent
was pretty much sold on a per-ounce basis. You looked at the cost per ounce and if that was something that you were focused on particularly,
that's how you would compare one brand of liquid detergent to another from a cost perspective. You look at the cost per ounce or you get two
like-size bottles and compare the price. Obviously, they figured out something that I'm sure they've known forever which is, consumers really
don't care about the ounces.
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They care about how many loads can they do, and so by watering something down, you aren't really giving them any benefit. In fact you're giving
them a big disincentive, which is heavier weight and ultimately due to the carbon footprint you're hauling around all this water, so the liquid
detergent guys at the behest of really Wal-Mart and many of the national retailers, reformulated, pulled water out of their product, shrunk the
packaging, went to the 3X and talked about how many loads you could do. You'd useless per, the caps got smaller, so you'd use less per load, but
you could do the same number of loads, so the consumers have adopted it. Its been great for consumers, they're carrying home less weight, it's
been great for the environment, they're shipping less weight around the United States, less packaging, and so everybody wins. So its been a great
thing.
So we challenged our scientists to say how can we do the exact same thing for cat litter. Obviously, in detergent, if they had done all this but your
whites weren't as white and your colors weren't as bright. Nobody would have been happy about the change. It had to be that there were no
tradeoffs, that the end product was as good or better than what they were buying prior to the concentrated move, and oh, by the way, it was lighter
and good for you and good for the environment, so we challenged our research people to do the exact same thing, which is to come up with a
scoopable cat litter that's where the growth in the category is continuing to be, that clumps just as hard or harder than anything that's out there,
that is equal to or less dust, equal to or less tracking, and equal to or greater odor control, and make it lighter.
Take the weight out of the finished product, so that we would be shipping less weight around, and our consumer which is a woman target
audience demographics tend to be a woman, 25 to 54, we did a lot of research, and they obviously don't want any tradeoffs but yes, if you could
match the key attributes for why they're buying the product, the clumping and the odor control, and the tracking and the dust, that they would be
very interested in buying a product that was lighter in weight, because they have no desire to carry home more weight each week or each two
weeks or each month or whatever it is they buy cat litter, so that's what we've been working on and we're very excited about it.
Obviously, our retail partners, we're going to start taking it to them, but we've been working with some along the way and gotten good feedback,
and they're excited about it, so we have spent a lot of money in this fiscal year. Really we aren't going to have any benefit in this fiscal year. It's
all going to start to happen in fiscal 2012, and I think we put out there in the Q that what we expect, we don't really give earnings guidance, but I
didn't want everyone to panic that our intent was to crater the earnings mixture. Obviously that could happen. Anything could happen, but our
intent is that while this product will not be a contributor to earnings next year, we'll actually lose money on it, net-net the whole division will
come in about even and ultimately the Company will come in about even next year.
But what you should expect as an investor is to see a pretty dramatic increase in top line sales, that if this thing is succeeding, then sales will be
going up at a good clip, we'll be able to report IRI data but IRI is not a good, it's not a real accurate indicator of the category, because currently,
IRI tracks about $800 million of the $1.8 billion in retail sales in the United States. You're talking its only capturing about 45% or 55% of the
sales that go on in cat litter happen outside of the scope of IRI. Wal-Mart doesn't report, the clubs don't report, the dollar stores, which have been
a big trend, don't report, the pet specialties don't report, the Petcos and the PetSmarts of the world, so by the time you get down to who does
report it, you're talking about grocery and some of the mass and then the drugs, Walgreens and CVS and all that, so like I said, represents about
$0.45 on every dollar that's sold, they're capturing $0.55 they earned.
But that will really be the tail of the tape in fiscal 2012 is our ability to gain distribution and then to incentivize the consumer to try the product,
and then really to monitor very closely the repeat purchases, and are we getting acceptance and adoption, or are we just getting churn, and so that
will be the key for fiscal 2012, so we're very excited about it. Obviously, big investment for the future. It's right in our core business.
I can tell you that for us, the key to finding this solution to this Gordian knot has been different than what we've seen other people do. There are
lightweight litters out there right now but they don't work. They are an organic product, most of them, made from wheat or corn or peanut holes
or things like that, and so organics by nature are nourishment for enzymes that are causing odors, so you've got to almost teach the cat litter to do
something its not created to do, which is you're trying to get it to stop odor control but organics are actually helping to promote odor, and then
they're so light that they actually track like crazy. The cats kick them out of the boxes, so you don't -- too light is a bad thing. On the other hand, if
you want great performance, you've had to have something really heavy, really bulky, and frankly, not real desirable for the consumer.
We did a lot of focus groups around this and it was really interesting to see the women as they started to interact with the product, some of the
best comments were things like wow I just thought it always had to be this way, sort of like luggage. Why did it take us 2000 years to put wheels
on luggage? I don't know, but by definition, the name lug, luggage, you're lugging it around and then all of a sudden somebody thought hey, let's
put it on a cart, and then let's actually put the wheels on the bag, why not and it just makes so much sense, but obviously it took a lot of people a
long time to figure that one out.
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Jun 17, 2011 / 03:00PM GMT, ODC - Q3 2011 Oil-Dri Corporation of America Earnings Conference Call
So the consumer really likes the idea of a lighter-weight efficacious litter, and across-the-board, they responded they would be very willing to try
the product, very interested in it, so we're excited about it. It blends. Sodium bentonite has been the scoopable cat litter of choice since 1991, but
for the first 45 years of the category, 1946 to 1991, the real key was odor control and absorbency, and low dust and light density, and all four of
those attributes were calcium bentonite which is our primary raw material, and then around 1991 came clumpability and sodium bentonite
naturally swells when wet, so it forms clumps, so all of a sudden, they took about half the share of the category.
What we figured out was the right blend of calcium bentonite and sodium bentonite, the right granulation size and the right percentage ratios, and
some of its proprietary, some of it is patented so we're excited about that. We have a patent exactly covering what we're doing, and very excited
to sort of bring what we call the best of both worlds. You get the clump strength of sodium bentonite, but you get the odor control, absorbency,
and light density of calcium bentonite and so you end up with a product that truly, as we say, is changing litter for good, and so we're excited
about this.
So I've used up half the time but I'm sure this was very high on everybody's list. Kendall, why don't we open up for questions, and as always,
prioritize and ask your most important question first, and then go to the end of the queue.
QUESTION AND ANSWER
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Ethan Starr.
Ethan Starr Private Investor
Good morning.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Hi.
Ethan Starr Private Investor
Hi. I'm very interested in this new product. Now you already have the Cat's Pride scoopable that's 14 pounds, whatever ounces is 20 pounds for
the same volume. How does a new product compare in terms of weight to everybody else's 20 and your 14 for the same volume?
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Very good question. Your specific question was how does it compare on weight. It's a little bit heavier. The problem with the Cat's Pride. Cat's
Pride Scoopable is a great product. It has a couple of achilles heels. It doesn't clump as hard, and it's a little dustier. The substrate we use to make
it clump to train full calcium bentonite into forming the clump actually creates some dust, and it doesn't clump as well as sodium bentonite.
So while it's a good product, the analogy I would use for it, although it's better than this analogy, but this is a better analogy maybe for the pure
alternatives, the wheats and the corns and so forth that are very light. Ours are still in the very good range, is the idea of an electric car. I don't
know anybody that's driving a purely electric car but if it will go as far, as fast, was as cheap, was as easy to fill and could recharge as a gas car
could to fill up, all those attributes but did all that a gas car did, pretty much everybody would be driving an electric car but the fact is it doesn't,
so that's sort of Cat's Pride's scoopables' Achilles heel. It's a great product for those people that don't need the clump strength immediately. Over
time Cat's Pride Scoopable actually clumps harder than sodium bentonite. It sets up and it congeals, but if you're for the high maintenance, high
active or people with multiple cats, they sometimes want the harder clumping.
Ethan Starr Private Investor
Okay, will there be any benefit as far as less fuel cost and freight shipping?
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Jun 17, 2011 / 03:00PM GMT, ODC - Q3 2011 Oil-Dri Corporation of America Earnings Conference Call
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Well, for instance, let's just think about it logically. The Department of Transportation mandates that you can't put anymore than 44,750 pounds
in a truck, okay?
Ethan Starr Private Investor
Okay.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
So if you have a current formulation that weighs 20 pounds a jug, you can calculate there's pallets in there, but you can calculate how many units
could you get on a truckload. All of a sudden, that same size jug which will fill the same amount of trays, instead of weighing 20 pounds, weighs
15, you're going to get not 25% more, because again there's pallets and so forth, but you're going to get about 22% more on every truckload for
the exact same freight cost it took to get the first truckload to the account. So absolutely.
There's dollar savings and there's also soft savings. Think about it. If you're a retailer and you're bringing in whatever, 40,000-truckloads a year,
now to fill that demand you only need to bring in 30,000-truckloads, well your dock time just got a lot better. Your flow in and out of your yard
just got a lot better. We just reduced the number of trucks you got to bring in by 10,000, and not to mention, the carbon footprint which is very
good, since they're bringing in 40,000-truckloads with all that diesel and the emissions, the CO2 emissions you're now bringing in 10,000 less.
Ethan Starr Private Investor
Okay, how is the pricing on the products?
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
At parity. At parity with the branded players and the category.
Ethan Starr Private Investor
Okay, thanks. I'll get back in the queue.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Thanks, Ethan.
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Robert Smith with the Center For Performance Investing.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
Hi, good morning.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Hi, Bob.
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Jun 17, 2011 / 03:00PM GMT, ODC - Q3 2011 Oil-Dri Corporation of America Earnings Conference Call
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
You surprised me. I thought you were coming out with color-coordinated cat litter. Okay, so just let me, what are you going to call this?
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
I'm looking at my Legal Counsel. Are we divulging that yet?
Doug Graham - Oil Dri Corp Of America - VP, General Counsel
I don't think so.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
No, we're not divulging that yet. You'll know when it's time, and we're going to have to support it with mass media. We'll be doing some TV and
we're going to be doing some print. Hopefully you'll see it all over the place.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
But on the product you'll have to really be very clear as to what the product by name is going to be able to do.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
I agree 100%.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
Okay, so let's circle back to Walmart and the points of distribution comment. When you say it will reach comparable levels to fiscal 2009, was
that the peak?
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Yes.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
So that's very encouraging.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Yes, it's very encouraging. I'll tell you the caution note is look, we were off the shelves for 2 years. We're now pretty much back where we were
2 years ago. Our movement is not the same per store. We're seeing a ramp-up, but it's slow and troubling. Look, I wish we just immediately got
back and we were moving the same per store today that we were moving 2 years ago. That hasn't happened.
So we're working hard with the buyer. I can tell you they're very supportive. They want this to work. They want to get it right, there's some shelf
positioning problems where they put it in their schematics, maybe not where it would be most advantageous for our brand and they are working
on that, so yes, it's very positive that we're back. It's unbelievable, this would be a Harvard business study at some point.
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Jun 17, 2011 / 03:00PM GMT, ODC - Q3 2011 Oil-Dri Corporation of America Earnings Conference Call
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
So is there any way to quantify for the fourth quarter the incremental business?
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
We're not getting into that level of detail but the good news is from a point of distribution standpoint, we're equal to or even slightly ahead of
where we were back in June of 2009.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
And the comment about the Byrd granules and manufacturing cost is that due to increased commodity costs or what?
Jeffrey Libert - Oil Dri Corp Of America - CFO
Actually, it's due to the fact that Byrd is still really a product under development and we continue to refine our process and learn more about
make better quality and reduce cost but it's still a fairly new process in the big scheme of things and so for the foreseeable future, it's going to be
higher cost than we would like.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
The good news is there's major breakthroughs in the quarter of how to process one of the major granules we're making and really dramatically
reduce the cost so going forward, there's a rainbow out there.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
So how will this influence the pricing of the product?
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
It's really, you hope they're disconnected in a sense. They can't ultimately be disconnected if your costs are greater than your sales price, then
they get very connected but once you're hopefully getting to the point where you're making margin, you want to be value priced, you want to be
providing a granule that the consumer, your customer sees real value in, and they don't really care what your costs are because they are getting
utility out of it, hopefully above and beyond whatever they are paying for it, and so, as you know, our mission statement is creating value for
absorbent minerals so we're really focusing on what's the value to the end-user, trying to use this granule in those applications where they would
find the most value.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
Are you going to accept a lower margin than you would originally anticipate?
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Ultimately, no.
Jeffrey Libert - Oil Dri Corp Of America - CFO
I wouldn't say that. We find that we've had a number of learnings as we go through and one of the learning is as the market seems to value the
product and so we believe at this point, that the margins will be very attractive.
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Jun 17, 2011 / 03:00PM GMT, ODC - Q3 2011 Oil-Dri Corporation of America Earnings Conference Call
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
Can you tell me something about the background of Kevin Hays?
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
We're happy to have him. He's in the handling division. He's happy to have us. So far everything is good, but we're not going to get into details.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
Okay. How about China, you said you had registration there?
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
[Calbern] A is registered.
Jeffrey Libert - Oil Dri Corp Of America - CFO
Calbern Z there was a moisture hiccup, and we're still working on it. We believe we'll ultimately be registered.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
So have you seen anything develop from that?
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
To early to say, I have to say Amlin in general for the fiscal year has been disappointing, and we're working on it but we think we've got some
work to do. If the product works and there's a real customer need, so ultimately, you think you could figure out how to price it right, market it
right, package it right, I think all 3 of those have some big question marks around it, how we've approached this, to ultimately get the pump
primed, but we're not there, but the good news is there's a real market and our product really works. Any time we do any studies, any tests, our
product works. Really the best out there is binding certain toxins so we're going to figure this one out but its taken its time.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
And I missed the last comment right at the tail end. You threw some figures out $0.5 million and $2.5 million. What is that?
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Was that Jeff?
Jeffrey Libert - Oil Dri Corp Of America - CFO
Yes, that was me and it was related to the amount of money spent on stock repurchases during the year.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
Oh, okay.
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Jun 17, 2011 / 03:00PM GMT, ODC - Q3 2011 Oil-Dri Corporation of America Earnings Conference Call
Jeffrey Libert - Oil Dri Corp Of America - CFO
And the quarter.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
Thanks. I'll get back in the queue. Thanks.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Okay.
Operator
Ethan Starr.
Ethan Starr Private Investor
Yes. Have you begun the process of adding more capacity to the fridge protection line?
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
No.
Jeffrey Libert - Oil Dri Corp Of America - CFO
We're ramping up as we learn more about the process, we're doing better with what we have. We're assessing expansion, but we're not-Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
I did reference that on a prior call.
Jeffrey Libert - Oil Dri Corp Of America - CFO
We have not done that yet.
Ethan Starr Private Investor
And regarding the new consumer product, the new cat litter, will that help get you increased distributions in chains you're not in already?
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
That's certainly the hope and like I said, it hit so many key attributes both for the ultimate end-user and for the retail partner, that there's no such
thing as a no-brainer, but this one is as close as it gets.
Ethan Starr Private Investor
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Jun 17, 2011 / 03:00PM GMT, ODC - Q3 2011 Oil-Dri Corporation of America Earnings Conference Call
Okay, thank you very much.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Thanks. We're pretty much down to the final couple minutes, and unless there's a question from someone other than Ethan or Bob, Kendall, is
there?
Operator
Robert Smith.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Okay, Bob let's take your follow-up and then I'll do the wrap up.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
I guess this fiscal year isn't going to be anymore fire on the bottom line but I hope you guys continue to inch up the dividend. I think it will really
pay in the long term.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Well thank you for that feedback and as always, the Board will address it at the next Board meeting.
Robert Smith - Center For Performance Investing - Analyst
Okay, good luck.
Dan Jaffe - Oil Dri Corp Of America - President, CEO
Thank you. By the way, it didn't come up in any specificity, but I had the marketing team pull this together so I might as well share some of it.
The IRI data, we talked about it, it's only 45% of the market, but it does give you a snapshot and with our increased attention and investment in
the consumer product end of our business, I think it's important for us to share with you, each teleconference some of the market dynamics so you
can assess for yourself how you're doing and how is the launch going, so the category is as I said it's $1.8 billion estimated. We know IRI is
capturing $825 million. That's the 52-week number ended May 29, 2011 and it's up 0.4% from last year, so relatively flat, which is for this
category down. This category historically has outpaced population growth and its done well so it shows the economy is definitely having an
impact even on the cat litter category, in dollars, so people obviously are trading down. I don't think they're getting rid of the cat.
Scoopable is up 2.1%. Coarse is down 8%, you start to see that the decline in coarse is speeding up a little bit and scoopable is inching up 2%.
Dollar share, scoopable is 70%, roughly. Coarse grind is 20% of the category and then 10% is things we would call alternatives, these wheat and
peanut and corn and crystals, the purely silica gel products which were down 2% for the year and they represent about 2.5% of that remaining
10%, so gives you an idea where the category is.
Happy to report Cat's Pride on a 52-week basis of the brand, dollar share for IRI was 3.7% but we were up 8.8%. Fresh Step has a 21 share, they
were down 3.8%. Scoop Away has a 5.9 share and they were down 7.1%. Those 2 brands are both made by Clorox. Tidy Cats, which is made by
Nestle, has a 30.2% share. They were down 1.4%, and again the category was up 0.4%, so if you aren't up 0.4%, you're losing share. Arm &
Hammer which is 16% of the category was up 13% for the year and total private label, which has about 14 share of the category was down 4.9%,
so again that sort of flies in the face of the economy perspective, as you think in a weaker economy people would trade down off of brands on to
private label. It's not showing itself in the numbers.
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FINAL TRANSCRIPT
Jun 17, 2011 / 03:00PM GMT, ODC - Q3 2011 Oil-Dri Corporation of America Earnings Conference Call
So those are the 52-week numbers and we also have 12-week snapshots you can get a feel for things speeding up or slowing down. I'll stay real
macro but again the category was growing at 0.4% on a 52 week basis. It's growing at 2.7% on a 12 week basis, so giving you the indicator that
maybe things are picking up a little bit. Scoop Away was up 2% for the year. It's up 5.7% for the 12 weeks, and coarse was down8% for the year,
it's down 9% for the 12 weeks, so you kind of get a feel for that dynamic. Cat's Pride was up 8.8% for the 52 weeks, it's up 8.9% for the 12 weeks
so again we're outperforming the category, which is good. Jonny Cat, which is a much smaller number were down 13%. Johnny Cat tends to be
pretty much all coarse cat litter so it's not surprising that with coarse down 9%, Johnny Cat is down, we should try and track with coarse, and
we're not, so we're obviously losing some share there.
Fresh Step was down 3.8% for the year, it's down 2.7% in the 12 weeks. Scoop Away interestingly enough was down 7% for the year but it's up
12.7% for the 12 weeks, so they're obviously reenergizing Scoop Away. Tidy Cat down 1.4% for the year, up 1% for the 12 weeks, still falling
short of the category growth but obviously doing better. And Arm & Hammer again continues to do very well, up 13% for the year, up 17% for
the 12 weeks and finally, private label down 4.9% for the year is down 6.4% for the 12 weeks, so that just gives you some sort of macro. We'll
obviously break out specific SKU information for the new item once it starts to hit the radar screens. We don't expect to really do much of
anything until the new fiscal year starts, so it's really going to be continue to get ready for the launch and then launch come fiscal 2012.
So thank you. Very excited about the future and look forward to talking to you in 3 months and stay safe. Thanks.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.
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