Whole Earth Brands Inc (FREE) 2021 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Whole Earth Brands, Inc. Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce Jeff Sonnek of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, and good morning. Today's presentation will be hosted by Albert Manzone, Chief Executive Officer; and Andy Rusie, Chief Financial Officer. Executive Chairman, Irwin Simon, is also participating on the call and will be available for Q&A.

The comments during today's call and the accompanying presentation contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts are considered forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Some of these risks and uncertainties are identified and discussed in the company's filings with the SEC.

We'll also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the tables included in the earnings release, which can be found on the Investor Relations website, investor.wholeearthbrands.com, for reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures.

With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Albert Manzone, CEO.

Thank you, Jeff, and thanks to everyone for joining the call today.

Whole Earth Brands is the global leader in the better-for-use sweetener and reduced sugar categories. Our vision is to grow Whole Earth Brands to a $1 billion-plus revenue global food and beverage company by doing 3 things: one, disrupt the massive $100 billion total addressable market dominated by refined sugar and penetrate large adjacent categories on a mission to make sweet healthy.

Our diet is leading to a global health problem. Refined sugar is a concern for all generations. Whole Earth Brands is part of the solution by providing consumers with delicious sugar substitutes, baking solutions and other ready-to-eat, no-sugar-added products. We believe that we are perfectly aligned with the powerful consumer macro trends towards health and wellness that are here to stay and are only accelerating with the shifting demographics and emergence of Millennials and Gen Z.

Two, drive category leadership through best-in-class innovation and brand building, expanding our global distribution, leveraging our exceptional supply chain capabilities, continuing to accelerate our growth through strategic M&A as well as taking full advantage of the expertise of our world-class team with long experience at large global food companies.

And three, evolve Whole Earth Brands from a mostly sweetener business to a holistic better-for-you food company.

In Q2, our business performed above expectations, consistent with our past 3 quarter performances since becoming a public company. Our Branded CPG segment faced some headwinds in Q2 due to a tough prior year comparison due to the COVID-led pantry loading last year. This resulted in a year-over-year decrease of 8% on an organic constant currency basis. That said, we believe a more appropriate measure of performance is looking through the lenses of our 2-year stacked growth. We're very pleased by our plus 15% increase in revenue on a constant currency basis versus the second quarter of 2019. This demonstrates the strength and momentum of our portfolio and our ability to generate long-term sustainable revenue growth.

We delivered a company record adjusted EBITDA of $22 million, an increase of 9% versus Q2 2020, driven by revenue growth, contributions from the Swerve and Wholesome acquisitions, improve the margins and productivity gains. I am also pleased to report that Swerve and Wholesome acquisitions, which almost doubled our revenue in our first year as a public company, have been fully integrated, and we're now operating as one business. We are delivering on our synergies as planned. Our Power of One with our retail partners has also been launched with very positive results to date.

We are fortunate to have already been working on various optimization initiatives in what is now a decidedly inflationary environment. And we believe that we have several tools to help offset inflation with the implementation in the coming quarters and years. This includes the driving supply chain productivity, pricing, trade spend optimization and overall productivity initiatives.

As such, we remain comfortable reiterating our fiscal 2021 full year guidance, whether COVID goes away or remain with us a little longer. We have demonstrated over the past 4 quarters the strength and resilience of our business. As we look ahead, we're confident in our ability to deliver strong, sustainable growth and take advantage of the tremendous market opportunities I mentioned earlier.

The basis of our confidence lies in our proven operating model built on 5 strategic pillars: brand building, innovation, distribution supply chain and our world-class team. Let me provide some Q2 highlights. On brand building, you can now discover new packaging design and campaigns consistent with each brand's distinct promise for Equal, Wholesome and Whole Earth, with each brand also showing a proudly part of Whole Earth Brands logo. We have already gotten a highly positive response to the changes we have made from consumers and our retail partners.

Swerve connects with consumers seeking to reduce or eliminate sugar in their diets with a robust consumer digital marketing campaign as well as partnership with Joy Bauer and the registered dietitian community. Whole Earth is rooted in plant-based sweeteners for beverages, baking and more that open a world of goodness among the wellness community. And our Wholesome portfolio of organic fair trade sweeteners encourages consumers across the country to bake things better.

On innovation, we are on track to meet our goal of 30 product launches this year in Branded CPG and 15 in Flavors & Ingredients, as we focus on delivering on our commitment to having over 15% of our Branded CPG segment revenues derived from product innovation on a 3-year rolling basis. Our innovation in Branded CPG is focused on high-growth territories, baking, plant-based, keto-friendly, zero sugar, functional benefits, organic and fair trade in current categories of sugar substitutes and bake mixes as well as expanding into adjacencies.

Whole Earth's recent innovation is anchored in high-growth ingredients such as Monk Fruit, Allulose and collagen peptides and incremental usage occasions with success across key retailers. Swerve and Wholesome new bake mixes are being rolled out in North America and ready to disrupt a massive $1.8 billion bake mix category, with an innovation in both heart-conscious keto and premium scratch baking, capturing multiple locations with offerings ranging from scratch to ready-to-eat.

Swerve's portfolio of bake mixes in cake, cookie, brownie and pancake waffle are keto-friendly, no added sugar, gluten and grain-free, low glycemic, natural and are suitable for individuals with diabetes. Wholesome is launching a new line of organic, fair trade scratch quality premium bake mixes, capturing the growth terrain of consumer convenience with scratch quality premium ingredients. These bake mixes are sweetened with organic fair trade sweeteners such as honey, agave, coconut sugar, brown sugar and cane sugar that supports farmer communities. And we have introduced innovation in better-for-you chocolate, cake mixes, jams across our international markets.

On growing distribution, as I said in our last earnings call, our expanded portfolio of brands significantly improves our shelf presence and visibility with retail customers. In North America, we had integrated our sales organization to expand our partnership with retailers and lead the category in sweeteners and baking. We call it the Power of One. It is now underway with retailers, and based on early results, we believe it will yield enormous benefits for the category and our business similar to the success it has yielded across most other CPG categories.

We're very pleased with our confirmed gains in distribution in North America and are expanding distribution breadth and depth across brands. As products get on the shelf of retailers in Q3 and Q4, we will share growth in ACV and number of stores in Nielsen and MULO.

Our e-commerce platform, which already contributes over 10% of our global sales, is well positioned to benefit from the consumers' buying pattern shifts toward e-commerce purchasing. And we're very pleased with the resurgence of foodservice. We're leveraging the national distribution footprint of Equal to drive placement of our expanded front-of-the-house sweetener portfolio and create cleaner resolution and programs to capitalize on incremental back-of-the-house opportunities with beverage mixology and bakery ingredients.

On manufacturing and supply chain, supply chain is undoubtedly a competitive advantage for Whole Earth Brands, and continued supply chain improvements will allow us to mitigate inflation and drive top line revenue growth, margin expansion and free cash flow generation. We are progressing as planned on our Branded CPG supply chain reinvention project to provide added scale and leverage our overhead costs beginning in the second half of 2021 through 2023 by optimizing the combined assets of Whole Earth Brands, Swerve and Wholesome. You can find more details about this initiative in our supplemental earnings presentation.

Additionally, within our Flavors & Ingredients segment, our manufacturing footprint optimization resulted in the closing of our Camden production facility. We expect to deliver approximately $2 million to $3 million savings in 2021 and an additional $2 million to $3 million in 2022, consistent with our plans.

With respect to our Flavors & Ingredients segment, we are very pleased with Q2 performance. Aside from favorable comparisons versus the second quarter of 2020 when orders were pulled forward into Q1 to prepare for COVID, our investments in R&D and sales are paying off with good momentum in the business and significant new customer wins, thanks to 15 product innovations launched in 2021. We expect the business to continue to produce strong free cash flow, driven by our global leadership position in licorice and our diverse end markets.

While in the near term we are focused on our organic growth efforts and generating strong free cash flow in order to reduce our balance sheet leverage, M&A remains an important part of our growth strategy. We intend to continue to increase penetration in the better-for-you sweetener and adjacent sweets category through organic initiatives and M&A based on the strong pipeline of opportunities. These categories include baking mixes, chocolates, bars, jams and spreads, to name a few, and represent over $30 billion in addressable market opportunity. with a projected 8% CAGR in the coming years. Our ability to complete the integration of Swerve and Wholesome at a fast pace is evidence of M&A being a core competency based on the deep expertise and experience we have in our leadership team.

With that, Andy will now take you through our financials and outlook for 2021.

Thank you, Albert, and good morning to everyone.

As a reminder, for those new to our company, our consolidated financials reflect both predecessor and successor periods indicative of the June 25, 2020, business combination date. The second quarter results that I'll discuss compared to successor's second quarter 2021 results ended June 30, 2021, to the combined second quarter 2020 results, which includes the predecessor's April 1, 2020, through June 25, 2020, results and the successor's June 26, 2020, through June 30, 2020 results. As a result, our reported GAAP financials may not be comparable to the prior year period. I'll call out some of the items that impact comparability, where appropriate, to enhance your understanding of our financial progress and also point you to our non-GAAP reconciliations at the end of the press release for additional detail. Also, I encourage you to view the supplemental earnings presentation on our Investor Relations website.

Of note, we completed the acquisition of Swerve on November 10, 2020, and Wholesome on February 5, 2021. I will speak to reported results, which include Swerve and Wholesome for the full second quarter period. Additionally, we will provide some select pro forma results as if we own Swerve and Wholesome in 2021, 2020 and 2019 to assist in your analysis of the organic growth of the combined portfolio.

For the second quarter ended June 30, 2021, consolidated product revenues were $126.5 million, representing an 89.3% increase from $66.8 million for the prior year quarter. On a pro forma basis, including Swerve and Wholesome for the full quarter in both the current and prior year periods, organic product revenue declined 1.4% compared to the prior year second quarter or declined 3.8% on a constant currency basis.

Reported gross profit was $41.4 million compared to $26.6 million in the prior year second quarter and gross profit margin of 32.7% in the second quarter of 2021 compared to 39.8% in the prior year period. Results were positively influenced by $11 million of contributions from the Swerve and Wholesome acquisitions, revenue growth from the legacy Branded CPG and Flavors & Ingredients segments and productivity gains.

Adjusted gross profit margin, when adjusting for all adjustments, was 34%, down from 41.2% in the prior year, driven primarily by the inclusion of Wholesome's private label business. Consolidated operating income was $6 million compared to an operating loss of $5.2 million in the prior year, and consolidated net income was $3.7 million in the second quarter of 2021 compared to a net loss of $6 million in the prior year. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA increased 94.9% to $22 million, driven by contributions from the Swerve and Wholesome acquisitions, revenue growth and productivity gains, partially offset by public company costs.

Now shifting to segment results for Q2. Branded CPG segment product revenues increased $56 million or 130% to $99.1 million for the second quarter of 2021 compared to $43.1 million for the same period in the prior year. On a constant currency basis, product revenues increased 123.1% driven by the addition of Swerve and Wholesome revenue which was not comparable to the prior year period. Constant currency results reflect the strong growth in our natural brands.

On a pro forma basis, including the impact of both acquisitions in the current year and prior year periods, organic constant currency product revenue decreased 8.1% compared to the prior year second quarter. On a 2-year stacked basis, when comparing second quarter 2021 to second quarter 2019, Branded CPG segment pro forma organic constant currency revenue increased 14.5%.

Operating income for the Branded CPG segment was $10.3 million in the second quarter of 2021 compared to operating income of $1.8 million for the same period in the prior year. The increase of $8.5 million was driven by contributions from the acquired Swerve and Wholesome businesses, revenue growth and productivity gains within the segment. Flavors & Ingredients segment product revenues increased 15.3% to $27.4 million for the second quarter of 2021 compared to $23.8 million for the same period in the prior year. The increase was driven by growth across most of the product lines and a favorable comparison in the prior year, where the business realized a surge in product orders in March 2020 related to COVID-19 which reduced revenues in the second quarter of 2020.

Operating income for the Flavors & Ingredients segment was $3.7 million in the second quarter of 2021 compared to operating income of $0.1 million in the prior year period. The increase was driven primarily by revenue growth. Operating expenses were flat as $2.8 million of facility closure and restructuring costs and $0.9 million of amortization expenses were offset by transaction-related expenses of $3.8 million recorded in 2020 that did not reoccur.

Finally, beginning with the first quarter of 2021, our corporate office functions are now reported and included under corporate, whereas these associated expenses were previously reported within the company's Branded CPG segment. Corporate is not a reportable or operating segment. Certain prior year amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current presentation. Operating expenses for corporate for the second quarter of 2021 were $8 million compared to $7 million of operating expenses in the prior year. Operating expenses for corporate increased $1 million, primarily driven by increased public company costs, stock-based compensation, partially offset by transaction-related expenses of $4.5 million in 2020.

Now let me briefly cover June year-to-date results. Consolidated product revenues were $232.3 million, representing an increase of 74.9% compared to June year-to-date 2020, also an increase of 71.1% on a constant currency basis. On a pro forma basis, including the impact of both acquisitions for the full 6 months periods ended June 30, 2021, and 2020, organic product revenue increased 3% or increased 0.9% on a constant currency basis compared to the prior year. Branded CPG segment product revenues were $180.9 million and increased 117.2% compared to the prior year period, also an increase of 111% on a constant currency basis. Constant currency results reflect the acquisitions of Wholesome and Swerve and growth in our natural brands.

On a pro forma basis, including the impact of both acquisitions, for the full 6-month periods ended June 30, 2021, and June 30, 2020, organic constant currency product revenue increased 0.2% compared to the prior year period. On a 2-year stacked basis, when comparing first half 2021 to first half 2019, Branded CPG segment pro forma organic constant currency revenue was up 11.5%. Operating income was $20.4 million compared to an operating loss of $5 million in the prior year period. The increase was due to an $11.1 million goodwill asset impairment charge in the prior year, $7.9 million of contributions from the acquired Swerve and Wholesome businesses, revenue growth and productivity gains.

Flavors & Ingredients segment product revenues were $51.4 million and increased 3.9% as compared to the prior year period. The increase was driven by a growth in derivatives. Operating income for the 6 months ended June 30, 2021, was $4.7 million compared to an operating loss of $23.9 million in the prior year period. The $28.6 million increase was primarily driven by asset impairment charges totaling $29.5 million recorded in the first quarter of 2020, transaction-related expenses of $3.8 million also recorded in 2020 and revenue growth, partially offset by $4.5 million of facility closure and restructuring costs and a $1.9 million increase in amortization expense due to purchase accounting revaluations of intangible assets.

Reported gross profit was $77 million, an increase of $24.5 million from $52.5 million in the prior year period. And gross profit margin was 33.1% in the 6 months ended June 30, 2021, down from 39.5% in the prior year period. Adjusted gross profit margin, when adjusting for all adjustments, was 35.3%, down from 41.5% in the prior year, driven primarily by Wholesome's private label business.

Consolidated operating income was $2.9 million compared to an operating loss of $38.5 million in the prior year period, and consolidated net loss was $8.3 million for the 6 months ended June 30, 2021, compared to a net loss of $34.6 million in the prior year period. The improvement was largely due to the noncash asset impairment charges recorded in 2020, the positive impact of acquisitions and lower transaction-related costs.

Consolidated adjusted EBITDA increased 64.9% to $39.4 million, driven by contributions from the acquired Swerve and Wholesome businesses, revenue growth and productivity, partially offset by increased public company costs.

Now moving to cash flow and the balance sheet. Cash used in operating activities for June year-to-date was $9.5 million. That is net of $17 million of onetime cash costs. Our June year-to-date capital expenditures were $4.6 million. Free cash flow, when excluding cash-related adjustments such as M&A transaction costs, restructuring, public company readiness and other one-off items, was $3 million. As of June 30, 2021, we had cash and cash equivalents of $24.1 million and $384.7 million of long-term debt, net of unamortized discounts and issuance costs.

On February 5, 2021, we entered into an amended and restated credit agreement in part to finance the acquisition of Wholesome Sweeteners. The new agreement provides for a $75 million revolving credit facility and a $375 million, 7-year senior secured first lien term loan B. Using our forecasted 2021 adjusted EBITDA, our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio on June 30, 2021, was 4.5x. Reducing balance sheet leverage is a corporate priority, and we estimate that we will achieve a ratio of net debt to adjusted EBITDA of approximately 4x by December 31, 2021.

Now shifting to our outlook. We are reiterating our full year 2021 guidance, which includes our recent acquisitions of Swerve and Wholesome. The outlook represents our expectation for growth on a pro forma organic basis and margins for the combined business. We define pro forma organic growth to be as if the company owned both Swerve and Wholesome for the full years 2020 and 2021. We continue to expect consolidated product revenues to be in the range of $493 million to $505 million, represented reported growth of greater than 78% and pro forma organic growth of 3% to 5%; consolidated adjusted EBITDA in the range of $82 million to $85 million, representing reported growth of greater than 50% and pro forma organic growth of 3% to 5%. We also expect adjusted EBITDA margins to be approximately 17% of consolidated product revenues.

Adjusted gross profit will be 34% to 35% of product revenues, which again reflects the influence of our acquired assets, Wholesome and Swerve. Total capital expenditures will be in the range of $10 million to $12 million. Lastly, we expect a 2021 GAAP tax rate of approximately 7% for the year, reflective of discrete onetime favorable tax items.

On balance and in relative terms, as you think about the seasonality or cadence for the year and with the added contribution from Swerve and Wholesome, we expect a sequential build from first half to the second half of 2021 in terms of revenue and adjusted EBITDA dollar contributions. We expect the operational plan will be visible each quarter as we move through the year, with each sequential quarter being better than the other as we capture the benefits from product innovation, distribution gains and enhanced productivity from our footprint optimization project.

That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, now over to you. Please open the call for Q&A.

(Operator Instructions) Our first questions come from the line of Rob Dickerson with Jefferies.

Great. I guess, the first question I have, Andy, is kind of where you ended just in terms of that sequential build and kind of what's implied in the guidance in the back half. Maybe if you could just build, and Albert, if you want to jump into it, that's great. Just kind of provide some color in terms of visibility on potential distribution gains, I guess, in Q3 and kind of as you get through year-end and kind of circle back to some comments you had made last quarter when you suggested that full distribution -- or distribution on the core Whole Earth Brands at least that should be accelerating through you -- get through the back half of the year. That's the first question.

Rob, since you suggested to start with Andy, I will follow with your request, and I'm happy to add after that.

Sure. Yes. Happy to jump in, Rob. I think, actually, we've got a slide in our supplemental deck, Page 21 of our supplemental deck, that kind of walks you through the first half to second half guide and how we bridge from our first half figures in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. And what you'll see there basically are 3 defining factors there between the fact of owning Wholesome for the whole period, some of the baking seasonality that exists within Wholesome and Swerve and then, to your point that you just asked, Rob, on the growth initiatives that we have with distribution and innovation coming to market here as we speak, as we go into third quarter and into the fourth quarter coming into play.

Maybe I'll let Albert talk a little bit more about those distribution gains, but the team has done a great job getting distribution. And we feel very, very comfortable. We feel confident about that. So I don't know, Albert, if you want to add anything else to that?

Yes. Thank you, Andy. And Rob, I did talk in the last quarter about our Power of One, which, as you know, is -- we consider this to be really a breakthrough initiative to improve the growth of the category even further, improve the shopability on the shelf with our retail partners. And we are seeing very strong results coming out of Power of One in the brick and mortars. Numbers of distribution are secured and are going to find their way on the shelf in Q3 and Q4.

What I'm excited is that you also see this Power of One, for example, coming through in foodservice, for example, where we're leveraging the power of equal to really drive Power of One on the front of the house, providing an alternative and a very broad set of sweeteners but also on the back of the house with baking solution that are sugar-free or organic as well as mixology. And this is new for us and really coming out of the Power of One. So expect to see more of that happening in the second half with a number of those wins being already secured and in the bank.

Okay. Super. And then if we kind of fast forward a bit to next year, and obviously, I realize you're not providing guidance for next year, but I would assume that some discussions you would be having with retailers as you go through kind of the next few months, with the conversations directed at potential resets for next year. So -- and given I think some of the distribution gains hopefully in the back half of this year were delayed, right? So these would have been conversations had maybe in 2019.

So I'm just curious, as you are walking into those conversations now kind of with the larger Power of One strategy, just kind of what's the general feel here on kind of overall timing of that optimization or that shelf optimization program for thinking through '22? And kind of the way I'd ask it more simplistically is just -- is it -- the hope here is you get a little distribution gain in Q3 and then there's some more in Q4. And then kind of as you get to next year, it's the same thing, right? So it's the sequential build. Or kind of is the feel more a little bit of a sequential build, but as we get some of these shelf resets in different parts of the year, there could be a more material step-up? Just trying to get a sense of kind of how this flows through the next 18 months, let's say.

Yes. I would tell you, Rob, that in North America, most of -- in grocery, you may have those would be shelf reset or product making it to the planogram during the year. But by and large, a lot of those major reset do happen. Decisions are made first half. And as you say, if anything, COVID has slowed down a little bit the number of shelf resets, which is usually once a year; or the timing of it, which is usually the more into Q3 and Q4.

So as you look forward and as we unfold the Power of One, what obviously is going to make to the shelf in Q3 and Q4 is going to be overlapping in Q1 and Q2 of next year. At that time, we will be already talking about bringing more innovation. And as you know, this year, we are on track to launch our 13 new products on Branded CPG, and we have more innovation coming, and that will make its way through discussions in the first half of the year, with a shelf reset a year on average which is on the second half. You have slightly different timings for example, in Europe, where the shelf reset do happen at the end of Q1 and the discussions start in August, as we speak, so that the Europe is a little bit off balance versus the U.S. North American market. But I would say North America, that's that.

And therefore, to your question, you are going to see incremental momentum building, of course, as we capture a bigger share of the shelf and help importantly the retailers and the consumers to find easy shopability within the shelf.

Okay. Cool. Makes sense. And then, Andy, just quickly, I just want to clarify on the offsets cost inflation. It sounds like the way -- or let's say, what kind of the back half implied guidance suggests in your comments that you do have enough levers to seems like almost fully offset the cost inflation. So I think the commentary is more working to offset. So I know up until now, I think still now had your cost inflation relative to a lot of other CPG companies seems a bit lower, while at the same time, everybody's talking about labor issues, supply chain kind of what have you.

You seem to be saying, yes, there could be some incremental in there, but just kind of given what we have in the portfolio and the levers that we can pull, that it doesn't sound like you're very concerned about that cost inflation, at least for now. So just wanted to clarify that.

Yes, Rob, that's -- and I would reiterate what you just said. Yes, we're confident in our ability to offset inflation in 2021 given all the levers that we have to pull. And we've listed that out a little bit to some of those levers in our supplemental deck. But no, we feel very confident we've got a great supply chain team. We've got a great commercial team managing it as well and our ability to offset -- we feel extremely confident in our ability to offset inflation this year.

Our next questions come from the line of Bobby Burleson with Canaccord.

I think just the first one would be going back to the kind of in-house versus foodservice environment and kind of what your distribution partners and retail partners are thinking or seeing given the spike of Delta, whether or not there's any change in terms of we saw that big, obviously, stocking event last year that was a tough comparison last quarter, year-over-year. Do you anticipate any stocking ahead of concerns over shutdowns or any changes in terms of what you're seeing downstream as it relates to the dynamics in COVID right now?

Yes. That's a great question, Bobby. And what I would tell you is I think we have demonstrated over the last 1 year that our business is balanced, and we feel that it's very resilient. And so I will -- as I have said in my opening comments, whether COVID and the new variant stays with us a little longer or less longer, I don't see a big change in trajectory in our business at all. And this is essentially predicated on the very favorable macro trends that are over this, which is, again, if you look at coffee and tea consumption, growing high single digits. That happens anywhere.

If you look at baking, which really came to the forefront, and it's 50% of sugar consumption with new natural ingredients, with Swerve, with Wholesome, with Whole Earth, we do see that continuing as we have said. And then we have a very balanced portfolio of brands and very well balanced across channels. Again, foodservice is 10% of our mix. We're very happy to see the resurgence. But we have 10% in e-commerce that is doing extremely well and 80% in brick-and-mortars. And then very well diversified geographically, depending on where any variants or the health concerns can hit the most, we are also well diversified. So I would say that what I take away is the resilience and that we consider this to be more or less neutral as far as we are concerned.

Okay. Great. And then just on to the inflation topic. If inflation turns out to not be transitory, I'm curious kind of what the relationship is between your currency hedging and currency exposures and strength of the dollar. Just wanted to know kind of structurally what that relationship is. And then timing of you passing along some of these cost increases in the form of -- around price increases maybe later this year or early next year, what the plans are or thoughts are around that topic?

Andy, do you want to take the first piece? And then, depending, I may add to the second piece.

Yes. Sure. Absolutely, Bobby. So first on the currency part, roughly a little bit less than 25% of our revenues ballpark-wise are in foreign currencies. There are almost some natural hedges there inherently between currencies, #1 and #2, just across the P&L. So our net exposure as a total company at the bottom line, I'll call it kind of more internal hedges to help us balance out to not have any real significant exposure from an FX perspective at the bottom line.

From a pricing perspective, we're taking pricing now, and we're looking at taking pricing into the future. Maybe I'll let Albert comment on that a little bit further.

I would just tell you, Bobby, that hats off to the team, which, as you know, is [workaholic] team. Hats off to Irwin, who is guiding us in terms of his invaluable experience. But I would say that we really started on the journey of productivity from the beginning. So we haven't waited for inflation. And I would say that the supply chain productivity, and as you know, we have talked previously about the supply chain reinvention on Flavors & Ingredients. We have been talking about supply chain reinvention on the Branded CPG, the synergies that we get from Swerve and Wholesome, together with great discipline in our trade spending and the pricing, that we would say consistent with most other companies, are positioning us very well.

Of course, we need to be extremely diligent, and that's what we're doing. But I think we have the team, the initiatives, and we started early enough to feel that we can, at this point, offset in this year and in the year ahead.

Our next questions come from the line of Mark Smith with Lake Street Capital.

First question from me. Just wondering if you can give us any more details on the sale of the Camden, New Jersey facility. And it sounds like the savings there are pretty immediate, but any other details you can give us would be great.

Mark, thank you. Andy, if you can address that.

Yes. Mark, thanks. Obviously, the sale of the Camden facility was a big milestone for us as it was the kind of closure of our footprint optimization project on the Flavors & Ingredients segment that we've been speaking about for the past year or 2. And so that facility was sold in the second quarter. The production that was there is fully being done in our Richmond, Virginia facility, which is a much smaller footprint and a much more efficient operating structure.

And so to your point, Mark, the gains for that are immediate. You'll see in our supplemental deck and consistent with the kind of pro forma benefits that we talked about a year ago, we'll expect margin accretion in the second half of the year benefits to kick in of $2 million to $3 million in the second half of the year and $2 million to $3 million in the first half of next year on a sequential basis.

So no, that's an immediate savings for us and a real -- and a pure cash driver, too, as it goes forward. So really excited. Team did a great job getting that facility closed, a lot of hard work with immediate benefits.

Okay. And then just as we look at new products and launches, it sounds like you're on pace now, but can you talk about kind of the initial consumer response to some of these new products?

Sure. The consumer products are -- we've 45. As I say, about 30 are in our Branded CPG and 15 are in our Flavors & Ingredients. This is really led by marketing and consumer insights together with R&D, which we do have across North America, Europe and Asia. And I will tell you that our innovation is really starting from the consumer shift that we see away from sugar, the desire of consumers to really having product that tastes great because, as you know, consumers would never compromise on that, that are natural.

And we have a number of innovations really coming into all the natural ingredients, Allulose, Erythritol, Xylitol and so on and so forth as well as consumer innovation with a number of products in the baking as well as bake mixes. With Swerve, we launched 4 SKU in the bake mixes, in cake, cookie, brownies and Wholesome. And I would tell you that the results so far on the Branded CPG are very strong. As we said earlier with Rob, we have secured distribution that is going to appear on shelf in the second half. So I would say that the reception is strong.

Similarly, I'm very pleased by our Flavors & Ingredients performance. We have stepped up the R&D teams there. We have stepped up our sales organization and professionalize it more. And I think talking aside from the favorable comparison, the 15% versus year ago in Q2 is indicative of a momentum around our derivatives or Magnasweet. And so I would say that innovation for us is really one thing that I believe in. It's 1 of our 5 core operating pillars, together with great brands and great distribution. And we have been able to deliver over 15% of our net sales coming from innovation on a 3-year rolling basis for the last 3 years. So we'll see that continue. We are happy with where we are. And I look forward to see -- for you to see those products on the shelves coming in Q3.

Perfect. And then as we look at the new products and look at your mix of e-commerce sales, do some of these new products, especially baking mixes and other things, gives you more opportunity in your e-commerce? Or are they products that maybe wouldn't do as well in e-com?

That's a great question. The great thing about e-commerce, and this is why I invested in it since 2018 and we're very happy to have now 10% of our global mix being e-commerce, is that the amount of SKU you can put there is unlimited. And so you have a much broader depth -- broader and depth of products, and you get a very quick return from consumers, which is very helpful in terms of new innovation and very helpful also as we talk to retailers. So I would say that this is an opportunity, e-commerce, to put up more products and to have more consumers accessing them and then has this opportunity to then go forward with the other retail channels.

Okay. And retail growth is kind of my last question. Just as we look at -- it looks like in the quarter, retail growth was maybe down a little bit. Can you talk about new customers and new retail partners that are out there?

I assume you are talking about quarter versus 2020 for Branded CPG?

Correct, yes. Yes.

Right. So this was really driven by the onetime pantry loading, by and large. And I always say that in our case, further to that, which is something that everybody experienced, you do -- we did talk a lot during the COVID about our outstanding customer service. During the whole crisis of COVID, we were able to service at the 99%, 98% level. What did happen -- and that's about $7 million of Q2, what did happen is that some of our competitors were not able to supply.

And therefore, we had, in addition to the usual COVID pantry loading, we also had some retailers that came to us and say, "Competitor B cannot supply. Can you please jump in?" So we had this additional onetime which is essentially driving the year-on-year comparison, which is why the way we like and we think it's more relevant to look at is really looking at the momentum versus Q2 2019, and they were very pleased with the 15% growth.

Okay. And as far as your expansion in distribution with the new retail partners, how do you feel about how that's moving today?

As I said earlier, we are happy with where we're at. We have a number of secured distributions that are going to come through, which I cannot, for the obvious reasons, disclose. But we are happy and tracking as we planned.

Our next questions come from the line of Scott Mushkin with R5 Capital.

So I actually had a -- my first question was around, Andy, your comment about sequentially better EBIT margin each quarter. Did I get that right? Or maybe just a little clarity on what you said right when you stopped.

So we are expecting, Scott -- and this is Andy. I can jump in on that. We are expecting -- yes. We are expecting sequentially incrementally better sales or revenue and EBITDA in absolute figures quarter-on-quarter, so Q3 and Q4. I mean, we do have factors like the Flavors & Ingredients with the closure of the Camden that will help our back half of the year margins. But what we were guiding to more was the absolute sales and EBITDA.

That's perfect. The second question really is about the Power of One initiative. And how you guys are approaching it? Are you looking at kind of flagship customers that you're growing? Obviously, in the fresh market, I guess, it was Thursday or Friday and your set there is just terrific. And I would think maybe the Wholesome baking products would go be slotted in somewhere like that first. Or is that not how to look at it?

Yes. Scott, that's a great question. Once you have put together your Power of One, the timing on how you roll out really depends on your retailers. And that goes really back to the question of Rob before. Still, this is a year where doing meetings face-to-face, Zooms, et cetera, is all something we're managing with our retailers, and different retailers get at it at different times. So we are active, and we are essentially, to your point, putting it forward whenever the opportunity is, whenever the shelf reset is being done, whenever those discussions. We don't control the timing of it. But we also are able, with the Power of One, to proactively reach out and do it.

And again, let's remember, all CPG shelves and categories do tend to have some level of category management. This is really probably one of the few I know where you don't have that. And therefore, we believe that the benefit to our retail partners and to the category and its shopability, to your point, and you spend a lot of time, this is in the stores, and I thank you for that, I think is going to carry us for this year but also for the years to come. Because, as you know, this is an ongoing process where you work with the retailers every single mode to making better in the direction that we have now set.

Okay. And then my final question really goes to -- I'm going to put them together because it's really kind of 2, but I'm going to put them together. So it looks like we talked about this last quarter, the placements on Amazon. It looks like you guys made a lot of progress there as far as when you do a search, you're coming up quick and there's an advertisement there. Are you seeing lift from that? And then in conjunction with that, with all the other things you're getting, this was touched on before, but should we think '22 is going to just grow faster because of everything that's going on versus kind of the long-term plan? And would that put some pressure on profits or not really, if that's correct?

I would let, Scott, Andy answer the second piece. On the first piece of e-commerce, I will tell you that we are leveraging best practices and the team that works globally, very closely together in Europe and Asia where we're very strong and in the U.S. And as you know, it's a funnel. And we are working to bring people in. We're working then to make sure that people do see opportunities to take on more, and then we're working on people to come back. And then we are also working on people going somewhere else to come to us. And as you know, this is a virtuous circle which costs money, but what we are seeing is that, essentially, this is an investment where you have a very good return on the investment.

And Scott, I'm going to jump in there. When you asked about pressure on profits in 2022, growth is a big part of our strategy here. And last year, this time, we were just a $200 million company, and you heard Andy's forecast between $475 million (sic) [$493 million] and $505 million. I mean, the company in regards to public company costs, infrastructure costs and that, I feel with the growth opportunities and where our ACV is today in household penetration. And you also heard Andy talk before about the type of job we're doing in regards to controlling inflation, not taking pricing where we don't have to. So I don't see a pressure on profits with our growth.

I think there is -- as you know, from me, white space is a big, big opportunity for us. So -- and also on top of this here, we're not sitting by the sidelines and not looking at acquisitions. So as the company looks for good organic growth, Albert talked about these new products before, and I'll tell you, we just recently had a Board meeting, I saw some fantastic new products, some of the best I've ever seen. With the distribution opportunities and just even with our international opportunities, I don't see growth being an issue that's going to affect our profitability going forward.

And Andy, you jump in here from a financial standpoint.

Yes. No, I echo everything that Irwin just said. And I think to your question, Scott, on the mix part of it, no, it would not have an impact on the bottom line from a mix -- channel mix perspective.

And then as far as the growth goes, should we expect a little faster growth in 2022? Or is that too early to tell?

Well, what I would -- go ahead, Irwin.

I will -- Scott, you know me, I will push them. But I think the big thing -- without giving 2022 guidance in that, I think, as I said before, I want to come back and just commend what this team has done in a short period of time. And with that, as I said, we have plenty of new products. We have plenty of white space to go after, plenty of opportunities in the e-commerce, ultimately acquisitions. So I think there is a lot of runway out there for this company to grow and to grow faster.

There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to Albert Manzone for any closing remarks.

I just would like to thank everybody for joining the call today. We are looking forward to have discussions with all of you. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you.

Thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Have a great day.