Welcome to BellRing Brands First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. Hosting the call today from BellRing Brands are Darcy Davenport, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Paul Rode, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay beginning at 1:30 PM Eastern Time.

The dial-in number is (800) 585-8367 and the passcode is 1876009. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Jennifer Meyer, Investor Relations of BellRing Brands for introductions. You may begin..

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for BellRing Brands' First Quarter Fiscal 2021 Earnings Call. With me today are Darcy Davenport, our President and CEO; and Paul Rode, our CFO. Darcy and Paul will begin with prepared remarks and afterwards we'll have a brief question-and-answer session.

The press release and supplemental slide presentation that supports these remarks are posted on our website in both the Investor Relations and the SEC Filings section at bellring.com. In addition the release and slides are available on the SEC's website.

Before we continue, I would like to remind you that this call will contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties that should be carefully considered by investors as actual results could differ materially from these statements.

These forward-looking statements are current as of the date of this call and management undertakes no obligation to update these statements. As a reminder, this call is being recorded and an audio replay will be available on our website. And finally, this call will discuss certain non-GAAP measures.

For a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the nearest GAAP measure, see our press release issued yesterday and posted on our website. With that I will turn the call over to Darcy..

amazing taste. In the first few weeks of the campaign, our results are encouraging, with search and website traffic exceeding the same period last year. Our new flavors and pack sizes are driving significant growth. Café Latte now in its second year and Cinnamon Roll, our newest flavor are performing in the top 15% of the category were sold.

Our upsizing initiative is off to a great start, with our new 12 count driving almost three-quarters of our growth in the mass channel. Premier is also growing outside of shakes, with powders up 129% driven by distribution and velocity. Dymatize had another strong quarter, up 35% domestically, with growth across all key channels.

Distribution in FDM grew 38% since prior quarter with strong product expansion in the mass channel. Our new ISO100 products Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles continue to be standouts driving velocity across all channels and securing significant new distribution. Our international sales were flat year-over-year.

Premier shakes in Canada showed meaningful increases, but softness across the rest of the portfolio offset this growth. The impact of COVID on the global specialty channel continues to affect the Dymatize and PowerBar brands. However, we expect this to slowly recover later this year.

I want to take a moment to discuss the business realignment we executed this quarter, which impacts both Dymatize and our international business. Over the last several years, there has become more overlap between Premier Protein and Dymatize in the US. As a result, we decided to combine the management of these two brands housed in Emeryville.

As part of the realignment, we created a dedicated international team, who will drive growth across all of our brands outside the US. Regrettably, these changes result in reductions across our workforce in Dallas and Germany.

I believe this was a needed strategic step to position BellRing for the future, but these decisions are not made lightly, and I want to thank our employees for all the hard work and dedication over the past years. Overall, I remain confident in our 2021 outlook.

Our supply chain performance is strong and our shake co-man network is well positioned to support our growth. Our new creative is now running and our messaging is reaching more households. Our distribution gains are driving meaningful growth and we are seeing strong brand blocks across most major retailers.

Our new products are succeeding in market and our innovation pipeline is building, driving long-term value for the brand. I continue to be energized by our long runway for growth and now believe we have optimized our organizational structure to truly drive those growth strategies. I will now turn the call over to Paul..

Thanks, Darcy, and good morning, everyone. Net sales for the quarter were $282.4 million, up 15.7%. Adjusted EBITDA was $60.7 million, up 3.6% and EBITDA margin was 21.5%. Premier Protein net sales increased 17.4% driven by RTD shakes.

First quarter results benefited from distribution gains for both existing and new products, and incremental promotional activity. Dymatize net sales grew 16.2% this quarter driven by distribution gains in club and mass and continued double-digit growth in eCommerce.

International sales for Dymatize improved sequentially, but remained weak on a year-over-year basis as a result of COVID. Net sales of all other products decreased 11.2%. Turning back to consolidated results. Gross profit of $91.9 million increased 0.7% this quarter with gross profit margin declining 490 basis points to 32.5%.

The margin decline was largely as expected and related to higher input costs, primarily milk-based proteins and freight as well as incremental promotional activity. SG&A expenses were $38.3 million and as a percentage of net sales declined 140 basis points to 13.6%.

SG&A expenses in the current year included $4.6 million of restructuring and facility closure costs related to our business realignment that Darcy discussed earlier. These expenses were partially offset by $1.5 million of lower separation costs, both of which were treated as adjustments for non-GAAP measures.

Excluding these items, SG&A was down approximately $1 million compared to prior year. And marketing spend was flat. Before reviewing our outlook, I would like to make a few comments on cash flow and liquidity. We had a strong first quarter for cash flow generating $23 million from operations.

At quarter end, we had $50.8 million of cash on hand and $150 million available under our revolver. As of December 31, net debt was $635 million and net leverage was 3.2 times. Turning to our outlook. We continue to expect fiscal 2021 net sales of $1.07 billion to $1.12 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $207 million to $217 million.

As Darcy previewed, our quarterly pacing is largely tracking with our expectations. However, first half gross margins will be further pressured by higher freight costs before rebounding in the second half when our RTD shake pricing takes effect.

For the second quarter, recall that we will lap the prior year COVID pantry loading benefit for Premier Protein, which is a headwind to our net sales and EBITDA growth, but a tailwind for our third quarter. In addition, our promotional activity and advertising investments will peak in Q2 as expected.

Overall, we remain confident in our full year estimates and are pleased with the top line performance and distribution wins for Premier Protein and Dymatize. With that, I would like to turn the call back over to the operator for your questions..

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Ken Goldman of JPMorgan..

Hey, thank you, and I love the 11 minutes of prepared remarks. It's fantastic. So thank you for keeping it brief for everybody. I wanted to ask about the gross margin, which of course was down a significant amount this quarter for the third straight time.

I get it right? You're facing a spike in dairy and freight, you've been promoting some more in some channels. I'm just wondering because I think investors and we certainly are guilty of this have been modeling in much stronger gross margins.

What can you tell us specifically? Is there any way you can quantify what your expectations are for that line for the next few quarters or just for the year, just in the name of sort of making sure that we don't get those negative surprises on that line item again?.

Sure Ken. Good morning. I'll take that. Yes. So coming into the year, we expected our gross margins to decline versus last year, because of -- especially the first half was impacted more so by protein cost and we expected to continue to make brand investments and promotional spending. So we expected gross margins to decline versus last year.

What has changed, obviously, is freight cost has increased. And so that's putting more pressure on our margins in the first half. So, while overall for the year, we expect our margins to be down versus last year, we now expect that our second half should be above last year's gross margins, because of the price increase offsetting some of these costs.

So, first half down; second half above last year. Keep in mind, our historical margins have been roughly around 34% with a spike in 2019 because of the price increase we took at that point in time where they got a little bit above 34%, but historically, we've been about around there.

So we expect to get closer to that as we take the price increase going into next year..

Great. That is very helpful. Thank you. And then my follow-up, I'm curious what you experienced in terms of any pushback from your customers to the price announcement. I would assume not much just given how transparent higher dairy and freight costs are, and given how there's not much elasticity in the market right now.

But I just wanted to get any color I could from you on that? Thanks..

Customers, as you guys know, customers never like a price increase, but they absolutely understand why we're doing it. As you explained, they're seeing the same inflation as we are. So they understand it. And remember, we took price two years ago and everyone behaved very rationally. Customers reflected it.

At-shelf elasticities were very close to our estimates and so we expect the same this time..

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Lazar of Barclays..

Good morning everybody..

Good morning..

Hi. First off, I guess, with regard to Premier. I know price/mix was down about 4.5% as a result of some of the incremental promotional activity. I mean that as you mentioned was part of the pressure on gross margins.

I guess, could you discuss a little bit how you evaluate the trade-offs between incremental revenue generated versus the margin pressure? And I guess more of the optics right of what -- some might call perhaps lower-quality growth or a reliance on promotion.

And I guess put another way what gives you the confidence that the incremental promotional spend is and continues to be an effective use of funds?.

So our focus as we have walked you guys through is building household penetration. We continue to believe that that is the biggest driver of long-term value and growth for specifically Premier Protein. We knew we were going to -- one of the strategies to increase household pen is raising marketing and promotion this year to drive that.

We know that once we get trial on this brand because of our repeat rates that are over 50%, we will have a loyal consumer. So as we -- if you look at 2021 promos they are actually very similar to '20 except for we tested an incremental club promotion in Q1 which is what you're seeing in the numbers.

But other than that they're actually fairly consistent with some -- as you guys know we have our bigger push in Q2 and Q4 and then we added the Q1 promotion as well. .

Great. Okay. Thank you for that. And then Paul you mentioned heading into the first quarter it was expected that pretty much all of the EBITDA growth in fiscal 2021 would occur in the second half. And obviously you had 3.5% growth that you realized in EBITDA in the first quarter.

And obviously fiscal 2Q is anticipated to be down to off -- I guess is 2Q anticipated to be down to basically offset this so that you still kind of have that same cadence of virtually all the EBITDA growth in the second half? And then similarly on sales I mean it was expected sales in the first half will be up high single digit.

Obviously first quarter was up far greater than that. If it was to hold to the first half guidance that you initially gave on sales that would imply a deceleration in sales to maybe minus 1 to plus 3 in the second quarter. But given you have so much momentum I don't know if that still holds.

So anyway I'm just trying to put this in perspective, what you did in the first quarter based on what your initial sort of first half guidance was if you get my drift?.

Yes I think I do. So our thinking on first half growth is still in line with our original expectation. I think Darcy touched on in her prepared remarks that we did see a little bit of a shift into Q1 versus Q2. So we just -- whenever you're loading these large promotions, sometimes they load a bit differently than you expect.

So what we believe we've seen is a bit of a pull in Q1 a little harder than expected. So that obviously falls out in Q2. And then with the freight headwinds obviously that puts some additional pressure on our second quarter as well. So we really think our first half is largely intact.

There's just a little bit of a shift between the first and second quarter. No concerns about the sequential revenue top line. .

Thanks so much to you all..

Thank you..

Your next question comes from the line of Brian Holland of D.A. Davidson. .

Yes, thanks. Good morning. So I wanted to probe that -- this implied Q2 growth a little bit further. It sounds like I guess that some of that pull-in from Q2 is maybe related to that club promotion that you referenced.

But I'm just curious if there's anything -- I mean obviously there's something at the end of the quarter here when we start to lap the initial demand surge around COVID.

I mean is that just something where you feel like you don't have enough visibility and so why not just stick with the same cadence through the first half on that lapse? Because -- or is there something else in one of these channels that we need to be mindful of? Because again, you're accelerating in scanner through January that ran concurrent with the promotion at Costco, so no cannibalization there.

So it seems like a lot of momentum going into that second half of March.

So anything that we should be mindful of other than just -- maybe just trying to be mindful of the COVID comp?.

Certainly as we're lapping last year yes the COVID comp was a big tailwind for us in the second quarter of last year. I think we previously estimated that the high single digit. It drove high single-digit growth for us last year that we're obviously lapping. So that does obviously weigh on your growth rates from last year to this year.

Regarding the business momentum we do feel like it's still strong. There's nothing that I've seen or we've seen that would suggest that there's any reasons for concern. But everything we've seen from a revenue side has been tracking to our expectation again with just a bit of a shift from Q1 into Q2..

I'm sorry, Paul just to -- yes, Paul just to confirm that you said high single-digit contribution from, sort of, the COVID demand surge in Q2 that's how much that contributed?.

That's what it contributed to last year so that would be the headwind for this year. So that's the flip between Q2 and Q3 where it's a headwind in Q2 and a tailwind for Q3. .

Understood. And then if I could just ask a big picture question. I think relative to three months, six months ago it feels like we'll be in something similar to the dynamic that's in place today as it pertains to consumer mobility, which obviously has been beneficial to the category in your business in particular.

But if we extrapolate that out further there's forecast out there that would suggest 2 times the American workforce will be working from home in some form five years from now versus pre-COVID.

So Darcy, I'm just wondering if you have done any work on that, any analysis and if there's reason to kind of rethink the opportunity here just given the relative convenience of shakes versus bars at home and obviously when we look at the penetration growth and the repeat rates on your business in particular.

I'm just curious if you have any point on that. .

Yes. We're incredibly excited about our momentum as a business. Because not only, yes, we have the negative of the mobility, but we have the positive of I mean, we -- I walked through the category and liquids and powders are -- in the last 13 weeks are double the growth of the overall category. So we're seeing the tailwinds of just general health.

And the sentiment of consumers of really being worried about their general health and what they can do personally to improve that. So we've got that tailwind. And I think that's long-term, I think -- and I think obviously it got accelerated with the pandemic. But I think that will stay front and center for a while.

And so then you take that and then you put -- you layer on top the increase of mobility and that we are a convenience product, I think, we look forward and see a lot of encouraging signs. .

Appreciate the color. Best of luck..

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Growe of Stifel. .

Hi. Good morning. .

Good morning. .

Good morning. I just had a question for you if I could. First on just to understand -- maybe I can better understand the fact that this quarter had a promotional load-in.

And as I look at the charts and the data, I guess, I was still -- a little stump still on how with consumption being up so strongly for Premier of 27.5%, and obviously, revenues and volume for that business being up less than that just how that dynamic worked.

And maybe more importantly, how much should come out of Q2 as a result of that load-in that occurred in the first quarter?.

Yes. So I'll take the latter part of your question there. So our thinking is that we've seen maybe a 1% to 2% pull forward Q1 -- from Q2 into Q1. So it's not big, but it does impact obviously the growth rates a bit. So that would be that part of your question. Yes.

I mean our first quarter is typically a very heavy shipments to consumption quarter because all of the January promotions that are going on a lot of them do load for us in the first quarter. So -- and there's a chart in our supplemental that obviously, shows that dynamic. And it's fairly consistent with last year.

It was up a bit maybe from last year which is part of that pull forward that we're talking about, but it's not meaningfully different from last year's pull-in. .

Yes. I think what I would add is that, in on-track we did see the -- we had some ship-in volume in Q4 that we saw the consumption in Q1 which is I think -- which is the delta between the consumption and the shipments as well. .

Okay. Thank you for that. And to follow-up on that, but I -- I understand what you're saying. Just a quick second question would be just to get a sense of how much the inflation outlook has changed for the year.

And then can you give any color around the degree of the price increase you're taking? And maybe that will help dimensionalize the increase in cost?.

Darcy, let me take the inflation piece and then you can….

Sure..

Yes. From an inflation perspective, the change from our original estimate which is primarily freight is that it will be a 75 to 100 basis point drag on the year. So that's the magnitude of the freight impact which has ramped up really kind of late in our first quarter..

And then from a pricing standpoint just for competitive reasons, I don't think we're going to -- I'm not going to go into the exact price increase but it's modest and similar to what we took two years ago..

Okay.

And then just to be clear on that Paul that inflation that 7500 basis point drag on the gross margins is that the way that you were quantifying that?.

That is exactly right..

Okay. Thanks so much for your time..

Thank you..

Your next question comes from the line of Tim Perz of Stephens Inc..

Good morning. Congrats on the nice quarter. So how should we expect you to approach marketing spend this year? I know you plan to advertise on TV for an additional three months this year.

But if you achieve your household penetrations kind of like ahead of time, would you be more inclined to drive margins by pulling back on marketing spend in the back half? Or do you kind of plan to stick to that goal and pursue additional households this year?.

Yes. We plan to continue with our plan from an advertising standpoint. Big picture is we are under -- we believe we are underpenetrated. And so we know our marketing is working. We're seeing early results. First of all, it worked last year to drive household penetration. We made some changes just to optimize it this year.

And in early first three weeks, we see that it is more effective than even last year. So we believe it is the right way to build long-term value for the business and we think there's a lot of upside. So we're absolutely continuing on the path to spend to acquiring household..

Okay. Thank you. And Premier Protein household penetration was up about 18% year-over-year but your consumption exceeded that.

So can you just talk a little bit about what you're seeing from the buying rate among existing consumers and what's driving that higher?.

household penetration and buy rate. And so from a household penetration standpoint, we are increasing our marketing and our promotion as well as -- and then from a buy rate and coming out with new products, new flavors, et cetera. And then from a buy rate standpoint, we have our upsize initiative.

So those combination is where you're seeing kind of -- you see the increase of household pen but then you see the buy rate as well..

Okay. Thank you. I’ll pass it on..

Thank you..

Your next question comes from the line of Bill Chappell of Truist Securities..

Thanks, good morning..

Good morning..

I just want to go back to just the freight issue. I'm just trying to understanding -- I imagine you have some freight contracts where you don't see the immediate hit as freight costs rise.

And so I guess trying to understand since it is -- just as you said it creeped up late in the first quarter and immediately hitting in the second quarter, what ways to prevent that from as they -- if they creep up again in the second quarter that you haven't priced enough for that as we go into the third quarter? Just trying to understand kind of what visibility you have on your freight rates? And what kind of -- in order to price -- this doesn't happen again and again as we move through the year and things start to open up?.

Sure. Yes. We do have obviously some visibility into our freight costs through our providers. But it really did move up quite a bit. And I think you've seen that obviously inflation with other companies as well with COVID causing some shortages with drivers. But the really long-term thinking is that that will continue on for a period of time.

But to your point, there obviously is always risk that it goes up and there's opportunities should it come down. But we feel like we've looked at the rest of the year and looked at it at this elevated level as we thought about the impact to our business for the rest of the year..

So, I mean just your thought is, freight rates have peaked? Or you priced for the potential peak? Is that fair?.

Yes..

The expectation, yes..

Okay. And then just a follow-up, just any color on channels? I mean is it safe to say, club versus non-club performed at a similar rate? Or I mean, it did seem like you had more promotions? And obviously more new product introductions in the club channel. Any color there, would be helpful. Thanks..

Yes. So, Oh, sorry..

No. Go ahead. I was just going to clarify, if he meant Premier or total BellRing or both..

Yes. I meant, Premier, sorry..

Yes. So Premier, on track, still for the quarter, overall our consumption was up 27.5%. It was led by untracked. So untracked still was tracking ahead and driving the growth over track so up, about 43%. And track being up 15%. And it was -- we're having really -- we continue to have really solid growth in eCommerce.

We did have a promotion in eCommerce, which drove some of that, which again was expected. And then, we're seeing solid growth in untracked club.

And then, -- but, I will say, I think some of the areas that, I'm most excited about is, our progress are in food -- specifically food and mass and getting more products on the shelf and really getting that brand block, which is something that we haven't had before. And we're seeing it in market..

Great. Thank you..

Thanks..

Your next question comes from the line of Jason English of Goldman Sachs..

Hey, good morning, folks..

Good morning, Jason..

Good morning..

I guess, I've got two quick questions. Well, maybe not quick, but the first one is.

How much of the growth in Dymatize is coming from these Pebbles extensions? And should we really look at these as almost like a license, in and out? Or do you think there's reason to believe that could actually have durability?.

So I don't have the exact number for Pebbles but what -- but I'll separate out the growth -- the domestic growth from a distribution and velocity standpoint. So, about 60% of the growth was coming from distribution and about 40% from velocity. A lot of that velocity is coming from Pebbles and the excitement there.

So -- and it's really coming across channels. We absolutely think it has durability. And I think that you'll start seeing -- I think the excitement around -- I think, I've explained the consumer insight to this piece. It's not just about borrowed equity.

There -- it is steeped in solid consumer insight that basically says that, the Dymatize consumer is, starved of carbs. And so basically hasn't eaten sugary cereals but in a long time and love it. And so, because our product delivers so well on the, Fruity and Cocoa Pebble experience, it really is kind of scratching that itch.

And so, that is a consumer insight that can be really built upon..

Interesting. Second question, you've got a great organic growth story here. And I'm not asking you to muddy the waters.

But I do recall when you guys were initially spinning out and standing this business up on a stand-alone basis, part of the rationale was to be able to have a high multiple business that could acquire other high-multiple businesses on the growth assets.

Where is M&A on your agenda today? And have you seen any opportunities, perhaps open up during COVID?.

Yes. I think you highlighted and described it well. We do believe. And we've communicated this that, we are excited. The organic growth of specifically Premier, but also Dymatize is our number one priority. And we still think there's a ton of upside. And that really is our focus.

And just to jump, we've -- historically we've talked more about Premier, as being the driver of that, which it will be. But I think the recent momentum on Dymatize really gets us excited about that growth story as well. And so, that puts us in a situation where M&A is absolutely one of our growth strategy.

But it becomes more of a nice to have, as opposed to a need to have, which allows us to pick and choose and wait for the right opportunity as opposed to being forced to buy something, because we're trying to hold up a growth rate..

Makes sense. Thanks a lot. I’ll pass it on..

Thanks..

Your next question comes from the line of Rob Dickerson of Jefferies. .

All right. Great. Thank you so much.

Darcy yesterday a larger food company who doesn't really focus specifically on protein shakes bars powders stated that, seemed like your discussions with retailers and kind of what they've seen on the shelf, let's say, in the past six months would suggest that maybe there's been a little bit more shelf allocated to kind of shakes and powders, right? Just given kind of the adult consumption shift, maybe there's a less attraction for the time being, at least, just to the more on-the-go bars.

And then they stated, though, that also through those conversations with the retailers that they would think that some of that would reverse back out, right? So maybe there's almost a bit temporary mix adjustment, obviously, to cater to where demand is.

So I just thought I'd ask, kind of, if that's what you're seeing too, if you agree with that, kind of, what your perspective is. And really would there be so much shift? Because it seems like your shift has been driven by good product and distribution gain, increased GDPs not off a COVID, kind of, was already planned.

But then there's kind of the other commentary that it's the overlay of kind of what's happening within the broader category, if we think about the mix between powders and shakes, vis-à-vis, bars, if that makes sense. Thanks..

It does make sense. I agree with the fact that we're seeing some shift of shelf space from bars to RTDs and powders. I have not heard that, that is a temporary change. I guess, I look at it as, retailers keep -- I mean, very simply retailers keep items that are growing and are growing their category.

And so, as I've just said, 80% of our growth is coming from outside of the category. We actually have very little growth that is coming from shifting among the category. So -- and we're one of the highest velocity products in the category. So I haven't heard it.

And honestly I -- it doesn't worry me from a Premier standpoint or a Dymatize standpoint, for that matter. .

Okay, great. And then, I guess, just as quickly, obviously, the focus right now is building the core, right? There's a long runway of growth still on the current product offerings or categories as you just stated. There's the new Premier cereal, right? Just, we've seen the innovation already come out. We've discussed earlier on the post-call.

Are you thinking already kind of like where can we take Premier, right? Let's -- we have kind of the plan in place in terms of the distribution strategy and with the right offerings we just need to execute.

So maybe there's a little bit more bandwidth in terms of kind of where you could take the category into other adjacent -- sorry, other adjacencies. Or for now is it just block and tackle on the core? Thanks. That's it. .

It's both. So, actually, the core we saw the kind of upside within our categories, but innovation is a big driver for us. We've been investing both within R&D as well as within marketing and focusing on where this brand can go. I think cereal was a good test for us.

We could see if the brand could travel outside to other categories and other heavily trafficked aisles. And I think the early results are really positive. And so, we look at that -- we've always thought that a growth -- future growth was -- we've talked about center of store. And I think that this bodes well for that transition.

Now, it's just about what is the best strategy to go to center of store..

Got it. Thank you..

Thanks..

Your next question comes from the line of Ken Zaslow of Bank of Montreal..

Hi, good morning everyone..

Good morning..

I have two questions. One is, when you think about your shelf space gains, can you talk about how much shelf space you gained? And how much do you think that's permanent? And maybe that's my first question..

So, we -- I'm forgetting the exact numbers in my prepared remarks, but we gained substantial shelf space both on Premier and on Dymatize this last quarter. We're pretty consistently gaining TDPs. TDPs are that -- we communicated that, we're undershelved really.

Our market share would -- from a kind of market share versus share of shelf, we are still undershelf. So we still have room to grow. But this Q1 was a really big move. We gained substantial -- I think, I mentioned this in the last call we doubled our shelf size in a mass retailer. Coming up in the spring is the reset for some major food accounts.

We will continue to see big distribution expansions within those accounts, further expanding our brand block. So -- and then Dymatize, we gained I think 38% TDPs in FDM which is a big push for us. And that was mainly due to a mass account. And we're already seeing the velocities strong enough to hold that space and expand.

So, same thing on Dymatize, where we see these food accounts, which we're going to -- we're expecting to see some increase in Dymatize as well..

My second question is, when I think about expanding the Premier brand, what consumer insight did you see that would want Premier to get into the cereal category? A category, which I don't know if I could remember, but the possibility of success of a new brand in Cereal can't be more than 1%, right? It's a very low -- what consumer insights do you have that would give you the confidence that extending Premier into cereal versus I don't know, other categories would be the right foray for you to get into the center of the store? Just a thought there.

Thanks,.

Well, the first thing is that, we know that Premier, as a brand is consumed 60% of the time at breakfast. So, we also know that, breakfast is an occasion, where consumers don't usually get enough protein. They have bagels and donuts and muffins. So -- and we know, as the old saying goes, it's the most important meal of the day.

So, that is I think the insights. Now, the second piece is, just a practical application, which I would just say is, we also happen to have a sister company who makes cereal. So, it was a fairly easy test to see if our brand could travel. So, I think there is very much steep and solid consumer insights, but also there's a practical element..

Thank you, very much..

Thanks..

Your next question comes from the line of Kaumil Gajrawala of Credit Suisse..

Hi everybody. Good morning or I guess good afternoon.

Can you talk a little bit about eCommerce, eCommerce capabilities and maybe a bit about how much it grew, but also just how it's evolving? What sort of capital you might be putting in or investments you're making to expand that side of your business?.

Yes, eCommerce is a big focus for us. So, just to give you a sense of kind of history and where we are. In 2019, eCommerce represented 6% of our business. It now is at 10% of our business. We think that, it could be 10% to 15%. So, we've invested -- also what's interesting about eCommerce, what we've learned is it is a great trial driver for us.

So we're actually seeing the -- our household penetration grow in trial through eCommerce, and then sometimes actually then buy -- because our eCommerce product is a little bit more expensive than in other channels, oftentimes, we'll see consumers enter in an eCommerce and then repeat in other channels.

And just from a capability standpoint, we are expanding marketing dollars. We're actually looking at pursuing eCommerce-only innovation. We've increased headcount. And we have a general management, kind of, approach to eCommerce where we have kind of sales, marketing and operations working together because it is a different way to go to market..

Interesting. Thank you. And then on the topic of -- the primary mission has been about increasing household penetration, and your successes of course now being replicated to the best of their ability by others. But we're also going into a time where pricing is necessary maybe promotion mitigation is necessary while competition is also increasing.

So how are you thinking about just the dynamic between those two? Is it a little bit of a -- are we in the growth curve of the industry where it's a bit of a real estate grab? Or is this something that you feel like its okay to call the gist for a period of time, and deal with the input costs and worry about some of this other stuff later?.

Well, so last -- it's a great question. So last quarter I -- we came out and said that, we would rather not take price. We wanted to drive top-line. We felt like we would -- we were comfortable with the assumptions, the cost inflation assumptions that we had incorporated in our forecast to not take price.

However, we also said that if those assumptions prove to be too low, and the facts come up and they are higher than that, we would adjust our course. And that's what happened. Freight is, obviously, increasing as well as we saw some increase of dairy proteins. So we decided to take price at the back half.

We evaluated other areas like marketing et cetera. We just felt like given our household penetration and given our experience and our long-term goals of talking to more consumers and our marketing is working we didn't want to pull that back. So I still believe that even though we're taking price, we still will increase household penetration.

And we're going to be watching that closely..

Thank you..

Your next question comes from the line of John Baumgartner of Wells Fargo..

Good morning. Thanks for the question..

Good morning..

Maybe first off, Darcy.

Back on the promotion front for Premier, in terms of total activity for 2021, how are you balancing the degree of activity between straight price discounts for consumers relative to investments for in-store displays, or any push levers for the trade? And how does that balance differ relative to the past few years as the brand now grows penetration?.

So our philosophy -- and not really -- I wouldn't -- maybe it's not our philosophy. So from a promotion standpoint, a few years ago we used to only get TPRs from a trade perspective. Now because we have tested -- our brand is big enough.

We've proved the retailers that actually we bring in more households when we're on display and we have quality merch. We are only doing quality merch. So -- and that has made all the difference in the world from an effectiveness standpoint.

So we -- once -- hopefully you guys have seen this, but in the New Year New You, I mean, we had displays in most retailers and large displays, sometimes multiproduct displays. And so -- and that is really important for us because we bring so many people from outside the category, and that we need to get out of the aisle to get people's eyeballs.

And then once we do, we hold them, we get the repeat and we grow the category for the long-term. So I think that -- let me see if I answered your question about promotion and the split..

Yes, absolutely right on point there. And then, I guess a follow-up just to come back to Dymatize, given that your comments this morning seem, I guess, pretty bullish as the new ISO products go from drawing board into the market.

When you think about Premier exponentially surprising to the upside from the time it was acquired I guess back in 2013, how do you see the parallel evolving for Dymatize? I mean just given what you're sort of learning real-time about the brand and consumers.

Is there any reason why it couldn't evolve into a $500 million business over time? I mean are the ambitions sort of changing or growing to any extent there? Thank you..

Yes. We are very pleased with the momentum of Dymatize. I think what is encouraging is how it is taking in the mass. Not that long ago, this brand was a specialty-only product. And so, to have -- and the team has done a fantastic job of repositioning it and changing and moving the channels to make it much more balanced.

It's succeeding in eCommerce and again now mass. If I fast-forward five years, I still believe Premier is going to be our big brand. I expect us to have more brands than just Premier and Dymatize. But Premier will be the biggest brand just because it is the most mainstream brand.

And I've talked about how we actually kind of source volume or appeal to all of the different consumers. But Dymatize has a very solid place right for athletes in sports nutrition. It has a very clear consumer. And so, yes, I believe that it can be a much bigger brand, double the size that it is now eventually..

Well, I’m trying to spread the word out of Gold's Gym. So trying to do my part, for what its worth. Thank you for your time..

Thank you..

Your next question comes from the line of David Palmer of Evercore ISI..

Thanks. Good morning. The question -- just a bit of a follow-up to Rob's question about retailers giving more merchandising and shelf at the expense of bars, and obviously that's a retailer decision. I guess there's consumer ones behind that.

And I guess there is a thought that this is a convenience play that bars are on-the-go-type products and maybe the shakes are not as much and this is a temporary thing. And as mobility returns it gets better for bars. That could be one narrative.

But I suspect that's simplistic and there are other consumer needs demands that are at play here, that -- because ready-to-drink beverage is pretty convenient too.

So, could you just talk about that what you're seeing in terms of the interplay? And is it really one cannibalizing the other in your view?.

They really have different occasions. So I mean, if you think of -- shakes are for the most part 60% consumed in the morning. They're more likely to be used as a meal -- a healthy meal replacement. Bars are much more snacking-oriented and they're much more on-the-go.

I think what -- there are a lot of consumer trends and macro trends that are fueling the RTD and the liquid side of things as well as the powder side of things that are tailwinds to bars, but not quite as much. And those are all around general health immunity.

If you think of -- so most RTDs have a vitamin and mineral blend, those are very important to consumers. And so that -- when you're talking about people are trying to increase their immunity, et cetera, that becomes the work. As we go more into kind of proactive health those naturally fall within RTDs.

And I think you're going to start seeing a bigger divide between RTDs and powders and bars which have made their way much more into snacking..

Got it. Thank you. And just a question on marketing and the message both how you market and what messages you're going to play on. And I'm wondering about the buzz creation type of stuff and how much of it is what you're trying to do in social media.

I wonder for example did you have something to do with the users combining Premier Protein with Starbucks Coffee, so that protein/coffee buzz that we saw out there over the last quarter or so? And what you're doing from a digital messaging standpoint the things you're pushing on from a message standpoint? Thanks..

Yes. We love the Proffee. So what is -- so I don't know exciting about Premier is our consumers create the content. We don't ask them to. They just do it because there is so much excitement and love for this brand. What we do is once they create it we fuel it. And we then kind of jump on it and give it more legs.

Changes to strategies from an advertising standpoint, it's more tweaking than anything else. We have TV, we have digital and social media. We are adding more dollars and more time to the budget. We're talking to more people. So we are adding consumers with different types of messages.

The beauty of obviously digital and social is that you can change the message slightly depending on who the audience is. We updated creative. I said this in my prepared remarks is, it's all been about our devoted fans really telling other people authentically why they consume the product.

But now we're complementing those with what we're calling -- we call the first one's testimonials. We call that second one's tastemonials, which is really all about taste and hitting that how amazing our consumers believe the taste is and showing it in visuals.

And then we're also supporting some of our new products with national media, which we've never done before. So those are some of the changes within our strategy and kind of how we amplify the buzz that already happened from our consumers. .

Thank you..

Thanks..

Your next question comes from the line of Bryan Spillane of Bank of America. .

Hey. Good morning. Just two quick ones for me. One is, I know you talked a lot about kind of where the first quarter landed versus expectations and cadence for the year. But I think I might have missed or I'm not sure, if I might have missed this.

But just where is consumption tracked relative to what your expectations were and especially around Premier and given just the elevation and activity you've had -- merchandising activity you've had? Has that run ahead of what your expectations were?.

Consumption is pretty consistent with our expectation. I would say with one small change is we did -- and I think I mentioned this, maybe in some of the follow-up to the last quarter is, we did see a small increase in November in some club stores when some of the additional lockdowns happened in several of the states almost like a mini-panic buy.

What was interesting about it is, it appears to not -- people bought more, but yet -- but then they consumed more in the quarter. So it didn't affect our -- it didn't -- we didn't see the decrease that we saw in last March. So that was the only thing that was surprising from a consumption standpoint. It's just a little bit of a panic buy in November. .

Okay. Great. Thanks.

And then just related to the price increase, should we factor in anything for customers maybe buying ahead of that price increase? So when it's effective -- so I guess trying to understand just whether or not there will be any other disconnects between shipments and consumption just consumption related to the price increase?.

Yes. We don't -- that's going to happen. That will happen somewhat. We do monitor that. And if people -- if retailers put in three times the orders than normal we will act on that and try to bring it down. So I wouldn't necessarily model in a massive increase. I think that we have control over that. We did not have that happen two years ago.

And so I think we have a process in place to address that. .

Terrific. Okay. Thank you..

Thank you..

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the allotted time for questions and answers. We thank you for participating in BellRing Brands' First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. You may now disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day..