Lassonde Industries Inc. announces its Q1-2023 results

ROUGEMONT, QC, May 12, 2023

Financial Highlights:

		First quarters ended
(in millions of dollars, unless otherwise indicated)		April 1, 2023	April 2, ARIVA.DE Börsen-Geflüster 2022	∆
		$	$	$
Sales		547.3	509.0	38.3
Gross profit		136.6	135.6	1.0
Operating profit		26.2	22.4	3.8
Profit		17.6	15.0	2.6
Attributable to:
	Corporation's shareholders	17.1	14.8	2.3
	Non-controlling interest	0.5	0.2	0.3

EPS (in $)		2.51	2.14	0.37
Weighted average number of shares outstanding (in thousands)		6,822	6,924	(102)
Adjusted EBITDA¹		43.1	39.7	3.4
Adjusted EPS¹(in $)		2.48	2.37	0.11

Note: These are financial highlights only. Management's Discussion and Analysis, the unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and notes thereto for the quarter ended April 1, 2023 are available on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com and on the Corporation's website.

"Lassonde Industries enjoyed a strong performance during the first quarter and we will continue to invest in our operations to become a more efficient organization. We are confident that progress on our multi-year strategy will continue through the remainder of 2023, with more significant benefits to be achieved in 2024. Over the next few quarters, we will maintain focus on macro-economic conditions to ensure we are responding to the needs of our customers and consumer trends as we execute our multi-year strategy to drive long-term value," said Nathalie Lassonde, Chief Executive Officer and Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Lassonde Industries Inc.

"Each of our divisions delivered solid performance in the quarter, with our U.S. business demonstrating increased tangible benefits from project Eagle. Sales increased as our price adjustments and an optimized sales mix more than offset a volume contraction, which partially resulted from actions taken to rationalize our product portfolio. Additionally, through Project Eagle, we are seeing improved efficiencies in our U.S. facilities and lower transportation costs realized in part through the implementation of a new transportation management system," added Vince Timpano, President and Chief Operating Officer of Lassonde Industries Inc.

First Quarter Highlights:

Sales of $547.3 million. Excluding a $19.5 million favourable foreign exchange impact, sales were up $18.8 million (3.7%) from the same quarter last year, mainly due to selling price adjustments and to a favourable change in the sales mix of U.S. private label products, partly offset by a decrease in sales volume, mainly in the U.S.
Gross profit of $136.6 million (25.0% of sales), up $1.0 million from the same quarter in 2022. Excluding a $2.4 million favourable foreign exchange impact, gross profit was down $1.4 million from the same quarter last year;

Higher cost for all inputs, especially apple and orange concentrates; and
Increase in the Corporation's conversion costs.

Operating profit of $26.2 million, up $3.8 million from the same quarter last year;

$10.3 million decrease in transportation costs incurred to deliver products to clients, resulting from decreases in fuel surcharges and in base transportation rates and from savings related to the use of the new transportation management system in the U.S.;
$2.9 million unfavourable foreign exchange impact that affected the conversion of the selling and administrative expenses of the U.S. entities into Canadian dollars;
Increase of certain administrative expenses;
Higher selling and marketing expenses; and
$1.3 million decrease in expenses related to the multi-year strategy (the "Strategy").

Excluding items impacting comparability, adjusted EBITDA¹ was $43.1 million, up $3.4 million from the same quarter last year.
Profit attributable to the Corporation's shareholders of $17.1 million, resulting in basic and diluted earnings per share ("EPS") of $2.51, up $2.3 million and $0.37, respectively, from the same quarter in 2022. Excluding items impacting comparability, adjusted EPS¹ was $2.48 compared to $2.37 in the same quarter last year.
As at April 1, 2023, long-term debt, including the current portion, stood at $268.4 million, representing a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio¹ of 1.67:1.
Dividend of $0.70 per share, paid on March 15, 2023.

Multi-Year Strategy

To provide clarity and orientation on the opportunities to pursue and to optimize capital allocation decisions, in early 2022, the Corporation developed a multi-year strategy. This Strategy aims to accelerate revenue growth, improve overall profitability, and drive long-term value by focusing on three strategic pillars.

Building a growth-oriented portfolio;
Driving sustainable performance; and
Improving capacity to act.

Associated Incremental Operating Expenses

During fiscal 2022, the Corporation began its strategic review, completed the diagnostic step of Project Eagle, invested in a project to optimize the current capacity of its specialty food division, and began implementing new cloud-based management systems, including demand planning and transportation management systems. During the first quarter of 2023, the Corporation has mainly continued its implementation of new cloud-based management systems and made various investments in support of the three pillars of its Strategy. The Corporation reported expenses of $11.0 million in fiscal 2022 and additional expenses of $1.1 million in the first quarter of 2023.

Associated Capital Expenditures

The Corporation is dedicating capital expenditures aligned with its Strategy to support growth, enhance productivity, and invest in innovation and sustainable development. These investments included two projects in 2022 to improve production efficiency and capacity in Canada with a third project authorized in the first quarter of 2023, continuing to upgrade the enterprise resource planning ("ERP") software in Canada along with investments in the U.S. to improve production efficiency and to deploy a new single serve line in the Corporation's plant based in North Carolina.

Project Eagle

Launched in the second quarter of 2022, Project Eagle is a component of the Corporation's Strategy specifically aimed at revitalizing its underperforming U.S. operations, with the objective to capture growth, improve margins, and drive long-term sustainable performance. In addition to reviewing the U.S. operations' products and customers portfolio, Project Eagle also seeks to identify and address key issues hampering performance within its supply chain and manufacturing facilities, including product simplification, process realignment, employee training, and capital deployment.

After completing the diagnostic step of Project Eagle, the Corporation recently took important steps to reduce its stock keeping units ("SKU") complexity, harmonize packaging formats, consolidate formulas, and rationalize low-margin products and/or customers. The portfolio simplification should allow the Corporation to reduce execution complexity, which would limit downtime related to production changeovers and ultimately increase throughput. The Corporation also completed the first phase of the implementation of a cloud-based transportation management system. Early benefits from both initiatives began materializing in the first-quarter performance.

The capital designated in support of Project Eagle will be deployed in three areas: (1) updating existing equipment to limit unscheduled downtime; (2) increasing throughput on existing equipment; and (3) investing in new equipment in support of increased capacity in on-trend formats. While the equipment upgrades are expected to result in short-term disruptions, the Corporation expects they will be significantly outweighed by the medium- to long-term benefits.

Finally, some of the initiatives deployed under Project Eagle will ultimately benefit the rest of the organization; for instance the deployment of new transportation management and demand planning systems are first rolled out in the U.S. and then throughout the Corporation.

Outlook

Lassonde continues to expect the largest factors impacting its performance in fiscal 2023 will be the financial health of consumers, the inflationary environment, and the frequency and severity of supply chain disruptions. As a result, the Corporation is making the following forward-looking statements for fiscal 2023:

Sales growth rate

During the first quarter of 2023, the Corporation has taken additional pricing action on its branded and private label product offerings, including adjusting contracts with certain customers to recover cost increases it incurred. It expects the run rate effects of such pricing action to be felt during the balance of the year. The Corporation also expects further pricing action to be implemented over the course of 2023 as inflation persists.
For 2023, barring any significant external shocks and excluding foreign exchange impacts, Lassonde expects that its sales growth rate should be in the mid to high single-digit range, mainly driven by selling price adjustments. The Corporation is, however, closely monitoring the evolution of consumer food habits and demand elasticity in a context of price increases.

Productivity and service level

Labour and operational initiatives, together with fewer supply chain constraints, are expected to improve the Corporation's ability to supply demand and return to historical order fill rate levels, particularly in the U.S.

Key commodity and input costs

The Corporation has recently noticed some stabilization in the inflation trend of most of its input costs and is expecting this trend to continue until the end of fiscal 2023. However, the Corporation is still closely monitoring the price of orange concentrate since the price for this key commodity has been at an elevated level over the last 12 months, even reaching a new historical peak of US$2.86/lbs sol. in April 2023.
Given that a large portion of the raw material purchases made by Lassonde's Canadian operations are in U.S. dollars, a strengthening of this currency against the Canadian dollar could result in a higher cost for products sold in the Canadian market. Furthermore, the Corporation is expecting an unfavourable foreign exchange impact for 2023 when considering its hedged positions.

Expenses, including expenses related to the Strategy

The Corporation's performance-related salary expenses are expected to return to normal levels in 2023.
During 2023, Lassonde plans to continue deploying its Strategy, revitalizing its U.S. operations, and upgrading its technology infrastructures. It also plans to continue implementing new cloud-based demand planning and transportation management systems, the aim being to improve customer service and lower overall distribution costs. It also intends to explore the potential impact of upgrading its U.S. ERP. Spending in support of its Strategy is expected to reach up to $10.0 million in 2023.
Higher interest expense is anticipated given higher rates on floating rate debt as well as a higher average indebtedness level compared to 2022.

Effective tax rate

Effective tax rate should be about 26.5% for fiscal 2023.

Working capital

As supply chain challenges appear to be dissipating, the Corporation has revised its inventory accumulation strategy and, although noticing an increase at the end of the first quarter, it expects to progressively reduce its inventory levels. As a result, its Days Operating Working Capital¹ should trend towards the upper end of its historical levels (pre-COVID-19) during 2023 and within its historical range by the end of fiscal 2024. However, this strategy might be impacted by (i) opportunistic decisions to secure inventory ahead of potential additional price increases from suppliers, (ii) the objective of ensuring an adequate service level, or (iii) the identification of new potential supply chain disruptions.

Capital expenditures

The Corporation's overall capital expenditures program for 2023 is estimated to reach up to 4.5% of its sales as it continues to deploy capital in support of its Strategy. This estimate depends on the timing of disbursements for certain large capital projects and on the evolution of the macroeconomic environment. The Corporation expects to return this ratio to a range of 2.0% to 3.0% of its sales (including a maintenance component and a certain growth component) by 2025. The new capital assets will be financed, to the extent possible, using the Corporation's operating cash flows, although the Corporation may also turn to borrowing if interest rates and conditions prove advantageous.

The above forward-looking statements have been prepared using the following key assumptions: the currently observed geopolitical situation and macroeconomic trends, including employment, inflation, and interest rates; the strength of the U.S. dollar (compared to the Canadian dollar); the continuity of recently observed consumer behaviours and market trends for the Corporation's products; no material disruption to the Corporation's operations (including workforce availability) or to its supply chain; the effectiveness of the Corporation's selling price adjustment initiatives; the limited impact of the Corporation's selling price adjustment initiatives on product demand; the continuity of observed trends in the competitive environment and the effectiveness of the Corporation's strategy to position itself competitively in the markets in which it competes; limited additional cost increases from suppliers; adequate availability of key inputs; the continuity of recently observed normalized trends in the throughput capacity of key U.S. plants; expected lead time for new manufacturing equipment; and adequate contractor or consultant availability to progress the Corporation's capital expenditures. The Corporation cautions readers that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. It should be noted that some of these key assumptions, including those related to the geopolitical situation and macroeconomic trends, are volatile and rapidly evolving. In preparing its outlook, the Corporation made assumptions that do not consider extraordinary events or circumstances beyond its control. The Corporation believes the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. Refer to Section 2 – " Forward-Looking Statements" of the Corporation's MD&A for the first quarter ended April 1, 2023 for additional information.

Dividend

In accordance with the Corporation's dividend policy, the Board of Directors declared today a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share, payable on June 15, 2023 to all registered holders of Class A and Class B shares on May 25, 2023. This dividend is an eligible dividend.

Conference Call to Discuss First Quarter 2023 Financial Results

Open to: Investors, analysts, and all interested parties

DATE: Friday, May 12, 2023

TIME: 1:30 p.m. ET

CALL: 416-764-8658 (for Toronto and overseas participants)

1-888-886-7786 (for other North American participants)

A live audio broadcast of the conference call will be available on the Corporation's website, on the Investors page or here: https://www.gowebcasting.com/12535. A replay of the webcast will remain available at the same link until midnight, May 19, 2023.

Financial Measures Not in Accordance With IFRS

The financial measures or ratios, further described below, do not constitute standardized financial measures or ratios in accordance with the financial reporting framework used to prepare the Corporation's financial statements. These non-IFRS measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial measures prepared in accordance with IFRS. Comparing them to similar financial measures or ratios presented by other issuers may not be possible.

Items impacting the comparability between periods

The following table contains a list, description and quantification of items impacting the comparability of the financial performance between the periods:

First quarters ended

(in millions of dollars)

April 1, 2023

April 2, 2022

$

Costs related to the Strategy

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