Earnings Labs

Campbell Soup Company (CPB)

Q2 2011 Earnings Call· Fri, Feb 18, 2011

$20.61

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Campbell Soup Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2011 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Jennifer Driscoll, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please begin.

Jennifer Driscoll

Analyst

Thank you, Mary. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Campbell Soup Company's second quarter earnings webcast. With me here in New Jersey today are Doug Conant, our President and CEO; Denise Morrison, our Chief Operating Officer; Craig Owens, Senior Vice President, CFO and Chief Administrative Officer; and Anthony DiSilvestro, Senior Vice President of Finance. Doug and Craig today will provide the perspective on the performance for the quarter as well as our expectations for the full fiscal year of 2011. Following their remarks, all of us will take questions from analysts and investors. As usual we've created slides to accompany our presentation. You'll find the slides posted on our website this morning at investor.campbellsoupcompany.com. Please keep in mind that this call is open to members of the media who are participating in listen-only mode. As a reminder, our presentation today, Slide 3, include certain forward-looking statements that reflect the company's current expectations about future plans and performance. These forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions and estimates, which could be inaccurate and which inherently are subject to risks. Please refer to that slide in the presentation or to the company's most recent Form 10-K and subsequent SEC filings for a list of the factors that could cause our actual results to vary materially from those anticipated in any forward-looking statements. I'd like to remind you as well that our presentation contains certain non-GAAP measures as defined by SEC rules. In an appendix to our slides, we've provided a reconciliation of those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. The slides as well our earnings release and selected quarterly financial data can be found on our website. Last, we'd like to remind you that we're hosting a presentation and luncheon featuring Campbell products at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York event next week. Our presentation begins promptly at 10:30, Eastern Standard Time, on Wednesday, February 23. We hope you will join us either via webcast or better yet live in Boca Raton. And with that, I give you our President and CEO, Doug Conant.

Douglas Conant

Analyst

Good morning. This morning we reported earnings per share of $0.71, a 4% decline. For the first half, we delivered earnings per share of $1.53, a 5% decline. Sales declined 1% for the quarter and the first half. Our results for the first half, combined with a more muted outlook for the balance of the year, gave rise to the change in annual guidance that we provided in this morning's news release. Today, I'll be focusing my remarks on our largest segment, U.S. Soup, Sauces and Beverages. That having been said, as Craig will highlight later, I would point out that year-to-date, our other three segments all reported operating income growth. In the second quarter, similar to the first, we continued to protect our U.S. Soup consumer base by maintaining a strong advertising and promotional profile in the face of a very challenging environment. As a result, in measured retail channels, wet soup consumer takeaway volume growth rose meaningfully, outpacing the average gains in other Simple Meals during the period. However, also similar to the first quarter, our increased promotions in the second quarter were costly as we strive to maintain our competitive profile and honored our customer commitments. This promotional spending pressured our gross margin rate, again similar to the first quarter, and negatively impacted our EBIT performance. Before I turn to the second half outlook, let me comment briefly on our Sauces brands, Prego Pasta Sauce and Pace Mexican sauce. Prego and Pace are large, profitable brands for us. For many years, they have been profitable growth engines as well. More recently, private label and value brands have made inroads in Sauces. As a result, our Sauces performance in the second quarter was highly pressured. We expect intense competitive pressures in U.S. Soup, Sauces and Beverages to remain…

B. Owens

Analyst

Thanks, Doug. Good morning, everyone. I'll spend a few minutes walking through the second quarter results and the segment highlights followed by our year-to-date results, and I'll conclude by addressing our revised full year earnings guidance, which is provided in our news release this morning. For the quarter, we reported net sales of $2.127 billion down 1% versus the second quarter of 2010. Excluding the favorable impact of currency translation, organic net sales decreased by 2%. As anticipated, we maintained a high level of promotional spending through the second quarter, which has negatively impacted the sales performance of our U.S. Soup, Sauces and Beverages segment. As Doug noted, we achieved good sales growth in our Baking and Snacking segment. Primarily as a result of the margin impact of higher promotional spending, EBIT declined by 8% in the quarter to $359 million. EPS was $0.71 in the quarter, down 4% as compared with the second quarter of 2010. Our reported net sales decline of 1% was composed of a two point decline in organic sales, partly offset by a one point gain from currency translation, as both the Australian and Canadian dollars have strengthened. As you can see from Chart 9, our increased promotional spending drove a two point decline in sales accounting for the overall decline in organic sales, as volume mix and pricing were comparable to a year ago. Due to the elevated promotional spending in the quarter, our gross margin percentage declined from 40.5% to 39.4%, a decrease of 110 basis points. Marketing and selling expenses declined from $301 million to $291 million this quarter, reflecting reduced levels of advertising and lower selling expenses. The latter is due to cost savings initiatives. Advertising expense in U.S. Soup and Sauces declined, partially offset by increases in beverages and Pepperidge…

Jennifer Driscoll

Analyst

Thanks, Craig. At this time, we will conduct the Q&A session. We'd like to request that our callers limit themselves to a single question yet stay on the line in case clarifications are needed. This way, we hope to respond to more callers. Mary, can you give us our first question?

Operator

Operator

Our first question comes from Eric Katzman from Deutsche Bank.

Eric Katzman - Deutsche Bank AG

Analyst

I guess my question has to do with the difference between the soup shipments versus the consumer off-take. And I guess, Doug, maybe you could just kind of walk us through as the quarter kind of progressed, because I thought that -- I don't know, I guess, we never want to talk too much about weather, but I would have thought with the weather being the way it is, that retailers maybe would have, if anything, stocked more soup, not kind of cut back on the number of -- the amount that they had. So maybe if you could just bore through that.

B. Owens

Analyst

Eric, maybe I'll jump in there, and then if Doug or Denise have anything to add. I think the first thing to recognize is that we started into this period a pretty heavy promotional discounting in the third quarter of last year. And consequently, we had fairly strong shipment levels and a certain amount of inventory build coming into this quarter. Secondly, I guess I would acknowledge that, as you're well aware, it's hard to read with great precision movements in inventory inside all of the channels, some of which are unmeasured at the store level and at the pantry level. So we're very encouraged that the takeaway was as good as it was in the quarter. I don't feel like we lost any sales because of what was going on with respect to inventory levels. But clearly, as you look across the first half of the year, the promotional activity has not -- we haven't gotten the kind of lifts that would have paid for the kind of promotional activity that we've done across the first half of the year.

Douglas Conant

Analyst

Just building on it, we do have the volume growing again, which was essential. We wanted to protect our consumer base. As you recall a year ago, we were losing some of our base to other Simple Meals. And we said we have to protect that with the consumer, and we have, but in the deep promotional environment that we're in, not just in Soup but in the broader Simple Meals arena, retailer inventories are getting increasingly difficult to measure and manage. We have visibility to pieces of those inventories but not to the full range of outlets and channels. So I feel good about the direction. But clearly, we had some inventory that got worked off.

Eric Katzman - Deutsche Bank AG

Analyst

And then just as a quick follow-up, just any thoughts on do you think the pretty bad winter so far helped some of that consumption? And is that maybe what's giving you a little bit more confidence in the second half to pull back on the promotion and just kind of let advertising do the work?

Douglas Conant

Analyst

Just a few thoughts on that. Historically, at least the 10 years I've been here, we sort of naturally pull back from price promotion as we go into the spring and summer, so this is a very natural cycle here. We also have visibility into the performance of our advertising campaign, which is the best performing campaign that I've seen since I've been here in terms of consumer response. So given that we naturally pull back anyway and that we've seen positive encouraging response to the advertising, I think it's a natural thing for us to do, but Denise may want to expand on that one.

Denise Morrison

Analyst

I think that going into the second half of this year, we have the opportunity to better balance our price promotion with our brand building now that we have a stronger campaign.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Terry Bivens from JPMorgan. Terry Bivens - JP Morgan Chase & Co: Doug, here's a question for you. All of our data seems to indicate that you guys really throttled back on promotion during the month of January, which I found a bit surprising. Is that consistent with the actual strategy? And if it is, what would be the thinking there during that single month?

Douglas Conant

Analyst

Terry, we didn't really -- I won't get into a discussion on month-to-month promotional planning. But I would say we, broadly speaking across-the-board with all of our major customers, we maintained our promotional presence through the entire quarter. What I will acknowledge is that other branded competitors, one in particular, was very aggressive again in January and may have attracted more of the promotional attention in that month. But, Denise, I may be wrong but I think we maintained a pretty solid profile, and we maintained our advertising presence throughout.

Denise Morrison

Analyst

Exactly. Terry Bivens - JP Morgan Chase & Co: And just to follow to that, I guess the big question is how much of a threat is this competitor you just mentioned to the more rational strategy in the second half? I mean if they really hit the pedal on promotions, doesn't that really compromise the strategy, or how are you looking at that?

Douglas Conant

Analyst

Historically, the category has not been particularly promotionally sensitive when we get into the spring and summer. The retailers aren't particularly interested in running hot deals on soup in April. So typically -- and the consumer is not particularly looking for hot deals on soup in April. So I personally believe we're going to -- the more balanced approach that Denise is taking and that she just spoke about makes sense, and we can weather the storm here. We have good brands to compete in the space. We have good advertising against it. We will offer very good price value still relative to other Simple Meals. And as we've highlighted in the past, oftentimes depending on -- in most periods, we have more interaction with other Simple Meals than we do with the branded competitors in Soup. And I think in that broader arena, we'll be sufficiently competitive. Denise, would you?

Denise Morrison

Analyst

Terry, I think going forward, we know that when we have competitive price value and we have great advertising and brand building, that's when we grow profitably. And I think, although I was very happy with the consumer takeaway in volume for the quarter, it came a high cost. And therefore, we need to make sure that we are growing our earnings as well as our net sales.

Douglas Conant

Analyst

Episodically, we have experience. When we hit stride with sufficient innovation, sufficient brand building activity, balanced with responsible trade promotion, we know we can make this proposition work. We just have to do it with greater consistency.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Chris Growe from Stifel, Nicolaus. Christopher Growe - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: I want to ask about -- to look at this quarter, not only do I see a lot of advertising on TV, but I know you've been keeping it pretty heavy on advertising. It was down in the quarter according to I think the numbers Craig mentioned. Is that just a matter of timing? We're going to keep kind of the foot on the pedal for the second half of the year and move towards more advertising. Can you talk about that please?

Douglas Conant

Analyst

The GRPs were down, I think, modestly, but we're talking about still very high levels of advertising and we believe that at a threshold level. And we are committed to maintaining that as we've indicated. But Denise, do you want to expand on it?

Denise Morrison

Analyst

Chris, a couple of things. First of all, we maintained a very high level of advertising. We actually had a different mix of 30s and 15s, which impacted our GRPs. But our anthem campaign, which was our a 30-second was very, very productive. So that was one of the changes we made, and we will continue advertising heavily into the third quarter. Christopher Growe - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: And I just want to be clear on kind of a comment you made earlier on Simple Meals. And I guess that's obviously been a challenge for the Soup category. And you got more promotional and more aggressive clearly in this quarter from a takeaway standpoint, did well versus other Simple Meals. But obviously, the cost was very high to get there. So what I'm trying to understand is that a sustainable strategy, is this what it takes to be competitive against Simple Meals is simply to be more promotional, more price promotional?

Denise Morrison

Analyst

Chris, I think the best way to describe this is that starting in the first quarter this year, we did have an observation of a larger amount of switching between Soup and other Simple Meals. And because the advertising campaign was new and it took time to gain traction, the lever that we had to use was to get more competitive on our price promotion. We were successful in getting that switching behavior back to what we call normal levels. Meanwhile, the advertising is starting to get traction, so we believe we have a much more balanced marketing mix to work with going from the second half of this year forward.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from David Driscoll from Citi Investments.

David Driscoll - Citigroup Inc

Analyst

Can you comment on shelf space in the Soup category? Are you holding shelf space? Is it declining? How do we kind of -- the one thing that I still find that investors ask all the time is, is just kind of fundamentally why this category doesn't seem to be doing better? And back to Eric's question, it was such a tremendously cold winter. I know you're saying that the FDN data looked okay but the shipment data, down. It just feels hard to explain. So talk about shelf space and then talk about just big picture about the category trends.

Denise Morrison

Analyst

David, we have not seen changes in shelf space for the Soup category. And we watch this, as you know, very, very closely. I mean to-date since we started our fiscal year, we've put in over 20,000 new upgraded iQ MAximizers across the retail landscape. So we've been working very closely with retailers in the category on shelf space. So it's competitive out there, and it's one thing we continue to watch. But to-date, we haven't seen any movement in that.

David Driscoll - Citigroup Inc

Analyst

And in all the dollar stores when they're expanding their footprint at the expense of the traditional retailers, there's nothing negative with that fundamental change at retail. Is that a true statement?

Douglas Conant

Analyst

We have a presence in those dollar stores, and we're committed to getting our fair share of that presence. So we have products that can plan that space. And in the fullness of time, we think that's a very manageable proposition.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Alexia Howard from Sanford Bernstein.

Alexia Howard - Bernstein Research

Analyst

Can I ask about the beverage category? It seems as though it slowed down quite a bit in sales growth trends this time. In particular, I think you had the tea version of V8 that was being moved. How is the distribution trends on that? Is that going as expected? Or is there other dynamics in that beverage segment that are causing some challenges?

Denise Morrison

Analyst

I mean the beverage business has always been very competitive. And we're very proud of the fact that V8 has been outperforming the shelf-stable juice category for quite sometime now. I would say that we continue to invest in V8. Splash and V-Fusion did very well this past quarter. We were a little bit lower on V8 Red. And I would just say that we continue to be very, very optimistic about our ability to compete with beverages.

Douglas Conant

Analyst

And for the half, it's been solid. When there is a significant pressure on food budget, people, we have observed, are willing to trade out of the category and go to water and other more value-oriented items. But on balance, we feel very good about our presence here and our growth prospects.

Denise Morrison

Analyst

Our volume full year-to-date on consumer takeaway is up 6.6%. So we're really happy with that.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Andrew Lazar from Barclays Capital.

Andrew Lazar - Barclays Capital

Analyst

Denise, a couple of weeks ago, I guess there were some pretty high level management shifts that were made at Campbell, I think, a new Head of Sales, a new Head of U.S. Soup and some others. And even I know, it's very early to sort of get your strategic outlook and plan. I was wondering if perhaps you can share bit about maybe what skill set you were looking for in some of those key people, maybe what objectives you had in mind when you were making those sort of what seem like pretty key personnel decisions going forward.

Denise Morrison

Analyst

That organization shift had been planned for quite some time, Andrew. And what we're doing is we are setting up the North America Soup, Sauce and Beverage unit to create better focus and to jump-start innovation, and I'll talk more about this at CAGNY. But those leadership changes and the structures were designed on purpose to do that.

Douglas Conant

Analyst

And just to build on it, as part of the what we call our ORP process, we've been developing those two leaders for roles like these for the better part of six or seven years. So this is a natural evolution of the thinking but tailored to address the issues of the day, and issues that Denise has highlighted as being most critical to moving forward.

Andrew Lazar - Barclays Capital

Analyst

I mean I know that they come highly regarded, both internally and externally, and I guess from Pepperidge. So I was trying to get a sense of just what is that -- I'm trying obviously to get a little bit more insight into where you're headed going forward obviously and how those folks add to that but we'll get more into that at CAGNY as well.

Denise Morrison

Analyst

The good part about Campbell, Andrew, is that we do have some great bench strengths, and these are great leaders that are coming into these positions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Ed Aaron from RBC Capital Markets.

Edward Aaron - RBC Capital Markets, LLC

Analyst

I wanted to talk just a little bit more about your expectations for managing pricing back up in Soup. It's just, I guess, a little bit hard to have full confidence given some of the recent trends there. And I was wondering if you have similar plans and equal conviction in your ability to -- equal confidence in your ability to manage Condensed and Ready to Serve, or do you view those categories or those segments as somewhat different from each other as you think about the next few quarters?

Denise Morrison

Analyst

I think there is an interaction with Condensed "eating" and some of the RTS brands. And particularly with the price discounting that we had in the marketplace, the value proposition of Condensed became less apparent to the consumer. Going forward, as we realize our pricing, I believe that, that will be restored and Condensed will have a much better second half.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from David Palmer from UBS.

David Palmer - UBS Investment Bank

Analyst

Doug and Denise, I think someone mentioned the positive response for the new ad campaign in the Q&A. Is there any details you could share about from a normal to consumer-level research perspective, how are perceptions and/or behavior perhaps changing this year with regard to Soup? Are there certain demographic groups that are cutting back or coming back to Soup versus other categories? Any insights would be helpful.

Denise Morrison

Analyst

We still consider it early days, but the consumer response to the campaign has been really positive. And we've had certain executions because this is a portfolio campaign and there's sub-branded advertising within it. We've had certain executions that have performed better than others, and we continue to learn and improve it. But this is some of the best advertising we've had on air in our recent past, so we're very, very encouraged by that.

Douglas Conant

Analyst

It is the first time that we've had an umbrella campaign across the entire line. So we're pioneering new ground here for the company, the first time in almost 20 years that we've done it this way. So we have expected that it would take a little time. The response, in particular to the Anthem spots that Denise mentioned, has been exceptionally good in research and then in qualitative tracking following the launch. We've also had good response to some of our condensed cooking executions and our Chunky execution that we were concerned about because we were migrating from a brand building Chunky NFL perspective into this broader spot. But our Chunky business has held up very well through all of this activity.

Denise Morrison

Analyst

And our Healthy Request business has also been off the charts.

Douglas Conant

Analyst

As it relates to the advertising. So we have seen impact. Where we've been pressured has been when we have tremendous price gap pressure that is changing the promotional, the price points to a point where our condensed "eating" soups have been so pressured by Ready to Serve pricing. But on balance, we see it across the portfolio in a very positive way.

Denise Morrison

Analyst

And we think that we can strengthen the execution on condensed "eating", and we're working on that right now.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Judy Hong from Goldman Sachs.

Judy Hong - Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Analyst

Craig, you called out input cost inflation in fiscal '12, and I'm wondering if you can quantify or give some quantification to what you're expecting for cost inflation. Our math shows that you could be facing something like 6%. Are we in the ballpark, and then in relation to that sort of your ability to use prices to lever to offset that as opposed to maybe other levers that you can see in your P&L to manage through that inflation?

B. Owens

Analyst

We don't have an F '12 forecasted. We're a little early for that yet. As we look at this year, clearly the trend is up. We're going to finish the first half sort of flattish on ingredient and package and energy input inflation. And then in the second half, we would expect something more like about 3%. And as we look forward to '12, probably somewhat higher than 3%, but I don't have a number for you. So it clearly is in our thinking. Pepperidge Farm has already taken some pricing action because some of the earlier pressure has been, as you are well aware, on grains and so impacting that business. And we're very mindful of it as we look at our commercial policy around Soup in the back half of this year and coming into next year. But it's a little early for us given our cycle and given our pricing cycle to be forecasting that.

Judy Hong - Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Analyst

And just in terms of broadly speaking, any other levers that you feel that you may have kind of over the next six to 12 months in your ability to manage it through that inflation?

B. Owens

Analyst

Well, on the costs side, I mean one of the things that's helping us mitigate the impact as we move into it is the combination of our hedging program and our contractual arrangements with certain suppliers. I mean that's not -- those things don't offset long-term inflationary pressure, but they do give you some time to react and to manage your pricing in the marketplace against what you see coming as inflation. We also within cost of sales, not directly impacting input from ingredients, packaging and energy but within cost of sales, we continue to have a really strong and successful enabler program. We'll be at record levels, I think, again this year after having a strong year last year. So we're attacking other pieces of the cost base. We've talked publicly about a Soup common platform and some longer-range programs that we've got. But ever year, we're trying to fight back something like 3% or so of our total cost base with structural cost decreases. So those are the things on the input side. On the output side, of course, we've got within pricing, we've got the opportunity to manage at the list price level as well as manage promotional depth and frequency.

Douglas Conant

Analyst

Judy, also, I think it's still true at a very high level to think in terms of we believe we have the ability through pricing and productivity to manage our cost base. And it's beyond just Soup. It also applies to our other branded areas in Healthy Beverages and Baked Snacks, where we have good brands we can price to manage between pricing and productivity. Over time, we've demonstrated the ability to manage costs.

Denise Morrison

Analyst

We also have a very good discipline about our SG&A management.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Akshay Jagdale from KeyBanc.

Adam Josephson - KeyBanc

Analyst

This is Adam Josephson in for Akshay. I realize consumer takeaway was good in the quarter, but obviously the category continues to have its challenges. I just have two questions. Is it possible that some of the problems that the category is having are attributable to a generational shift and that younger people tend to eat less canned soup than their predecessors? Or is it possible that the trend toward healthier soups has been detrimental to the category because the soup doesn't taste as good as it did before?

Douglas Conant

Analyst

I'll turn it over to Denise in just a second and she's going to cover more on this when we get to CAGNY. But what I would say is those areas create great opportunity for us. And we believe we can do a better job particularly with millennials. And we believe we can continue to drive on the health and wellness front to grow the category faster. And we're going to cover that at CAGNY. But, Denise, do you want him a top line?

Denise Morrison

Analyst

I would say the best way to answer it is Campbell Soup is in 85% of all households. And we do have a very high index with millennials, although it's not as high as baby boomers, i.e. that's the opportunity for us. It's still pretty significant. The other question that you asked was about health and wellness and our Healthy Request soup was actually our best performing line this year. So we are hitting the mark on that accute need of heart health. So that's probably the best way I'd answer it, and I will provide more insight on that at CAGNY.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Robert Moskow from Crédit Suisse. Robert Moskow - Crédit Suisse AG: I was listening to the tone on the call today more than anything. And I got say, it's awfully positive. You've just lowered guidance for the back half of the year. And I would argue that the Soup plan for this year did not -- the Soup did not go according to plan. And I guess I'm just kind of wondering, Denise, as you think about strategic planning for fiscal '12, most people that I talk to think that there needs to be some kind of rebasing of margins or expectations. And the tone is so positive, it just doesn't seem like that's where you're headed right now, and maybe the rebasing today is all that's necessary. And that's fine. But I'm just kind of -- the performance to-date just hasn't really been very good. And I'm not quite sure how I can kind of get on board that things are going to get quickly better?

Denise Morrison

Analyst

First of all, I'm going to acknowledge what you said and that is that we believe we can do better in the Soup business. And that our performance as a result of the heavy price discounting that we engaged in did not give us the lifts that we had expected. And the volume gains that we had realized were not sufficient to drive profitable net sales. So I agree with you there, and I'm not happy about that. However, you know that I have a new team, and we are really focused on creating value over the long term. And we have an opportunity here to explore all of our options for doing so. So it's unclear at this point whether a rebase would be the right step for Campbell. But that said, we believe at this point that we have enough resources right now that we could just reallocate to fund our growth, including trade spending and some of the dollars that we had appropriated for sodium reduction in R&D. So this new team is looking with fresh eyes at everything.

Douglas Conant

Analyst

Just to build on it, for context, we've grown EPS every year for nine years. We've grown EPS 10% over the last five years. We have a flattish performance in a very tough year, and we know what we need to do better. We're focused on it. We have spending as a percent of sales at record high level. So we have some resources there, and we've just got to find a way to manage things smartly. And then I would emphasize that every year, we go through a strategic planning process with our board where we look at all of our options. Denise and her new team are doing that right now. And I think she'll be in a position, with a much more informed and complete look, to cover that when she gets to our July Analyst Meeting. So I think in the meantime we have plenty to do and we're on it. So I think this is just a natural evolution of the business, and we've got to work through it. But three of our four segments are growing earnings. We have an issue here in the U.S. and we're on it. Robert Moskow - Crédit Suisse AG: I don't think Soup is the next buggy whip. You've done a lot for the category over the years, Doug. I think that the category can grow.

Douglas Conant

Analyst

Rob, I do too, but we can and will do better. We can do better.

Denise Morrison

Analyst

We can.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Bryan Spillane from Bank of America.

Bryan Spillane - BofA Merrill Lynch

Analyst

Just a quick question on costs. Craig, if we look at G&A or cost control in G&A, I guess, in the back half of the year, how much is there a benefit running through your G&A line for lower compensation expenses?

B. Owens

Analyst

Well, we've seen lower compensation expenses in the first half. And I think you would see that continue as a trend into the second half. There are also some -- if you'll recall in the second half last year, we also had a recall on SpaghettiOs, which is another item that will help us in terms of comparisons second half versus first half.

Bryan Spillane - BofA Merrill Lynch

Analyst

And can you quantify like how much are you expecting lower compensation expense to benefit the full year?

B. Owens

Analyst

Most of the benefit, frankly, is coming from lower incentive compensation, which would take -- if you look at the first half, we're on the track that we think is appropriate for the full year.

Bryan Spillane - BofA Merrill Lynch

Analyst

So how much has it been for the first half then?

Denise Morrison

Analyst

We're not going to provide that level of detail.

Bryan Spillane - BofA Merrill Lynch

Analyst

Well then, if we're modeling the second half, should we factor in a higher compensation expense for next year? I'm just trying to get a sense for -- is G&A going to be artificially or abnormally low this year because your missed your plan? And do we have to put that back in for next year? Some help on just how to think about that would be helpful.

B. Owens

Analyst

So clearly, as we look at next year, we would anticipate higher incentive compensation. But as Denise said, we've got a very disciplined process against total G&A. And we would look to be realizing efficiency opportunities in other areas.

Douglas Conant

Analyst

But just with respect to incentive compensation, yes, we'd look for a bigger year next year.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Eric Serotta from Wells Fargo.

Eric Serotta - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC

Analyst

It seems that over the past couple of quarters, your condensed cooking soups have been one of the bright spots in a clearly tough environment, particularly for U.S. Soup. This quarter in the press release, you commented that there were declines in both condensed cooking and "eating" varieties. Wondering whether you think something's fundamentally changed there? What the drivers have been behind that decline? And what your outlook is for the cooking portfolio?

Denise Morrison

Analyst

Eric, we're pretty happy with condensed cooking overall for the half. And one of the biggest events we have is our holiday season. And when we look at the total performance of this business throughout the holiday and some of those cases start shipping in October all the way through the end of the year, we're pleased pretty pleased with the momentum in cooking soups. And our broth, of course, has been stellar for both quarters. So we know the trends here are good. I mean consumers are cooking at home more. We've invested very heavily in campbellkitchen.com, which is providing recipes. So we still are very excited about the Campbell cooking soup line.

Douglas Conant

Analyst

Recognize, too, Eric, that in the quarter, the biggest divergence between positive consumer takeaway and shipment data was in the cooking soup category.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Priya Ohri-Gupta from Barclays Capital.

Priya Ohri-Gupta - Lehman

Analyst

Just a quick question. Can you talk about your plans to address the recent $700 million in debt that mature?

B. Owens

Analyst

I didn't catch the question.

Denise Morrison

Analyst

Could you repeat that, Priya?

Priya Ohri-Gupta - Lehman

Analyst

The $700 million in debt that came due I guess a few days ago. Can you just address your plans as to whether you look to refinance that into new long-term paper or just pay it down?

B. Owens

Analyst

We did a $400 million issue last July which in effect pre-funded some of that. We took advantage of the low rate environment. We have plenty of room within our commercial paper program that as the $700 million matured and rolled off, we rolled that balance into the commercial paper program. But I think it would be fair to say that we are looking for opportunities to, if you want to think about it this way, to term out the rest of it.

Jennifer Driscoll

Analyst

I guess with that, we are going to be closing our Q&A session. Thanks, everyone, for your participation in our second quarter earnings webcast. As a reminder, a replay will be available beginning in approximately two hours. If you are a reporter and have some questions, you would like to call Anthony Sanzio. His phone number is (856) 968-4390. Investors and analysts should call me, Jennifer Driscoll, at (856) 342-6081. This concludes today's program. You may now disconnect.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.