Earnings Labs

The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (SAM)

Q4 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 18, 2016

$236.08

-0.89%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q4 2015 The Boston Beer Company Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Mr. Jim Koch, Founder and Chairman. Sir, you may begin. C. James Koch - Founder & Chairman: Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome. This is Jim Koch, Founder and Chairman, and I'm pleased to be here to kick off the 2015 fourth quarter earnings call for The Boston Beer Company. Joining the call from Boston Beer are Martin Roper, our CEO; and Bill Urich, our CFO; and Frank Smalla, our Senior Vice President of Finance. I'll begin my remarks this afternoon with a few introductory comments, including some highlights of our results, and then hand over the microphone to Martin, who will provide an overview of our business. Martin will then turn the call over to Bill, who will focus on the financial details for the fourth quarter and the 2015 fiscal year, as well as the outlook for 2016. Immediately following Bill's comments, we'll open up the line for questions. Our depletions trends softened during the year, even as the better beer and craft categories appear healthy. We believe that we've lost share, as new craft brewers enter the market and more existing craft brewers are expanding their regional distribution, with the result that drinkers are seeing more choices, including a wave of new beers in all markets. We believe that craft beer will continue to grow and that we're well positioned to share in that growth and meet the challenge of the current environment, through the…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our first question comes from the line of Judy Hong of Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Judy E. Hong - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Thank you. Hi, everyone. Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hi, Judy. C. James Koch - Founder & Chairman: Hi, Judy. William F. Urich - Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer: Hey, Judy. Judy E. Hong - Goldman Sachs & Co.: So first just in terms of your depletion guidance for 2016, obviously, just given the fourth quarter softness and year-to-date trends and Angry Orchard lapping pretty tough comparison in the first part of the year, it seems like the mid single-digit depletion seems a little bit optimistic. So, can you talk about how much do you think the growth will come from some of the innovations, like the Nitro Project and the Rebel IPA versus the core Sam Adams and Angry Orchard stabilizing over the course of 2016? Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Sure. Judy, it's Martin. I think as we look at 2016, we knew the first part of 2016 was going to be tough because a lot of the innovation we have, like Nitro and Grapefruit on the Sam side, is just taking effect in Q1, and just launching. I think we're hopeful we can stabilize the Sam Adams trends and sort of reduce the rate of acceleration. We have I think a lot of excitement in our sales and wholesaler organizations around the new product launches that we have going on right now. I think the effect on Q1 will be relatively small just because of that startup, but it could obviously help us more later in the year and frankly the comparables get, later in…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Vivien Azer of Cowen & Company. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Vivien Azer - Cowen & Co. LLC: Hi. Good afternoon. Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hi, Vivien. C. James Koch - Founder & Chairman: Hi Vivien. Vivien Azer - Cowen & Co. LLC: So I also wanted to start on depletions with a question there. As we think about your preliminary guidance that you offered in late October, mid singles to high singles relative to what you are looking for today, can you help dimensionalize where the biggest kind of pressures were in terms of you guys narrowing guidance to the lower end of the range, please? Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah, I think our biggest sort of change in information from when we first prepared the initial range is just the weakness in the cider category and that probably – we obviously saw the category slowing in growth, but to go negative in fourth quarter was probably something that we had not planned for as a category. And I think we're in the early stages of fully understanding that. I think the cider category obviously exploded over four years from very small to 1% of beer. So still miniscule. And I certainly think that we're probably losing some casual cider drinkers, who tried it and maybe are moving on or are exploring other craft sort of opportunities or hard cider opportunities. I think our basic belief is as we have a strong brand with a very strong position in the category, and the category has some fundamental appealing elements to it, both in being made from apples and all natural and also gluten-free,…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Caroline Levy of CLSA. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Anthony Bartolacci - CLSA Americas LLC

Management

Hi, guys. This is Anthony Bartolacci filling in for Caroline. Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hey, Anthony. C. James Koch - Founder & Chairman: Hey, Anthony.

Anthony Bartolacci - CLSA Americas LLC

Management

I have a question about Boston Lager and the Seasonals. Can you talk a little bit about what actions you're taking to stabilize each franchise? And then with respect to Seasonals, is it something where the consumer appetite has just changed because of the explosive growth of different options in the marketplace or is there something unique to the Sam Seasonals that still makes them kind of a viable product, even with so many options out there? Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Sure. Well, I think their trends are somewhat linked to overall Sam Adams trends. So I'd put that as a starting point. And certainly overall brand messaging and brand relevancy for us is key. And so our focus is on developing the stories and the communication that will appeal to the current 23-year-old to 35-year-old craft beer drinker and making sure that that messaging is relevant. And our belief is, if the brand messaging is relevant, then the interest in the core styles of the brand, i.e. Boston Lager and Seasonals, will remain. I think your seasonal question is a fair one. We've certainly seen an increase in seasonal competition, and one element of the seasonal program is that newness every quarter or every season, and it's not quite on the quarters, but every season. And so now there is more new items, more new flavors than ever before. And so I think that's eating away at it a little bit. I also think wholesalers are a little overloaded with some seasonal programs from all the other suppliers, and their focus is on trying to get all the seasonals through their warehouses. And so if they've over-ordered or been over-shipped, that can crimp the seasonal execution. I think one of the core benefits…

Anthony Bartolacci - CLSA Americas LLC

Management

Okay. Great. That makes a lot of sense. And one other question on Nitro. Can you provide a little bit of an early read on shelf spacing for Nitro? Is it cannibalizing either base beer or Rebel, or is it incremental? And out of the three varieties, is there one that's a standout so far or one that you think might have more potential just because it appeals to a wider consumer base, or do you see all three kind of working in conjunction with each other? Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. I think, to your first question on incremental, it's really hard to know because in any regular set process there's some discontinuations, and we within our own Brewmaster's Collection, for instance, get some discontinuations. So not all of it is incremental. What I would say is we have been surprised and pleased with how many retailers have been excited by the program and opted for two or three of the styles. And so we feel very good about the retail acceptance of the program. Many of those sets are being cut in in March and April, so we haven't yet fully seen the benefit of that. We also were quite conservative in our supply chain planning, because we really didn't know and, because of the technology involved, we hadn't had the opportunity to fully test market it. And so I think right now there is some excitement, but we're probably supply constrained, which we're addressing. But I would caution that the impact on Q1 is likely to be pretty – I don't want to say immaterial, but in the context of the size of our business, it's not going to be a material change in our trends. But it certainly – it's changing the excitement behind the brand. And if those trends were to build, it might be material.

Anthony Bartolacci - CLSA Americas LLC

Management

Okay. Great. Thanks a lot, guys. Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: And then sorry, you asked about styles and...

Anthony Bartolacci - CLSA Americas LLC

Management

Yeah, yeah. Just.... Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: I would encourage you to try them, and so you can form your own opinion. We have the White Ale on draft that I think has been very well received. It's a very approachable white ale, Belgian ale, and the Nitro really changes how the beer presents to the mouth in a very pleasing way. On the can side, this seems to be a little – a lot of interest in the IPA, obviously the White Ale is perhaps the easiest and most approachable. So that seems to be doing well, but the Coffee Stout seems to have a little buzz online. And so at this point in time, I think we're successfully depleting what we're shipping, and it's hard to know because we're sort of shipping equal quantities of everything and we really have to wait for the actual pool to tell us which one is selling better.

Anthony Bartolacci - CLSA Americas LLC

Management

Okay, that's great. And I have tried the White Ale and it is really good. I'm still on the lookout for the IPA and the Stout. Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. If we can use you as an endorsement, we'll put that up on our website.

Anthony Bartolacci - CLSA Americas LLC

Management

Okay. Sure. Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Doesn't sound like we have any questions.

Operator

Operator

And I'm showing no further questions at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This concludes today's program. You may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day. Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah, thanks. Before everyone disconnects, if you're still on, one I'd like to thank Bill publicly for his contribution to the company over 12 years. And just a little back of the napkin, I think this might be his 50th call. And I know you guys follow a lot of companies. I'm guessing there aren't many companies where you've dealt with a CFO for 50 calls. So we'd like to thank you for following our company too, because Bill can be difficult to deal with unless you have a beer in front of you. So grab a beer tonight and wish Bill good on his retirement. We're delighted to have Frank here. He's in the room, learning how Bill does this, and we're looking forward to many more successful quarters with Bill cheering us on from the side. So Bill, thank you. And thank you, everyone, for joining us. C. James Koch - Founder & Chairman: Thank you, Bill. Martin F. Roper - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you.