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Constellation Brands, Inc. (STZ)

Q1 2025 Earnings Call· Wed, Jul 3, 2024

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Constellation Brands First Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Joseph Suarez, SVP of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Joseph Suarez

Analyst

Thank you, Daryl. Good morning, all, and welcome to Constellation Brands Q1 fiscal '25 conference call. I'm here this morning with Bill Newlands, our CEO; and Garth Hankinson, our CFO. As a reminder, reconciliations between the most directly comparable GAAP measure and any non-GAAP financial measures discussed on this call are included in our news release or otherwise available on the company's website at www.cbrands.com. Please refer to the news release and Constellation's SEC filings for risk factors, which may impact forward-looking statements made on this call. Following the call, we will also be making available in the Investors section of our company's website a series of slides with key highlights of the prepared remarks shared by Bill and Garth in today's call. Before turning the call over to Bill, in line with prior quarters, and as Daryl mentioned, I would like to ask that we limit everyone to one question per person which will help us to end our call on time. Thanks in advance and now here's Bill.

Bill Newlands

Analyst

Thanks, Joe, and welcome all to our Q1 fiscal '25 earnings call. I'm pleased to say that we got off to a solid start in Q1. And as usual, I'd like to start with a few key highlights for the quarter. First, we continued to extend our position as a growth leader within consumer packaged goods, achieving an enterprise dollar sales increase 4.5 percentage points above that of the entire CPG sector. Let me repeat that. We achieved an enterprise dollar sales increase 4.5 percentage points above that of the entire CPG sector per the Circana tracked channel data for the 12 weeks ended on their May 19 quad week. This significant outperformance was largely driven by the continued growth of our Beer business, which attained the second largest share gain in the total beverage industry, as well as once again the top share gain in all beverage alcohol. This is for the Circana 12 weeks ended June 2, which most closely aligns with our quarter. Second, continuing with our Beer business. We delivered another strong quarter with high-single digit net sales increase driven by our Beer portfolio's 57th consecutive quarter of depletion growth, as well as significant operating margin improvement supported by our cost savings and operational efficiency initiatives. And, of course, all of this was aligned with our full year guidance and our medium-term outlook for the business. Third, in-line with our disciplined and balanced capital allocation priorities, which we have consistently delivered against for more than five years now, in the first quarter of this fiscal year, we did several things. First, we maintained our strong investment grade balance sheet and still expect to achieve our target 3 times net leverage ratio in fiscal '25. Second, we returned $185 million to shareholders in dividends and executed $200…

Garth Hankinson

Analyst

Thank you, Bill, and good morning, everyone. As usual, my discussion of our Q1 fiscal '25 performance will focus mainly on our comparable Enterprise results accompanied by business segment details. Starting with our Enterprise net sales, we delivered top-line growth of 6% for the quarter, in line with our full year expectations and our medium-term outlook for our Investor Day targets. As anticipated, this strong growth was driven by our Beer business, which I will elaborate on shortly. For fiscal '25, we continue to expect Enterprise net sales to grow between 6% to 7%. Enterprise operating income increased 23% and 12% on a reported and comparable basis, respectively. This resulted in a 35.4% operating -- reported operating margin and a 180 basis point year-over-year increase in comparable operating margin to 34.7%. While we delivered very strong operating income growth in the first quarter, again driven by our Beer business, we continue to expect Enterprise comparable operating income growth of 8% to 10% for the full year. At an Enterprise level, we also remain on track to achieve our full year comparable EPS guidance of $13.50 to $13.80, having delivered comparable EPS of $3.57 for the first quarter. As a reminder, our full year comparable EPS guidance represents a 10% increase year-over-year using the mid-point of our range. Importantly, these comparable EPS results and expectations are also consistent with our medium-term annual low double-digit comparable EPS growth target we outlined at our Investor Day last November. Now, turning to the more detailed discussion of the underlying drivers of our Q1 performance. Starting with our Beer business, the segment is off to a great start in fiscal '25. Our Beer business grew depletion volumes by 6.4%, excluding the impact of last year's craft brand divestitures, which will be the basis of our…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Andrea Teixeira with JP Morgan. Please proceed with your question.

Andrea Teixeira

Analyst

Yeah. Hi, Good morning. So, Bill, Garth, you elaborated -- you commented on the continued momentum in beer and disciplined marketing efforts leading to sustainability of growth. I think, we are all hoping to hear from you a little bit of how you exit the quarter. Any June commentary so far given the state-of-the consumer, given all we are hearing from other companies and the economy in general? So if you can comment on that? And related to that, like I think we all hope that you are benefiting from all the shares and expansion in distribution? And if you can kind of tell us like a little bit of how you benefited from -- in the depletions that you just reported at 6.4%, how much you would say came from same shelf growth or how much was additional distribution? Thank you.

Bill Newlands

Analyst

Sure. Let me start with that. First of all, I think the important thing to always keep in mind is that our buy rates for our Beer business remain very strong. We saw high-single digit both at a consumer level and within the Hispanic community, with the Hispanic community being slightly higher than the total consumer. Now that doesn't mean there aren't some shift around in pack sizes and channels, but our buy rates remain extremely strong. And I think this is a consistent theme that we've said time -- frankly, time and time again, which is our Beer business has tremendous brand loyalty and therefore it continues to excel despite whatever might be going on with other beer companies or with other brands in the sector. As we noted, we had an unusually strong performance against all other CPG sectors and we're again the number one share gainer within beverage alcohol. To your point, I think the gains that we saw in shelf sets is certainly an additive factor in this. It also gives us plenty of chance to expand things like Oro, which we're very excited about for this fiscal year. So I think it's very difficult to put an exact number on the dimension of it. And I think you've seen, we've consistently delivered year after year after year on exactly what we said we would do and this quarter is no different.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Carlos Laboy with HSBC. Please proceed with your question.

Carlos Laboy

Analyst · HSBC. Please proceed with your question.

Yes. Hello, everyone. You've been able to sustain pretty good profit margins or pretty stable profit margins here remarkably well despite the Mexican peso having appreciated very strongly in recent years, but that seems to have turned this quarter. If you were to enter a period of pace of weakness, can you speak to the sort of flexibility that this might give you or that would enter into your pricing strategy? And look, just to be transparent, the reason I'm asking is because in the 80s and 90s, we went through periods of peso weakness and you were able to successfully close price gaps with mainstream beer and the dividends of that are still coming through today. So if you could just speak to how you're thinking about this, it would be helpful.

Bill Newlands

Analyst · HSBC. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah, Carlos. I think the results that you referenced are just an indication of how effective our hedging policies really are. We have a multi-year hedging policy which allows us to layer in incremental hedges over a multi-year period when we see moments of weakness, if you will. In Q1, we actually did see a couple of days there where there was some fairly significant movements, greater than 10%. And we took advantage of that movement with our treasury team again layering in incremental hedges, not just for this year, but also for future years as well. Just as a reminder, when we entered this fiscal year, we were about mid-70% range hedged against the peso. And as a result of these incremental hedges, we now sit at about 85% for the full-fiscal year. So again, it's a very robust practice, very methodical, disciplined and flexible approach and it certainly been paying dividends for us.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Dara Mohsenian with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Dara Mohsenian

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, good morning. So just to follow-up on Andrea's question in terms of macros and potential impact on the Beer business, can you unpack a little more maybe what you're seeing from low versus middle versus high-end consumers in terms of demand for your Beer business? And then also just any update on on-premise channel trends and what you're seeing throughout the course of fiscal Q1 and so far this summer, just in terms of if we're seeing any big channel shifts or any types of impact on that front? Thanks.

Bill Newlands

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Sure, Dara. Let's start with the second question first. The on-premise was slightly weaker than what we might have expected. Although as you saw, we had some significant gains within our franchises, particularly Modelo, which stepped up a position versus what we had in prior years. I think some of that relates to couple of things. One is, as many people have noted, the weather scenario that existed over the course of the early part of the spring/beginning of summer, while it wasn't great, which impacts the on-premise, much like it impacts the overall business. So I think that was a bit of a play. But as we are getting into the summer months, we expected this to show some resiliency. I'd reemphasize to your question about where the consumer is at various price points -- excuse me, income points. I think yet again, this goes right back to what I said in answer to her question, which is the brand loyalty that exists with our consumers is second to none. I mean, when you look at the Hispanic consumer, which is one we watch very closely given it's more than 50% of our overall mix, that consumer buy rate was up compared to the total consumer. Again, I think that speaks very strongly to the loyalty that we see within that consumer base, irrespective of income. That in particular is a long range benefit for our business and will continue to be a long range benefit to our business given that community in many respects views beer as a stable. So again, overall, we continue to be very pleased with our buy rates. And despite gives and takes during the course of the quarter, I think it's reflected in our depletion rate of 6.4%. It's a very strong quarterly result.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Filippo Falorni with Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Filippo Falorni

Analyst · Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Hey. Good morning, everyone. First, just a quick follow up on Andrea's question, if you can just provide any update on just what you're seeing exiting the quarter into June. And then a bigger picture question on innovation. Last year, obviously, you had Modelo Oro, which was pretty successful and you have some runway for this year. Can you talk a bit about this year's innovation including Corona Sunbrew and the Modelo Aguas Frescas expansion and anything else we should think about in terms of innovation contribution in beer. Thank you.

Bill Newlands

Analyst · Citi. Please proceed with your question.

You bet. And as we've said in other quarters, we're not going to give quarterly depletion guidance. But what I will say is we're very pleased with the status of the weather going into this particular quarter. And as we've always said, that's really a big factor in terms of the delivery of the business. And quite frankly, the forecast for tomorrow is terrific. So we're looking-forward to the July 4, being yet another event in a weekend and weekday in this case that we will win, much like we did on Memorial Day before it. So relative to the innovation agenda, we have expanded Modelo Aguas Frescas to 20 additional markets. As you may recall, it was test marketed last year in Las Vegas and was the number-one FMB in that particular market, had a very strong start and that variety pack is now in 20 additional markets, which covers roughly 70%, 75% of the total consumption expected for that product. So we're very excited to watch that one develop as the year goes on. Similarly, we are testing Corona Sunbrew in the Northeast just -- again just getting started and it's very early days, but we're very pleased with their response to it. And certainly, much of the consumer sampling that's been done around that product suggests that, that product is going to be a home-run for us with the consumer. So, again, both of those are too early days to really have any, what I would call, concrete results. But as we always do, those were only introduced after significant testing at a consumer level to make sure that we had the right product, the right package and the right pricing mix to give them a very high probability of success.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Lauren Lieberman with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.

Lauren Lieberman

Analyst · Barclays. Please proceed with your question.

Great. Thanks. Good morning. So the strong start to the year on profitability would seemingly create more flexibility to hit that 10% to 12% operating profit guide for Beer for the year. Particularly there's nothing too material from a timing perspective in the quarter. So kind of what do you see as the key variables that influence the high versus the low-end of that operating profit guidance range from here? Thanks.

Bill Newlands

Analyst · Barclays. Please proceed with your question.

Well, look, Lauren, we feel really good about the guidance we gave for the full-year. And obviously, we feel really good about the results that we reported today. As we gave guidance in April of this year, obviously we laid out that from a Beer perspective, we very much expected that our operating income growth would be in that 10% to 12% range and we certainly reiterated that today. That implying that our operating margins would be at about 38%. I think it's important to note that -- or 39%, I should say. I think it's important to note that we gave that guidance as it relates to the margin on an annual basis, not on a quarterly basis. So that means that we won't necessarily hit 39% or approximately 39% every quarter. Certainly, we expect that there's going to be the normal seasonality that we see every year, which means we have higher volumes in the first-half of the year and then lower volumes in the second-half of the year just due to regular seasonality, which resulted in a bit of a fixed overhead absorption drag as well as the second-half of the year is when we do most of our maintenance on our breweries. So therefore, the second half of the year will be lower from a margin perspective than the first half of the year. That being said as we've noted previously, we do expect that in Q4 that we will see some favorability on a year-over-year basis due to the lapping of the VAT write-off of last year.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nik Modi with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Nik Modi

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Bill, just more of a philosophical question. I mean, the sentiment on the beer category has been pretty poor for a while now. Obviously, investors see it, but the trade talks about it as well. And obviously, your business has been very disconnected from that. So I'm just curious like as you engage with your supply chain partners, distributors, retailers, what's the conversation look like? I mean, are they coming around the fact that maybe they can't index your business relative to the beer category anymore because there's a lot of moving pieces and cross consumption? It's really about occasions versus just some holistic category. I mean, I'm just curious like what that discussion looks like right now especially as you're in the middle of shelf resets and probably discussions for what's going on in the fall and even next year?

Bill Newlands

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

And I'll have to start, Nik, by giving a little tip of the cap to you because you pointed out what we think is a critical point, which is this is all about brands. The reason our brands have gotten double-digit increase in their shelf position during this period of time is because of the strength of those brands and the takeaway. As we've said on prior calls, our average SKU takeaway in dollars is five times the rate of our cheap competitors. So if you're a distributor or you're a retailer, you're going to put the emphasis on where you get growth and profitability and growth in takeout and strong velocities. And our brands represent that. That's why you see Pacifico with 20% growth and being the number four share gainer. That's why you see Modelo Especial now being the number one play in off-premise dollar volume. Our brands are very strong and they stand out distinctively from other brands in the category and I think you've made that note many times and we happen to agree fully with that. Lastly, I'd say, we continue to invest in our brands. Part of what we are doing is we believe there's still significant upside on the longer-term in terms of our brands and the investment that we put behind them. Despite Modelo being number one, there's still a lot of awareness opportunity and we're planning to go get it. We feel the same way about things like Oro and Aguas Frescas and Sunbrew. We're bringing new scenarios and new occasions to more consumers. I think that all speaks to the strength of our brands. And I think whether you speak to retail or whether you speak to distributors, they're all very excited about our prospects, not only today, but for the long-term.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bryan Spillane with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Bryan Spillane

Analyst · Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Hey. Thanks, operator. Good morning, guys.

Bill Newlands

Analyst · Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Good morning.

Bryan Spillane

Analyst · Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

I have just two questions. I guess the first one is just Garth or Bill. If you can just comment on Veracruz, I know you made a comment in the prepared remarks, but just how far along you are in the construction or do we have a foundation yet? Have we piped in water? Just some sense of kind of where you are and where that is relative to plan? And then I have a follow up.

Bill Newlands

Analyst · Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Well, Brian, I mean, as I said in my remarks, I mean we are well on our plan. We expect to open that brewery at the end of the next fiscal year, early in the fiscal year-after that. So we're well on our way. It is why our CapEx this year is at its peak. As a reminder, we shared with everybody at Investor Day that FY '25 would be our peak in terms of CapEx as that construction is kind of at full throttle. Importantly, our -- as this is our peak year of CapEx, we do expect that by the sort of end of our medium-term outlook, meaning FY '25, we'll go from CapEx kind of in the low double-digit range of net sales to mid-single-digit range of net sales. So just important for all of you to know and appreciate that. But as it relates specifically to Veracruz, we are on-track.

Bryan Spillane

Analyst · Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Okay, thanks. And then just a follow up on some of the earlier conversations. Bill, the stock is down today because I think there's a concern about the tough comparisons in beer, maybe a little bit of election concern because of how the stock reacted when Trump was elected in 2016. So could you just give us a first -- or a perspective on how you think about the comps? I mean, the comps were the comps when you set your plan. So it's not like they're a surprise. So if you can give us a perspective on that and whether or not people should actually even be worried about the election and who wins or loses relative to FTC? It's a different…

Bill Newlands

Analyst · Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah. Sure. I think it's always risky and we've talked to many, many times, Garth and I have about this topic about getting too excited about what happened tomorrow morning rather than looking at the longer-range picture. Year after year after year now, we've delivered against the goals that we set out and we're not varying from our expectation from this year in part because of very strong performance that we delivered in Q1. As Garth noted in his remarks, that doesn't mean there aren't times when it's a little better or a little worse or you have a little variability because you have less sell days or you have various things that go on. I think it's important to look at the bigger picture. Our brands continue to perform year after year and the runway for those brands remains extraordinarily strong. I think that's going to be a true statement no matter who's elected in November. Our brands are really focused on delivering against the consumer and that consumer is incredibly loyal, as I said just a few minutes ago. That makes a big difference irrespective of who happens to be the President of the U.S. So we're certainly -- I might add and we've said this before as well, our government affairs team works very closely, both in the United States and in Mexico on both a federal and a local level. And I think that capability is one that's also advantageous to us again irrespective of any particular party that might happen to be in office at any particular time.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Peter Grom with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Peter Grom

Analyst · UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Thanks, operator. Good morning, everyone. Hope you're doing well. So Garth, I was hoping to get some updated perspective on just kind of the puts and takes as it relates to the beer profit outlook. Back in April, you touched on volume leverage, price/mix, cost savings being tailwinds versus commodities and FX being headwinds. I mean I'd just be curious, have your expectations for those buckets changed at all over the last few months? I totally understand you've reiterated the outlook this morning, but just have the building blocks changed at all versus your prior expectations? Thanks.

Garth Hankinson

Analyst · UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Well, thanks, Peter. I mean, I guess the shorter answer to that question is no. I mean, as I just laid out previously, we are -- we will see quarterly variability as we do every year, mostly driven due to seasonality, volume seasonality, certainly the building blocks that we laid out in detail at our April conference call, we were provided for full-year guidance, those remain where they are or what they are. As we noted a couple of times now, we are taking actions where we see that there's opportunity to take actions like making sure that we further hedge against the peso when we see weakness. But other than that, I mean, the business continues to be the business and the building block for the building blocks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chris Carey with Wells Fargo Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Chris Carey

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Hey. Thank you very much. I'm going to follow up on Peter's question there around gross margins in beer specifically. Garth, can you maybe frame how the Q1 gross margin came in relative to your expectations on paper? It certainly looks like strong delivery specifically in the context of the rest of the year. And then just regarding the commentary around taking advantage of the weaker peso, does that give you more confidence on this fiscal year? And how much can you actually take advantage of for fiscal '26 at this point? Thanks.

Garth Hankinson

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah. So I would say that the gross margins kind of came in within our expectations just to give you a little bit of color around what drove that. We essentially saw about 100 basis-points of improvement in gross profit margin on a year-over-year basis. About 30% of that or 30 basis-points of that, I should say, is volume, price and mix driven. About 80 basis points are what I would just call cost of goods, logistics materials, labor, offset by depreciation and things of that nature. We got about a 20 basis points bump due to the craft divestiture and then we had about 30 basis points hit just due to the exposure against the FX that's unhedged. So that's really what the building blocks or not, the makeup of the changes. We feel really good about where we are for the balance of the year. Certainly, we continue to progress against our aggressive cost savings initiatives that we outlined at our Investor Day. As I mentioned in my comments, we've already got $50 million or about $50 million in Q1 that we think is sustainable and we'll certainly continue to execute against the cost savings initiatives as we go through the balance of the year.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bonnie Herzog with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

Bonnie Herzog

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

All right. Thank you. Good morning. I had a question on just marketing. Your outlook for marketing and advertising spend this year, it's below historical levels. And I guess there's some concern that you may be starving your brands. So could you touch on this and provide a little more color on the efficiencies you've gained and may continue to gain, how you're approaching investments this year? And I guess why you feel good about these investment levels? Thanks.

Bill Newlands

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah. You bet, Bonnie. We're actually going to be spending more dollars this year than we have in prior years as you would expect because our brands demand it and our growth profile allows us to continue to do it. With that said, you did point out an important point is we have created some efficiencies within our spend and therefore the percentage is slightly less than we've done in prior years, purely driven by efficiency. That doesn't change the fact that we are spending more against our brands than we've ever spent and that process will continue. We strongly believe engaging our consumer with critical national media and digital advertising platforms are critically important to continue to create awareness and to bring consumers into our franchises. In fact, you're seeing spend against many of our new initiatives. You're seeing that against Sunbrew, you're seeing that against Aguas Frescas. We just kicked off our Oro spend for the year. We are very strongly supportive as we have been for many, many years against our brands and that process will continue.

Garth Hankinson

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah. And if you don't mind me, Bill, I'll explain a little bit more. I mean, we've said this publicly multiple times now. We will continue to invest in the growth of our business, both in marketing just like we did, just like we do with the investments we're making in our brewery capacity. We will not starve our brands for marketing in order to hit a margin profile. Instead, we will continue to invest for growth.

Bill Newlands

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

So since we're piling on, Garth, do you mind if I pile on too?

Garth Hankinson

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah.

Bill Newlands

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

One of the reasons why we saw the improvement in the Modelo penetration and the double-digit growth in Modelo's business in the quarter is exactly what we're just talking about, which is we spend against our business. That's why Modelo in 10 years has gone from a tiny little brand to the number-one brand by dollars in the United States.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nadine Sarwat with Bernstein. Please proceed with your questions.

Nadine Sarwat

Analyst · Bernstein. Please proceed with your questions.

Hi. Thank you. I want to come back to the November election. So former President Trump has mentioned the potential of a 10% universal baseline tariff should he win. Given your Mexican import beer business, how do you think that potential scenario would play out for Constellation? And how would you add color on the risk that it would place? Thank you.

Bill Newlands

Analyst · Bernstein. Please proceed with your questions.

I think it's too early to speculate on what may or may not happen in November. Quite frankly, our business performed just great during the last Trump administration and I would expect that we would perform extraordinarily well in a new administration, irrespective of who might be at the helm of that administration. I think it's important to recognize. Our business includes inputs from -- heavy inputs from the upper Midwest in the United States as an integral part of what our overall package of inputs are in our business. Admittedly, there's a lot of flow, our biggest trading partner in this country is Mexico and I think that's likely to continue. And we're sure we'll be able to navigate anything that might occur just fine and we'll work aggressively to do just that.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rob Ottenstein with Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your question.

Rob Ottenstein

Analyst · Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your question.

Great. Two questions. One, terrific quarter, reiterated the guidance, a lot of confidence, stock down. Love to get your -- kind of renew your kind of your thoughts on share buybacks here with the stock, really not much higher than it was in 2018 which has got to be a huge disappointment to you, your management team and the Board and myself frankly since we've been recommending it. So that's question number one. And then question number two, I'd love to get your thoughts on just the beer industry overall, how it's been developing. And there was an earlier question, I think, on how you did in June. I'm not sure you answered that. If you're not comfortable talking about your performance in June, maybe the industry overall in June, whether it looked better sequentially than in May? Thank you.

Garth Hankinson

Analyst · Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your question.

Thanks, Rob. Hey, just in terms of the share buybacks, I mean, I think as Bill alluded to in his opening remarks, in Q1, we continued to make and show the same progress that we have over the last five years in terms of all of our capital allocation priorities that included our share buybacks. As Bill noted, we bought back $200 million worth of shares in the first-quarter. And then through the end of June, I bought back an additional $40 million plus. So we've continued to do what we said we would do. As we've come -- as we've come out of the Q1, we still have about $2.4 billion, $2.6 billion left on our share reauthorization and we will continue to use the same discipline that we have exercised over the last several years and by when we see periods of dislocation.

Bill Newlands

Analyst · Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your question.

And relative to your question about the overall beer category, certainly, it appears that there's been some positive momentum as we've come out of June. I think a lot of that relates to the development of the summer. We're heading into the peak summer selling season, which we're always excited to see given we tend to win all of the major holidays during those seasons and would expect to do so tomorrow as well. But certainly, it looks like there's been some improvement. I think a lot of that, we've covered this and you hate to note this too often, but the reality is there were a lot of sort of bad weather moments at key times around weekends and holidays over the first part of this calendar year, which certainly hasn't been beneficial for the category overall. But I got to go right back to what I said a couple of times already today, which is our brands have outperformed this category for a long, long-time and we expect that to continue because of the strong brand loyalty that we have amongst our consumers.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Robert Moskow with TD Cowen. Please proceed with your question.

Robert Moskow

Analyst · TD Cowen. Please proceed with your question.

Hi. Thanks for the question. I guess I'll ask about wine. The guidance for the year implies a pretty substantial pickup in sales growth, I guess, in the second-half. What kind of visibility do you have with your distributors on how the commercial turnaround is going? Are they making bigger commitments about what they're willing to take on? And because it does it does imply a pretty steep ramp. Thanks. We already always said, especially after our prior quarter, that we were going to take nine to 12 months-to get our wine business back into the position that we expected to do.

Bill Newlands

Analyst · TD Cowen. Please proceed with your question.

We're pleased with what the work that's been done. I think we're ahead of schedule on some of the operational points that we expect recognizing they're likely to be second-half loaded because once you put into work, you have to wait to get the results out of them. Second, I think we've seen some significant improvement in our engagement, particularly with our wholesale network. And we believe that's going to create good opportunity in the back-half of this year. Some of the re-expression of our marketing dollars that we have put in-place, you saw some of that play-out in that -- in terms of the early spend in this quarter are already showing some positive signs and we'll look-forward to reporting on those as we go-forward. But certainly, we expect the improvement in this business to be back-half loaded as we've said now a couple of times. I think the other thing to also recognize, both our international business and our DTC business are performing ahead of what we had planned. The place where we're still spending a lot of time and energy is on the wholesale portion, but we're working very closely with our key wholesale partners to deliver against those expectations. And I think fortunately, we are all on the same page about what needs to be done and what delivery we expect against that business as we progress through the year.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Bill Newlands for closing remarks.

Bill Newlands

Analyst

Thank you, Darryl, and thank you all again for joining today's call. We're certainly off to a solid start in fiscal '25 and clearly today brings a great buying opportunity for our stock. Our beer business continues to deliver excellent top-line performance underpinned by leading volume growth while achieving solid margin expansion through our cost-savings and operational efficiency initiatives. While our Wine and Spirits business continues to face challenging market dynamics, it is making progress on commercial and operational execution initiatives expected to drive improved performance. Altogether, at an enterprise level, we continue to significantly outperform the entire CPG sector with our strong volume-driven growth and we remain confident in our momentum and our outlook for the full-year, including delivery of our double-digit comparable EPS growth. And with that, I wish you all a happy 4th of July holiday and certainly hope that you contribute to our outstanding performance that we expect to have during this critical holiday period. Thank you all for joining the call and have a good summer.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day.