Earnings Labs

Molson Coors Beverage Company (TAP)

Q1 2016 Earnings Call· Tue, May 3, 2016

$42.40

-0.45%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-0.14%

1 Week

+1.66%

1 Month

+4.23%

vs S&P

+2.23%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Molson Coors Brewing Company First Quarter 2016 Earnings Conference Call. Before we begin, I will paraphrase the company's Safe Harbor language. Some of the discussion today may include forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from what the company projects today, so please refer to its most recent 10-K and 10-Q filings for a more complete description of factors that could affect these projections. The company does not undertake to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. Regarding any non-U.S. GAAP measures that may be discussed during the call and from time-to-time by the company's executives in discussing the company's performance, please visit the company's website www.molsoncoors.com and click on the financial reporting tab of the Investor Relations page for a reconciliation of these measures to the nearest U.S. GAAP results. Also, unless otherwise indicated, all financial results the company discusses are versus the comparable prior-year period and in U.S. dollars. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Mark Hunter, President and CEO of Molson Coors. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Connor. Hello and welcome everybody to the Molson Coors earnings call. And thanks for joining us today. With me on the call this morning from Molson Coors, we have: Gavin Hattersley, the CEO of MillerCoors; Stewart Glendinning, our CEO in Canada; Simon Cox, our European CEO; Kandy Anand, the CEO of our International Business; Sam Walker, our Global Chief People and Legal Officer; Brian Tabolt, our Global Controller; Dave Dunnewald, VP of Investor Relations; and David Heede, who has very ably filled the role of Interim Global CFO for…

David Heede - Chief Financial Officer-Europe Region

Management

Thank you, Mark, and hello everybody. Our first quarter financial headlines are as follows. Headline net sales increased 0.1% on a constant currency basis, driven by 1.2% growth in worldwide volume. Including foreign currency movements, net sales were down approximately 6% in U.S. dollars. Our net sales per hectoliter decreased 1.9% in constant currency, due to negative mix in Canada and lower Heineken contract brewing volume in Europe. Underlying after-tax income increased 28.1% to a $110.3 million or $0.54 per share driven by worldwide volume growth and lower cost of goods sold. On a U.S. GAAP basis, we reported income from continuing operations attributable to Molson Coors of $159.3 million, which is nearly double the prior year result. In addition to the factors that drove higher underlying income, this increase was primarily due to $110.4 million gain on the sale of our Vancouver brewery at the end of the first quarter, partially offset by special charges related to brewery closures. Please note that we received the cash from the Vancouver brewery sale on the first day of the second quarter. Underlying EBITDA in the quarter was $263.4 million, a 15.2% increase from a year ago. We issued 29.9 million shares Class B common stock from our equity offering in January for approximately $2.5 billion of net proceeds, which will fund about 20% of the $12 billion pending MillerCoors transaction. Please see the earnings release we distributed earlier this morning for a detailed review of business unit financial results in the quarter. Total debt at the end of the first quarter was $3 billion, and cash and cash equivalents totaled $2.6 billion, resulting in a net debt of just over $400 million, which is significantly lower than prior year due to the proceeds received from our equity offering earlier this year.…

Operator

Operator

Your first question comes from the line of Vivien Azer with Cowen & Co. Your line is open. Vivien Azer - Cowen & Co. LLC: Hi. Good morning. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, Vivien. Vivien Azer - Cowen & Co. LLC: So, I was hoping we could dig in on Canada a little bit. Two questions please. The first on the negative mix shift, and how we should think about that evolving, because clearly you are having a fair amount of success at the Above Premium price points where you're putting some notable investment, so kind of the offset there and how we think about that evolving. On the earlier call, we discussed a little bit with Gavin, the outlook for U.S. beer and perhaps that U.S beer would not lose share in the U.S. relative to other competitive alcoholic beverage categories. So, if you could put in that context, that would be helpful. That's my first question on Canada. Thank you. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: So, I'll pass across to Stewart. Stewart, do you want to set that question just in the context of the kind of transformational agenda that you're leading for in Canada. Stewart F. Glendinning - President & Chief Executive Officer, Molson Coors Canada, Molson Coors Brewing Co.: Yeah, cheers. Thanks for that, Vivien. Well, look, I think if you look at where we've been going with our portfolio, our focus has been on developing the top end and we're really pleased with the way that the Above Premium brands are gaining share in the marketplace. If you look at our NSR in total, the underlying increase in NSR is close to about 1%, and the mix that we're talking about is really…

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Judy Hong with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Judy E. Hong - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Thank you. Good morning. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hey, Judy, how are you? Judy E. Hong - Goldman Sachs & Co.: So I wanted to ask about Europe. I think the quarter had a pretty decent volume growth, but there was some timing benefit, so just wanted to get a sense of what's happening from a category growth standpoint in some of your key markets, your market share performance? And maybe just, broadly speaking, as you think about certainly MillerCoors becoming a bigger portion of your business going forward, how does sort of Europe fit into your broader strategy and your attempt to kind of grow and accelerate the profit growth in that region? Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Judy. I think there was a couple of questions in there. So, Simon, why don't you take the first part of the question and just talk a little bit about the momentum we're seeing in our Europe business and then I'll touch on the impact of MillerCoors more broadly? Simon Cox - President & CEO-Molson Coors Europe, Molson Coors Brewing Co.: Yeah. Thanks, Mark. Thank you, Judy. So, if you look to that top-line results, Judy, then our volumes grew by just over 5% in Europe in the quarter and that translated into just over 4% top-line on net sales revenue growth if you extract currency changes. So, we were very pleased with that. We think that's a very, very solid performance. And to answer your question and give that some context, the markets in which we operate were pretty much flat from a…

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Mark Swartzberg with Stifel. Your line is open. Mark Swartzberg - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Yeah. Thanks. Good morning, everyone. I guess Mauricio and Mark, one question for – or kind of two-part question for you and then also on the subject of Canada, but Mauricio or really Mark I guess, what are Mauricio's priorities, now that he is the new CFO? And then, Mauricio, you come with the experience from Beam and is there anything special about that experience that you think pertains to the job at hand for Molson Coors? Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay, so let me pickup Mauricio's job description and his goal setting conversation, which will take place probably later this week. I anticipate this being a very seamless transition. We are delighted that Mauricio has joined our business. He's got great experience in both developed and developing markets and across the alcohol sector broadly. And I think he'll come in and be provocative and added value on a number of fronts. So, I mean, the short-term priorities are pretty clear and I think we've been consistent on that, Mark, which is we've got to deliver our 2016 plan, make sure that we are delivering both top-line, bottom-line and the strong cash performance and be prepared to go when the deal is approved and then subsequently close this (31:57) in relation to MillerCoors and Miller International and Mauricio is going to play a very explicit part on that agenda. It's really no more complicated than that. I don't know, Mauricio, if you want to say, hi and offer any further perspectives.

Mauricio Restrepo Pinto - Chief Financial Officer

Analyst

Yes. Thank you, Mark and Mark. With one full day under by belt, I guess – what I can say is that, I'm very excited to be here at Molson Coors. It is a company with outstanding people and great brand portfolio, and it's really a very exciting time for the company. And I'll be essentially focusing on furthering the strategy of the company which is to delight the world's beer consumers with our products. As Mark said, offering hopefully some interesting points of view in terms of my experience in the spirits industry and formerly at SABMiller. That being said, I look forward to seeing and meeting most if not all of you in person at our event in New York in early June. Mark Swartzberg - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: That's great. Okay. Thank you for that. And if I could also on Canada and Mark or Stewart, I guess I want to focus particularly on Coors Light and Molson Canadian and what I'm – what I'd like to better understand is why we really are coming around the corner, because we've been coming around the corner for quite some time with these two brands. And it sounds like you feel a little better, but – and I guess you're going to be spending more, and so that in itself is real. But what are you seeing that makes you think that maybe it's not second quarter, maybe it's 2017. These brands really are in a better position than they've been because I appreciate you've been working hard on correcting the issue, but it's still an issue and the U.S. is improving, Molson Canadian is not a U.S. brand of any size, but it's hard from where we sit, at least from where I sit, to believe…

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Pablo Zuanic with SIG. Your line is open.

Pablo Zuanic - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst · SIG. Your line is open.

Good morning, everyone. Look, I mean, just two quick questions. The first one Mark, in very general terms, 10 months after – almost six months, seven months after that we know the MillerCoors transaction, do you have more, the same or less conviction about the guidance with $100 million synergies? So, if you can answer that and maybe give some color in terms of why? And then the second question related to these questions you had, in global terms, after the transaction has closed, MillerCoors, the U.S. market is going to be about 80% of your earnings. What about trying to diversify the regional profile of the company later on. Is that a priority, or it doesn't matter at all? And the reason I ask that obviously is when you hear news about Anheuser-Busch InBev trying to sell their assets in Poland and Czech Republic, are those potential assets that could be of interest to your company? Thanks. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. Hi, Pablo. Thanks for the questions. To your specific question on the synergy target, I would say having done the planning, I'm more convicted or convinced, that's the right word with regard to the number, but clearly I don't want to talk in any more specifics. I have been pretty clear that once our planning team have finished all of the planning work and we get deal approval and we're moving towards close, then we can update more specifically at that point. But, I think the gains that we offered last November as we work through the planning stands good and we'll update more broadly in due course. From your question with regard to the center of gravity that would be our business being the U.S. Our overall strategy doesn't change, we will have a bigger position in the U.S. and you know that has many benefits associated with it. But, we've been on the journey to build a footprint over the course of the last five years, in particular, led by Coors Light and more recently by Staropramen and that will continue. I'm not going to comment specifically on any M&A opportunities. We never do, as you're aware. But we need to play to win in both the U.S., Canada, and in our European business. And we need to continue to build our global footprint, led through our global brands, that's principally been on an asset-light license and export model. It's likely that model will continue as we look to take Coors trademark, Staropramen trademark in the future of the Miller trademark into more markets, that's probably all I can say at this stage.

Pablo Zuanic - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst · SIG. Your line is open.

Yeah. That's fine. Thanks. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Pablo.

Operator

Operator

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

Bryan D. Spillane - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, Bryan. Stewart F. Glendinning - President & Chief Executive Officer, Molson Coors Canada, Molson Coors Brewing Co.: Good morning, Bryan.

Bryan D. Spillane - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America. Your line is open.

Just a couple of short questions. First, in terms of the two breweries that the sale in Vancouver and then the plans to close in Eden. On Vancouver, are there any timing provisions? I guess, you know, if it takes you a while to find a property or find a location or build a brewery, are there any sort of timing provisions we should think about, in terms of when that lease term ends, or are there any timing provisions we should think about there? Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. Just on Vancouver?

Bryan D. Spillane - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America. Your line is open.

Just on Vancouver, yeah. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. Stewart, do you want to just give a little bit of color on Vancouver? Stewart F. Glendinning - President & Chief Executive Officer, Molson Coors Canada, Molson Coors Brewing Co.: Yeah. Sure. Bryan, as you point out, we closed the deal this quarter. In terms of the timeline, we have up to five years. So, we've got plenty of time to find and build a new brewery. And, of course, that process is actively underway already.

Bryan D. Spillane - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America. Your line is open.

Okay. And then in Eden, have you disclosed yet what the plans are for that property, once you close it? Have you – will it continue, will you sell it? Will it continue to operate as a brewery under someone else's ownership? Just any thoughts on yet, in terms of what happens to that brewery, kind of post closing it? Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: The very specific response, Bryan, is that, no, we haven't disclosed anything in relation to Eden other than our plan to close the brewery. And Gavin and the team are working through the process at this point in time, and it's going as anticipated. I don't know whether, Gavin, you'd want to add anything to that?

Gavin Hattersley - Chief Executive Officer, MillerCoors LLC

Analyst · Bank of America. Your line is open.

No, Mark, other than to say, we just haven't made a decision as to what to do with the facility and land, at this point in time, as you correctly stated.

Bryan D. Spillane - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America. Your line is open.

Okay. And just the reason why I asked the question is just, you've got a lot of capacity that's being added to the industry from the craft beer industry, and the capacity that Constellation is adding in Mexico is essentially U.S. brewing capacity. So, I'm just trying to get a sense for whether or not just the capacity in the industry at all overall sort of affects your decision-making in terms of what you might decide to do? Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: No, I think, Gavin, do you want to pick up on that?

Gavin Hattersley - Chief Executive Officer, MillerCoors LLC

Analyst · Bank of America. Your line is open.

Yeah, I was going to say, Bryan, we're focused on the moment of closing the brewery down and transitioning the volume to where it's supposed to be. That's our focus, here. And we just haven't made any decisions on what to do with a facility or the land at this point.

Bryan D. Spillane - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America. Your line is open.

Okay. And then, just the last one, and I might have missed this earlier. But just in Canada this quarter, the distribution, the lower distribution costs, what was that related to, specifically? Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, look, I can give you a headline on that, Bryan. COGS performance in the first quarter was very, very encouraging, probably about half of the COGS improvement related to some timing benefit and that relates specifically just to some distribution charge and the timing of those distribution costs. I think if you work on the basis, about half of the COGS improvement as underlying and continuing and about half of the COGS improvement in the first quarter or something that will fall away because it was a timing benefit – I don't think we whether want to get into any more of the specifics at this stage.

Bryan D. Spillane - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America. Your line is open.

Okay. That's all I have. Thank you. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. Thanks, Bryan.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Rob Ottenstein with Evercore. Your line is open.

Robert E. Ottenstein - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore. Your line is open.

Great. Thank you very much. Could you talk a little bit about how Coors Light is doing globally? I'm guessing there was some impact in terms of what was happening in India, so perhaps maybe kind of a number, a volume number for Coors Light globally, taking India into account? Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hi, Rob. It's Mark here. Just a couple of comments for you. Firstly, Coors Light isn't available in India, so no issues there. I don't think, Kandy has got any plans to launch in India, hasn't spoken to me, I've heard it. So, Coors Light globally was up about 3.5% and across Europe and our international business, we were close to 19% growth. So, we're seeing very, very strong performance as we take the brand outside of North America, a tremendous traction and velocity and growth in Central and South America. And a brand which has become our second largest brand in our UK and Ireland portfolio and has grown to well over a million hectoliters now across the UK and Ireland. So, in a number of international markets, but I wouldn't describe it is having a global footprint, center of gravity outside of North America, certainly, Central and South America and our UK and Ireland business. And strong and growing momentum behind the Coors Light brand. Alongside that, we've introduced Coors 1873 into a couple of markets, as a sister brand of Coors Banquet. And again, we've seen that performed strongly, so we're looking to build out the Coors trademark and that proof-of-concept in Coors 1873, I think, gives us some signals as to how we can build that trademark more broadly going forward.

Robert E. Ottenstein - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore. Your line is open.

I just want to make sure I got those numbers right. So globally, including U.S. up 3.5%, and outside of the U.S., up 19%? Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: In Europe and MCI combined, it's just under 19% growth.

Robert E. Ottenstein - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore. Your line is open.

Okay, so outside of North America. That's terrific. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah.

Robert E. Ottenstein - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore. Your line is open.

And as you're going to look to take control of the Miller brands globally, how would you compare, do you think, the potential for those brands with Coors? And how are you thinking about positioning outside of the U.S.? Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. We'll – I mean, I think we're in a great position because the positioning of the brands is very complementary, the Coors positioning is very clear in terms of begin born in the Rockies and owning the whole sense of cold refreshment. Miller is much more of an urban positioning and MGD, in particular, I think it's very complementary to Coors Light. And then, Staropramen clearly operates with a very, very strong check in our European provenance. In really simplistic terms, Robert, we've got a great clear bottle offering, brown bottle offering and green bottle offering, but that's me probably getting out my depth on my marketing skills. But, I think overall positionings of the brand are very complementary, it gives us more scale in a number of existing MCI markets, and it gives us an entry point into a number of new markets as well. So, our international business will scale up very significantly on the back of this addition to our portfolio. With what I think will be a great backbone of international brands and around that we can then start to really test our ability to build some of the international footprint for some of our craft brands as well. So, I think, we're poised for the next phase in international brand development.

Robert E. Ottenstein - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore. Your line is open.

Okay. And any comments on, I know it's very small, but just in terms of understanding how the portfolio is doing, and the business in Australia. And whether, is that a template for other countries? Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. I'll pass that across to Kandy. Kandy, do you want to just comment on our Australia business?

Krishnan Anand - President and Chief Executive Officer, Molson Coors International, Molson Coors Brewing Co.

Analyst · Evercore. Your line is open.

Sure. Thanks, Mark. Rob, as you mentioned, it's a relatively small part of our business; however, we launched there now. It's little over 18 months. We launched Coors Light, but we have to call it Coors, because of the laws there, which where lights are low alcohol beers only, so it's basically the same born in Rockies, cold refreshment that Mark referred to, but we call it Coors. It's doing well and we've had a really good summer season, we just finished in Australia in March. And we're looking forward to also add the Miller portfolio to that. With the two we'll actually increase our scale in Australia more than twofold with the addition of Miller. So, I would say, it's something that we believe in the long run, well, we bought a reasonable size business as well as reasonably profitable business. And it's going to take a while to grow these two brands. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Does it make sense?

Robert E. Ottenstein - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore. Your line is open.

And U.S. craft beers, are taking off in many countries. Any just final quick thoughts on early potential, early insight into Blue Moon and the ability of that brand to gain traction overseas? Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah, I think it's a good observation, Robert. And I think we've led that wave with the development of Blue Moon in a number of markets. Obviously, we've now got Belgian Moon up in Canada. Blue Moon has been in our UK and Ireland business for a number of years and is growing strongly. And Kandy and his team now have gone into a multiple markets. Australia is one of those markets, Japan is another market. And interest from around the world continues to grow, so we're already on that path and have been developing that over the course of the last three years to five years, in particular and we're seeing demand growing. I think we're in a strong position when you look at the number one Irish brand, the leading brand in UK with Sharp's and our Canadian brands as well. There is opportunities for us to really build out that craft portfolio at international level and that's central to some of our international expansion thinking at this point in time.

Robert E. Ottenstein - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore. Your line is open.

Terrific. Very exciting. Thank you. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Robert.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Filippe Goossens with MUFG. Your line is open. Filippe Goossens - Mitsubishi UFJ Securities (USA), Inc.: Yes, good morning, gentlemen. And thanks for the call this morning again. I had two questions, although I think the first one has been indirectly answered, it was more from an M&A perspective, trying to find out if there was any remote interest perhaps in the Pilsner Urquell brand that AB InBev is putting up for sale. But I'll take your comments for that on the earlier question. My second question, if I may, is given the Carling business in the UK, how are you seeing the potential for the Brexit potential vote next month in England? Would that cause meaningful issues for you, or that's something that is relatively managed within the scope of the operations in Europe? Thank you very much. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. Thanks, Filippe. So, thanks for your acknowledgement on the M&A question. I would just mention, obviously our definitive agreement with ABI is the Pilsner Urquell brand remains in our portfolio in the U.S. on a perpetual royalty-free basis. So that's in our portfolio currently and will remain in our portfolio, irrespective of what's been announced last week by ABI and SAB divestiture. With regard to the Carling business in the UK and Brexit, that's a great question. I think if you ask 10 commentators, you'd probably get 10 different points of view. I mean it's outside of our control, the consumer demand in the UK for Carling and our other brands, I think will remain unaffected by whatever decision is made. The impact on currency and any translational impact, I think is probably the thing that we're keeping our eye on it…

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Mark Swartzberg with Stifel. Your line is open. Mark Swartzberg - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Hello. Thanks. Hi, again guys. Thank you for taking this follow-up. Simon, I wanted to understand a little better what is happening in Europe, in the sense that it's clear the UK is benefiting from this introduction, and I presume you're taking some share there, and then these other markets that drove the volume increase, I presume your taking share there. Can you give us a little more sense of either the theme that's underlying share gains versus those markets where you're seeing share losses, if there is a theme? But 11 countries is a lot. Don't know that we need to go into every single one, but I'm just trying to better understand the other side of the coin, if you will. The markets where you're not having the success you'd like. That's what I'm trying to understand. Simon Cox - President & CEO-Molson Coors Europe, Molson Coors Brewing Co.: Yeah. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Simon, do you want to answer that. Simon Cox - President & CEO-Molson Coors Europe, Molson Coors Brewing Co.: Yeah. Sure. I mean, to your point, Mark, I think, we could spend a lot of the time doing individual diagnosis on 11 different countries. I think, the theme that I will point you to is that, in general, we are increasing our investments in marketing and those investments are playing out well for us with stronger volumes, stronger revenues and premiumizing that portfolio. And actually, that's a factor virtually across all the markets. So if for example, I took Staropramen, we are investing in Staropramen across all of our European markets, and we've also…

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Brett Cooper with Consumer Edge Research. Your line is open.

Brett Cooper - Consumer Edge Research LLC

Analyst · Consumer Edge Research. Your line is open.

Good morning, guys. Just a quick one. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hi, Brett.

Brett Cooper - Consumer Edge Research LLC

Analyst · Consumer Edge Research. Your line is open.

The pushing of near beer or FMBs continues to be an avenue of growth for you in the industry. Do you see any risk of heightened regulatory scrutiny from FMBs getting closer and closer to non-alcoholic beverages? Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. Brett, let me give you just a couple of comments on that. Obviously, selling alcohol is something that you know comes with a significant obligations and we are – and all of our markets very, very careful about the way that we both introduce and market brands. FMBs have been a big part of our business for the last couple of decades back in the UK. We, in the mid-1990s, launched a brand called Hooch, which was you know one of the forerunners of the FMB category and it's been you know part of our business as a safer you know a couple of decades now. So, we are very careful, very responsible, very clear about the fact that these are adult drinks, they're clearly marked as adult drinks and will continue to comply with all regulations in all of our markets to build our portfolio responsibly. I think beyond that, it's probably not worth getting into any specifics. So, that's just our general philosophy in our business.

Brett Cooper - Consumer Edge Research LLC

Analyst · Consumer Edge Research. Your line is open.

All right. Thank you. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. Thanks, Brett.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Pablo Zuanic with SIG. Your line is open.

Pablo Zuanic - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst · SIG. Your line is open.

Thank you for taking the follow-up. Look, Gavin, I realize I asked questions relating to MillerCoors call earlier today, but three very quick ones for you. So, is the industry traditionally, will increase prices in the fall and most of the companies would follow. Has the industry changed in that regard? And what happened really with that price increase in the fall? Did it stick or not? That's the first question. The second one, in the earlier call you said that pricing ex-mix was up 0.8% for the MillerCoors portfolio. Can you just give us some new ones there, in terms of what was increase in the value brands, compared to say mainstream? It seems to me that on value-price, pricing might have come down, if you can explain that. And then the third and last question I think that Miller High Life, it's in my opinion in a very unique position within your value portfolio. And one would think that it may be stacking between mainstream and value, and that there's an opportunity for you to have a very strong value brand, if Miller High Life were to trend down price wise into fully the value segment, as opposed to what seems to be happening, that it's moving up to mainstream. If you can just comment on that Gavin, and thanks for taking the follow-up again. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hey Gavin. Do you want to pick up on let's call it some general comments without getting lost in any of the specifics?

Gavin Hattersley - Chief Executive Officer, MillerCoors LLC

Analyst · SIG. Your line is open.

Right. I mean, Pablo it's little difficult for me to give you a detailed specifics as Mark says. And from an industry pricing point of view, you know price increases take place in the fall, they take place in the spring, there is no general one-size-fits all. And as I've said quite often on these calls is, we follow very clear pricing strategy and market-by-markets and brand-by-brand basis. And your second question is around breaking out the 80 basis points between the various sub-segments is, we just simply don't do that publicly. And from a Miller High Life point of view, we do think we've got a unique proposition here as the Champagne of Beers and we intend to continue to invest quiet strongly behind that brand, it's an important part of our sub-premium portfolio and we'll play an important role in reducing the lost market share that we've experienced in the primary portfolio. Beyond that, I can't really get into any more detail.

Pablo Zuanic - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst · SIG. Your line is open.

All right. Thanks. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Pablo, the only thing I would add is, I mean, if you look at the choice in the U.S. market now as probably be, there's more proliferation, more choice for consumers than we've seen in living memory. So, our job is to make sure our brands deliver great value for consumers and we'll make sure we do that through a combination of our price points, SKUs that we offer, the quality of our brand communications. We got to be competitive. And as I say, consumers have got more variety and more choice than they've ever had before. So, we've got to be really sharp, we've got to stay very local, and we've got to ensure that we are competing very effectively in the marketplace.

Pablo Zuanic - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst · SIG. Your line is open.

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I'll turn the call back to Mr. Hunter for closing remarks. Mark R. Hunter - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. Thanks, Connor. Can I just thank everybody for your time, attention, and interest in Molson Coors Brewing Company. We look forward to seeing hopefully most of you at our Analyst and Investor Day in New York in June. And Dave and team will be available for follow-up questions at – a little bit later on today. So, thanks again for your interest and we look forward to seeing you soon. Thanks, everybody.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.