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Fortune 500

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F500-2021-267-Keurig Dr Pepper

The beverage conglomerate acquired Dr Pepper Snapple in 2018, and now sells coffee, soda, and juices in addition to Keurig brewers. The company saw a strong 2020 as consumers stocked up to shelter in place during the pandemic, but first quarter 2021 data show an even bigger year-over-year sales jump at more than 10%.

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F500-2020-288-Keurig-Dr.-pepper

Keurig Dr Pepper was 2019's fastest-growing F500 beverage company, rocketing 121 positions up the list after forming in a 2018 merger of Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

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This year's Fortune 500 marks the 65th running of the list.

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This year's Fortune 500 marks the 64th running of the list.

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This year's Fortune 500 marks the 63rd running of the list.

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Wal-Mart stayed on top as its sales crept closer to half-a-trillion dollars. Apple moved into the top five. And UnitedHealth Group continued its steady climb. 

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Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Keurig Dr Pepper

keurig dr pepper

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Keurig Doctor Pepper's earnings call for the first quarter of twenty twenty five. Followed by zero. This conference call is being recorded, and there will be a question and answer session at the end of the call. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad.

To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. I would now like to introduce Doctor Pepper's senior vice president of finance, Jane Gelfand. Miss Gelfand, please go ahead.

Thank you, and hello, everyone. Earlier this morning, we issued two separate press releases detailing first quarter results and announcing the appointment of new independent directors to our Board of Directors. We will discuss these topics during this conference call and in the accompanying slide presentation that can be tracked in real time on the live webcast. Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that our remarks will include forward looking statements, which reflect KDP's judgment, assumptions, and analysis only as of today. Our actual results may differ materially from current expectations based on a number of factors affecting KDP's business.

Except as required by law, we do not undertake any obligation to update any forward looking statements discussed today. For more information, please refer to our earnings release and the risk factors discussed in our most recent Forms 10 ks and 10 Q, which will be filed with the SEC later today. Consistent with previous quarters, we will be discussing our Q1 performance on a non GAAP adjusted basis, which reflects constant currency growth rates and excludes items affecting comparability. Definitions and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP metrics are included in our earnings material. Here with us today to discuss our results are Keurig Doctor.

Pepper's Chief Executive Officer, Tim Cofer and Chief Financial Officer and President, International, Sudhanshu Priyadarshi. I'll now turn it over to Tim.

Thanks, Jane, and good morning, everyone. Our first quarter results were strong. Net sales advanced more than 6%, and EPS increased more than 10. We believe KDP is well positioned in today's fluid macro environment. The operating and regulatory backdrop demands a combination of organizational ballast and agility.

As a scaled beverage player that is also the industry challenger, KDP is fortunate to have both. Q1 served as a good demonstration. Our resilience was evident in the strong top and bottom line results. While each of our segments faced different conditions in Q1, we executed well to deliver strong and steady enterprise level performance. During the quarter, we also moved quickly to assess and react to trade policy changes.

Looking out to the balance of the year, our outlook now incorporates our best estimate of tariff related pressures and mitigations based on the policies in place today. As a result, we continue to expect that 2025 will be another solid year of growth, and we are reaffirming our full year guidance. Let's now unpack the quarter's highlights and segment performance. Beyond the strong financial outcomes in Q1, there were several noteworthy achievements in the quarter also worth highlighting. These include market share gains across iconic liquid refreshment beverage brands, like Doctor Pepper and Canada Dry, as well as newer brands, like Electrolite and C4 accelerating price realization across each of our segments, reflecting actions to effectively manage inflation in 2025 a smooth start to the integration of Ghost Energy.

We are hitting the ground running in establishing a true energy platform, with a 6.5% market share position already and momentum building. Strong operating discipline, particularly in overhead cost management and smart capital allocation, including the monetization of our very successful multiyear Vida Coco investment. Vida Coco has been a valued partner for the past fifteen years, and we recently extended our distribution partnership to capture the significant growth opportunity ahead. At the segment level, U. S.

Refreshment beverages continued to outperform on the back of very strong CSD trends. U. S. Coffee experienced a softer start as the category began to work through commodity driven inflationary challenges. And international proved resilient against a dynamic macro backdrop.

I'll now dive deeper into each of our segments. Let's start with U. S. Refreshment beverages, which was the clear standout in the first quarter. Net sales grew 11%, driven by strength in our core CSD portfolio, as well as the initial contribution of our Ghost acquisition.

Our CSDs outperformed in a healthy category. As consumer obsessed brand builders, we delivered this result through a combination of impactful innovation, strong commercial execution, and full funnel marketing. Doctor Pepper had another great quarter, with sizable market share gains, including a meaningful contribution from our highly incremental Doctor Pepper BlackBerry launch in February. The new product, which pairs the iconic Doctor Pepper flavor with the rich sweetness of BlackBerry, has captured nearly a point of CSD share and is performing on par with our most successful innovations from recent years. The Doctor Pepper franchise continues to gain distribution breadth and depth, thanks to innovation and zero format expansion, which remains a multi year growth opportunity for this powerhouse brand.

We also delivered healthy net sales growth in Canada Dry and 7UP, due to attractive returns on recently stepped up innovation, marketing support, and product refreshment, including our early twenty twenty five launch of 7UP Tropical. More exciting activity for these and other CSD brands, like A and W, is forthcoming. Our energy portfolio was another area of strength in the quarter. Entering year three of our partnership, C4 maintained its momentum, driven by DSD execution to expand the brand's distribution points and grow display penetration. Our integration of Ghost kicked off well, as did the distribution transition in late Q1.

As we assume full influence over the brand all the way to the shelf, we are beginning to execute against Ghost's significant growth opportunities. We are doing the same with emerging brands like female forward Bloom Sparkling Energy, which quickly scaled to a half a share point in the category during Q1, and the recently launched mainstream focused Black Rifle energy line. Now that our thoughtfully constructed energy portfolio is in place, we are confident in our right to win, and our team is eager to seize the opportunity. In sports hydration, another exciting emerging category for KDP, our work with Electrolene is entering year two on a strong growth trajectory. In Q1, the brand enjoyed significant and accelerating share gains, which should sustain as we pursue distribution white space and new packaging and product forms.

Alongside our partner, Grupo Pisa, we are committed to building Electrolite into a national and mainstream player, which will be supported by a state of the art manufacturing facility currently under construction in Texas. Overall, we're very pleased with our U. S. Refreshment beverages performance. Our portfolio has momentum.

We are executing at a high level, and we have strong commercial plans for the rest of 2025. In U. S. Coffee, Q1 was a challenging quarter, with a 3.7% net sales decline and profit pressure. Though the single serve categories transition in 2025 from volume led to pricing led growth requires some patience to navigate, our dual priorities are steadfast.

First, mitigating record green coffee inflation, and second, fortifying our long term growth model by addressing evolving consumer needs. During the first quarter, we took actions in support of both of these priorities. I'll begin with mitigating green coffee inflation. Given the magnitude of the pressure that we and the industry are facing, we implemented a price increase across our owned and licensed brands to start the year. These pricing actions appeared on shelf earlier than many peers, resulting in short term volume and mix tradeoffs in Q1.

As already announced, industry pricing layers in over the coming months, we expect to see more typical price gaps among key single serve brands and for the net impact of our actions to become more favorable looking out into the back half. We will continue to evaluate all available levers to offset inflation over the course of the year. These include potential additional pricing, more productivity savings, and a sharper focus on the highest returning products, channels, and households. This brings me to our second priority, fortifying our long term growth model. We are going after premium, cold, and next generation opportunities to drive Keurig's future growth with Q1 progress across each dimension.

We've been building a tier of premium and super premium coffees, anchored by brands like Lavazza, La Colomme, Phil's, and others. These additions resonate with higher value consumers and drive positive mix, and we've proven we can strongly accelerate these brands' growth when part of our portfolio. As an example, Lavazza K Cup pods saw over 30% growth in Q1 retail sales, demonstrating significantly enhanced momentum just a couple of quarters after we assumed the brand license last year. Another major focus area is capturing more cold occasions through a variety of total coffee formats. In Q1, we introduced new flavors to expand on twenty twenty four's successful refreshers platform.

These products are proving highly incremental at key retailers. Our La Colomme ready to drink coffees also continued to scale nicely in the quarter, supporting the brand's transformation into a formidable challenger in this multibillion dollar beverage space. Our future coffee vision is also steadily progressing, with behind the scenes work on the Keurig Alta system and plastic free, aluminum free K Rounds pods. Over the last few months, we advanced in home consumer testing of the new system, generating valuable insights that we will apply as we expand the trial to even more households, as well as plan for future commercialization. These examples illustrate how we are balancing our U.

S. Coffee activities this year between inflation mitigation and long term growth initiatives. Though segment performance is likely to remain subdued in 2025, we are laying the groundwork for stronger and more multifaceted growth in the years ahead. Moving to international. Q1 sales grew in the mid single digits.

We're pleased with KDP's relative trends across our primary countries and will continue to lean in to bolster our momentum as the year progresses. In Q1, we saw strong growth in liquid refreshment beverages, driven by Pena Fial and our CSD portfolio, in particular Doctor Pepper and Crush. Inflation related pricing also started to flow through late in the quarter and supported top line gains across the international portfolio. We expect segment growth to accelerate over the balance of 2025, reflecting increased price realization and the activation of exciting commercial plans, highlighting our key international brands, many of which enjoy strong local identities. To wrap up, our dawn to dusk beverage portfolio is delivering strong enterprise results, while continuing to evolve towards faster growing spaces.

Simultaneously, we are capably managing through changing economic conditions and mitigating associated risks. As we move through the year, we will remain flexible and proactive as we work towards delivering on our 2025 financial commitments and advancing our long term strategic priorities. I'll now turn the call to Sudanshu, and will return at the end with some closing thoughts.

Thanks, Tim, and good morning, everyone. We had a strong start to 2025. Our business has momentum. We are executing well. And we are operating with discipline and agility.

Together, these factors give us confidence in our ability to continue to deliver solid results over the balance of the year. First quarter net sales grew 6.4% in constant currency. Our top line was driven by strong double digit gains in US refreshment beverages, and healthy trends in international, which more than offset a challenging quarter for US coffee. On a consolidated basis, growth was supported by multiple net sales drivers. Net price realization increased 2.8%, sequentially strengthening across each of our segments.

This primarily reflected actions taken in response to inflation, as well as some targeted trade spend refinements. Volumemix advanced 3.6% in the quarter, which included solid base business growth, particularly in liquid refreshment beverages. The addition of Ghost to the KDP portfolio also contributed 2.9 percentage points to the top line. Gross margin contracted 170 basis points versus the prior year. We expected this pressure, given a difficult comparison and escalating inflation.

Pricing and productivity should build in the coming quarters, and our labs become easier, which will help us better manage expected headwinds. SG and A leverage 90 basis points. Disciplined expense management is an ongoing focus, but is taking on even greater importance in today's less certain economic environment. We are constructively questioning our processes, streamlining where it makes sense, and arriving at more efficient ways of working. These efforts will continue to bear fruit over the coming quarters, driving operating leverage as we grow.

In total, operating income increased 3.9%. This translated to 10.5% EPS growth, which was enhanced by below the line leverage, including a realized gain on the sale of our minority stake in Vita Coco. This transaction is testament to the merits of our flexible capital allocation approach, which I will discuss in more detail shortly. Moving to the segments. U.

S. Refreshment Beverages posted another set of impressive quarterly results. Net sales growth accelerated to 11%. Volume mix was the primary driver, increasing 8%, including a 4.8 percentage point contribution from Ghost. Base business momentum was also strong, driven by CSDs and key partnerships.

Net price realization contributed three points to segment net sales, primarily reflecting CSD pricing. Segment operating income grew 8.7%, as net sales momentum and productivity savings more than offset inflation. This growth also came despite a sizable net headwind from lapping a larger C4 performance incentive in the year ago period. In The US coffee segment, net sales declined 3.7% in the first quarter. As expected, net price realization inflected positively, contributing 1.5 points of growth as pricing actions on our owned and licensed brands began to flow through.

However, this was more than offset by a 5.2% decline in volume mix. Part of the pressure reflected industry pricing layering in at different rates across the single subcategory, which contributed to short term volume and mix impacts. We also saw some retailers more closely managing trade levels as price increased. Segment operating income declined 12.5%. In the first quarter, net price realization and productivity proved insufficient to fully cover green coffee inflation and lower volume mix.

We expect both revenue and operating income pressure to ease in the back half, as the balance between pricing, productivity, and inflation improves, and as mix effects normalize. In international, net sales grew 5.4%, with growth across regions and categories. Growth was led by favorable net price realization of 4.1%. Volumemix was also up 1.3%, driven by particular strength in liquid refreshment beverages in both Canada and Mexico. Segment operating income declined 4.6%.

Similar to last quarter, this reflected the phasing of TSD investments in Mexico, as well as an imbalance between pricing, productivity, and inflation. Both factors were primarily a function of timing. For the full year, our international segment should remain a strong top and bottom line growth contributor. Moving to cash flow and capital allocation. We generated $102,000,000 in free cash flow in the first quarter.

Notably, this result included the known impact from a one time $225,000,000 ghost distribution transition payment. So on an underlying basis, our performance was even stronger. Our business model remains highly cash generative, and we continue to expect a healthy free cash flow year in 2025. Our dynamic capital allocation strategy was on display during the first quarter, as we monetized our multiyear equity stake in Vita Coco. This was a clear demonstration of the mutual value that our partnership model creates.

Since we began working with Vita Coco, we have helped to establish the brand as the clear leader in the vibrant coconut water category. The partnership has also generated attractive financial returns for KDP, including the realized gain in the first quarter from the sale of our minority investment in the company. Shifting now to our 2025 guidance. Our constant currency outlook is unchanged. We expect mid single digit net sales growth, with a bias towards the high end of the range, and high single digit earnings per share growth.

Based on current rates, we now anticipate that FX will represent approximately a one percentage point top and bottom line headwind for the full year. Our below the line assumptions remain the same as our prior guidance. Specifically, we expect interest expense in a $680,000,000 to $700,000,000 range, an effective tax rate of approximately 22% to 23%, and approximately 1,370,000,000.00 diluted weighted average shares outstanding. Based on what we know today, anticipated tariff impacts in 2025 appear manageable relative to our guidance. While we are not immune to the effects of these tariffs, multiple counterbalances should keep us on track to deliver the year.

These include a series of mitigation steps that we are pursuing, flexibility from first quarter over delivery, and other in year opportunities. Having said that, we recognize that some external elements, like future trade policy and potential consumer response, are outside of our control. As a result, we will need to remain agile as we seek to deliver responsible and sustainable outcomes for KDP and for our consumers. In closing, we are pleased with the business momentum and a strong execution that powered our first quarter results. With our singular focus on beverages, scaled North American operations, and challenger mindset, KDP is well suited to navigate today's very dynamic economic landscape while delivering consistently.

With that, I will turn the call back to Tim for closing remarks.

Thank you, Sudhanshu. This morning, we also highlighted the continued evolution of KDP's Board of Directors to help steward our next stage of growth. First, following a rigorous and extensive recruitment process, we appointed two new independent directors, Mike Vandevin and Lawson Whiting. These highly qualified, seasoned executives will bring valuable and complementary perspectives to our board. Second, Bob Gamgort's role is transitioning from executive chairman to nonexecutive chairman of the board, another natural next step in our governance.

Having joined KDP more than eighteen months ago, and assuming the CEO role a year ago, I can say with confidence that KDP has entered an exciting new chapter in our time as a public company. Our board is refreshed and energized, as is our executive leadership team. Together, we look forward to executing on the compelling growth and value creation agenda ahead. With that, we're now happy to take your questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one The first question comes from Dara Mohsenian with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. So first, just a clarification on the fiscal twenty twenty five guidance. There's obviously a lot of moving pieces. Just can you discuss high level your level of confidence in maintaining the local FX guidance in 2025? How much flex do you think you have to manage through a difficult environment that's caused most of your peers to have the lower guidance?

Siddhanshu, the comments on tariffs were helpful. Can you give us a bit more detail on your exposure there and the potential offsets in the guidance? And then just separately, we've seen very healthy level of organic sales growth in U. S. Refreshment in the last couple of quarters, driven by strong pricing as well as market share gains for your portfolio.

Can you just discuss the sustainability of those drivers going forward, particularly in the context of a weaker consumer environment? A, on pricing, what are you seeing competitively, the willingness of retailers and consumers to stomach the additional pricing? And then b, just level of confidence that the market share gains will continue, particularly on the CSD side. Thanks.

Good morning, Dara. So let me talk to you about the I'm assuming you meant EPS guidance. So our philosophy is to issue a balanced guidance that includes both risk and opportunities. But based on what we see today, we continue to expect high single digit constant currency EPS growth. The primary drivers in that guidance, we're assuming good profit flow through from top line momentum in U.

S. Refreshment Beverages and International, plus it's also including Ghost accretion as distribution is building and a strong productivity and disciplined expense management, which will support continued healthy brand investments level. As you know, there are incremental pressure points that has emerged even since February. Current tariffs now represent an additional headwind versus initial plan, slower than expected start in U. S.

Coffee, with improvement expected in second half. We believe we have identified these appropriate steps to offset these impacts. And now, we just have to execute. This includes pushing hard on cost savings, evaluating additional pricing and mix management, and pursuing alternate sourcing. Our Q1 EPS upsides also provides us some flexibility to absorb headwinds over balance of the year.

But as you said, it remains a fluid environment. Future trade policy and consumer health are watch points. These drive a wider range of outcome that is not always predictable. Having said that, we feel good about our ability to influence the factors within our control in 2025, which is why we have reaffirmed our outlook today.

Yes, and Dara, I'll take the question on US refreshment beverage. And as I said in my commentary, I mean, no doubt we're pleased with the outperformance that we saw in the category. And it starts with obviously CSDs. And CSDs, the category itself continues to be very healthy. I think there is strong consumer value and appeal in that category overall and continued price and mix opportunity for us.

Within a healthy category, KDP is outperforming. I mentioned Doctor Pepper, which remains very strong. We're very happy with the BlackBerry launch, continued expansion of the Zero platform and distribution gains. Canada Dry gained share in the quarter, seven up is back to share growth given a brand refresh and launch of Tropical. So CSDs are really firing on all cylinders for us.

Second in energy, we had a strong quarter of energy. I think our portfolio of energy brands is starting to show. C4 has maintained momentum as it enters year three of the partnership. We expect continued growth there. Ghost, it was a good start on Ghost in Q1.

The distributions transitioned over to us and you saw a good growth there. And Bloom is scaling very nicely, very quickly in this female forward sub segment. I go to Sports Hydration. Electrolite, very pleased growing strong double digits. We expect robust growth on the year for Electrolite.

We've just lapped our initial introduction of Electrolite into the portfolio and believe that with our DSD execution, we can really magnify that growth opportunity, scale it nationwide, bring it into mainstream aisle, bring some innovation to market. So overall, I think as you look at USRB, a great quarter, robust innovation, marketing, strong DSD activation and we continue to be bullish on the year. As you spoke specifically at the tail end of your question on pricing in USRB, we see our growth largely driven by base business volume and mix gains and obviously goes contribution. Pricing will be a contributor this year. It's primarily CSDs we announced our what you call typical CSD price increase that took effect at the beginning of the year.

That's filtering through the P and L. And I think as I said earlier, it's clear from the overall category resilience that consumers continue to see great value in the CSD category relative to LRBs. Now that tariffs are in the picture, it does introduce another dimension that we'll need to think through. CSDs like our other categories are at least in part reliant on some aspects of the global supply chain. And so as that develops, we'll consider all potential mitigations, which could include additional pricing actions late in the year to protect our long term ability to invest and keep this business as healthy as we've seen it in Q1.

The next question comes from Lauren Lieberman with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks so much. I wanted to talk a little bit about coffee and elasticity. I know, you know, Tim, you mentioned in your prepared remarks, you know, some dynamics around timing of when, you know, the various players in the category put through pricing. But, you know, you have spoken in the past about, you know, needing to manage affordability broadly.

But if we're, you know, thinking about a kind of potentially constrained or already seeing a constrained consumer environment, where you stand on some of that messaging to really promote the idea of at home coffee being an affordable solution, etcetera. And just kind of how you're thinking about elasticity as the industry kind of gets more coordinated if you will on pricing for the green coffee inflation? Thanks.

Absolutely, Lauren. So, doubt in this inflationary environment that we find ourselves here in 2025. As I said, we've got two main priorities on the coffee business this year. The first is mitigating that green coffee inflation, including now tariff related impacts. And the second is making sure we are playing the long game and we're advancing long term initiatives specifically for us.

That means cold, that means premium and next generation propositions. We implemented a pod price increase in January on our owned and licensed portfolio. And as we look at the Q1 marketplace dynamics and the data that you see, we did I think it's clear competitor pricing layered in at different rates across brands and channels. And so far at a category level, the elasticity is certainly manageable and not particularly surprising. But the slower than expected pacing across competitive dynamics did weigh on our volume and mix performance in Q1.

And I would say that the price gaps weren't normal or consistent with historical norms. So we were under some pressure therefore in Q1 and quite honestly I'd expect those pressure points will persist likely into Q2. But we do expect it to ease looking into the second half. And we're already seeing evidence that competitive pricing is starting to accelerate across the category, especially if you look at the last few weeks of data. So, in the guidance that Sudhanshu and I provided, we've calibrated for that reality and we can stay patient as this plays out.

As you go into the back half, we will consider additional inflation mitigation steps in response to both green coffee and tariffs. Additional pricing could be one of the levers, but there are others as well, productivity mix and a broader cost base. As you think about the other part of your question talking about affordability, no doubt particularly in this macro environment, consumer affordability is critical and really demonstrating value to consumers is important in this inflationary environment. And we've talked in the past Lauren that at home coffee given its multi serve nature is more exposed on a total dollar outlay. And so to address this, we are focusing in two areas.

One is making sure we've got the right price pack options. And I remind you and others that last year we actually did a price pack adjustment that I think will service wellness environment to hit a lower total dollar outlay per pack. So think 12 to 10 or at club 100 to 80 count. And the other to your question is emphasizing the relative value of our proposition relative to at home coffee. And we think that that can play well.

And even on the premium end, you can have that incredible cup of Lavazza, La Colomme, Kicking Horse, Phil's Coffee, all the quality, all the value, all the convenience at a fraction of the coffee shop alternative price point. So that is certainly something we will leverage in this inflationary environment.

The next question comes from Nick Modi with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Yes, thanks. Good morning, everyone. Just two quick ones from me. Just, Tim, I'd love your perspective on activity amongst Hispanic Latino consumers here in The U. I mean, obviously it's a lot of immigration news and a lot of suppression I think of activity, but it's been pretty volatile.

We're hearing in April, for instance, very high Hispanic populated areas and brands lever to those areas are actually doing much better. So, I would just love your thoughts on kind of what you're seeing in the market and kind of how you think this will play forward. And then just one question on SNAP, given all these state level initiatives, what exactly is the industry's response or can the industry's response be from a legal perspective? Just given that there's a lot of arguments to be made against actually banning soda from SNAP, for instance, juice drinks, some of them have more sugar than CFCs, just as an example. So just would love your thoughts on that.

Yeah, Nick. So we'll start with Hispanic. As you well know, the Hispanic consumer is the second largest demographic group here in The US and accounts for a meaningful percentage of our business and broader CPG purchases. And we have many great brands that appeal to Hispanic consumers, but I would say our exposure to this group is in line with our peers and the overall category dynamic. Over the last couple of months, our data certainly is aligned with yours in terms of seeing softening trends among Hispanic consumers relative to the broader population.

And when you dig into that, you see that manifesting both in terms of fewer trips and lower spend per trip. Having said all that, I would say that the slowdown year to date that we're seeing in the Hispanic consumer purchase dynamic is not yet sufficient to move the needle on our enterprise trends. And I think you see that overall in the total enterprise results that we printed here for Q1. So the way I characterize it is, it is a watch point. I think it's contributing to the overall dampened consumer sentiment you're seeing in The US.

We are seeing some modest changes in consumer behavior and overall signs, same signs you see that external and macro factors are starting to have an impact in terms of consumer sentiment. But it's not yet sufficient to move the needle and I think our point of sale trends in our core categories show that we've remained resilient. Then to your second question on SNAP, I'd start with a couple of facts for you and others on the call and that is when you look at the grocery bill receipts of SNAP recipients and non SNAP households, they're actually strikingly consistent. And you see beverages playing an equally prominent role in both sets of households. Second thing I'd say is SNAP recipients fund part of their grocery bill through SNAP subsidies and part of their grocery bill with their own money.

And I think all this tends to suggest that should there be changes in SNAP, you could see a shift of kind of source of funds from left pocket to right pocket. But I'm not sure and we would not expect a significant change to our categories. You asked about our position as an industry and we certainly stand with our industry colleagues to advocate for consumers freedom of choice and giving SNAP recipients treating them with

anyone else to give them the choice to buy the food and beverage brands that they'd like. And of course, providing transparency on our ingredients. And I think as a beverage industry, we've actually done a great deal. You might say more than anyone else to reduce total caloric load in The U. S.

Calories from beverages are actually down 40% since 2060% of the beverage portfolio in the industry and here at KDP are lower no calorie and zero sugar. So, we've done a lot here. We will continue to work with the administration and our industry colleagues to advocate for consumers. And the last thing I'd say is to the extent there is any exposure here, KDP exposure would be similar to our peers.

The next question comes from Chris Carey with Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead.

wanted to ask about free cash flow. So obviously, was a noisy quarter with Ghost, but we're getting to this point where free cash flow is going to be less impacted by the payables program. Obviously, we've got this hit in Q1. You've kind of talked about capital allocation in the quarter, or as a general concept today. Can you maybe just help us frame how you would view maybe with a bit more specificity, your free cash flow development as we go through this year and really into 2026, and perhaps comment on how we should be thinking about free cash flow conversion.

I'm conscious that free cash flow has been a major debate on the company, but the payables program paying it down was a meaningful part of that. And so just trying to understand the path to a more tangible free cash flow inflection and what you would intend to do with that cash as it starts coming through in a more meaningful way? Thanks.

Good morning, Chris. As you know, cash generation is a hallmark of KDP. As you said, we deliberately took a step back over the last couple of years, and now we are on a clear path of returning to the structured conversion level. You can see our free cash flow profile is accelerating, and we made significant progress in 2024, and we plan to have a further improvement in 2025. Quarterly cash flow can be lumpy, we talked about Q1, but we had a good start in Q1.

And it was up year over year, even with the high one time gross distribution termination fee. In the long run, we are on track to restore business to the long term target conversion level over the next couple of years. Our goal remains, which I've said before, to return to the conversion level that are commensurate with our largest peers. It will take us a couple of years, but you will see 2025, more second half weighted, but it should be better than 2024, especially after you take into account the $225,000,000 distribution payment. Your question on capital allocation, we are highly focused on deploying this cash as we generate the cash we generate in a smart, disciplined and dynamic way.

Our long term capital allocation priorities are unchanged. They include internal investments, partnership M and A, steady dividend growth, and opportunistic share repo. And we strive to keep our leverage below 2.5 times. In the current environment, deleveraging is a priority, but we'll continue to consider opportunities to invest and grow the business while staying disciplined on our capital returns.

The next question comes from Peter Grom with UBS. Please go ahead.

Thanks, operator. Good morning, everyone. Hope you are doing well. I wanted to ask about Ghost. The performance for the brand was very strong, but I think the expectation was that the contribution would be the smallest in the first quarter and then build from here.

Is that still the right expectation as we think about the model moving forward? And then just second, a lot of discussion on moderating category growth across many of your categories, but energy drinks seem to have gone the other direction year to date. So just would be curious what you think is driving the improvement and whether you would anticipate growth to kind of continue to accelerate, particularly as the industry starts to cycle easier comparisons in the summer here? Thanks.

Yes, Peter. So let's address both parts of your questions and I might even take it in reverse order. But it's been a fast start out of the gate in Q1 for us on our energy platform broadly. And it's exciting to see already our platform of brands winning and showing up as anticipated in terms of very complementary and incremental to one another. At a category level to the second part of your question, energy as you said is one of the fastest growing categories within liquid refreshment beverage.

You saw a little bit of softness kind of last summer Q3 etcetera. You saw it start to pick up in Q4 and year to date retail sales are in the high single digits. And like you, we look at scanner data every week and I think you've seen robust growth to the last seven, eight weeks in a row double digits. So feeling good about the category, feeling good about the fact that it serves that universal need, feeling good even as we go into the back half and we lap some of the softness that you saw in 2024, those are good comps at a category level. Then talking KDP specifically, our portfolio has great momentum.

And I mentioned and I'll cover the other three and then get into Ghost. But C4, we're now entering year three of the partnership, big strong player in the performance sub segment and performing very well. Bloom Energy off to a red hot start, strongly resonating with women, still a young brand, already captured more than a half a point and Black Rifle Energy just beginning to hit shelves. And then you get to Ghost and you see us growing double digits at a retail level. I'm very happy with our progress year to date.

And I'd highlight a few points. Number one is, we've got a great working relationship with the Ghost team. We're aligned on our vision and their vision. We've got strong coordination. We've got complementary cultures.

It's working kind of at the people and team level. Second, we're well into transitioning the distribution and setting in motion our joint commercial plans. The process is going smoothly so far. It's on schedule. The handovers are going well.

And now that we've got greater control over the brand all the way to that point of buying, I think you're seeing those marketplace trends accelerating. Obviously, our focus on maximizing distribution, TDPs, total points of distribution, cooler space, displays, etcetera. And third, and I think most importantly, we are on track to deliver on our plan and our expectations for 2025 and the long term. And yes, to your question, we do believe we will continue to build momentum in the balance of the year.

The next question comes from Brian Spillane with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. It's Pete Galbo. Can you hear me?

Hey, guys. How are you? Thanks for taking the question. Appreciate it. Just maybe one clarification and then one kind of broader question.

But Sudanju, maybe you can just help us a bit more. I think it was about $04 of upside on the quarter relative to consensus. Obviously, you're not changing the guide and you've outlined that related to tariff and maybe the consumer environment. But maybe you can just help us a little bit with the phasing and how you're thinking about the build of EPS over the rest of the year from a cadence perspective?

So Pete, the beat in Q1 was some was driven by Whiter Cocoa sale. We sold Whiter Coco steak with a very successful steak, and we had a gain of close to like $0.15 if you think about it. So obviously, this giving us flexibility in balance of year to manage all the consumer headwind and tariff. We guide for the year and we are reaffirming the guide that it will be MST sales to the bias towards the higher end of sales and the EPS mid single digit. Obviously, Q1 was a double digit growth, but you saw the below the line helped.

So that's what I would say. I don't want to guide by quarter, but you can think about full year will be HSVPS, and Q1 is giving us flexibility to manage through all the headwinds, whether it's trade, tariff, or consumer. And IR can help you more towards modeling if you have more questions.

The next question comes from Kamil Gajrawala with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Good morning. It's it's bring your kid to work day at Jefferies, so I'm gonna have my son Cameron ask a question.

Blackberry Pepper Blackberry is already 1% market share and was only lost in February. How big of a contributor will it be for the year?

Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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