BellRing Brands, Inc. Q1 FY2026 earnings call

• First quarter delivered a solid foundation with results ahead of expectations, driven by timing of customer orders. - RTD shake category remains healthy with Premier holding 22% market share. - Narrowed 2026 net sales guidance to 4-6% growth and updated adjusted EBITDA guidance to $425 to $440 million. - Category redefined from convenient nutrition to wellness, increasing US category size to $24 billion. - Continued execution of strategies: growing distribution, increasing advertising investment, and launching innovation. - Launched 'Go Get them' campaign, coffee house shake line, and upcoming new shake lines. - Announcement of Darcy Davenport's retirement and CEO transition plan.

Total BellRing net sales for the quarter were $537 million, up 1% over the year. Premier Protein net sales were down 1% with RTD shake net sales down 2%. Dymatize sales increased 16% driven by strong volume performance particularly in international. Adjusted EBITDA was $90 million at a margin of 16.8%. The wellness category grew 7% in Q1, with RTD shakes up 7% driven by volume. Premier RTD shake consumption was down 2% in the quarter, while Dymatize net sales were up 6% on strong international growth.

• 2026 net sales expected to grow 4-6% to $2.41 billion to $2.46 billion. - Adjusted EBITDA expected to be $425 million to $440 million with a margin of approximately 18%. - Q2 net sales growth expected 3-4%, with Q2 adjusted EBITDA margin ~13% and significant sequential margin improvement expected in the second half.

• Increased promotional spending by insurgent brands impacting near-term consumption trends. - Input cost inflation, including whey protein costs, and tariffs affecting gross margins. - Uncertainty around competitive dynamics and their impact on market share and margins.

Q: Good morning, everybody. Guess my one question would be the main hope for the mass merchandiser test you talked about. Is to sort of just further prove that Premier Protein and ready to drink shakes in general sort of belong outside the pharmacy section, deserve greater points of disruption in the store. In those, I guess, stores where the execution of this test is in full swing, Maybe you could go into a little bit deeper. What sort of results are you seeing? And are they such that I think, if I'm not mistaken, this was supposed to be sort of a three month sort of test. There a possibility that based on the results you see that this gets extended? Or somehow changes the way Premier Protein is merchandised in either that store or others going forward, give me you'll have some proof points for it.

A: Thanks, Andrew. Yeah. The the program is performing very well. So we absolutely internally view this as a success and something that we want to bring to others First of all, bring to that same retailer later in the year, but also bring to other food drug mass customers and show the impact that they can have on their category and on our business. We're seeing record weekly sales on the rollback items, January was our largest month ever. At this retail I mean, just a shout out to our team. They're doing an amazing job with execution. And when I say our team, the broader team, we have an internal activation team that I talked about in prior calls as well as a new broker, and, you know, they're in the stores all the time. And it it's working. So I think, you know, we had we had we have good learnings. This was really our first major kind of program. If you think of I mean, right now, we have you know, up to it depends store to store, but we could have up to kind of seven displays throughout the store. Obviously, some are in testing, some are in fewer markets. But it is we have really good learnings that we can now apply to other customers. So, yeah, thanks for the question. It's it's we're really pleased with the results.

Q: Hi, good morning. Thanks so much. Wanted to ask a little bit about the consumption. Darcy, last quarter, you talked about an expectation that December consumption for Premier would accelerate to low double digits, and that would continue into January. I think you noted in the prepared remarks that some of the timing of the mass retailer partnerships was was the primary driver of Premier being slightly below. But it seems like into January, the the consumption's still running a bit below what you would had expected. So you just help us understand a little bit more of know, is that primary just what's going on primarily what's going on in the club channel You know, maybe some of the weaknesses persisted a bit longer than you expected on the on the the promotional intensity into January. And just help us understand kind of what's what's embedded into the the balance of the year for that channel in particular and maybe you can touch on just the expanded, sets as well and and how that's factored in.

A: Yes, two main reasons that we so Premier shake consumption was down 2% in Q1, and we we modeled, and I predicted it would be flat. So two main reasons. One was what you talked about, which slightly we were slightly below the guide because of the time the timing delay. In setting up that mass promo. And then there's a second piece. Which is we start and I talked about it in my remarks. But we saw a small impact from increased frequency of events from insurgent brands, and that was mainly in club, but also some in mass as well. So part of bringing down our know, narrowing our guide a couple points, basically taking the top end off the guidance was we are flowing we're assuming that level of kind of frequency of events, promotion, throughout the rest of the year. So that is and that is, you know, affecting kind of some of the January consumption that you're seeing too. What I will say is and I think you guys are seeing it as well. The consumption is improving. So I think that although we kinda had a little bit of a late start than we expected, lots of learnings there, but we're starting to see a nice increase 6% all channels in January. 16% outside of club. So we are seeing some strong momentum. We expect that to continue. Through and continue into you know, throughout Q2 and further into q into '8 into the second half. As we start seeing our growth drivers become more meaningful. And I think Megan, there was another question in there. Just the expanded shelf set. Any update you kind of have on that at at your largest club customer? Yes. So, you know, as as we said last last call, we expect that it would stay we still expect it to stay.