Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Lauren Torres – HSBC.
Lauren Torres - HSBC
You left out any volume or pricing guidance or outlook for this year, but just on a very broad case or broad perspective that you may have at this point, I was curious if you could give us a sense, maybe more so for the U.S., as far as expectations about getting volumes growing again. And also, with that said, thoughts on the pricing for this year.
Eric J. Foss
Let me take and I will ask Rob to add some commentary on the pricing front. First of all let me say that we continue to be very focused on volume. I think if you look at 2008, really you saw for the first time in over five years where we have seen volume declines. Obviously part of that was due to the commodity pressures we knew going into the year and the pricing that we had to take to cover that, but a big piece of that was just the economic environment and the recession that we are dealing with.
But again, if you look back prior to 2008 and those economic pressures, I think you will see that PBG is a company that posted something like 5% to 7% top-line growth consistently year in and year out.
There are really three things we are doing as we focus on volume. Number one is we’re trying to strengthen our brand portfolio. I mentioned we like the Pepsico innovation pipeline, the addition of Crush, Muscle Milk, and Lebedyansky help us close gaps in our white space and build scale.
The second thing, and one that we think we are starting to get some key learnings on, is that we have to stay focused and make sure in this environment we are delivering the right consumer value impression at retail. And whether that be through some of the price pack work we’re doing on single-serve and take-home cans or just having lived with this for a year now, I think this year we go in better prepared with more volume-building initiatives and packaging initiatives. I mentioned the 8-pack LTL earlier. I think we’re just better prepared with a better arsenal of weapons to really focus against volume.
And then obviously third, you’ve got to be great at the point of sale and drive display inventory and execute well.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
