Campbell Soup Conference Call Highlights

reported its third quarter earnings on Tuesday. Shares of the company are up 1 percent. Below are some key highlights from its conference call.

• I was pleased that we drove top and bottom line growth in U.S. • Simple Meals with higher sales in our U.S. soup portfolio. • Our U.S. soup performance benefited from a stronger seasonal sell-in and the timing of our quarter-end relative to the Thanksgiving holiday. • As we've stated, one of our strategic priorities is to expand our presence in the faster growing Premium Soup segment, which represents roughly 10% of the wet soup category. • We made good progress as we launched new Slow Kettle varieties in the quarter to drive the brand's double-digit sales growth. • Many of our retail customers have created dedicated shelf space for our premium soups, where we have gained additional linear feet. • The next step in our plan is to expand further with the launch of six varieties of Campbell's organic soup in easier-to-open cartons this January. • Another key driver in U.S. Simple Meals was our strong performance in sauces including Prego, Pace and Campbell's Dinner Sauces, as we introduced new products and leveraged merchandising. • We expanded our Dinner Sauces platform beyond Skillet and Slow Cooker pouches with the launch of Oven Sauces in the quarter, which is quickly achieved 52% ACV. • Overall, Campbell Dinner Sauces now have over 80% ACV with dedicated sections that are becoming a consumer destination. • Within Global Baking and Snacking a significant improvement in our core business was our performance in Australian biscuits. • We're moving in the right direction to stabilize the business in Australia where we drove Arnott's sales and earnings. • Our team grew consumption and share in total biscuits by strengthening planning and execution with our retail partners. • Increasing marketing and promotion behind core brands and driving innovation including new Tim Tam varieties and Light & Crispy Arnott's Shapes.

• First-quarter net sales increased 4% to $2 billion, $255 million. • Organic net sales increase by 5% with volume and organic sales gains in four of our five reportable segments. • Sales in the quarter benefited from movements in retailer inventory levels from a stronger seasonal sell-in and the later timing of our quarter relative to the Thanksgiving holiday. • In aggregate, the movement in retailer inventories represent about half of our organic sales gains in the quarter. • As you can see, we grew adjusted EPS by $0.08 per share, $0.07 of which is attributable to the growth in EBIT. • Net interest expense declined $5 million versus a year ago as we reduced our debt level using the proceeds of European Simple Meals divestiture and this contributed $0.01 to EPS growth in the quarter. • Our tax rate remains relatively flat declining 40 basis points to 31.8%. • We resumed repurchases under our strategic share repurchase program in the quarter repurchasing 50 million under this program. • However, given the timing there was no impact on EPS growth in the quarter. While currency had a one point impact on sales it did not impact EPS in the quarter. • In Global Baking and Snacking we achieved 3% organic sales growth driven by the improved performance of Arnott's. • We are pleased with our consumption and share gains in the Australian biscuit category given our previous challenges while Indonesia delivered another quarter of double-digit sales gains.