Hormel Foods Corp (HRL) Q2 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

Hormel Foods Corp  (NYSE: HRL) Q2 2021 earnings call dated May 20, 2021

Corporate Participants:

Nathan Annis — Director of Investor Relations

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Jim Sheehan — Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Analysts:

Peter Galbo — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

Adam Samuelson — Goldman Sachs — Analyst

Rupesh Parikh — Oppenheimer & Co. — Analyst

Thomas Palmer — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Robert B. Moskow — Credit Suisse — Analyst

Michael Lavery — Piper Sandler — Analyst

Eric Larson — Seaport Global Securities — Analyst

Pooran Sharma — Stephens — Analyst

Antonio Hernandez — Barclays — Analyst

Presentation:

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Hormel Foods Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Webcast and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Nathan Annis, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Nathan Annis — Director of Investor Relations

Good morning. Welcome to the Hormel Foods conference call for the second quarter of fiscal 2021.

We released our results this morning before the market opened, around 6:30 AM Eastern. If you did not receive a copy of the release, you can find it on our website at hormelfoods.com under the Investors section.

On our call today is Jim Snee, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Jim Sheehan, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Jim Snee will provide a review of the Company’s current and future operating conditions, commentary regarding each segment’s performance for the quarter and a perspective on the balance of fiscal 2021. Jim Sheehan will provide detailed financial results and commentary regarding the Company’s current and future financial condition.

The line will be open for questions following Jim Sheehan’s remarks. As a courtesy to the other analysts, please limit yourself to one question with one follow-up. If you have additional questions, you’re welcome to get back into the queue. An audio replay of the call will be available beginning at noon today, Central Standard Time. The dial-in number is 877-344-7529, and the access code is 10155508. It will also be posted on our website and archived for one year.

Before we get started, I need to reference the Safe Harbor statement. Some of the comments made today will be forward-looking and actual results may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the statements we will be making. Please refer to Pages 26 through 32 in the Company’s Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended January 24, 2021. It can be accessed on our website.

I will now turn the call over to Jim Snee.

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Nathan. Good morning, everyone.

Once again this quarter, I want to recognize the heroic work of our production team members. This team deserves much of the credit for our record sales results this quarter as they continued working to produce safe high-quality food for millions of consumers and customers.

Our number one priority has been to keep our team members safe and our cross-functional COVID-19 leadership team is ensuring we are on the leading edge of the country’s vaccination efforts. To date, we have fully vaccinated over 51% of our domestic workforce, which is well ahead of the country’s vaccination rate. We are encouraged by the rapid decline in cases in our communities.

From a top-line perspective, our balanced business model has again proven to be a winning formula as our team delivered record sales for the second quarter and first half. In total, sales for the quarter increased 8% compared to last year, and the sales increased over 5% for the first half of the year. A key driver of our sales performance is the rebound in our foodservice business. As expected our foodservice team experienced a strong recovery and took numerous actions to properly position our organization to capitalize on the industry recovery. For the quarter, foodservice sales increased 28%. This reflects an increase of 1% over 2019 pre-pandemic levels. This is a significant accomplishment, especially knowing where the industry was just a few short months ago.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, our foodservice teams have been doing their part to support the industry. Within days of the crisis, we worked closely with our distributor and operator partners to assist their businesses in many different ways; whether it was a rebate program to offset food costs, extending payment leniency, helping adjust to the new takeout delivery and pickup environment or simply being available to personally check in with the restaurant tour to see how they’re doing. Our confidence in the industry recovery never wavered. We know these actions benefited our distributor and operator partners and are playing a part in our outperformance of the broader industry trends.

During this difficult labor environment, our experienced and tenured direct sales force is helping operators meet their accelerating demand with products that simplify their food preparation, save time and minimize labor, all while preserving the flexibility to add their own unique touch to a menu item. Products like Hormel Fire Braised meats, Sadler’s authentic smoke barbecue, Fontanini authentic Italian meat, Hormel Bacon 1 fully cooked bacon, Wholly Guacamole and Jennie-O Turkey are uniquely positioned to meet this need. The brightest spot in our foodservice portfolio has been our pizza toppings business. Prior to the pandemic, we capitalized on the continued growth in this category, especially for premium products and invested heavily in capacity to meet future demand.

We’ve also been investing in plant-based offerings and are seeing growth from our plant-based pepperoni and crumbles products. We are excited to leverage our expertise in the pizza toppings category to drive growth in plant-based toppings. With our new capacity expansion effort and with additional pepperoni capacity set to open at the beginning of fiscal 2022, we are set up nicely to meet the consistent growth we have seen in this space. With the foodservice industry recovery well underway, we will continue to strengthen our relationships with our valued partners, invest in our direct sales team and support the industry’s return to growth with innovative, convenience and flavorful product solutions.

In addition to foodservice growth, our retail and deli businesses also remained healthy with demand elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels. Total retail sales this quarter were flat to last year as we lapped the months when consumers were stocking their pantries in anticipation of the pandemic. Sales finished up 16% compared to the second quarter of 2019. And we continued to see strength from our leading brands such as SPAM, Applegate, Jennie-O, Black Label, Herdez and Wholly.

As a reminder, we experienced an immediate and sustained demand surge for our shelf-stable products in the Grocery Products segment at the onset of the pandemic. The second wave of demand that impacted our perishable and refrigerated items happened weeks later in the third fiscal quarter.

Sales in the deli channel increased 4% this quarter and are up 9% over pre-pandemic levels. Hormel Gatherings party trays delivered strong growth as consumers started to spend more time with family and friends, and consequently, are purchasing more products to entertain their guests. The Columbus brand remains a cornerstone for our deli business, and it is now benefiting from the opening of our new plant in Omaha, which is providing much needed capacity. Columbus is a leader in charcuterie, and we now have the capacity to continue expanding distribution. Across the retail and deli space, our consumer takeaway metrics continue to be positive according to IRI. Many of our brands have made large gains in household penetration, overall buy rates are improving and we are seeing an expansion in cross purchasing across our brands.

E-commerce sales grew double-digits in the last 12 weeks, according to IRI, and we are gaining share in important categories. We will continue to increase our investment in this important channel. Throughout the quarter, our supply chain continued to improve as we were able to increase production levels through a combination of gaining efficiencies, increasing capacities and leveraging our strategic supply chain partners.

Another area we have made great strides is in our distribution network. Over the last year, we have opened a new Grocery Products distribution center, and, in recent weeks, have opened a Refrigerated distribution center serving the West Coast. These strategic investments will reduce overall freight miles and costs, improve our customer service levels, support growth for our value-added businesses and reduce greenhouse emissions.

From a bottom-line perspective, operating income showed a slight decline. We saw raw material and feed prices rapidly increase throughout the quarter. We have taken pricing actions in many categories, but did not see the full benefit of these actions during the quarter. As we have previously discussed, in volatile market conditions, pricing will lag the markets, which will shift profits to subsequent quarters. Net earnings and diluted earnings per share were flat to last year. A higher tax rate negatively impacted earnings by $0.01 per share compared to last year.

Turning to the segments. Refrigerated Foods volume increased 3% and sales increased 17%, with growth coming from almost every division. Value added sales increased 18%, driven by a significant recovery in the foodservice businesses. As anticipated, we saw a rapid increase in foodservice demand as the quarter progressed. Almost all categories within the foodservice grew sales, led by our pizza toppings portfolio and brands such as Fontanini and Bacon 1. In fact, pepperoni, pizza toppings, Bacon 1 and Fontanini authentic Italian meats all showed growth compared to the second quarter of 2019. We also experienced a recovery in the premium breakfast portfolio, with growth from our Old Smokehouse brand.

Additionally, we saw excellent growth from our premium prepared proteins, which include brands such as Austin Blues, Fire Braised, Cafe H and Sadler’s. These items are key to our pre-strategy, items that are pre-marinated, pre-cooked, pre-sliced and fully prepared. As the industry recovery accelerates into the summer and labor remains the predominant challenge for most operators, our line of products offer convenient, safe, versatile and flavorful solutions.

Our retail and deli teams delivered a strong quarter on the top line, with growth coming from products such as Black Label bacon, Hormel Gatherings, Applegate, Lloyd’s Barbeque, Hormel Pepperoni and Columbus prepared foods items.

Refrigerated Foods segment profit increased 32% due to higher foodservice sales, higher retail fresh pork profitability and decreased operational expenses due to abating COVID-19 cost pressures.

International delivered its fifth consecutive quarter of record earnings growth, with sales increasing 17% and segment profit increasing 6%. The performance of the team in China remains impressive. Foodservice volumes have recovered to pre-pandemic levels, driven by growth from SKIPPY, pizza toppings, and bacon items. Retail demand for the SPAM and SKIPPY brands has also been outstanding. The Company’s innovative offerings including beef jerky, SKIPPY snacking items and two new SPAM varieties are providing additional avenues for growth, and we remain confident in the long-term prospects for our China business. Branded exports also grew with growth coming from the SKIPPY and SPAM brands, higher foodservice sales and improved margins on the fresh pork items. In addition, our partners in the Philippines, South Korea and Europe continued to experience elevated demand for shelf-stable products.

Grocery Products results were strong given the difficult comparison to last year due to the extremely high levels of demand experienced at the onset of the pandemic. Even though volume declined 14%, sales declined 8% and segment profit declined 23%, we are encouraged by the segment’s performance as we have seen sustained consumer demand for many of our brands compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Sales for center store brands such as SPAM, Hormel Chili, Compleats and Mary Kitchen hash were all over 20% higher compared to our second quarter of 2019. We will continue to support our leading brands including SKIPPY, SPAM, Compleats, Herdez, Wholly, Justin’s and Hormel Chili, and we’re resuming promotional activity as inventory levels normalize.

Our MegaMex joint venture performed well, as equity and earnings increased 26%. Both Herdez and Wholly brands grew as consumers looked for authentic and convenient Mexican products to enhance their at-home eating occasions.

The Herdez brand continues to outperform the salsa category. This brand has grown households by 3 million since the start of the pandemic and has introduced industry leading innovation to the marketplace in recent years. Following the highly successful performance of Herdez’s Guacamole Salsa, we continue to expand distribution and grow share with two new product lines: Herdez Taqueria Street Sauces and Herdez Salsa Cremosas. Recently, Herdez also entered the hot sauce market with the introduction of Herdez Avocado Hot Sauce, another versatile offering that can enhance any meal.

The Wholly brand had a strong quarter as well, as it continues to target consumers looking for convenient solutions to enjoy avocado offerings. Our recent innovations, including Wholly Smashed and Wholly Diced Avocado products solve for that consumer need. And as we saw across many of our refrigerated foodservice businesses, demand for avocado products in the channel started to return during the quarter.

Jennie-O volume decreased 3% and sales increased 2%, a recovery in the foodservice business and higher whole bird sales drove the sales increase. Foodservice volumes were up double digits compared to last year. Demand for Jennie-O retail products such as Lean Ground Turkey remained above pre-pandemic levels. Jennie-O Turkey Store segment profit declined 54% due to the impact from higher feed costs. Grain prices continued to increase significantly during the quarter, while pricing action had yet to be fully reflected in the marketplace. Jim Sheehan will provide further commentary on the actions we have taken to manage higher corn and soybean meal costs.

Looking to the balance of the year, we are increasing our full year sales guidance range to $10.2 billion to $10.8 billion, and reaffirming our earnings per share guidance range of $1.70 to $1.82 per share. As a reminder, this guidance range does not include the estimated impact of the pending acquisition of the Planters snacks nuts business.

Our diversified and balanced business model gives us confidence we can perform well in many different economic scenarios and market conditions. We have a very positive outlook on the foodservice business as we head into the second half of the year. We are well positioned from an inventory and capacity standpoint to meet the demand from our distributor partners and operators, and are confident in our ability to gain share throughout the recovery. Additionally, we are increasingly confident that K-12 schools and colleges and universities will open and operate in a more traditional manner this fall. This should benefit both Refrigerated Foods and Jennie-O Turkey Store.

We continue to see elevated demand in the retail, deli and international channels. We expect to further benefit from pricing actions, increased capacities on key product lines and continued improvements in our supply chain. This year, we have seen rapid increases in key input costs across our businesses, and we expect to operate in a high-cost environment for the remainder of the year. Our experienced management team has a proven ability to navigate and grow our business in volatile and inflationary market conditions. And once again, we will be leveraging our direct sales force to partner with our customers to mutually grow our businesses.

As a reminder, our operations were heavily impacted by plant shutdowns, supply shortages and lower production throughput caused by the effects of the pandemic in the back half of fiscal 2020. This ultimately led to lower levels of inventory, which negatively affected the third and fourth quarters. Through the strategic actions we have taken to improve all facets of our operations and based on our record first half performance, we expect to benefit from more normalized operations in the back half of fiscal 2021. I am confident in our ability to continue growing and I’m looking forward to closing the acquisition of Planters next month.

At this time, I will turn the call over to Jim Sheehan to discuss our financial information relating to the quarter, give an update on our financial position and provide commentary regarding key input cost markets.

Jim Sheehan — Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Jim. Good morning.

Record sales for the second quarter were $2.6 billion, an increase of 8%. First half sales increased 5% to $5.1 billion, also a record.

Pre-tax earnings increased 2% for the quarter compared to last year.

Diluted earnings per share for the quarter was $0.42 per share, flat to last year. Second quarter results reflected approximately $0.01 per share in incremental COVID-related costs and $0.01 in higher tax expense.

SG&A, excluding advertising, was 6.5% of sales, down slightly to last year. Advertising spend for the quarter was $31 million.

Operating margins for the quarter were 11.1% compared to 12.1% last year. Higher raw material and feed costs negatively impacted margins, as pricing lagged input cost increases. We have taken numerous pricing actions across the portfolio to protect profitability. The actions will take place early in the third quarter with additional pricing actions likely. COVID-related expenses were $6 million. The impact of COVID expenses continued to decline. Net unallocated expenses decreased due to higher investment income.

The effective tax rate for the quarter was 22.1% compared to 20.6% last year. Excluding the impact from the Planters acquisition, we estimate the full year tax rate to be between 20% and 21.5%.

We built inventory during the quarter in preparation for higher demand and to support continued growth for the remainder of the year. Our strategic action to build inventory was the primary driver of lower operating cash flow during the quarter. We paid our 371st consecutive quarterly dividend, effective May 17th, at an annual rate of $0.98, a 5% increase over the prior year. Share repurchases were minimal during the quarter. Capital expenditures were $45 million in the quarter. The Company’s target for capital expenditures in 2021 is $260 million.

During the second quarter, we saw dramatic increases in pork and hog prices. USDA composite cutout prices since January have increased more than $30, with all primals contributing to the increase. Key inputs such as bellies and trim increased 57% and 76%, respectively, during the quarter.

Pork exports also set an all-time record in March due to African swine fever outbreaks in China, Southeast Asia and Europe. We anticipate strength in pork markets due to continued export demand and a foodservice recovery domestically. The USDA is now projecting pork production for the year to be slightly lower than 2020. Industry operating efficiencies are expected to improve as COVID pressures abate; however, labor availability, tighter hog supplies and reductions in the sow herd [Phonetic] support higher markets.

Our balanced approach to hog import procurement mitigated cost volatility during the quarter. In high-cost and volatile environment, the strength of our leading brands and balanced approach to procurement continues to be a competitive advantage. The guidance range assumes elevated and volatile market conditions for the balance of the year, with some moderation heading into the fall. We expect hog price in the USDA composite cutout to remain well above year-ago levels due to strong domestic and export demand, along with tighter hog supplies. We anticipate prices to peak during the summer and gradually decline in the fall, consistent with the seasonal increase in harvest.

Deli prices are projected to remain higher than last year in historical averages. We anticipate markets to stabilize near the current levels, but volatility due to lower cold storage levels and strong demand in the foodservice channel could cause inflationary pressure. Pork trim prices are expected to moderate from the current levels, but labor shortages across the industry remains a key risk to trim prices as limited boning capacity directly impacts trim supply and pricing. Due to the higher beef harvest levels in the summer months, beef prices are anticipated to be lower in the back half of 2020.

In response to global supply and demand imbalances in corn and soybean meal, we have taken strategic hedges to fully cover grain costs for the remainder of the year. The positions also provide a benefit if markets decline. These hedges, coupled with the previously announced pricing actions, are expected to protect Jennie-O’s profitability. Turkey poult placements and egg sets have declined. Inventory levels are lower compared to last year. The tightening of supply has led to higher whole turkey and thigh meat markets. We have also recently seen an increase in breast meat prices. A recovery in the foodservice industry remains the key driver for higher prices for this important market.

We anticipate inflationary pressure on freight in the back half of the year. The tactical action to optimize our distribution network with two new DCs combined with improvements in load efficiencies will help mitigate a portion of the increase. We have obtained the required regulatory approvals for the acquisition of the Planters snack nut business. The scheduled close date is in June.

At this time, I’ll turn the call over to the operator for the question-and-answer portion of the call.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The first question today will come from Peter Galbo with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Peter Galbo — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

Hey, guys. Good morning. Thank you for taking the question.

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Peter.

Peter Galbo — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

And Jim Sheehan, thank you for all of the commentary. Jim, I guess just thinking about the guide and the move in sales relative to kind of keeping EPS flat, if we were to just take the midpoint of the sales guide, it kind of implies that you’ll see a relatively decent acceleration in gross margins in the back half of the year, something in the magnitude of 60 basis points to 70 basis points kind of versus what you did in the front half. A, I just wanted to see if that’s kind of how directionally you’re thinking about it? And just given all the headwinds you called out understanding that the pricing actions that are coming through, what would drive kind of that sequential improvement in gross margin?

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Good morning, Peter. Thanks for the question. I mean, really what we’re talking about here is the timing, the volatility, the magnitude of the inflation that we’re seeing. And so the pricing actions that we’ve taken didn’t happen all right at the beginning of the second quarter. And quite frankly, we’re not done with all the pricing actions that we need to take. So, we’ve got a lot of activity on that front. And so just the sequential action in our pricing is what will lead to that sequential improvement in margins. And so, as you think about Q3, you’ll see improvement, but probably some slightly lower margins as pricing hasn’t quite caught up. Q4 really start to see more normalized margins as full pricing takes effect across the board. And I think it’s important to note that we’ve either taken or will take price across almost all of our business.

Peter Galbo — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

No, that’s helpful. Maybe just to clarify there, Jim. On the third quarter, is that lower margins sequentially versus last year versus normal? And then just the second question, as we think about Jennie-O, obviously, you’ve locked in some of the feed costs for the remainder of the year. Jim Sheehan, I think you tossed out a 9% operating margin bogey as a target maybe for this year. Is that timeline kind of pushed out to ’22 or ’23 at this point? Thanks very much.

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

I’ll start on Q3. And I think you’re — the first question is, that’s relative to last year, so slightly lower margins the last year just as pricing hasn’t fully caught up.

Jim Sheehan — Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. I’ll touch on the JOTS issue, Peter. First of all, as we’ve talked about there, pricing is now in place to cover that first ramp-up of grain costs. And as we talked about, we’ve protected the grain costs for the rest of the year, and — with also having downside protection on that. So we’re 100% covered on grain.

The other thing is that we talk about is what’s happening in the markets. When you think about Jennie-O, the fundamentals which we keep pointing towards over the last few years are better. Hog sets and — our egg sets and poult placements are both down 3% to 4%. And you’re starting to see that with the cold storage levels continue to be at 26 below — 26% below the five-year average. What you’re starting to see now is some nice improvements in the commodity markets around turkey. For instance, yesterday you saw breast meat at $2.11. The — there are a lot of watch-outs on JOTS, but there’s also a fair amount of upside, and we’re starting to see that upside come through. We’ve launched these — the fundamentals point towards better markets for probably a year now. They really haven’t taken place, but they do seem to be taking place as we go forward.

As far as the 9%, yeah, these — the drastic jump up in grain costs obviously delayed that. So, we look at the full year margin of 9%, that’s really been pushed out a bit.

Peter Galbo — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

All right. No, that’s very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

The next question today will come from Adam Samuelson with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Adam Samuelson — Goldman Sachs — Analyst

Yes. Thanks. Good morning, everyone.

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Hi, Adam.

Jim Sheehan — Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Hi, Adam.

Adam Samuelson — Goldman Sachs — Analyst

Hi. Jim Sheehan, maybe continuing on some of the JOTS questions there. In your last response, you referenced kind of whole bunch of some positive, but a bunch of watch-out. Apart from grain costs, I’d love to hear kind of the key things that are still on your mind. Is it less reflective of demand growth and kind of your performance in retail, shelf penetration, just what are you kind of focused on there besides the grain cost as the key watch out?

Jim Sheehan — Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Well, I’ll start with a little bit on the watch-outs, and I’ll turn it over to Jim to talk about the performance. I think as you look at the inflation that we’ve seen recently and as you look forward, obviously, you have — the grain is impacting inflation. For that, you’ve got the demand — we know the demand is very solid. Weather conditions look pretty good, [Indecipherable] intentions seem to be maybe a little bit understated at the USDA. So that looks okay. It looks good at this point. Obviously, in June, we’ll have a better read of that.

But as I would look at things — I think the other thing that’s impacting inflation is labor availability. I mean, getting people back into their jobs will, I think, alleviate some of the labor pressure. From a COVID standpoint, we’re in really good shape. But it’s getting new hires, it’s getting people back to the job, that probably is watch-out for me not only at JOTS, but across the industry. Jim?

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. And, Adam, I would say more from a business perspective. I think our retail business has performed well. Again, it’s hard in the year-over-year environment. But if we go back to pre-pandemic, especially in our Lean Ground Turkey, very, very strong performance, pleased with the distribution gains, household penetration, the velocities that we’re seeing. And from a foodservice perspective, they’re a little bit more exposed to the K-12 business, the school business, which obviously didn’t come back in full strength. We do expect to see that in the fall and then spillover into 2022. So as we think about it from a retail and foodservice perspective, there is optimism on the business front.

Adam Samuelson — Goldman Sachs — Analyst

All right. That color is really helpful. And then my second question was really just thinking about trajectory of foodservice as we go into the back half of the year. You kind of gave some color where the second quarter was up versus 2019 levels. How do you think the industry performed, or I guess, the relevant categories for you on a similar metric? And just areas where you think you’re maybe gaining some outsized share that’s giving you some optimism?

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. I mean I think it’s fair to say in a really broad base, we outperformed the industry here in the second quarter. And that’s not new, right? I mean as — even pre-pandemic, we talked about our foodservice business typically growing at double the industry rate. And so, we’re confident that we’ve outgrown or grown faster than the industry. For us, where we see future opportunity is in a number of our segments. We haven’t seen lodging come back. We really haven’t seen college and university fully come back, which is a big part of our Hormel Foodservice business. I referenced K-12 for the Jennie-O foodservice business. So, there’s still a lot of dynamics at play. And so, even as these other segments, these other channels really start to reopen, those are going to have a favorable impact on our foodservice business as well.

Adam Samuelson — Goldman Sachs — Analyst

All right. I really — I appreciate that color. I’ll pass it on. Thanks.

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

The next question today will come from Rupesh Parikh with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Rupesh Parikh — Oppenheimer & Co. — Analyst

Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. So, I guess, just given what we saw in Q2, foodservice now above where you were in 2019, grocery is still very strong. So, if you exit the pandemic, I mean, do you guys think now that you have a much higher foodservice and grocery business going forward?

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

I think, we’re — Rupesh, I mean, we’ve always felt very confident in all of our business obviously. We’ve talked a lot about the strength of our business in particular in center of the store. And so we think it will continue to be strong post pandemic. You’re going to have some moving parts and some volatility in year-over-year, quarter-to-quarter. But I want — I believe once things settle down, we’ll see our continued strength in center of the store grocery business, continued strength in our Refrigerated Retail business. And then, we’ve always talked about our real competitive advantage in the foodservice space. And I think that’s playing out right now, it will continue to play out this year and into the future.

Rupesh Parikh — Oppenheimer & Co. — Analyst

Great. And then maybe one follow-up question. So, if you look at Grocery Products, I was curious how you guys are thinking about that segment for the balance of the year? And then as sales trends have turned negative for other players as well, how would you characterize the current promotional backdrop?

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. The biggest driver for us right now, Rupesh, is getting some of those Tier 2 and Tier 3 items back on shelf. And that’s really what retailers need as we want to provide more promotional activity in the back half of the year and into ’22. You can’t just have one variety and have a promotion. So, as our supply chain has recovered, and we’ve been able to focus on those varieties, we’re seeing retailers being a lot more willing to engage in promotional discussions, which will be very, very helpful for the business in the balance of ’21 into ’22.

Jim Sheehan — Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

The only thing I’d add to that, Rupesh, is that remember, our fourth quarter, in GP, was significantly constrained by capacity issues in our operations.

Rupesh Parikh — Oppenheimer & Co. — Analyst

Great. Thank you for all the color. I’ll pass it along.

Operator

The next question will come from Tom Palmer with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Thomas Palmer — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Hi, thanks for the question.

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Hi, Tom.

Thomas Palmer — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

You mentioned on the earnings call that more price is expected to flow through in the second half of the year. Price mix, 11% this quarter, highest in years. I know you typically don’t provide this, but just given the magnitude of the price mix figure, could you help with some detail on how much mix really contributed to that number in the second quarter? And then how much maybe pricing we should expect to really ramp as we look at the second half of the year? I mean, you’re putting up a little bit [Phonetic] now, I mean, are you throwing 5% on top of that or some sizable number?

Jim Sheehan — Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. No, it’s a great question, Tom. As you think about our business and that price mix, I mean, really a key driver in the second quarter was our foodservice business, which tends to track markets more closely than the retail business. We have — we did have some impact of retail pricing in the quarter, but again it wasn’t for the entire quarter. But the big driver in the quarter was foodservice.

Thomas Palmer — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Okay. Thank you. And then in the prepared remarks, Jim Sheehan, you noted the magnitude of the hog and pork price increases. Last year saw some weaker hog pricing, you called out hedging losses. I know there’ll be more color in the 10-Q, but just any detail on hedging this quarter, such as — maybe gains that flowed through?

Jim Sheehan — Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Sure, Tom. I appreciate the question. Remember our accounting method is one that we do not mark to market our positions, but we run them through the cost of goods at the time the product is sold. So as you look at our — the realized gains and losses are in the quarter, the unrealized are in other comprehensive income, and those will be in the $45 million range of unrealized gains and losses. And that would be for hogs, grain and our interest positions.

Thomas Palmer — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Okay. Thanks for that detail. Just to confirm, not a factor this quarter, it was recognized then [Phonetic]?

Jim Sheehan — Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

It didn’t give us much help this quarter. It was a pretty immaterial amount.

Thomas Palmer — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

And the next question will come from Robert Moskow with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Robert B. Moskow — Credit Suisse — Analyst

Hi. I guess a couple of clarity questions. Just on that, Jim, the $45 million, I guess those are hedging gains. So, those will flow through on a positive way to your P&L as you sell the product. But it’s also — there’s also higher input costs flowing through also. So they kind of fighting against each other for the next couple of quarters. Is that…

Jim Sheehan — Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. I mean, the unrealized gains or gains based on the market at the close what would be a factor. Now we also — as I stated before, we also have our interest hedges in there too. So those are more related to the debt that we will be issuing, and have a longer tail that obviously the grain or the hog markets. So, it’s a mixture.

Robert B. Moskow — Credit Suisse — Analyst

Okay. I’ll follow up on that. Regarding the 6% pricing in Grocery in the quarter, can you give a little color on what kind of product lines you raised the pricing on? Is that going to accelerate as well, or is that kind of like a new normal for a while because of actions you took in March?

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Price — the biggest driver to the pricing in the front part of the year, Rob, was the SKIPPY price increase that we took earlier in the year. In GP, I mean, we still have additional pricing action to come, whether it’s SPAM or Herdez, I mean a number of different GP items. So we did have some in the first half, but there is still more to come in the back half of the year.

Robert B. Moskow — Credit Suisse — Analyst

Okay. That’s my questions. Thanks.

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

And the next question will come from Michael Lavery with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Michael Lavery — Piper Sandler — Analyst

Thank you. Good morning. Just wanted to go back to the share gains kind of broadly and maybe try to understand a little bit the landscape at a high level. I guess, just looking at kind of your foodservice growth versus 2019 and the strong retail growth versus 2019, assuming people aren’t just eating more, there is clearly some momentum there that is coming from somewhere, and I suppose there is a chance there’s maybe a permanent reset of pantry inventory, but even that probably a small. So, can you just give a sense of who you’re gaining share from? Are there smaller competitors that have — suppliers that have gone out of business? Or just — how do you kind of understand how you’re sourcing your share gains?

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. I mean, it’s a mix, again, depending on which category you’re talking about. I mean in some cases, we are in line with category. So whether you think Bacon or SPAM or peanut butter. I think we’ve seen some outpacing in some of our meal offerings, as you mentioned. I think we’ve seen it in our Mexican portfolio, which really is taking that share from competitors. So, I think as you go across the portfolio, Michael, it really is a mixed bag of where those share gains are coming from.

Michael Lavery — Piper Sandler — Analyst

Okay. Thanks. And just following up on the foodservice piece. You called out the boost that gave partly from the pass-through pricing there. Can you give us a sense of how much pricing is pass-through in your portfolio versus just what requires a list increase?

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

I mean, the majority of the foodservice business is, I’ll call it, off traditional price list. So, that gets adjusted on a weekly basis and we tend to see that pricing reflected in — we’ve always said within 30 days. So, a significant portion of our business is still done that way. We do have some other pricing arrangements, obviously, with larger national accounts. But just think about it, where the majority — more than the majority of the business is on a pass-through basis.

Michael Lavery — Piper Sandler — Analyst

And on the retail side?

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, I mean, we have always said that’s more of a 90-day price action in terms of having the discussion with the customer, getting accepted, and then getting it implemented. Really the only difference there would be retail fresh pork, which, I mean, does play a role and still has a significant part of our portfolio. But it’s — that is priced on a weekly basis.

Michael Lavery — Piper Sandler — Analyst

Okay, great. Thanks so much.

Operator

The next question will come from Eric Larson with Seaport Global Securities. Please go ahead.

Eric Larson — Seaport Global Securities — Analyst

Yeah. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. So the first question is, and I think Jim Sheehan kind of referred to some of this, but can you talk a little bit about hog supplies? We’re not going to see a huge increase of production this year. These higher grain prices probably are disincentive, yet we have hog prices — live prices well over $100, $100 right now. Supply constraints on your biggest raw material, is that a possibility going forward here? And it looks like grain prices could be high for a while. So, how do you look at maybe the next couple of years just — not just this year but maybe next in terms of hog production in the U.S.? And what our farmers doing out there?

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, as we’ve talked about in the past, Eric, we do long-term contracts with our producers. And as you are aware of these producers are large operators with the high level of capital and tend to keep their barns filled. We also get a large portion of our production from a contracted facility, the Fremont facility, which is made up of producers. They tend to like to keep their own plants full. So, I’m very confident that we will have the supply that we need both short term and long term. We go through these cycles all the time. This is — hog prices have increased rapidly. The prices have gone up a lot. You’re right, grain prices are high right now. We’ll see how the growing season — what the results are from the growing season to see what impact it has on prices. But these are long-term agreements, and we’re not have anybody get into negotiations about taking down their volumes. So, I’m highly confident.

Eric Larson — Seaport Global Securities — Analyst

Okay. Then my follow-up question is on your supply chain conversion and all your efforts that you’ve done on that, which has been quite remarkable, and I think even alluded to the benefits of your improved supply chain in your — in the press release. But I believe if we go back I think at one point you said that supply chain was going to — I mean you have this number incorrect. So, correct me if I’m wrong. About $75 million of supply chain cost benefits, but that was a while back. Can you give us a quick update on how the supply chain is helping you here? And it’s got to be helping your cost structure, and then obviously it keeps you from having to price too aggressively as well. So, can you share that dynamic with us and give us a little update there?

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. That’s a great question, Eric. And we have spent a lot of time and effort over the last three plus years putting together our one supply chain. And it’s really been our initiative to take this fragmented approach throughout the supply chain and really capitalize on the efficiencies and take cost out. And so we’ve done a lot of great work in our operations, in our logistics, as we mentioned, some of the warehousing initiatives that we still had going on. And you’re right, probably the first two years of supply chain and even going into the pre-pandemic, we talked about our ability to have cost savings of $75 million. Last year, obviously, was a bit of a disruption, but that didn’t stop the good work that was happening behind the scenes. And I think you see that play through when we talked about our ability to open up new warehouses to help mitigate some of the cost pressure on GP and now on our Refrigerated portfolio.

So — and the other thing is, for me personally, I can’t imagine us having gone through the pandemic with a fragmented supply chain. Having one voice from the top, setting direction and making sure that the entire team was aligned was very, very powerful and necessary for the organization. So, I mean the benefits to the organization have far outweighs the financial returns. And we are in a significantly better place today as a result of our efforts on one supply chain.

Eric Larson — Seaport Global Securities — Analyst

Okay. Great. Thanks. And have a great Memorial holiday.

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Thank you. You too, Eric.

Jim Sheehan — Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Eric.

Operator

And the next question will come from Ben Bienvenu with Stephens. Please go ahead.

Pooran Sharma — Stephens — Analyst

Hi, good morning. This is Pooran on for Ben. I just had one quick question. What is the ramp in foodservice sales and corresponding capacity utilization improvement contributed to margin?

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Oh. Yeah, I mean — I think there is — obviously, they go hand in hand. And we’ve talked about some of it coming out of — or I should say, in the midst of the pandemic, the underutilized capacity, which of course led to some of our increased COVID costs. So there has been a benefit. But really the big driver and the way you should think about the foodservice business is the volume that we’ve been able to drive in the marketplace, and really it’s the reopening, the re-engagement with distributors and operators, and then I mentioned earlier, with a number of different segments that really haven’t opened yet or hit their stride. So not only do we feel good about where we are today, but the opportunities that are yet to come.

Pooran Sharma — Stephens — Analyst

Great. And maybe if I could just squeeze one more in.

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Go ahead.

Pooran Sharma — Stephens — Analyst

Just regarding your price increases, do you think that you’ll be able to hang on to some of these increases after this period of cost inflation abates? And maybe you can just help us think through what will be easier versus harder to achieve?

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. That’s a great question, and it’s something that we talk about a lot, because nobody likes to be in the midst of the inflationary period with all the market volatility, but it’s not new to us, right? I mean we’ve managed through multiple inflationary periods over the course of our business and our management team, our leadership has a well established plan for how we take pricing, how we appropriately promote, and really to your point about how we work hard to maintain that pricing over time. So, yeah, we do believe that we’ll be able to do that as we’ve demonstrated in the past.

Pooran Sharma — Stephens — Analyst

Great. Thank you for the questions. That’s it from me.

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Thank you.

Operator

The next question will come from Antonio Hernandez with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Antonio Hernandez — Barclays — Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. [Indecipherable] International segment sales were very good, good margins, and [Indecipherable] were probably increasing. Could you give us a little bit more guidance on what you seeing there? Is there any difference from expenses and cost point of view in the international segment and domestic segment? Thanks.

Jim Sheehan — Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. I’d say the big issue — the big difference between the international and domestic right now is the whole ocean freight issue, including containers. That’s creating some additional cost in the system. Freight, we’ve been able to — freight is up a little bit domestically. We’ve been able to manage that as we’ve improved our supply chain. But ocean containers, freight availability goes back to this issue around labor, that’s created some not only higher cost, but also some shipping interruption. And I think that’s probably going to last for the rest of the year.

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. But the optimism that we have in our international segment, I mean, it is broad-based, but certainly with the high level of focus on the continued growth and the continued success that we’re seeing in China from both our retail and foodservice businesses. And I mentioned it in my remarks that we’re really excited about the performance of SPAM, how we’ve been able to really gain distribution and the acceptance of that brand and how we’re launching innovative new flavors, the SKIPPY business continues to be very, very strong, non-traditional innovation with our Hormel beef jerky. And so we continue to expect growth coming out of that business and across all areas, other multinational exports and partnerships.

Antonio Hernandez — Barclays — Analyst

Perfect. Thanks a lot and have a great day.

Operator

This will conclude today’s question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Jim Snee — Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Well, thank you all for joining us today. Our strong performance this quarter, once again, demonstrated the resilience of our entire team and the strength of our balanced portfolio. We know that we still have work to do for the balance of the year, but we remain very optimistic about the future, and we look forward to bringing the Planters business and the Planters team on board in June. Thanks again for joining us.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]