ハイン・セレッシャル（HAIN）2026年度第4四半期決算説明会：海外事業の売却と北米の利益率改善

要点

• ヘイン・セレスティアルは、インターナショナル（海外）部門をアウレリウスに現金3億2,300万ドルで売却することに合意しました。この取引は、信用協定の満期延長に関する変更契約の締結などの条件を満たすことを前提に、2027年度第2四半期に完了する見込みです。
• 2026年度第4四半期のオーガニック売上高は前年同期比2%減少しました。北米部門の2%増収が、インターナショナル部門の4%減収によって相殺されたためです。
• 調整後売上総利益率は230ベーシスポイント（bp）上昇して22.7%となり、調整後EBITDAマージンは160bp上昇して7.1%となりました。調整後EBITDAは1,900万ドルで、前年同期の2,000万ドルから減少しました。
• 北米部門の調整後売上総利益率は、スナック事業の売却および生産性向上を受け、約1,200bp拡大して31.1%となり、調整後EBITDAは55%増の1,600万ドルとなりました。
• 通期のフリーキャッシュフローは、前期の300万ドルの流出から5,800万ドルに改善しました。2026年度中の純負債は1億5,100万ドル（約25%）減少し、5億ドルとなりました。
• 経営陣は、年換算で1,600万ドル以上のコスト削減効果を特定しており、2027年度には売上高比で約100bp分のマーケティング投資を増額する計画です。

主要財務データ

事業・業績動向

北米部門はオーガニック成長に回帰し、第4四半期の売上高は前年同期比2%増加しました。通期のオーガニック売上高はほぼ横ばいとなり、前年までの水準から改善を示しました。

北米部門の調整後売上総利益率は約1,200bp上昇して31.1%に達しました。調整後EBITDAは55%増の1,600万ドルとなり、売上高比率は14.4%に相当します。経営陣は、インフレや数量/ミックスの悪化による一部押し下げがあったものの、事業売却後のポートフォリオ構成の改善、販売管理費の削減、および生産性向上の効果が主な改善要因であるとしています。

「Greek Gods」はカテゴリー平均を上回り続け、売上高（金額ベース）は10%台後半の伸びを記録し、市場シェアを拡大しました。「Celestial Seasonings」ブランドの紅茶はウェルネスティーに支えられてオーガニック売上高が3%増加し、「Earth's Best」のフィンガーフードは強い2桁成長を達成しました。また、Earth's Bestのピューレ製品ポートフォリオの簡素化により、基本販売速度（ベースベロシティ）が30%向上しました。

インターナショナル部門のオーガニック売上高は4%減少したものの、第3四半期の8%減からは改善しました。調整後売上総利益率は555bp低下して16.6%となり、調整後EBITDAは41%減の1,200万ドル（売上高比8.1%）となりました。インフレおよび不利な数量/ミックスが引き続き主な圧迫要因となりました。

カテゴリー別では、ベビー＆キッズのオーガニック売上高が11%減、飲料が2%減、ミールプレップ（調理用食材）が3%増となった一方、海外のゼリー売上はブランドの再投入に向けたSKU（最小管理単位）削減の中で7%減少しました。

在庫管理の徹底がキャッシュ創出を支えました。棚卸資産回転日数は、第3四半期の73日からは増加したものの、前年同期の88日から80日に改善しました。経営陣は、在庫日数1日あたり約300万ドルに相当すると説明しました。

経営陣の見通し

完了条件を満たすことを前提として、経営陣はインターナショナル部門の売却が2027年度第2四半期に完了し、3億500万ドルから3億1,000万ドルの手取金（純受入額）が発生すると見込んでいます。同社はタームローンの残高全額と、リボルビング融資残高の35%以上を返済する計画です。2026年6月30日時点の数値と現在の為替レートに基づくプロフォーマ（試算）総負債は、約55%減の約2億5,000万ドルとなる見通しです。

ヘイン・セレスティアルは、年換算で1,600万ドル以上のコスト改善を実施する計画です。削減効果の大半は2027年度末までに発現する見込みで、18か月以内に完全に完了する予定です。経営陣は一時的な実施費用を約2,000万ドルと試算しており、その70%が2027年度に、残りが2028年度に発生すると見込んでいます。

一連のコスト削減策は、プロフォーマ（試算）売上総利益率約30%以上、および調整後EBITDAマージン10%台前半を支えることを目的としています。これらは報告実績ではなく、将来の北米事業に関する経営陣の目標値です。

また経営陣は、「Celestial Seasonings」、「Greek Gods」、「Earth's Best」に重点を置き、売上高比で約100bp相当のマーケティング投資の増額を計画しています。北米事業はインターナショナル事業に比べて資本集約的ではないため、設備投資額は前年比で減少する見通しです。

同社は、現在進行中の取引、戦略的見直し、およびそれに伴う一時的費用を理由に、従来の2027年度通期業績予想（ガイダンス）の公表を見送りました。

リスクと注目点

インターナショナル部門の売却は、ヘイン・セレスティアルが信用協定の満期延長に関する変更契約を取得できるかに依存しています。同社は現在も融資団（レンダ―）と活発な協議を続けています。契約署名から30日以内に変更契約が得られない場合、アウレリウスには取引を解除する権利があります。

同社の信用枠は12月に期日を迎えるため、資本構成の管理と負債の削減が足元の最優先事項となっています。

経営陣はまた、インターナショナル部門におけるインフレの継続、生産性の未達、不利な商品ミックスを指摘しました。特定のカテゴリーでは不確実な課題が残っており、経営環境は引き続き流動的です。

融資団との協議が継続中であること、およびインターナショナル部門の売却手続き中であることを理由に、アナリスト向けの質疑応答（Q&A）セッションは実施されませんでした。

決算説明会（コール）全トランスクリプト

決算説明会の完全なトランスクリプト

経営陣による説明

Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Hain Celestial Fiscal Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. I will now hand the conference over to Alexis Tessier, Vice President of Investor Relations. Alexis, please go ahead.

Alexis Tessier

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for a review of our fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2026 results. I am joined this morning by Alison Lewis, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Lee Boyce, our Chief Financial Officer.

Slide 2 shows our forward-looking statements disclaimer. As you are aware, during the course of this call, we may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These include expectations and assumptions regarding the company's future operations and financial performance and condition. These statements are based on our current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations.

Please refer to our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, our annual report on Form 10-K expected to be filed today, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and our other reports filed from time to time with the SEC as well as the press release issued this morning for a detailed discussion of the risks. We have also prepared a presentation inclusive of additional supplemental financial information, which is posted on our website at hain.com under the Investors heading.

As we discuss our results today, unless noted as reported, our remarks will focus on non-GAAP or adjusted financial measures. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP results are available in the earnings release and the slide presentation accompanying this call. This call is being webcast, and an archive will be made available on the website.

And now I'd like to turn the call over to Alison.

Alison Lewis

Thank you, Alexis. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining the call today. Fiscal '26 was a pivotal year for Hain. Over the past 12 months, we took decisive actions to simplify our portfolio, pay down debt, improve execution, drive greater cost discipline and sharpen our strategic focus. While there is more work ahead, we are exiting the year with improving momentum, stronger cash generation and a clear plan to drive growth and profitability in the go-forward business.

Earlier today, we announced that we reached a definitive agreement to sell our international business to a private equity firm, Aurelius, for $323 million in cash. This transaction would represent an important step in the evolution of Hain and when coupled with the fiscal Q3 divestiture of our North American snacks business would mark a significant milestone in the simplification and strengthening of our portfolio.

We believe we found a strong home for our international business in Aurelius, and I want to thank our international employees for their dedication, passion and contributions to Hain over many years. They have built remarkable brands, which we are confident will thrive under the new ownership. The sale is expected to be completed in our fiscal second quarter and proceeds from the transaction would be used to further reduce debt. As noted in our announcement, the transaction is conditioned upon securing an amendment for our credit agreement to extend the maturity, and we remain in active discussions with our lenders regarding that amendment.

Once the transaction is closed, the resulting portfolio would be a North America business comprised of leading brands in attractive categories with a more streamlined operating model and a greater focus on core growth opportunities. Importantly, the strength of this portfolio was demonstrated in our fourth quarter results. North America returned to organic sales growth, expanded gross margin by nearly 1,200 basis points and increased adjusted EBITDA by 55% year-over-year. These results reflect the benefits of a streamlined portfolio, stronger execution, productivity initiatives and disciplined cost management. Looking forward, the simplified portfolio will allow us to concentrate our resources and management attention on the areas where we see the greatest potential to create value.

Fiscal 2026 also marked a year of substantial balance sheet improvement. We reduced net debt by $151 million through a combination of actions resulting from our strategic review and strong free cash flow generation of $58 million. This free cash flow improvement was driven by a number of factors, including tighter working capital management, meaningful inventory reduction, productivity initiatives and disciplined cost control. These factors not only drove cash generationally near, but strengthened our operational foundation.

The international transaction would further reduce debt significantly and position us to continue the ongoing transformation of our portfolio and capital structure. Our focus will now shift to simplifying the organization and aligning our cost structure with the scale of the future North America business to drive growth and profitability.

Turning now to our performance. As I mentioned earlier, we exited fiscal 2026 with improved momentum across many areas of the business. Additionally, we made significant progress against our strategic priorities, including portfolio simplification, debt reduction, cash generation and operational improvement. During the quarter, we delivered sequential improvement in organic net sales growth across the business as our 5 actions to win continue to gain traction across the organization. These actions include simplifying our portfolio, accelerating renovation and innovation, implementing strategic revenue growth management, driving productivity and working capital efficiency and strengthening our digital capabilities.

Importantly, we see measurable results from these initiatives. Our innovation renewal rate, or IRR, expanded year-over-year in both North America and international to a high single-digit and low teen percentage, respectively, for fiscal 2026. IRR is a measure of the percent of net sales coming from new or relaunched SKUs in the last 3 years and a strong validation that our innovation is delivering results. E-commerce sales delivered strong double-digit growth in Q4 year-over-year with our largest pure-play and omnichannel customers in North America, reflecting the progress of our digital transformation initiatives. And productivity efforts in supply chain continue to deliver substantial COGS reduction.

While the environment remains dynamic and challenges persist in certain categories, these results reinforce our confidence that the actions we are taking are beginning to strengthen the business and build the foundation for future growth. In North America, organic net sales returned to growth in Q4, increasing 2% year-over-year. For the full fiscal year, North America organic net sales were effectively flat, representing a meaningful improvement from prior years. Our yogurt business remained a standout performer. Greek Gods delivered strong double-digit growth along with share gains and remains an excellent example of how innovation, brand investment and disciplined commercial execution can drive sustained results.

We are seeing emerging strength across the rest of our core business, including Celestial Seasonings Tea, which delivered growth in both the quarter and the year, driven in part by the success of our Wellness Tea innovation. And Earth's Best Finger Foods, the largest piece of our Earth's Best business, with strong double-digit growth, supported by the continued success of our self-feeding platform. More broadly, the quarter reinforced our confidence in the potential of our go-forward North American portfolio.

Within our International segment, while organic net sales for Q4 declined 4% year-over-year, the decline moderated sequentially by roughly 400 basis points relative to the third quarter trends. We saw improved performance sequentially across Meal Prep, Beverages and Baby & Kids. While spreads and drizzles remains a challenged category, we are encouraged by the early response to our Hartley's renovation and innovation launched in the fourth quarter. Combined with the improvements we are seeing across the broader portfolio, the international business is positioned well for its new ownership.

We were also pleased with the improvement in profit margins delivered during the quarter. Gross margin and adjusted EBITDA margin both expanded year-over-year, driven by improvement in North America. As expected, following the Snacks divestiture, North America delivered significant improvement in profitability, reinforcing our confidence in the earnings power of the underlying portfolio and the benefits of a more focused business model.

Consistent with trends throughout fiscal 2026, the vast majority of the year's gross margin and adjusted EBITDA pressure remain concentrated within international, where inflation, productivity shortfalls and unfavorable mix continued to weigh on profitability. More broadly, fiscal 2026 demonstrated that the actions we have taken are producing early tangible results. Exiting 2026, we see indications that the business is stabilizing, profit margins are improving, and we have a stronger operating foundation.

As we enter fiscal 2027, our focus is on building on the progress made over the past year while completing the work required to establish a focused, appropriately scaled North American Hain. Following the completion of the international transaction, our portfolio would be concentrated on leading better-for-you brands in attractive categories, including Greek Gods Yogurt, Celestial Seasonings Tea and Earth's Best Finger Foods and Cereal. Completion of the international transaction would be an important milestone, but it would not be the end of our work.

Our priorities for fiscal 2027 are clear and supported by detailed plans already underway. First, we will aggressively align our organization and cost structure with the scale and needs of the future North American business. This summer, we completed a rigorous bottoms-up zero-based budgeting review across the organization. That work identified specific actions to align cost structure with the size of our go-forward North American business. These actions are expected to simplify our operating model and deliver more than $16 million of annual run rate cost improvement. In addition, this exercise identified opportunities to optimize our marketing budget, driving greater impact for our key growth brands.

Importantly, we expect to increase marketing investment year-over-year on both an absolute basis as well as percentage of net sales. These actions, the majority of which are expected to be implemented in fiscal 2027, support a pro forma gross margin of approximately 30-plus percent and adjusted EBITDA margin of low double-digit percentage. We have clear ownership, timing and implementation plans and are moving with urgency to deliver these savings.

Second, we will remain disciplined in managing our financial position in light of the upcoming maturity date on the company's credit facilities in December. Proceeds from the international transaction will be used to reduce debt while maintaining rigorous oversight of working capital, capital spending and transformation investments. Fiscal 2027 will include investments required to execute our cost reduction program and establish the appropriate operating model for the future business. We will balance these near-term requirements with disciplined capital allocation and our continued focus on exploring any and all opportunities to further reduce debt and address the upcoming maturity.

Third, we will shift investment behind our strongest brands and growth platforms. As I just outlined, we have identified opportunities to optimize our marketing spend, and we plan to increase marketing investment year-over-year by approximately 100 basis points of net sales to support brand building and innovation across Celestial Seasonings, Greek Gods and Earth's Best. This investment will build on the progress we are already seeing across the core portfolio.

The work ahead is about establishing the right cost structure, the right portfolio and the right level of investment to support a stronger North American Hain while continuing to explore all opportunities to maximize the value of the enterprise for the benefit of stakeholders. The actions taken throughout fiscal 2026, together with the detailed plans underway for fiscal 2027 would position us to become a more focused, profitable and operationally stronger company.

With that, I will turn the call over to Lee to review our financial results and cost structure initiatives in even greater detail.

Lee Boyce

Thank you, Alison, and good morning, everyone. Before discussing our fourth quarter results, I'd like to begin with the improvement in free cash flow and a significant reduction in debt, which were among the most important accomplishments of fiscal 2026. As Alison mentioned, we had strong cash flow delivery in the quarter. Free cash flow for the fourth quarter was $7 million, an increase compared to the outflow of $9 million in the year ago period. The improvement was primarily driven by favorable working capital performance, including benefits from accounts payable, inventory reduction and a lower net loss, partially offset by lower accounts receivable inflow. Free cash flow for the full year was $58 million as compared to an outflow of $3 million in the prior year.

We are pleased with the progress we made on inventory, driven by improved operating discipline. Days inventory outstanding improved year-over-year to 80 days in the quarter from 88 days in the prior year period, but was up compared to 73 days in Q3 2026. Note that every day of inventory is worth approximately $3 million. We made sequential progress on our days payable outstanding with days payable outstanding of 62 days in the quarter, an improvement from 59 days in Q3 2026, but slightly below 65 days in the year ago period.

CapEx of $5 million in the quarter was down from $6 million in the prior year period. Looking ahead, we would expect capital expenditures to decrease year-over-year as our North American business is significantly less capital intensive than our international business. Strong cash flow generation this quarter brought cash on hand to $58 million and net debt to $500 million, a reduction of $151 million or approximately 25% since the beginning of the fiscal year. We also have $186 million of available liquidity under our revolver and remain in compliance with all credit agreement covenants. With net leverage of 4.5x in the quarter, we have plenty of headroom under our covenant at 5.5x.

We have a disciplined and prudent approach to capital management and continue to prioritize debt reduction. We have reduced net debt by $277 million over the past 12 quarters. We remain in active discussions with our lenders regarding an amendment of our credit agreement to extend the current maturity date. If reached, the extension would be a near-term solution and an important step that provides additional flexibility as we continue to work on reducing our leverage. We are working closely with all parties, and we'll provide an update when we are able.

We have made significant progress in the elimination of stranded costs resulting from the sale of the North American snacks business. In fiscal 2026, we initiated actions to remove the entirety of the $25 million in stranded costs, which was ahead of our initial time line. Additionally, our transition services agreement, or TSA, is generating proceeds from providing ongoing support to the divested Snacks business. Together with the actions taken to date, this has essentially eliminated any near-term stranded cost impact. As Alison mentioned, this summer, we completed a robust bottom-up zero-based budgeting review across the organization that identified specific actions to align cost structure with the size of our go-forward North America business.

We have concrete action plans in place to enact $16 million of annual run rate cost improvement. We expect the vast majority of that savings capture to be completed by the end of fiscal 2027, with the full completion within 18 months. We estimate the onetime cost to implement these savings will be approximately $20 million, with 70% of that incurred in fiscal 2027 and the remainder incurred in fiscal 2028. These actions will simplify our operating model and support the future growth of our North American business, implying pro forma gross margin of approximately 30% plus and low double-digit percentage adjusted EBITDA margin.

Turning now to performance. For the fourth quarter, we saw an organic net sales decline of 2% year-over-year as lower sales in the International segment offset organic net sales growth in North America. The decline in organic net sales reflected a 2-point decrease in volume mix and flat price. Adjusted gross margin was 22.7% in the fourth quarter. This represents a 230 basis point increase year-over-year. The year-over-year increase was driven primarily by volume mix and productivity savings, partially offset by cost inflation. Additionally, there was a $1.9 million positive impact from tariff refunds in the quarter.

SG&A decreased 7% year-over-year to $63 million in the fourth quarter, primarily driven by a reduction in employee-related expenses. SG&A represented 23.8% of net sales for the quarter as compared to 18.6% in the year ago period. The increase in SG&A as a percentage of net sales was primarily driven by costs associated with the strategic review and the lower sales base. We delivered adjusted EBITDA of $19 million in the fourth quarter compared to $20 million a year ago. The decrease was driven primarily by cost inflation and a decrease in volume mix, partially offset by lower SG&A and productivity savings.

Adjusted EBITDA margin was 7.1%, a 160 basis point increase from the prior year period. Interest expense fell 7% year-over-year to $12 million in the quarter, primarily driven by lower outstanding borrowings. We have hedged our rate exposure on more than 70% of our loan facility with fixed rates at 7.1%. We continue to prioritize reducing net debt over time. Adjusted net loss, which excludes the effect of restructuring charges amongst other items, was $4 million in the quarter or $0.05 per diluted share as compared to adjusted net loss of $2 million or $0.02 per diluted share in the prior year period.

Turning now to our individual reporting segments. In North America, organic net sales growth of 2% year-over-year was primarily driven by growth in Meal Prep produces strength in yogurt, partially offset by lower sales in Baby & Kids. Fourth quarter adjusted gross margin in North America was 31.1%, an increase of nearly 1,200 basis points versus the prior year period. The increase was driven primarily by an increase in volume mix following the divestiture of the Snacks business as well as productivity savings, partially offset by cost inflation. Again, there was a $1.9 million positive impact from tariff refunds. Adjusted EBITDA in North America was $16 million, reflecting an increase of 55% from the year ago period and representing 14.4% of net sales. The increase resulted primarily from the reduction in SG&A as well as productivity savings, partially offset by lower volume mix and cost inflation.

In our international business, organic net sales declined 4% year-over-year in the quarter, an improvement from the 8% decline year-over-year in the third quarter, driven by sequential improvement in Baby & Kids, Beverages and Meal Prep. The year-over-year decline was primarily driven by lower sales in Meal Prep and Baby & Kids, partially offset by growth in Beverages. International adjusted gross margin was 16.6%, a 555 basis point decrease versus the prior year period. The decrease was driven primarily by cost inflation, partially offset by productivity savings. Adjusted EBITDA was $12 million, reflecting a decrease of 41% compared to the prior year period and representing 8.1% of net sales. The decrease was driven primarily by cost inflation and lower volume mix, partially offset by productivity savings.

Now turning to category performance. In Baby & Kids, organic net sales were down 11% year-over-year, driven primarily by formula and purees in North America and purees in the U.K., partially offset by growth in Finger Foods in North America. We have simplified our portfolio of Earth's Best purees and are seeing a 30% increase in base velocity as a result of these strategic winning portfolio actions. Formula remains a small piece of our Earth's Best brand, where we are implementing strategic actions with a focused set of customers.

We continue to prioritize Earth's Best investment behind our key growth platforms, Finger Foods and cereal. And in International, we are seeing improvement in Ella's Kitchen as we lapped last year's industry-wide declines. In the beverages category, organic net sales were down 2% year-over-year as 3% organic net sales growth in both tea in North America and private label nondairy beverage in International was more than offset by the lack of promotional activity in North America. Wellness teas remained strong, growing dollar sales up high single digits and gaining share.

In Meal Prep, organic net sales growth was 3% year-over-year. The increase was driven primarily by yogurt in North America. Greek Gods continued to outpace the category, growing dollar sales by high teens percent and gaining share. As a reminder, following the sales of the North American snacks business, the snacks category is comprised solely of jellies in the International segment. Organic net sales growth in snacks was down 7% year-over-year, driven by SKU rationalization as we prepare for the brand relaunch.

Turning now to our outlook. As mentioned earlier, subject to the satisfaction of the closing conditions outlined in our SEC filings, we would expect the international divestiture to close in our fiscal second quarter. Net proceeds from the transaction are expected to range between $305 million and $310 million. With these proceeds, we will pay down the entirety of our outstanding term loan and more than 35% of the outstanding balance of our revolver. Our pro forma total debt outstanding as of June 30, 2026, would be approximately $250 million, a reduction of approximately 55%. Again, these numbers are based on the current ForEx rates and are subject to change relative to ForEx rates at the time of the transaction close.

We remain in active discussions with our lenders to reach an agreement on the amendment of the company's credit agreement to extend the current maturity. The international divestiture is contingent upon the company securing this amendment, and there can be no assurance that an amendment will be obtained. If the amendment is not obtained within 30 days of signing, Aurelius would have the right to terminate the agreement. We will provide updates on both the international divestiture and the credit agreement amendment as we are able.

As we begin fiscal 2027, our top priority is managing our capital structure and debt while continuing to align our North American business for growth. Throughout the year, we expect that there will be various onetime costs associated with the execution of our plans. While we will provide regular updates on our quarterly calls to showcase our progress, we are actively pursuing multiple components of our strategic review process that make providing traditional guidance challenging. I look forward to sharing more on future calls.

Now I'll turn the call back to Alison for some closing remarks.

Alison Lewis

Thanks, Lee. In closing, fiscal 2026 was a defining year for Hain. We made meaningful progress in simplifying the portfolio, paying down debt, improving cash generation and sharpening our strategic focus on areas where we believe we can create the most value. While our transformation is not complete, we are entering fiscal 2027 as a more focused company with a stronger operational foundation and a clear plan for the work ahead. We are encouraged by the early operational progress and the improved execution across the business demonstrated in the quarter and plan on continuing to work to strengthen Hain's financial position and create value for all stakeholders.

Our priorities are straightforward: manage our capital structure and balance sheet, align our cost structure with our future North America business, continue improving operational performance and unlock the full potential of a focused North America Hain.

Given the ongoing discussions with lenders and the pending international sale, we will not be hosting a Q&A session this quarter. The update we provided on today's call and in our SEC filings is the extent of the detail that we are able to share publicly. We will provide relevant updates on the transaction and the strategic review as we are able.

Finally, I want to thank our employees, customers, consumers and other stakeholders for their continued support throughout this transformative year. Thank you again, and I appreciate all of you joining today.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.