THS
#That's a revenue trend, <UNK>.
<UNK>, this is <UNK>.
I'll take that.
Your question on private label penetration in the US and the age-old question of when will it approximate what we see in Europe, I think there's several different things at play that we've talked about before.
Differences between how people shop in Europe versus how they shop in the US.
First of all, retailer consolidation has occurred or retailers in general are much more consolidated.
You'll have a few top retailers in Europe that are really driving the business.
And so that enables them to get more scale behind a few private brands.
And you also see people shopping in a very different way.
So I think there was at one point a lot more trial and more shopping frequency, which led to an increased performance or increased sale of private brands.
So there are some consumer trends and retailer trends that have really pushed private label.
But I think what we are seeing in the US is we continue to see that consolidation.
It seems like every year we have one or two of our top customers join up.
And so for us that obviously presents an opportunity for us to simply our business and take some costs out.
And so we see both that and then with the trends with how the millennial is shopping, which mirrors much more closely the way European consumers shop, feel like both of those things give us a lot of confidence that going forward we'll start to see more increase of private label penetration similar to what we've seen in Europe.
<UNK>, it's <UNK> and, surprise of surprises, both <UNK> and I are still here.
Having a wonderful time.
First of all, the changes that have been brought over the last four months have been extraordinarily positive for us and that the plans that we laid that were somewhat disrupted now have been completely put into place.
And we are pleased to have not only <UNK> here and <UNK> in his role, but also that in a go-to-market sense we've strengthened the business.
And the five division presidents, they are all active like they are latter-day versions of <UNK> Vermylen, off and running.
With regard to the President search, that's underway.
We have retained a very fine leading firm.
We are delighted to have both internal and external candidates and we would expect that position will be filled in the foreseeable future.
And again, I'm really quite pleased with the turnout in that regard.
And then lastly I'll say that the executive team at TreeHouse and the senior management team that are working in the combined operating units have become even more cohesive and united in this period following the unexpected troubles in November.
I think the tone of what you are hearing today is something that we are very positive about 2017 and going forward.
By the way, everybody, we will take two more callers please and then allow you to get on to other events.
Well, the Condiments, as we said, was the first to go.
So in a way that was maybe the first model.
But everything is really modeled just like what we did in the Condiments in terms of sales.
And in fact for most of the year it wasn't that we had a dedicated sales team there, it was just that we had a dedicated management group running that.
And it was a little bit easier in that division in the sense that there was one primary factory that made all the products that went into the Private Brands condiments.
A little more complicated than the others because there can be multiple locations.
But clearly that's where we are going.
I don't have a margin number to provide in terms of what it was where we are going, but it's clearly this new structure is what we think we need to do to also drive the margin profile.
I did mention like in the snack nuts, we've got five factories and currently they're making a variety of different products.
Yet when you look at the factories themselves, each one seems to have capabilities that are more specialized.
And if we can reroute the product so one is high-speed production, one is custom products, one does a variety of roasting, one plant doesn't do roasting.
So if we can mix and match that around ---+ those are the things we really couldn't do without having a consolidated look at it.
And having a management team and an operating team focused strictly on snacks is what's going to allow us to take advantage of that and drive the margin.
So, I don't have a number to give you, <UNK>, but it's clearly something that will be a catalyst for driving that margin improvement.
Well, structurally on January 1, a month and eight days ago, nine days ago this became effective, so all of these structures were in place to start the year in January, including the condiments.
People were identified, they're named, they're in their teams, not just sales and marketing but the operating teams as well, we have finance, everything is there.
So, they are off and going now and targeting not only the operational improvements but the SKU simplification, looking at customers, looking at products.
So it's there now.
This is not a 2018.
We don't.
We still don't; we don't have them on our SAP system, which is what we need to be able to code the labels because that's how we do that.
So until we get more of them on we're not going to be will provide a detailed number on that.
So in general when I talk about those numbers for the legacy I think you discount it slightly for the Private Brands.
But it's a little more challenging in their world because you get things like retail bakery that don't necessarily have a particular label.
But as we move them onto SAP we'll get a better sense of how the total portfolio looks.
Well, we focused on doing that but it was a very difficult process, which is why you haven't seen the big change in the margin profile for that Canadian business.
There's just too many of those inputs that are sourced in the US because they had to be sourced in the US.
The difference now though is with the Private Brands business and also with we're our broth business.
They tend to get a bit of a gain on that based on the businesses that we have on there.
So we are starting to at least dilute the huge negative effect that currency had caused in Canada ---+ not solely but a bit.
But I think the important thing, <UNK>, is what you brought out is that we're seeing stability in the Canadian dollar.
And that's going to take away the huge year-over-year comp problems that we were having when we went from that north of [100] and hit back down into the [60s].
So our plan for this year is it stays in that roughly $0.76 range.
And if that's the case it will be pretty comparable to a year ago and we'll kind of eliminate those year-over-year problem comparisons.
Thanks again, everyone.
You've displayed a great interest in our Company today.
And as we always are trying to find new ways to sustain our TreeHouse, growing strong, standing tall, we're delighted that you're with us.
Talk to you in a few months.
