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Shares of Edgewell moving lower after the company reported mixed results. The personal care brand missing on revenue as shoppers continue to tighten their wallets. For a deeper dive into the results, I'm joined by Dan Sullivan, who is the Edgewell personal care CFO. And I might mention as well, going to be the COO very soon, Dan. Thanks so much for taking the time and and joining us post earnings here. Just want to get your general read on the consumer as it pertains to Edgewell and, of course, the the the beauty and self-care products that this brand is known for as well.

Yeah, great to be with you. Look, we we had a good quarter, right? We were a bit disappointed in in the initial stock reaction, although it's it's coming back. We posted 1% organic growth in the quarter, which was in line with what we had expected, underpinned by really strong market performance internationally, 6% growth equally driven by volume and price. So really strong results. I think that the key financially is another quarter of margin inflection, 175 basis points of year-over-year margin gains. That fueled 20% plus EPS growth and we took our our profit outlook, EBITDA and EPS, up for the full year. So, look, it's a tough environment for sure. We're we're certainly hearing that from other guests of yours as well. We're pleased with the performance though. And I think it's uh it's indicative of of how well the team is performing and and really good in-market execution.

When you think about the kind of forward guidance that you're giving the street right now and and and really kind of trying to best anticipate how the consumer may continue to moderate, there's there's weakness at the low end and, of course, now even more pressure on the middle tier. How are you kind of factoring that into your guidance here for for Wall Street?

Yeah, so it's a great question. Look, there there's no doubt the consumer is under increasing pressure. I think all of the data points to that outcome for sure. Uh I think what's important to note for our business is we operate in largely non-discretionary categories. We are for the most part in the middle of the price tier. So we're certainly not at the at the top of the price tier. And we're non-discretionary, right, in in use for the most part. And so I think there's a a little bit of protection around our business just by the nature of the categories in which we compete. And even a category like sun care where you might think about some uh consumer sentiment could bleed into behavior. We're super excited. We're we're simply not seeing that. The the consumer continues to be unwilling to sacrifice on experiential spend, travel, resort, vacation, fun in the sun. We just had a category in the US sun season that was up 2% in its biggest quarter of the season and we gained share in that quarter. So, is it getting harder? For sure. Is the consumer under increasing pressure? For sure. We like our positioning as as far as the categories go and we continue to focus on that which we can control, right? Take cost out of the business, be super smart where we invest where we can get high return and execute really well.

You know, one of the things that's going to be a major carryover from your current position as CFO into your new position at the end of the year as chief operating officer is really the strengthening that you and the company are talking about in this operating model. Walk us through some of the changes that we should expect to see and and and how the consumer will kind of see the difference there coming from the company.

Yeah, I think it the magic word here is accelerate. We want to take all that we are doing and do it faster. Uh that is a reflection of of our ambition in North America, where we've actually seen really good growth in our right to win portfolio, sun care and grooming. And now we are looking to accelerate performance in shave and in fem care. I think, back to the operations point of your question, we have been incredibly good at taking cost out of the business. Uh we've averaged somewhere around 250 basis points a year in pure cost takeout. That is a good proxy for how we've thought about it going forward. And the answer today is we want to do that even faster. We want to create more dry powder that we can invest behind this portfolio of brands. So I think what you can what you will see from us is a bigger focus on accelerating speed, a bigger focus on execution. We have to simplify the supply chain. We have to perform better. We have to execute better and we have to be a better service provider to our retail partners.

There there was a push through and even though you did see higher volumes in in some categories here, um and I'm looking at the wet shave in particular because I need to shave so much just to look presentable on air here. Um higher volumes, but also higher price. How much more price do you think you need to push through at this juncture?

Yeah, look, I think the pricing environment is a tricky one. Uh we can all agree the days of, you know, commodity-based, inflation-based, broad brush pricing, those days are gone. But equally, I think, you know, brands that can win on shelf, brands that have resident demand with consumers, brands that can bring innovation to the shelf, they they have a right to to take price. They have purchasing power. We we see that in various spots within our portfolio, but our application of it from here on out will continue to be much more surgical, much more where we are strong uh on shelf and in market and much less what we've seen in the previous couple of years around just broad-based inflationary pricing.

I guess selfishly, Dan, are are my are my razors going to cost more at at Christmas time than uh than right now during the summer?

We don't do seasonal pricing. So you would not see a spike at the Christmas time. I'd also encourage you, shop our kits. We do a phenomenal job around shave and grooming kits for the holidays. Might be something you'd be interested in.

Yes, indeed. Dan, thank you so much. Always appreciate you taking the time here with us, diving into some of the earnings results and congratulations as well on the new role yet to come later on this year as well as the new appointment uh of Francesca. Dan Sullivan, who is the Edgewell personal care CFO. Thanks, Dan.

Thank you. So much.