Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Central Garden and Pets Fiscal 2026 Third Quarter Earnings Call. My name is Cleo, and I will be your conference operator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the prepared remarks, we will hold a question and answer session, and instructions will be given at that time. If you require assistance at any point during the call, please press star followed by zero on your touchtone phone. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Frederique Edelman, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for joining Central's third quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call. Joining me today are Nicola Hannes, Chief Executive Officer, Brad Smith, Chief Financial Officer, John Hansen, President of Pet Consumer Products, J.D. Walker, President of Garden Consumer Products, as well as Jason Barnes, EVP of Garden Consumer Products. Nico will begin by highlighting today's key takeaways, followed by Brad, who will walk through our financial performance and the acquisition of Trixie in greater detail. After their prepared remarks, John, JD, and Jason will join us for the Q&A session. Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone that all forward-looking statements made during this call are subject to risk and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements today. A detailed description of Central's risk factors can be found in our annual report filed with the SEC. Please note that Central undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent information, future events, or other developments. You can find our press release and related materials at ir.central.com. Finally, unless otherwise specified, all comparisons discussed during this call are made against the same period in the prior year. Should any question come up after the call or throughout the quarter, please feel free to contact me at ir.central.com. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Nico. Nico, the floor is yours.

Thanks, Frederic, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll begin with our third quarter highlights and then share how we're thinking about the balance of the year. We delivered another solid quarter. Organic sales grew, operating margins expanded, and our teams continue to execute well across the business. More importantly, our performance reflects the strength of the business we've been building over the past several years. We've consistently improved our execution, strengthened our operating model, and enhanced our ability to invest behind the opportunities we believe will create the greatest long-term value. Those efforts are allowing us to deliver stronger financial performance while continuing to invest in the future. One example is Project Horizon, our multi-year effort to modernize our garden logistics network. Since 2022, we've closed 13 facilities and opened two, transforming what had been separate business unit distribution networks into a unified four-node national network we call the Central Logistics Network. That program is now approximately 95% complete. The vast majority of projects have been delivered on schedule. Every project has been completed under budget, and we've accomplished all of this with minimal disruption to our customers. Since launch, we've shipped more than 1 million small parcel packages through the network, and total shipments moving through those facilities are substantially higher. As utilization continues to increase, we're seeing meaningful improvements in productivity, service levels, and customer responsiveness. Project Horizon reflects the kind of disciplined operational execution that strengthens our competitive position while creating capacity to invest in growth. Across Central, we're focused on making the business easier to operate, better serving our customers, and allocating capital to the highest return opportunities. Today, that means investing behind our brands, strengthening our innovation pipeline, expanding our digital and e-commerce capabilities, improving our understanding of cost to serve, and leveraging our strong balance sheet to pursue opportunities that enhance our portfolio. We believe these investments will support sustainable growth while continuing to improve our returns over time. That brings me to the announcement we made just last week. We entered into a definitive agreement to acquire an 80% interest in Trixie, the leading European pet supplies and pet snacks company. This is an important milestone in advancing our central-to-home strategy and significantly expands our presence in Europe. Trixie serves more than 30,000 pet retail stores worldwide with a portfolio that is approximately 90% branded products, a business built on strong customer relationships, differentiated products, and a long history of profitable growth. We expect the transaction to close during the first half of our fiscal 2027. Together, Central and Trixie will create a leading global pet supplies platform with a broader international footprint. Approximately 10% of combined sales generated outside the United States and an attractive platform from which to participate in the continued growth and consolidation of the European pet specialty market. This acquisition also reflects the financial flexibility we've created through disciplined execution and a strong balance sheet. And opportunities to acquire a profitable, category-leading company with Trixie scale, brand strength, innovation capabilities, and strong cultural alignment are uncommon. We believe this transaction meaningfully enhances our long-term growth opportunities, and we're excited to welcome the Trixie team to the central family. Innovation is another area where Trixie excels, introducing hundreds of new products annually through its in-house design organization. That same commitment to innovation continues across our own portfolio. During the quarter, our recent product launches continue to perform well, including Nylabone dog shoes made with real meat, Farnum's Endure Gold Fly Killer and Mosquito Control Spray, the Rebel Sun and Shade Extension in Grass Seed, and several successful private label programs. Turning to our outlook, as we enter the fourth quarter, we do so with good momentum and a continued focus on disciplined execution. While the macroeconomic environment remains dynamic, our diversified portfolio, strong customer relationships, operational flexibility, and disciplined capital allocation position us well to continue delivering profitable growth. Consumers continue to seek value and performance, while e-commerce and, in certain categories, private label remain in important areas of growth. These investments are generating encouraging results today while positioning us to create sustainable growth and continued margin expansion over the long term. M&A remains an important component of our long-term strategy, and the announcement of Trixie doesn't change that. Even after funding this transaction in the coming months, our balance sheet remains strong and provides us meaningful flexibility to pursue additional high-quality opportunities that enhance our portfolio and create shareholder value. Our approach remains disciplined. We'll continue to focus on acquisitions that fit strategically, meet our financial return objectives, and strengthen our competitive position over the long term. Looking ahead, the exit of our pet distribution business will continue to reduce reported revenue over the next several quarters, though the earnings impact will be minimal given the lower margin profile of that business. Once the Trixie transaction closes, it will contribute incremental sales and earnings, helping offset a portion of the reported revenue impact while further strengthening our overall business mix. Based on our performance year-to-date and our outlook for the fourth quarter, we are raising our guidance for fiscal 2026 non-GAAP diluted EPS from $270 or better to $285 or better. This increase reflects both the progress we've made through the first nine months of the year and our confidence in our ability to execute during the remainder of fiscal 2026. As always, this guidance excludes the impact of future acquisitions, including Trixie, as well as any future divestitures or restructuring actions and any further tariff refunds. Before I hand it over to Brad, I just want to recognize our teams across Central. Their commitment, execution, and focus continue to drive our performance. They've built a stronger company with a solid operating foundation and a culture that continues to embrace innovation, accountability, and customer service. We're entering an exciting new chapter for Central. We have a stronger portfolio, greater financial flexibility, expanding international opportunities, and a clear strategy for creating long-term value. While there's always more work to do, I'm encouraged by the momentum we've built and confident in our ability to continue delivering for our customers, our employees, and our shareholders. And with that, I'll turn it over to Brad. Brad? Thank you, Nico.

Let me run through our third quarter results in more detail, and then I'll provide further comments on our recent Trixie acquisition. Net sales declined 8% to $882 million, driven by the exit of our pet distribution business at the beginning of Q3. In contrast, organic net sales, which exclude the pet distribution business, rose 2% to $862 million, reflecting organic growth in both garden and pet. Non-GAAP gross profit was $318 million, down 4%, with gross margin up 140 basis points to 36%. Non-GAAP SG&A was $182 million, down 6% year over year. As a percentage of net sales, SG&A rose to 20.6% from 20.1%. The lower SG&A spend and higher SG&A rate were primarily the result of exiting the pet distribution business, which carried a lower SG&A rate than the remaining portfolio. Non-GAAP operating income was $136 million, down 2%, with operating margin expanding 90 basis points to 15.4%. Higher corporate spend related to the Trixie acquisition and investments to improve our data capabilities accounted for more than 100% of the operating income decrease. Net interest expense was $8 million, below a year ago, and other income was $2 million, slightly above the prior year. Non-GAAP net income was $96 million, down 2%, and non-GAAP diluted EPS came in at $1.54, just shy of the $1.56 we posted last year. Adjusted EBITDA was $162 million versus $167 million a year ago, with margin expanding to 18.3 percent from 17.3 percent. Lastly, our effective tax rate for the quarter was 24.7 percent versus 25.1 percent. As a reminder, our tax rate in last year's third quarter was a bit higher than normal due to non-deductible losses incurred in the wind down of our UK business. Now, on to the segments, starting with pet. Pet segment net sales were $400 million, down 19%, reflecting the exit of our pet distribution business. Organic sales rose 2% to $380 million, driven by broad gains across the majority of our portfolio, which offset lower dog and cat revenues that were primarily due to the timing of promotional events and related investment spending. Our online sales, a key barometer for the health of our business, were up 10% over prior year, helped by a record prime day. In addition, we delivered another quarter of record performance in our professional business, a key growth vertical for this segment, and an area where we continue to see significant opportunity. We continue to hold overall share in pet, with share gains in several categories, including professional, dog treats, rawhide, and flea and tick. Segment non-gap operating income was $76 million, down 2%, with operating margin improving 320 basis points to 19%. The lower operating income but higher operating margin were primarily the result of our distribution exit, with continued improvements in margin mix and ongoing productivity benefits in the organic business offset primarily by higher materials and freight costs. Lastly, segment-adjusted EBITDA was $86 million versus $88 million, with margin expanding to 21.4% from 17.9%. Now, on to garden. Garden net sales were $482 million, up 3%, driven by meaningful distribution wins and strong consumer demand across fertilizer, wild bird, and grass seed. In fact, sales this year in both fertilizer and wild bird continue to be at record levels, a testament to the strength of our execution in these categories. Another highlight this year has been our e-commerce momentum with Q3 sales up over 40% year-over-year, reflecting strong growth across both our pure play and omni-channel partners. Overall, garden continued to gain market share during the year with third-quarter gains led by fertilizer, wild bird, and grass seed. As we enter the final phase of the garden season, we remain well positioned. Our teams have executed effectively throughout the season, partnering closely with our customers to optimize in-season performance and meet consumer demand. We continue to see solid support for our garden portfolio and remain focused on finishing the year strong. Garden non-gap operating income was $91 million, up 7%, with operating margin improving 70 basis points to 18.9%, driven by a favorable product mix and productivity improvements, which more than offset higher costs, particularly around freight and digital marketing spend. Finally, garden-adjusted EBITDA was $101 million versus $96 million, with margin expanding to 20.9% from 20.4%. Let's shift to cash flows and the balance sheet. Cash provided by operations was $327 million this quarter versus $265 million last year, a record for the company. This quarter, CapEx was $13 million, and depreciation and amortization was $20 million, both in line with the prior year. We're now planning approximately $50 million at CapEx for the full year, mostly maintenance plus targeted productivity and growth spending in both segments. We bought back a small amount of shares this quarter, about 26,000 shares, leaving $128 million remaining on our current authorizations. Cashing cash equivalents ended the quarter at just shy of a billion dollars, $997 million to be exact, up $284 million, making Q3 the 14th consecutive quarter of year-over-year cash improvement. Total debt stood at $1.2 billion, in line with last year, with no drawdowns on our credit facility. Gross leverage was 2.8 times, slightly below a year ago, and below our 3 to 3.5 times target. Net leverage was 0.5 times, an all-time low for the company. It's important to note that these ratios exclude the impact of funding Trixie, as we expect the transaction to close in the first half of fiscal 2027. That said, we do not expect funding of the transaction to have a meaningful impact on our leverage ratios next year. As a reminder, the transaction is structured as an 80% stake for 340 million euros at closing, plus up to 60 million euro in additional earn-out consideration, so up to 400 million euro in total at a high single-digit EBITDA multiple. One final comment on Trixie. This acquisition is the most exciting opportunity in pet supplies I've seen during my nine years at Central. By uniting the premier U.S. and European leaders in pet supplies, we capture a rare and powerful opportunity to expand our access to over 100 million pet-owning households across Europe, a market whose demographic and spending trends around pet ownership closely mirror ours in the U.S. Together, we will be well-positioned to consolidate a fragmented European market, expand our consumables offering, increase online penetration, and unlock meaningful commercial and supply chain synergies. This partnership marks a bright future that we believe will benefit our retail partners, consumers, employees, and shareholders alike. Before we open it up for questions, I want to thank our more than 6,000 employees across Central. Our strong financial performance and improved outlook for the year are a direct result of your dedication and hard work. With that, Operator, please open the line for questions.

Thank you. we will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment while we poll for questions. Our first question is from Brad Thomas with KeyBank Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, good afternoon, everyone. It's Taylor Zikon for Brad. Thanks for taking our question. Maybe just to start off here on the pet side, you know, the segment kind of has a lot of moving parts with the pet JV, distribution JV. I think we're lapping some of the exits of lower margin pet durables last year. And then, you know, you have the champion cattle business, which was acquired in December, you know, though that may be relatively small. But, you know, you noted organic growth about 2% in the quarter, which, you know, it did accelerate slightly from kind of that plus one you had in first half. So I guess, Nico, what do you kind of think the underlying trends are within the pet segment here in the first quarter?

Well, we think there's a real stabilization going on in pet right now. I'll make some overarching comments, and I'll turn it over to john to give a little more color but um you know our our pro business was strong equine continues to be strong um believe it or not small animal avian small animal had a had an excellent quarter um our normally very strong dog and cat business had a little bit of a hiccup um they they had some supply issues where uh one of the plants down in south america had burned down so we had to sort of triage that to get the supply up here. But that was more of an internal issue as opposed to, you know, what I would call systemic. But overall, we're encouraged with, you know, kind of what we've been saying all along that we feel like there's some real nice stabilization going on in PET. And then, you know, we're taking market share in some key areas as well. So we feel really good about that. And we've got, you know, some nice momentum going on in some of our higher margin businesses, is what I would say. But, John, anything?

No, I think you handled it well and answered it well, Nico. We feel really good about the stabilization we're seeing, you know, household penetration, buy rate. We've got a small animal business, live animal business, that is up low single digits, and that's been, I think, the third quarter. It's been stabilized to slightly up, so we feel good about that. Overall, we think we're holding market share, but we're taking market share in key businesses like Rawhide, Dog Treats, Fling and Tick, and our professional business, and we feel real good where we're at.

Yeah, and I would say, too, that, you know, pretty intentionally, you know, we did the JV with PetD, and we've talked about it here and there, but these types of moves allow us to focus on the businesses that we want to drive. So we're taking a lot of noise out of the business and simplifying what we're doing, and it brings a lot of focus around what's truly important for us.

And then maybe one more, if I can, on the Garden side. You know, Garden, I think, was up, you called out 3% here for 3Q. I think it's pretty much in line with kind of where the first half, you know, ended up here. And I guess at the same time, we've kind of heard others in the industry talk about weather kind of being a drag here in the spring selling season. So just kind of curious on what you all saw during the quarter. And then maybe just kind of how that informs fourth quarter, because I believe we had a pretty strong fourth quarter of the prior year. Curious on how you feel about lapping that and maybe how, you know, retail inventories kind of had to end here.

Yeah, great question. This is Jason. I'll take that question. I'll start with the quarter. We had a bit of a mixed bag in weather, so we started out the quarter with a little bit of cold and wet that translated into a heat dome in the middle of the quarter that then translated into just an extended heat throughout the quarter. But I think what you saw in the results is, like you said, up low single digits. But if you look at our brands within that mix, we were up mid to high single digits for the quarter on our brands and our manufacturer products. So seeing really good strength within that portfolio drug down slightly by our vendor partner distribution business as we talked about some of the losses within that segment. Looking forward into Q4, we've started out with a lot of the same momentum, seeing really good strength and growth within the brands despite some challenging weather. To start out June, particularly heat, smoke from Canadian wildfires and other headwinds. We've been able to offset those, so it's feeling really good. And I think that's translated into just share within those brands, so particularly grassy, fertilizer, and wild bird, where we continue to pick up share in the market. And then your last question on inventories. We feel really good about where we're sitting on retailer inventories. In fact, if you net the impact of our new fertilizer distribution, we're actually negative at retailer inventories in terms of what our inventory position looks like. So it's feeling very good there about our ability to ship into the queue and then into 27 and beyond. And then a final comment on inventory. I'd say we're doing a great job internally of managing garden inventories internally and continue making good progress about bringing those down year over year as well.

I would say, I would just add, you guys are doing a great job just running the business in general because, you know, we know it wasn't an optimal weather quarter, I should say, and yet it was a record for the garden business. So kudos to the entire team over there for just crushing it in the quarter when, you know, weather was less than perfect. And then I would just call out, you know, I think Jason did call it out, but wild bird and grass seed just absolutely had great quarters.

Yeah, Nico, I think you're spot on there. I think when I talk to the garden team, we say that weather was less than perfect, as you said, particularly in that late April, May time frame, which is critical for our lawn and garden business. But I think aside from that, the team has managed to produce good results, right? So, you know, kudos to the team.

Can't underscore that enough. One thing, too, Zach, that I would call out just as an umbrella statement related to Q3 that really reflects the health of our business and where we're at, every single business within garden and pet was up or at least flat versus prior with the exception of vendor partner, which you mentioned, Jason, and dog and cat, which we talked about. So, I mean, very broad, very broad.

And the last thing I would add is regarding a forward look at the business for Q4 and beyond this heat dome that Jason talked about, the intense heat that we've seen in a lot of markets across the country during the summer. That bodes well for our grass seed business. That typically means a good overseeding business for grass seed and then fertilizer for them.

Good to hear. I'll pass it along to others. Thanks so much. Thanks.

Thank you. Our next question is from Bob Labick with CJS Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, this is Will on for Bob. Thanks for taking our questions. You all have done a great job reshaping the portfolio recently, higher margins, et cetera. But given the current composition, how should we think about organic growth rates in both pet and garden going forward?

I think, you know, we've talked about this a lot over the year. You know, we're coming out of that trough from post-COVID, sort of that hangover. But we have every intention of getting back to our long-term sort of growth rates. You know, if you think of pet being, you know, anywhere from 1% to 4% and then garden being a little bit lower, you know, anywhere from, you know, 1% to 2% maybe. So, you know, you're starting to see that materialize a little bit in the last few quarters. A lot of that is really, you know, internal because, again, we want to get back to more of a growth mindset. We've been talking a lot about cost and simplicity over the years. And I think this year we started talking a little bit more about growth and innovation and things like that. So I think we'd love to get back to those long-term growth rates and then layer on top of that some nice M&A work that you're starting to see happen now.

Thank you. That's super helpful. And with significant CNS initiatives accomplished, how much margin growth, how should we think about margin growth from here? And what are the potential synergies with Trixie, you know, beyond sales and cross on? Is there any opportunity to enhance margins there?

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot there. I'll talk Trixie here for just a sec. They do a lot of sourcing from China. I think there's an opportunity for us to add the manufacturing margin and start moving product over to Europe from our manufacturing facilities, particularly dog and cat. It's largely a dog and cat business. We think that's a huge opportunity. They have an incredible team over there that does a tremendous job with product development. So we're kind of licking our chops in terms of being able to collaborate, come out with even more innovation, because as we mentioned on the call, they add about a few hundred products every year because they've got a pretty robust team there. So innovation, manufacturing margin, We think sourcing is another area where we can get better. Believe it or not, their logistics facility is nothing short of amazing. We've got a lot to learn from them in terms of automation and just engineering. We're going to have to get their folks over here to help us out. But we got very excited when we saw that as well. So there's a lot. That's just, you know, first blush. There's going to be a whole lot more that we can do.

This is Brad. I would just add to that from a synergy perspective, in terms of the timing of that, I wouldn't expect it within the first year. It's really the second year that we would start to expect synergies. We need to let the dust settle and work together to kind of come up with the right plan.

I'll leave it there.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Brian Manamara with Canaccord Genuity. please proceed with your question hey good afternoon guys thanks for taking the questions I got one on garden and one on pet I'll start with garden I think three months ago you said that retailers are a little bit light on inventories I'm curious kind of what drove the results was it better replenishment and Q2 and I think you had mentioned that they're currently a little light on fertilizers any color there would be helpful thank you yeah hey Brian this is Jason, I can take that.

I mean, the biggest driver was not inventory lows. I'd say that our shipments versus consumption were relatively close. The biggest drivers were the grass seed and fertilizer over delivery in terms of their retail sell through and then wild bird. We also had some strength and controls in the period. And then the other thing I mentioned would be e-commerce. We had really strong continued e-commerce results in the period, as Brad mentioned in his script, that continues to be a key driver for us. And I'd say that in general, inventory change from Q2 to Q3, we feel about the same that we did in Q2, that we feel still well-positioned, not overburdened in any specific categories or particularly light in any. I feel like we're in a pretty good spot as we had in Q4.

And then secondly, Pet, and Nico, I think you mentioned a facility fire in LADAM.

I'm just curious if you guys could quantify, I'm assuming you left some sales on the table there if that's possible to quantify um we we haven't we have not quantified it we we not only left some sales on the table but also margin because we had to uh and i give the team there a lot of credit for triaging that um they had to go find other supply sources and then you know actually you know airship product up so it actually caused margins to contract a little But again, it's sort of a one-time kind of hit. It's not something that's, you know, like I said, systemic. So we'll get through it. We didn't quantify it. Normally, that business is up. It was a little down this quarter.

Brian, just to add to that on Dog and Cat, I mean, when we look at the sales decline, Roughly about two-thirds of it was actually just normal timing differences related to promotional events and whatnot. So it was down a bit more than normal top line this quarter. But to Nico's point, you know, the business continues to perform well. And, you know, actually the results that we saw in July were encouraging. So, yeah, I think we're in good shape. Yeah.

Appreciate the color. Thanks, guys. Best of luck.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Shovana Chowdhury with JP Morgan. Please proceed with your question.

Hi. Thanks for taking our question. I was just wondering if you can add more color on the consumer behavior, especially as it relates to trading down within your portfolio from branded to private label. And if you're seeing that, can you add more details on what are some of the categories, especially within pet that is more observable? Thanks.

I mean, I'll kick it off and then I'll let our pet and garden specialists elaborate. But what we've seen is there's some trade down going on, but it's really finding that value equation that resonates with the consumer. And we've seen it in both segments where we've nailed it in certain areas. So on the garden side, if you look at, for instance, Rebel grass seed, which is, you know, a real value brand, but a great product, we've seen that really take off because the consumers are more discerning. And that's one where we really got it right on the value equation. And we're seeing more and more where we get it right. We see demand really, really jump. So that would be one example on the garden side on the pet side uh we have our bully hide product um and that is that's you know competes with with bully sticks but it's at a much lower price point um just as much fun for the dogs to chew on uh has all the benefits um that a bully stick does it's just quite a bit less from a price point standpoint um and that's also something that's really taken off we we innovated on that a couple of years ago. And it's just a matter of getting that kind of value equation right for the consumer. So those would be two examples. I'll kick it over to our industry guys.

Yeah. You know, for Q3 on the pet side, we actually saw our branded outperformed private label, which was nice to see. What I think we're seeing a little bit more on the pet side is the super premium products get more trade down. You know, many of our brands sit in that good and better brand positioning and offer a really strong value and attracts mainstream consumers. We're going to be close to it. We're going to stay close to it. We're going to make sure we monitor that because consumers are very much challenged right now. But for Q3, we feel really good about the performance of our branded business, especially as it compares to private label.

And I think, too, what we've seen in pet, it's been very noticeable is a channel shift over to club, Walmart, so you think Costco, for example, and that's been pretty profound and we expect that to continue.

Yeah, and we do have strong positions in those channels and, you know, we had a good quarter on e-com too. You know, e-com was up 10%, you know, as a percent of mix, it was above prior year. So, you know, I think we're managing a lot of facets of it really well, but it's something we're going to have to stay really close to.

Yeah, and I think all of those comments echo really closely to Garden and Nico, I think you covered it well. I think we see more of a intent by consumers to find value rather than to trade down. So that might be trading into a grass seed product that's a combination product that has mulch, fertilizer, and seed all in one that might be a more expensive single retail but does provide a lot of value. And, you know, we do have a significant private label portfolio as well that we have seen perform very well in this environment. Fertilizer is typically a two-brand strategy. There's a national brand and a private label. And in that environment where there's only two choices, we have started to see some trade into private label. But where there's multiple choices, value seems to be the first surge.

And like PET, I think the garden portfolio does particularly well when the consumer is seeking value. It's not... Performance, too, right? They want efficacy, performance, and basically we're priced at a value to the leading national brand, and that's a good spot to be in. Yes.

Thank you. Very helpful. I'll pass it on.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our Our next question comes from Jim Chartier with Monas, Cresti, and Hart. Please proceed with your question.

That's my question. You talked about projects arise on the garden side being largely complete. You're just curious where the overall cost of simplicity initiatives stand. How much more opportunity do you see going forward from that?

Well, we've made some big moves. I would say a lot of the large moves are behind us. That said, we're already looking at ways to improve, you know, efficiency and performance in those facilities. I think the next phase is going to be really looking at, you know, AI, robotics, things like that. We talked about, you know, the Trixie acquisition and having a look at their facility and how advanced it was. So we've got some things to learn there. So we think we think there's always going to be room for improvement in terms of, you know, the footprint. A lot of the big work has been done. But then I would also point out, you know, we want to continue to acquire. And, you know, that's going to mean, you know, bringing more businesses in, more more supply chain networks and then integrating those. So I don't think there's going to be a real shortage of targets for us, given how we run the business with M&A and really what's coming at us from a technology standpoint. So we think there's more to come.

And the only other thing I would add on the pet side is cost and simplicity is really embedded in our culture now. You know, it's really part of the muscle and the fabric of how we build our business plans and execute our plans. So, you know, we still have an upside. As Nico said, many of the big projects, you know, have been addressed. There will be more to come.

But the muscle and how we go about our business and cost and simplicity is part of it every single day. and there's still opportunity right now to integrate more of pet and garden right we're doing a little bit of it now yeah but there's also a lot more opportunity there as well so I think we're just early stages there I'd say that 10 roughly 10 times the amount of volume this year as a pet has flown through that logistic network versus time last year so yeah that's a great example of that collaboration and cross-segment communication working out Which we've never done before.

And then it sounds like you're pretty optimistic on the MDA front. Can you talk about what you're seeing in terms of the number of deals that are out there, the quality and the valuations?

Yeah. I mean, we hinted at it the last few quarters. You didn't see anything happen, but we could see the pipeline filling up, the quality of deals. We felt like people were finding more religion around, you know, valuation. So we felt it was more tangible than in the past. And, again, you know, this by no means means what we're done. You know, this is a really nice deal. Won't close until early next year, but we've got other ones that we're looking at right now that we'd like to close. And, you know, we're good from a liquidity standpoint. point. You can see we're just shy of a billion in cash. So we'd love to do more. And we feel like we've got some really nice momentum right now. In the world of deals, deals begets deals, right? So people see you make an announcement and all of a sudden you're getting a lot more inquiries on other deals. So we feel like we've got some really strong momentum right now.

And just getting done with the Trixie deal, I would comment that Europe is a very fertile hunting ground for M&A, on the pet side in particular. And so we're very bullish on that. It's an area of focus for us in addition to the U.S. in terms of additional M&A. In addition to the, you know, the decent amount of good opportunities over there, the multiples are relatively lower than in the U.S., which is encouraging.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question is from Hale Holden with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, good afternoon. I just had two quick ones just as a follow-up on the M&A question. Is there anything about the Trixie integration that would cause you to pause, either from a management bandwidth or otherwise, other transactions? Or do you think you could move relatively quickly even before Trixie is closed?

Let me make sure I understood the question. Are you asking whether we would do other deals? or you will know i'm asked i'm asking if if the integration for trixie either for a european deal or for a u.s deal um if you need some time to season that asset before you would pursue another transaction or if it's kind of a standalone asset no it's like i yeah no we're we're actually looking at a few deals right now um that that we're going to move forward on you know assuming we can agree on terms and everything so no absolutely not um that it has a whole separate work stream and uh you know we've got bandwidth to do more um and we want to do more we want to get more aggressive so uh absolutely not you know the only thing that that's going to cause us to pause is you know we don't want to screw a great business up so they have a great business we're going to be really thoughtful about how we approach it uh by the way culturally we're we are such a great fit with that business as well. When we met that team, it was like we knew each other. We'd known each other for 10 years. So I think the biggest issue is going to be just being thoughtful about what we're doing there so we don't break anything. But it doesn't preclude us from other deals, no. Great.

And then my second question is, you guys had an amazing sort of cash flow from operations print this quarter. And I was wondering if there was any driver specifically that helped to do that or it was just an overall good cash conversion quarter?

Yeah, I mean, it was an overall good cash conversion quarter. And then that was, you know, further helped by the fact that we got, you know, we unwound a lot of inventory, getting out of distribution. And then we also worked through a lot of inventory on grass seed as well, which helped. So those were the big drivers.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

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