BellRing Brands, Inc. (BRBR) Q2 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

BellRing Brands, Inc. (BRBR)
Q2 2021 Earnings Call
May 07, 2021, 10:30 a.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Welcome to BellRing Brands second-quarter 2021 earnings conference call and webcast. Hosting the call today from BellRing Brands are Darcy Davenport, president and chief executive officer; and Paul Rode, chief financial officer. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay beginning at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

The dial-in number is (800) 585-8367, and the passcode is 5885539. [Operator instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Jennifer Meyer, investor relations of BellRing Brands, for introductions. You may begin.

Jennifer Meyer -- Investor Relations

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for BellRing Brands second-quarter fiscal 2021 earnings call. With me today are Darcy Davenport, our president and CEO; and Paul Rode, our CFO. Darcy and Paul will begin with prepared remarks, and afterwards, we'll have a brief question-and-answer session. The press release and supplemental slide presentations that support these remarks are posted on our website in both the investor relations and the SEC filings sections at bellring.com.

In addition, the release and slides are available on the SEC's website. Before we continue, I would like to remind you that this call will contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties that should be carefully considered by investors as actual results could differ materially from these statements. These forward-looking statements are current as of the date of this call, and management undertakes no obligation to update these statements. As a reminder, this call is being recorded and an audio replay will be available on our website.

And finally, this call will discuss certain non-GAAP measures. For a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the nearest GAAP measure, see our press release issued yesterday and posted on our website. With that, I will turn the call over to Darcy.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Jennifer, and thank you all for joining us. Last evening, we reported our second-quarter results and posted a supplemental presentation to our website. I'm pleased to report that our results were strong with net sales of $282 million and adjusted EBITDA of $42 million. Net sales were up 10% despite lapping a difficult comparable in the prior year driven by COVID pantry loading on the Premier Protein brand.

Dymatize grew an impressive 29% this quarter with strong results across channels and further benefiting from an easier international comparable. Our first half results, combined with continued top line momentum, give us confidence to raise our outlook for the year. We now expect net sales to be between $1.17 billion and $1.2 billion, equaling growth of 18% to 21%, and exceeding our long-term algorithm of 10% to 12%. We are also raising our adjusted EBITDA guidance range to between $214 million and $220 million.

We are excited about our sales momentum. However, we continue to experience cost pressure as inflation ramps up ahead of our expectations. Our price increase on shakes, which goes into effect in the third quarter, combined with our cost-out programs, are largely offsetting the anticipated commodity and freight headwinds. On our powder business, we are expecting significant increases on whey protein and are pursuing opportunities to mitigate this additional margin pressure later this year and into next.

Now turning to our category, brand highlights and growth strategies. The overall convenient nutrition category remains stable and healthy. We continue to see macro trends such as health and wellness, snacking and mainstreaming of protein driving category growth. Liquid and powder momentum remains strong with growth outpacing historic rates driven by shelf space gains and strong velocities.

As mobility increases, we expect category growth to accelerate, providing additional tailwinds to the overall convenient nutrition category. Premier Protein shake consumption grew a healthy 20% this quarter across both tracked and untracked channels. This was on top of an elevated consumption quarter last year as a result of the COVID stock-up. Distribution gains, incremental promotional activity and strong velocities drove this growth.

All of our channels grew with eCommerce, food and mass leading the way, each growing nearly 60% compared to a year ago. As we lap the prior year pantry deload in Q3, overall consumption has significantly accelerated in April, up 61%. However, even more encouraging, we are seeing strong sequential growth with consumption up 13% versus March. We continue to make great progress against our growth strategies.

Premier Protein's household penetration reached an all-time high of 7.4%, an increase of 12% over prior year. Our repeat rate on 30-gram shake line remains at category-leading 51%, which highlights the strength of the brand and why we continue to believe in the long-term potential of this business. We had a great distribution build in Q2 with brand TDPs up 14% sequentially and 55% versus year ago. Our RTB market share in tracked channels gained two percentage points, reaching 20.2%.

Our national marketing campaign, which kicked off in January, performed well and was a clear contributor to our strong quarterly performance. Our new flavors and pack sizes continue to drive significant growth in distribution. Cafe latte and cinnamon roll remained in the top 15% of the category were sold. Our newest flavor, choco peanut butter, was launched in eCommerce during Q2.

It's off to a great start, quickly becoming our third strongest flavor in that channel. Premier powders also had a fantastic quarter with tracked consumption up 144% driven by both distribution and velocity. Now to Dymatize. Our strategy of expanding distribution to more mainstream channels is working.

The business was up 24% domestically driven by club, mass and eCommerce channels. We identified the right products and pack sizes for these channels, and the brand is responding well to dedicated media. ISO100, Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles are also bringing flavor excitement to the brand and driving velocities across all channels. Our international sales grew 32% with both Premier Protein and Dymatize contributing.

Premier shakes in Canada saw meaningful growth, supported by a successful club promotion and our first national digital media campaign. Dymatize's international sales rebounded as we began to lap the COVID impact of prior year. To close, I remain confident in our plans for 2021. Our category is healthy, providing a significant tailwind.

We have a portfolio of strong brands that target complementary consumers. Our advertising and promotions are working, driving growth and household penetration. Our distribution continues to meaningfully build. Our new products are generating consumer excitement and are thriving in market, and our innovation pipeline is the strongest it has ever been.

We know what drives our business, and our recent performance allows us to reinvest in those proven tactics and continue the growth cycle. I continue to be optimistic about our future, and I'm thankful for all the hard work of our employees, who make it happen every day. I will now turn the call over to Paul.

Paul Rode -- Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Darcy, and good morning, everyone. Net sales for the quarter were $282.1 million, up 9.6%. Adjusted EBITDA was $42.2 million, down 2.8%, and EBITDA margin was 15%. As Darcy indicated, our strong second quarter results were against a tough prior year comparable as we lap COVID-related pantry loading.

Premier Protein net sales increased 8.2% primarily driven by RTD shakes. Second quarter results benefited from distribution gains for both existing and new products and incremental promotional activity. Premier Protein net sales also benefited from strong growth in powder products and a favorable customer mix driven by increased FDM sales. Dymatize net sales grew 28.8% this quarter driven by distribution gains in club and mass and continued strong eCommerce growth.

Favorable product and customer mix were also a benefit to net sales growth. Dymatize's international sales showed year-over-year growth as we begin to lap the COVID-related declines in the prior year. Turning back to consolidated results. Gross profit of $87.0 million decreased 1.4% this quarter with an expected decrease in gross profit margin to 30.8%.

As we have previously discussed, this decline results from higher input costs, freight and planned incremental promotional activity. SG&A expenses were $48.2 million and as a percentage of net sales declined 130 basis points to 17.1%. SG&A expenses in the current year included $0.7 million of restructuring and facility closure costs related to our business realignment. These expenses were partially offset by $0.3 million of lower separation costs, both of which were treated as adjustments for non-GAAP measures.

Excluding these items, SG&A was flat compared to prior year by $2.2 million of higher marketing spend, reflecting expected leverage of our SG&A base. Operating profit of $15.6 million decreased $19.5 million compared to prior year and was negatively impacted by $17.7 million of accelerated amortization. This was a noncash expense recorded in connection with our decision to discontinue our Supreme Protein brand and was treated as an adjustment for non-GAAP measures. We expect the remaining $12 million of noncash accelerated amortization to be recorded in the third quarter.

Before reviewing our outlook, I would like to make a few comments on cash flow. We had a strong second quarter for cash flow, generating $50 million from operations. As of March 31, net debt was $594 million, and net leverage was three times. In February, we completed an opportunistic repricing of our term loan.

This reduced our annual cash interest by approximately $8 million. We now expect cash interest expense for the year to be approximately $37 million, with $8 million in both Q3 and Q4. Turning to our outlook. As Darcy previewed, we are raising our fiscal 2021 net sales guidance range to $1.17 billion to $1.2 billion, with adjusted EBITDA expected to range between $214 million and $220 million.

Compared to prior year, our updated guidance implies top line growth in the second half of 24% to 30% and EBITDA growth of 17% to 23%. Sales are expected to grow sequentially, with EBITDA roughly split across Q3 and Q4 as a result of higher planned promotional and marketing spend in Q4. Our revised guidance for EBITDA contemplates higher-than-anticipated inflationary pressures, notably whey and milk proteins, which is expected to impact our second half gross margins. We are pleased with our performance through the first half.

Our confidence in the BellRing story remains unchanged. With that, I would like to turn the call back over to the operator for questions.

Questions & Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] The first question will come from the line of Ken Goldman with J.P. Morgan.

Ken Goldman -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

Oh. Hi, thank you. I just wanted to understand a little bit of the guidance. I thought you had been saying earlier that the pricing was largely offsetting the commodities and the freight inflation.

But then I thought I heard at the very end, you're saying that the inflation was higher than you thought, and it'll hurt your gross margin. So is the pricing higher as well? I just wanted to think about the balance of that as we model the gross margin out here.

Paul Rode -- Chief Financial Officer

Yes. Sure, Ken. I'll take that. Since our February call, inflation has increased more than we expected, primarily in the second half.

The second quarter was right on track from a margin perspective of what we expected. But the second half has increased, and it's inflation really across several fronts. It's not one thing that's individually significant, but they add up. We've seen some increase on whey proteins and our milk proteins as well, to a lesser degree, freight.

So our price increase is offsetting the inflation in the second half. It's just the inflation is a bit more than we anticipated last quarter. So that is weighing on our margins in the second half.

Ken Goldman -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

OK. And then I know there have been some concerns or just questions really about weight loss season, potentially coming in a bit lighter than in prior years. I understand it's not always easy to tell why a consumer is purchasing a product, but is it your understanding that weight loss went well? Or did that season gets shifted a little bit into your third quarter? I just wanted to get a little bit of sense for how you're seeing that.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Our Q2, you know what, we kind of term as new year, new you, which I think is what you're saying kind of weight loss season, we did really well. So in the category, it's really dependent on what form, and I think it was depressed by the on-the-go. So for instance, liquids and powders did very well, while bars did not do very well. And that was really because bars are more heavily weighted on the on-the-go occasion.

So overall, I think when you look at the category this last quarter in liquids and powders, every kind needs to be increased with the exception of weight. And so adult was up. Sports nutrition was up. Everyday nutrition was up, which is really the area that Premier plays and Dymatize in sports.

Weight was down. And then when you look across the overall convenient nutrition category, both liquids and powders were up, and bars was down. So there's no doubt that the pandemic has added weight to people. I do think that it will come back.

But I think what drives the convenient nutrition category is much bigger than just weight management.

Ken Goldman -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

I understood very much. Thank you.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks Ken.

Operator

The next question will come from the line of Andrew Lazar with Barclays.

Andrew Lazar -- Barclays -- Analyst

Good morning everybody.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning.

Andrew Lazar -- Barclays -- Analyst

Darcy, I think it's about 15 flavors now available. Household penetration, right, reaching 7.4%, and obviously, the significant distribution gains you mentioned in some of the previously less-developed channels. I guess the question starts to shift a little bit toward how much run rate is sort of left in these things? And is there one of those particular drivers that is most important among those that are listed going forward? How do you think about that, the room that's left to go? I think I know your answer, but I want to get a sense of how you're thinking about it.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I think you probably know my answer. The upside is still immense. And we always look at household penetration being the biggest driver. And household penetration, yes, is at 7.4%.

The liquids category is at 24%. The overall convenient nutrition category is around 50%. So there's so much upside just in household penetration. And what's nice is the tactics that we are driving, so our advertising, the promotional activity, as well as just the distribution in new channels.

It is driving household penetration as we've seen by the rises. But from a distribution standpoint, you're right, we have launched a lot of new flavors. Our flavor strategy and our upsizing initiative is absolutely working. But just to give you a sense of our space and the upside, so we have an average in tracked channels of about 7.5 items on shelf.

One of our competitors, which has about an equal market share as us, they have 13 items on the shelf. We have incredibly productive SKUs. And so even though our distribution is up 55% versus year ago, the upside potential is still very large.

Andrew Lazar -- Barclays -- Analyst

Thank you for that. And then, Paul, just a quick follow-up. In terms of visibility for the rest of this year in terms of your cost, in terms of what can be sort of locked in and do you have a pretty good handle on or what your maybe forward coverage might be for those things that you can cover? Trying to get a sense of how much movement can now change or not with respect to your cost outlook, at least for this fiscal year.

Paul Rode -- Chief Financial Officer

Yes. At this point in the year, we have a pretty good handle on the protein side. Freight isn't quite as long, but again, for the most part, at this point in time, we feel pretty comfortable with our coverage and understanding of the margin structure in the second half.

Andrew Lazar -- Barclays -- Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Next question will come from the line of Chris Growe with Stifel.

Chris Growe -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst

Hi. Good morning.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning.

Chris Growe -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst

I just had a question for you on the revenue growth guidance. You had a little beat of expectations in the second quarter, but obviously, your second half is going up pretty significantly. You're seeing a nice significant increase, it seems like in April. I just want to get a sense of as you think about that guidance, and you did talk about, I think, sequential improvements through the remainder of the year.

But how much of that incremental revenue growth expectation you have? Is that 3Q? Or is it really kind of split across 3Q and 4Q? Just trying to get a sense of that.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. It's split across 3Q and 4Q. So remember, Q3 of 2020 had the pretty big trough following COVID. So just to give you a sense, if our results were exactly the same sales as H1, that would already be a 16% increase.

And what we have on top of that is organic growth, more distribution, we have incremental promotion in the second half and some incremental advertising. So hopefully it gets you comfortable with our build of why we're seeing a 24% to 30% growth in the back half.

Chris Growe -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst

That's helpful. Yes. And I had one other question, I think for Paul, but it's a bit of a follow-on to the inflation question. So could you characterize the rate of inflation in the second half of the year versus the first half of the year? I know the first half had quite a bit of inflation.

Is the second half kind of caught up to where the first half is? I realize you have pricing coming through. I'm just trying to get a sense of how that shifts from first half to second half.

Paul Rode -- Chief Financial Officer

Yes. The second half, based on our revised guidance, we're expecting higher both milk and whey protein cost in the second half versus the first half. And so it is up year over year more than we anticipated previously. On the milk side, it's relatively small on a percentage basis, low single-digit inflation.

So it's not a major change. On whey proteins, which is the primary ingredient in our powders, we're seeing much more significant increases on those that aren't really as impactful for us this year. We do expect some impact on our fourth quarter. It's more for as we get into fiscal '22, the inflation on our whey powder business is a concern.

Chris Growe -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst

OK. So you it seems like the second half rate of inflation below that of the first half. Would that be a fair characterization, and again, realizing you have some pricing coming through?

Paul Rode -- Chief Financial Officer

Yes. The rate of inflation, you're correct, is at a lower rate, but it's still a headwind.

Chris Growe -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst

Yes. Sure. OK. Thanks so much for that.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of David Palmer with Evercore ISI.

David Palmer -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst

Thanks. Good morning. Just wanted to get a sense of the level of -- and perhaps the year-over-year increase in marketing and promotion spending the quarter and sort of how you see that playing out through the year. What I'm thinking about is you had big plans in 2020, and COVID happened.

So I'm wondering if there's some leftover business and perhaps even some pivoting that you're making about how you think the consumer will be behaving coming out of COVID. So any color there would be helpful.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Yes, go ahead.

Paul Rode -- Chief Financial Officer

I can take the numbers and then if you want to give the qualitative. So you'd asked second quarter marketing was up about $2 million versus last year. Our first half marketing spend was around 4% of net sales. As we look at the second half, we expect to continue to invest as a percent of net sales in a similar high three's to 4% range as we're really seeing the marketing be effective.

And then I'll turn over to Darcy for additional color.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

And yes, just from a strategy and a pivoting standpoint, the advertising is working. I think the slight change of strategy that we made this year versus last year is I think I've talked to you guys about our testimonials, which we've long used our devoted fans to tell other consumers why they love the product. We will continue to use that. What we have augmented it with is what we call tastemonial, which is really focusing on one of the things that really differentiates the Premier Protein brand, which is amazing taste.

And we have added commercial both digital and analog about the flavors. So we have one on cafe latte. We have one on caramel, and they're really performing. So we actually are seeing the velocities on both of those flavors far exceed the rest of the line.

So that has been a very positive move. It really has nothing to do with COVID. It has more to do with just what we are getting better and better at knowing what drives our business.

David Palmer -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst

Just a comment, and maybe you can comment on the comment. It seems like you almost let the functionality of your product and how consumers use your product, whether it's about immunity or meal replacement protein seeking or the weight management aspects of that, you'll let that not be part of your message almost on purpose. Is that how you're playing it? And to your point, do you think the net effect of those need states will be positive going forward, i.e. the immunity dropping off will be more than outweighed by people looking for weight management in the future.

How are you thinking about that?

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

You're absolutely right. What is unique about Premier is that it appeals to so many different occasions, so many different need states. So we allow consumers to fit it into their life. I mean, if you look at our campaign, Too Good To Be Good, there is no prescription as to how they should use it.

So absolutely, you nailed it. On the second question, we're putting an immunity claim. We changed our product, and that comes out later this summer. We still think health and wellness, immunity, this is going to be a trend.

We don't think even after people are completely vaccinated, we still think it is top of mind, and it will continue to drive this category. So we don't think that's going away. What I think will happen is that it's going to be the people leaning into weight, it's just going to be additive.

David Palmer -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

The next question will come from the line of Pamela Kaufman with Morgan Stanley.

Pamela Kaufman -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Hi. Good morning.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning.

Pamela Kaufman -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Can you comment on the split between the change in outlook for gross margin versus your operating expenses and driving the change in your EBITDA margin outlook for the year? Obviously, it seems like you're facing more inflation than originally expected, but you also mentioned incremental marketing spend. So how should we think about the mix of the two driving your lower-margin outlook?

Paul Rode -- Chief Financial Officer

Yes. Our lower-margin outlook is primarily being driven by lower expectations on our gross margins because of the inflationary pressures on our key proteins and freight. We are spending a bit more on brand investments, but it's not as much of an impact to our overall margins. We're largely spending in line with our sales growth.

Pamela Kaufman -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

OK. Thanks. And then can you talk about how you expect to see your customer mix evolve over the coming quarters as you expand distribution in FDM? Does this have any implications on your margin profile as well? And what impact are you seeing in the club channel as you expand into FDM?

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Paul, you can add to this. Overall, our margins are pretty similar across our different businesses. So that really isn't a factor. FDM's a little higher, but nothing dramatic.

From our customer mix, clearly, we have a large club business. I think that as we expand into FDM, our growth in eCommerce, food and drug and mass is higher. And so that split will change. However, what's interesting, and I think I've talked to you guys before about this is all of this works together.

So these other new channels, we have different sizes, but there are smaller pack sizes that are launched in these channels. And so people are trying the product and being introduced to the product in food, drug, mass and eCommerce. And then often, they are then repeating in club. So really the kind of virtuous cycle work, one being more trial and then it feeds into the club channel.

So overall, the pie just gets bigger.

Pamela Kaufman -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Thank you. That's helpful.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks.

Operator

The next question will come from the line of Bill Chappell with Truist Securities.

Bill Chappell -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Thanks. Good morning. Just two kind of more follow-up questions. One, I'm right in saying that most of the pricing you're taking is list pricing, there's no real change your promotional calendar for the back half.

Is that correct?

Paul Rode -- Chief Financial Officer

Correct, yes. And going into the year, our promotional calendar was skewed toward the second half and specifically in the fourth quarter, and that's unchanged.

Bill Chappell -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Got you. So covering the incremental costs are just through the list price increase. Not any alterations there.

Paul Rode -- Chief Financial Officer

Correct. And that's on our shake business, correct.

Bill Chappell -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Got you. And then second, just maybe on a follow-up on the channels. Now that I think most of the planograms are reset, what kind of year was this in terms of shelf space gains, especially at FDM? But in general, how does that compare versus last year? And how does that set you up kind of going forward?

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

We gained more shelf space this year than last year. So we're up 55% in shelf space in tracked channel, so significant change. I think what's exciting is we are seeing some customers pushing a four-foot set, and where we have that four-foot set within FDM, we're seeing tremendous market share gains, which is a little bit obvious. And what's also happening is it's great for the category.

So we're able to sell across FDM and to our customers to really encourage them to expand the space because it will grow their category.

Bill Chappell -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Great. Well, it's fantastic. Thanks so much.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

The next question will come from the line of Kaumil Gajrawala with Credit Suisse.

Kaumil Gajrawala -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst

Hey everybody. Good morning. The first question, Darcy, you opened with category growth is accelerating. You expect it to continue to accelerate.

Is this kind of acceleration or growth kind of according to plan? Or are you seeing something perhaps different from what your view might have been about the category a few years ago? We are hearing from a few other companies kind of demand rebounding a bit more quickly than anticipated. So is this kind of a year-over-year comp thing? Or is it something structurally seem to have shifted [inaudible]?

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

We are seeing category growth slightly above historic rates. We've historically seen the liquids category specifically growth of about 5%. We are seeing it between 6% and 7%. So definitely higher than the past and slightly higher than our expectations, too.

Kaumil Gajrawala -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst

OK. Great. And then any color or commentary on the price elasticity? Obviously, given input costs, you need to take pricing once again. Can you just talk about what you've seen in the past, what you're planning for? Just go around to give us a sense.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. So when we talked about this that we took price in '19, and the in-market elasticities were very similar to what we projected. So in our pricing increase this time is pretty similar to what we experienced or what we took in '19. So we're expecting the same.

I think that the upside here is that it assumes no other competitors take price. And given the far-reaching inflation affecting everyone, especially in proteins and freight, we do expect competitors to follow. If that's the case, then obviously, our outlook will be conservative.

Kaumil Gajrawala -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst

OK. Great. Thank you.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks.

Operator

Next question will come from the line of Rob Dickerson with Jefferies.

Rob Dickerson -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Great. Thanks so much Darcy, I heard you earlier comment that the innovation pipeline remains robust. So I just want to dig into that a little bit. Obviously, the mix of the business increasingly is going to shakes.

Shakes are doing well. You're obviously highlighting shakes, right? It seems as if kind of the bar business is just kind of gradually not as much of a focus, let's say. So, one, I don't know if that's correct; and then, two, just when you think about innovation, are you speaking kind of more to other variations of the shakes, be it flavors, what have you? Or bigger picture, the distribution works well and velocities work well in certain products and categories with the brand that you might extend or you could extend into other areas?

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Our focus is definitely on beverages, so both ready-to-drink and powders. We have pulled away from bars, at least domestically. We still have a pretty strong bar business in the EU.

So we'll continue that. But on the bulk of our business, you're exactly right. We're focused on beverages. Yes, our innovation pipeline, I am incredibly excited about.

We have really leaned into this area organizationally, and I think it's really paying off. So we've hired a new lead, what we call VP of Growth. We've added to our insights team. We've expanded our R&D team really to focus on ready-to-drink and powders, but really focusing on ready-to-drink beverages because they are very complicated to develop.

And when you look at the pipeline, We still have a few new products that are coming out later this year. I talked about the immunity claim, but also this idea of expanding flavor. It is working. It's working from a household penetration and a buy rate standpoint.

So we're going to continue that. I kind of put the pipeline. It's about flavor and function. And we'll continue to bring news and excitement around flavor on both of our brands.

But then we will also really elevate the function. And I think what I'm excited about is we're exploring new benefit areas. We're really encouraged by the results of cafe latte when we added the benefit of caffeine. It opened up new occasions to what has predominantly been a breakfast occasion.

Now we're seeing people drinking shakes in kind of that late afternoon. And so leveraging that success, we're already thinking about other benefit areas that are potentially new to the category. But it will be likely in the beverage category. So it will be either ready-to-drink or powder.

Rob Dickerson -- Jefferies -- Analyst

OK, super. And then second question is just on the distribution game plan, you had example earlier of a competitor in the space that has excellent SKUs, and you have fewer SKUs, right? So if you're, let's say, bringing that new innovation to market and you look at the current retailers you're in now, would you say that kind of the closer end push on potential distribution gain as we think for, call it, or through '21 is more about getting the incremental shelf space for existing customers a bit more so than pushing into new customers and getting new distribution from there? So really just a new customer versus TDPs within preexisting customers? That's it. Thanks so much.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, correct. We see the bigger opportunity. The bigger, immediate opportunity is just more space in our existing customers. However, new channels is definitely a growth area.

We've talked about recently, in the last year, we entered into the dollar channel. Well, it's doing very well, and again, it's a great trial channel. We've talked about out-of-home kind of like the convenience and food service channels, which we really haven't gone there yet, and that's a big opportunity. So I would say the biggest immediate opportunity is definitely more space where we already are, but then we're already laying the groundwork for the new channels as well.All right.

Great. Thanks Darcy.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Ken Zaslow with Bank of Montreal.

Ken Zaslow -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst

Hey, good morning everyone.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning.

Paul Rode -- Chief Financial Officer

Good morning.

Ken Zaslow -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst

Can you talk about how your business case for Dymatize has changed? It seems like there's seemingly more opportunity there than maybe you initially thought years back just kind of parallel next to your initial comments back in the separation?

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Our strategy on Dymatize is around expanding the brand to mass channels is definitely working. Our focus around ISO100 as a flagship product line and really rallying all of the dedicated media around that line is also working. I think flavor excitement around these licenses, again, is bringing kind of new life.

But I think, again, we figured out the recipe that works. I think the old Dymatize of only being sold in the specialty channel was just too limited. The consumer is everywhere, and they shop across channels. So expanding it.

The specialty channel is still very important to us and will continue to be. But we think there's a ton of opportunities that eCommerce is doing incredibly well, and then there's a lot of growth within that.

Ken Zaslow -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst

With that, as well as the performance in Premier, do you think that your 10% to 12% long-term growth algorithm is more of a floor than an actual algorithm going forward? It just seems like that 10% to 12% is seemingly more of a floor than anything else, given the change between the Dymatize business in the shelf space and the momentum there. And then I'll leave it there.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I don't think it's a floor. I still think it's a good long-term algorithm. We're still a new public company, and so we will continue to evaluate if that is the right algorithm. There's been a lot of noise since we went public, as you guys know.

But it has held. And this year, obviously, we're exceeding it. We will continue to look and assess given our brand portfolio if it still move forward. And if we see that there's upside, we'll update it.

Ken Zaslow -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst

Great. Thank you, be well.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks. You too.

Operator

The next question will come from the line of Jason English with Goldman Sachs.

Jason English -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst

Hey. Good morning folks. Thanks for the question. Appreciate it.

And congrats on another good quarter. I guess I'm going to play the other side of that question of what the right durable growth rate is for the business. It sounds like a lot of your growth right now is coming from distribution expansion. And if we look at one channel where you've been present for a long time, the club channel, your business has slowed a lot.

We're down into low single-digit type growth. So can you give us, for us a sense of what's happening in the club channel? And then to play devil's advocate, should we look at that as sort of the reference point of what sustainable growth is when the distribution tailwinds subside?

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. It's a great question. So this quarter, you're absolutely right, club channel was low single digits. But it really is more of a factor about what it's lapping.

So last year, the COVID stock-up really affected club. It affected it early and more than the other channels. So we're lapping it. If you actually look at April, our business is up 50% and very much in line with the rest of the business.

I mean, obviously, lap is a lot of big numbers. But we're still driving growth, and we still see upside there because of our long-standing partnership with club and because we go to them with new innovation, just like the rest of our customers. But they're great partners, and we've really built the business there, and I talked about earlier that the cycle where we get trials through these other channels and many move and repeat into club, we see that as a long-term driver and model for the business.

Jason English -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst

OK. That's helpful. And then on competitive dynamics in the liquid space, rewind the clock to the time you were going public. There was obviously a lot of new brands coming in.

Retailers were pushing with private label. Growth attracts competition always and forever. And you're highlighting like the sustained very stellar growth there. Are we still in sort of proliferation mode in terms of competitors trying to come in and get a piece of this? Or have we begun to sort of shake out some of that and reconcentrate the category?

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I mean, you described it well. This is a high-growth category so there's always going to be a lot of competition, and there has been. We have seen a little bit of shakeout on the specific 30-gram competitors, which seemed to hit a height when we went public. Some of them have been discontinued, but there are some that will stay.

I think the way we look at it is even through all of the competitive entries throughout the last couple of years, we still have been able to grow double digits. So I hate the comment, "Competition is good." But competition is not bad, especially when you're talking about a category that has such low household penetration. It means that people are driving new households, they're spending, they're bringing new people to the category. And we think that we bring something different to the category.

And so then just on the private label comment, interesting enough, private label this quarter has seen some softness within liquid. They're actually down, and some of the private label retailers have seen some issues around quality and supply. And so I think their understanding that this product form is complicated, and it's kind of what we've been touting for a long time.

Jason English -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst

Makes sense. Thanks a lot. I will pass it on.

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 25 minutes

Call participants:

Jennifer Meyer -- Investor Relations

Darcy Davenport -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Paul Rode -- Chief Financial Officer

Ken Goldman -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

Andrew Lazar -- Barclays -- Analyst

Chris Growe -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst

David Palmer -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst

Pamela Kaufman -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Bill Chappell -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Kaumil Gajrawala -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst

Rob Dickerson -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Ken Zaslow -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst

Jason English -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst

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