Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. You're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Shares up LifeWay Foods. It's the company bind keefer or kaffir,
Speaker 1: depending on how you pronounce it when you see it
Speaker 1: at the grocery store.
Speaker 2: I don't know. You're captain yogurt.
Speaker 1: I am captain Yogurt. They also do probiotic smoothies, farmers
Speaker 1: cheese and more. They swung wildly earlier this month, shares
Speaker 1: that is, searching as much as fifteen point seven percent,
Speaker 1: but following as much as seven point five percent to
Speaker 1: close lower by two point five percent. That was the
Speaker 1: day the company reported earnings that trailed and sales that
Speaker 1: topped estimates for the quarter. I want to bring in
Speaker 1: Julius Smolanski. She's CEO of the three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: million dollar market cap LifeWay food She joins us from
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Julie, good to have you back with us.
Speaker 1: How are you great?
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Well, thanks for joining us. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: the state of the company, how you view the consumer,
Speaker 1: but and then also talk a little bit about the
Speaker 1: most recent news that you guys have with the known
Speaker 1: because you've spent a lot of time on our program
Speaker 1: talking about that. Let's start with the consumer and where
Speaker 1: you're seeing areas of growth, because I know you last
Speaker 1: time you spoke with us, you said, yes, Kafir is
Speaker 1: certainly where we're where we're seeing growth, but we're also
Speaker 1: branching out to other things, including Farmer's cheese, where the
Speaker 1: areas of growth be right.
Speaker 4: Now, Yeah, I mean we're seeing Thank you so much. Well,
Speaker 4: LifeWay has never been stronger.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: We are going to have record growth.
Speaker 4: This year, record our our highest historic year of success ever.
Speaker 4: And we're seeing a record demand for functional, nutritious, gut
Speaker 4: healthy foods, high protein and not just protein, but high
Speaker 4: quality bioavailable protein. Not all protein is the same, and
Speaker 4: we're seeing it everywhere. But you know, I think smart
Speaker 4: consumers are really doing deep dives and research into their
Speaker 4: protein choices and they're going to find that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, go ahead, I'm gonna I know, I'm going to
Speaker 1: steal a question from Carol, but it's a GLP one
Speaker 1: question that should always ask. Yeah, go there. You know,
Speaker 1: Sweet Green announced this like ultra high protein salad recently,
Speaker 1: and it's all about for GLP one users. It's like
Speaker 1: one hundred grams of protein and a salad.
Speaker 3: Need it for your muscles?
Speaker 1: Are you Are you seeing this and then the move
Speaker 1: with people on GLP ones, are you seeing them reach
Speaker 1: for kafir.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, it is critical that people who are on GLP ones.
Speaker 4: And roughly fifteen percent of Americans are using a GLP
Speaker 4: one right now and one out of three are curious
Speaker 4: and considering it next year. And I think that's going
Speaker 4: to be a continued rise in consumer behavior. And we
Speaker 4: are there is an absolute necessity in consuming high quality
Speaker 4: bioavailable protein to make sure that you are preventing muscle loss.
Speaker 4: And we also see us all time high in women
Speaker 4: using strength and muscle building exercises.
Speaker 3: At an all time high.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of kind of trends happening all at
Speaker 4: the same time, and we're right at the center of that,
Speaker 4: really meeting the moment at LifeWay.
Speaker 2: So you know, I'm just looking at all your products,
Speaker 2: I mean, what's your money maker? What do you sell
Speaker 2: the most of?
Speaker 4: Obviously plaining kafirra is our number one farmer cheese, which
Speaker 4: we started off the program with farmer cheese has been
Speaker 4: one of our early product number two. My father made
Speaker 4: this in Slavic communities, Russian, Ukraine, Eastern Europe. It's which
Speaker 4: is like a soft, unripened cheese kind of I would say,
Speaker 4: the sexier version of cottage cheese. It's already blended, it's spreadable.
Speaker 4: It's a great canvas to do a lot, and right
Speaker 4: now it's our time to shine with Thanksgiving upon us.
Speaker 4: We have a whole cheesecake campaign, so you can make
Speaker 4: a healthy cheesecake with us, sweet or savory. I also
Speaker 4: like to put this on a potato chip and some
Speaker 4: black caviard.
Speaker 3: That's my favorite chef's kid.
Speaker 1: That's fairs.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very fancy and healthy because again, high quality feel protein,
Speaker 4: not synthetic lab created protein, super super important. So yeah,
Speaker 4: we are really seeing this kind of intersection of culture
Speaker 4: and trends and gut health and probiotics all coming together. Protein,
Speaker 4: high quality dairy is back.
Speaker 2: You just give me an idea of some growth rates.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at a release I think it was from
Speaker 2: you guys or some research here that your Farmer cheese,
Speaker 2: you guys are available in two thousand Walmart stores nationwide.
Speaker 2: That's pretty huge. But my understanding is it's growing at
Speaker 2: double digit year over year rates.
Speaker 3: Is that correct? That is correct.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we just picked up two thousand and Walmart stores.
Speaker 4: We're in all of the Albertson's nationwide, and we are
Speaker 4: expanding into other mass market stores really kind of following
Speaker 4: along with Kaffir, which we have for forty years been
Speaker 4: bringing into mainstream. So our growth is remarkable. We've had
Speaker 4: twenty three quarters of four consecutive quarters year over year
Speaker 4: of growth. That's six full years of growth we have
Speaker 4: year to date from just for twenty twenty five, we're
Speaker 4: at one hundred and fifty seven million. That's compared to
Speaker 4: six years ago. We're up one hundred and twenty three percent.
Speaker 4: So we are on fire. Our shareholder return back from
Speaker 4: six years ago when we announced life Way two point
Speaker 4: zero plan back in November exactly six years ago, our
Speaker 4: shareholder return is eight hundred and sixty percent. So we
Speaker 4: are really, you know, just again on fire. And this
Speaker 4: isn't just a trend. This is something that has been
Speaker 4: long happening. Like in Eastern year, go ahead, Well.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to We don't have a ton of time,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to make sure I got into what's
Speaker 1: been happening lately with the denown interest, because back in September,
Speaker 1: denot And said it will no longer pursue an acquisition
Speaker 1: of LifeWay, and said it's in the process of reviewing
Speaker 1: alternatives for its investment it owns, according to the Bloomberg Terminal,
Speaker 1: about twenty two point seven percent of the company. You
Speaker 1: guys said you will continue to explore value enhancing opportunities.
Speaker 1: You've formed a strategic review committee. What's going to happen
Speaker 1: to ton unstake, Well, we've.
Speaker 4: Registered, they've registered their shares, so you know, we will
Speaker 4: be looking for alternatives, just like like you said. And
Speaker 4: you know, we're really focused on our growth right now.
Speaker 4: We have a lot of opportunities, new products that we've launched,
Speaker 4: new collaborations and partnerships, we're expanding internationally.
Speaker 3: We're the number one brand in Mexico.
Speaker 2: But Jelly does the alternatives that you guys are exploring,
Speaker 2: does that maybe also include maybe selling to somebody else
Speaker 2: or are you planning to continue to go it alone.
Speaker 4: I mean, we believe that we are a strong company independent,
Speaker 4: you know, as an independent company. But you know, we
Speaker 4: always take every offer and evaluate it, and you know,
Speaker 4: make sure that all shareholders are going to benefit from
Speaker 4: any kind of transaction.
Speaker 1: Part of the agreement that you made with to Known
Speaker 1: was that you would separate the chair and CEO roles.
Speaker 1: So now you're continuing as CEO. You're no longer chair.
Speaker 3: That's right?
Speaker 1: How I mean, what are you thinking about in terms
Speaker 1: of your commitment to the company. Are you staying honest
Speaker 1: as CEO for like how many more years? Your what's
Speaker 1: your plan?
Speaker 4: I don't have a crystal ball, but I am very
Speaker 4: much committed and dedicated to LifeWay. My father founded this
Speaker 4: company and I have been CEO for twenty three years
Speaker 4: and it is my pride and joy, and we have
Speaker 4: done a tremendous, remarkable job in our growth and I
Speaker 4: feel like we're just getting started. It really feels like
Speaker 4: that startup energy founder energy. Every single day. I am
Speaker 4: very excited about some of the things we've entered the
Speaker 4: zeitgeist of culture, and that's not by accident. That is
Speaker 4: by strategic marketing, strategic vision and leadership. And you know,
Speaker 4: we were a wordle word in Wordle. We had our
Speaker 4: very first NASCAR. We had the first ever keeper drone
Speaker 4: show in Chicago, which we're going to.
Speaker 3: Be making bigger next year National Keeper Day.
Speaker 4: So wait morning, come, okay, okay, we have to go
Speaker 4: qu We'll have you back soon.
Speaker 2: Julius Molanskape she's CEO of Life Wait Foods.
Speaker 3: This is Bloomboard