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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside

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Speaker 1: my co host Matt Miller. Every business day, we bring

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Speaker 1: you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along

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Speaker 1: with essential market moving news. Find the Bloomberg Markets Podcast

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Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and

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Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. Now, let's bring in

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Speaker 1: Lauren Gilbert right now from Wealthwise Financial Services. She's the

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Speaker 1: founder and the CEO. And what a time to be investing,

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Speaker 1: making investment decisions, deciding on investment strategy. What do you do,

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Speaker 1: Loreen after a nine point one percent cp I print right.

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Speaker 1: It's a shocking number, definitely, and it's got investors nervous.

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Speaker 1: But I think when we think about having a level head,

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Speaker 1: when we look at core inflation has been coming down

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Speaker 1: to hit a peak, and I don't think that the

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Speaker 1: FED will be as aggressive as some people are thinking.

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Speaker 1: I think they night stick to the basis points. Nonetheless,

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Speaker 1: no matter what it is and whatever it is that

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Speaker 1: we're looking at, we just have to focus on long

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Speaker 1: term investing. And with that, I think that investors are

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Speaker 1: actually probably too uh too worried, too fearful about this

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Speaker 1: and keeping their equity exposure in line with their risk tolerance.

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Speaker 1: So while we've pulled in some cash, not being overly

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Speaker 1: conservative with equity exposure. Loreen, let's talk about this Humiss

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Speaker 1: data if we can here. It's coming in pretty good

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Speaker 1: actually at a time when consumer sentiment is extremely extremely low.

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Speaker 1: How much stocks should be put in this particular report? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: exactly that the consumer sentiment has been extremely low. Um,

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Speaker 1: but when you look at today and the retail sales number,

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Speaker 1: it shows that consumers are still spending. So there's this

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Speaker 1: disconnect between consumer sentiment and and actually what people are doing.

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Speaker 1: And I think hopefully that holds because we rely on

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Speaker 1: our economy on the consumer. Two thirds of our GDP

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Speaker 1: is based on the consumer spending. So, uh so we

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Speaker 1: are seeing the consumer spending. Now, what we don't really

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Speaker 1: know is how much of that is just higher prices,

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Speaker 1: So higher prices, but people are actually purchasing less but

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Speaker 1: the prices are higher, so we have to factor that in.

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Speaker 1: But people are spending. The consumer is still strong, and

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Speaker 1: so we think the consumer can weather this, but they're

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Speaker 1: not happy about it. They're not They're not happy that

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Speaker 1: they're spending extra money on goods. In terms of the

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Speaker 1: FED UM, you know, a hundred basis points has been floated,

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Speaker 1: but it seems like seventy five is pretty much a lock.

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Speaker 1: What do you expect for you know, the the year

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Speaker 1: end rate or the terminal rate from the Federal Reserve. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think we're the three and a half more than

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Speaker 1: the four that might be expected. So you know, we

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Speaker 1: do think the seventy five and then um, you know,

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Speaker 1: we'll see, hopefully there's a breather where the Federal Reserve

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Speaker 1: will take a look at how that's really being priced

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Speaker 1: in with the economy and how the economy is taking

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Speaker 1: it um and so I think that what we're going

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Speaker 1: to see this year is an aggressive fad and next

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Speaker 1: year they might have to completely reverse course and become

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Speaker 1: much more accommodative based on the economy. So uh so,

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Speaker 1: so I think, you know, consumers as well as investors

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Speaker 1: just ride this out. Looking specifically, what we're doing is

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Speaker 1: looking for companies that are spending on capex, what's going

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Speaker 1: on with share buy backs, you know, what is their

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Speaker 1: strength on cash flow? And those strong companies are what

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Speaker 1: we're looking for. Well, you're talking about fundamentals here, Can

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Speaker 1: we just have a sentiment for a second, because do

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Speaker 1: people really want to even be in this market when

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Speaker 1: there's this much uncertainty. It's something you're seeing in commodities,

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Speaker 1: for example, that simply open interest in that market is

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Speaker 1: drop because nobody wants to navigate the volatility. Can the

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Speaker 1: same be said for the SMP five Well, you mentioned

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Speaker 1: a really good point. For sure. Definitely, emotions get involved

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Speaker 1: when it comes to investing, and that's where we have

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Speaker 1: to help our investors keep emotion out of it and

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Speaker 1: really look at that, you know, how to client call

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Speaker 1: the other day saying all I'm hearing is recession, recession, recession, recession.

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Speaker 1: How bad is it? And our feeling is that, you know, one,

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Speaker 1: we're not in a recession yet and to uh, it's

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Speaker 1: probably not going to be as bad as people think

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Speaker 1: it's going to be. So with that, yes, we could

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Speaker 1: still see some downside from here on equity prices, but

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Speaker 1: when we look at our year in numbers, on our

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Speaker 1: expectations on the SMP, it's higher than what it is

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Speaker 1: right now. So as long as investors can take, you know,

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Speaker 1: and look at it out longer term view, um, it

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Speaker 1: makes more sense to be invested, and like I was

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Speaker 1: saying earlier, the average investor is still as too little

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Speaker 1: equity exposure. So if I came to you with a

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Speaker 1: million bucks in the three to five year time horizon,

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Speaker 1: what would you do. We have that situation right now.

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Speaker 1: We're investing that money, We're putting it to work. Now,

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Speaker 1: that investor that I'm talking about is a modern investor,

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Speaker 1: So holding to that sixty allocation and of course including

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Speaker 1: including alternatives in the mix, uh would make sense? All right? Loreen,

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Speaker 1: thanks so much. Lori and Gilbert, their founder and CEO

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Speaker 1: of Wealthwise Financial Services talking to us about the current

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Speaker 1: investment environment. Me and pretty have a bet. Now, we

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Speaker 1: do have a bet. I think that inflation peaked at

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Speaker 1: least in terms of the headline CPI number with the

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Speaker 1: reading that we got what was that Wednesday? Right? Nine nine?

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Speaker 1: Handle yet? So if if we get a higher number

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Speaker 1: than that, I will take you to dinner wherever you

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Speaker 1: like and one of your friends. So it's not a date.

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Speaker 1: Maybe maybe my wife could come over. Yeah, let's do that. Um,

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Speaker 1: if I'm right and hold on, If I win and

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Speaker 1: inflation is higher and has not, Pete, what do you want?

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Speaker 1: I don't know, if I take you to dinner, and

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Speaker 1: if if I win, you pay for dinner. Exactly, you

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Speaker 1: take me to the Flying j um in in Harrisburg.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna interview the CEO right now, Schamik Konar, CEO

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Speaker 1: of the Pilot Company. I grew up with Pilot and

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Speaker 1: the Flying j I used to drive all the time.

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Speaker 1: I still kind of do from Grandville, Ohio to New

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Speaker 1: York City and I always stop at um at your

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Speaker 1: what do you call them truck stops? Convenience centers? What

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Speaker 1: do you call the Flying j are the pilots called

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Speaker 1: them travel travel centers? That's right, I always say truck

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Speaker 1: stop people being a cupstomer Matt to be appreciated and

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Speaker 1: hopefully we do a good job for you. No, obviously

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Speaker 1: I love it, or I wouldn't stop there all the time. Um,

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Speaker 1: although it is very convenient, right, they seem to be everywhere,

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Speaker 1: at least for a Midwest boy like me. How many

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Speaker 1: stores do you have? And and and where are they?

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Speaker 1: Where they focused concentrated? No, we were, Actually we're we're

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Speaker 1: all over the country. So you know, we sell a

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Speaker 1: few a lot of about eight hundred and twenty locations

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Speaker 1: around the country. And and Canada and uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: we're pretty much on every major rangstate and uh and

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Speaker 1: and some of the local roads depending on the amount

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Speaker 1: of amount of traffic there. So you know, it's a

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Speaker 1: pretty uh, pretty broad network. And so I guess the

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Speaker 1: story is, now you're gonna put e V chargers everywhere?

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Speaker 1: Is that in it? Well? Yes, that is. We are

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Speaker 1: partnering out with General Motors to put EV chargers at

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Speaker 1: at five hundred of locations to start with. Yes, So

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Speaker 1: talk to us a little bit about the transition there

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Speaker 1: went from gas stations to e vs. We had a

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Speaker 1: guest on almost like yesterday from GMO. From from GM. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's what he's talking about, right, I'm aware, thank you,

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Speaker 1: uh talking about well, you know, we're still have this

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Speaker 1: massive infrastructure to build, but I'm curious about the trade

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Speaker 1: off there. You know, the way we pretty the way

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Speaker 1: we look at this is our goal is to provide

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Speaker 1: a great experience for our guests and to be able

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Speaker 1: to deliver the form of energy that they need. Right,

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Speaker 1: so you know, whether whether whether people need electricity or

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Speaker 1: whether they need gasoline, our goal is to provide whatever

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Speaker 1: form of energy they need. So you know, we view

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Speaker 1: this as a as a bit of the natural transition

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Speaker 1: as we uh you know, move away from fossil fields,

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Speaker 1: which is gonna take a long time in my opinion.

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Speaker 1: But but we are moving to a world where we

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Speaker 1: are going to have to service many kinds of guests

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Speaker 1: as we call them at our travel centers. And I

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Speaker 1: see a future where, you know, for a period of time,

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Speaker 1: we will be selling so mean diesel. Uh you know,

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Speaker 1: we we currently sell a lot of bio diesel, renewable diesel,

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Speaker 1: ethan al, and we'll be selling electricity and possibly hydrogen

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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, possibly compressed natural gas. So I

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Speaker 1: see this kind of multi few future for us as

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Speaker 1: we work our way through this transition. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: assume that you also want to make money though, right,

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Speaker 1: So what kind of margins, uh do you expect from

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Speaker 1: or or or maybe even you know, gross revenue do

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Speaker 1: you expect from an electric vehicle customer versus someone who's

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Speaker 1: fueling up a gas or diesel. That my, my, my

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Speaker 1: shareholders will be pleased that you bring that up. But

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Speaker 1: you know, look at this point, it's a little bit

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Speaker 1: of a complicated question. And the reason I the reason

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Speaker 1: I say that is, uh, you know, uh the electric

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Speaker 1: UH procurement rates are actually fairly complicated around the country,

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Speaker 1: so and this is one of the challenges we're working

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Speaker 1: to figure out. It's based on the rate structures that

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Speaker 1: are offered by utilities in different states. You can actually

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Speaker 1: have pretty significant variations in the price of electricity and

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Speaker 1: the way electricity is priced because you have these things

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Speaker 1: called demand charges where you have to pay regardless of

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Speaker 1: whether you're whether people are charging at your location or not.

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Speaker 1: And if I have to pass all of that onto

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Speaker 1: our customers or you know, if you have large demand charges,

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Speaker 1: it's gonna be help for us to make money for

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Speaker 1: some period of time. In all those states where you

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Speaker 1: don't have demand charges, it's gonna be you know, possible

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Speaker 1: for us to UH to make money. But ultimately, the

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Speaker 1: way I think about it is, we have to be

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Speaker 1: competitive with the price of gasoline. So when you think

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Speaker 1: about it on a you know, for a mile basis,

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Speaker 1: for a mile cost of fuel, we have to be

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Speaker 1: competitive with gasoline. So right now, it's it's it's a

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Speaker 1: difficult call to make, but this is something that we're

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Speaker 1: going to have to work through state by state and

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Speaker 1: work through with our customers as well. From a market's perspective.

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Speaker 1: It feels like President Biden's comments that operators of such

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Speaker 1: facilities as yours have the ability to control the prices

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Speaker 1: at the pump, the prices that consumers are facing from

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Speaker 1: marcus perspective, which which Matt and Night talked about on

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Speaker 1: the daily, that seems like a very challenging thing to do.

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Speaker 1: But I'd like to get your response as the owner

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Speaker 1: of one of such operators. You know, um, what ends

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Speaker 1: up happening is the factors that drive are pricing are

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Speaker 1: are generally three things, right. First is what the cost

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Speaker 1: of the fuel is. And this is what you guys

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Speaker 1: talk about all the time, right Like double Pi is

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Speaker 1: trading at ninety forty two right now, and you know

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Speaker 1: you've got on letter gasoline trading at two two right,

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Speaker 1: So the cost of the product. Uh And and one

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Speaker 1: of the challenges we do run into is we has

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Speaker 1: to carry inventory. So the markets move up and now

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Speaker 1: and every day, but we have to carry a fair

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Speaker 1: amount of inventory. So you know, how we price also

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Speaker 1: depends on what the thought stuff that inventory in our

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Speaker 1: tanks place. The second factor that comes into play is

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Speaker 1: what our competitors are doing. Right as you know, this

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Speaker 1: is uh. You know, retail retail fuel is a hyper

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Speaker 1: competitive industry. I mean I grew up in India. When

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Speaker 1: I came to the US, I was absolutely shocked by

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Speaker 1: the fact that you could have three or four gas

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Speaker 1: stations at one intersection right competing for prices. So competitive

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Speaker 1: behavior comes into play a lot. And these days, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, with with what's happened in the US uh

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Speaker 1: uh fuel industry, with the fact that our refining capacity

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Speaker 1: has gone down, you know, kind of six six or

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Speaker 1: seven percent over COVID and the fact that we're running

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Speaker 1: law and inventories. Localized markets have tremendous dislocations and fuel.

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Speaker 1: You can have markets which are or you can have

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Speaker 1: term those which a hundred miles apart, and you see

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Speaker 1: fifty different in the cost of fuel. So you know,

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Speaker 1: what you see on the imax of what you see

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Speaker 1: on the trading in the trading markets every day are

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Speaker 1: not necessarily the cost of fuel that we face in

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Speaker 1: local markets. So you know, those are the two factors

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Speaker 1: that come into play, and they basically, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: we're in the world right now where we have hurricane

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Speaker 1: level of volatility. Yeah, absolutely, every day Shamik listen if

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Speaker 1: you're in New York City, please stop by. I love

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Speaker 1: to have you in the studio and talk further about this.

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Speaker 1: If you're in Washington, d C. Maybe go to the

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Speaker 1: White House and explain that to them. I'm in my

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Speaker 1: sweet spot right now. My buddy Kevin Tynan just walks into.

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Speaker 1: I haven't seen you in like six years, dude. It's

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Speaker 1: a real bromance in here. Bloomberg Bloomberg Intelligence. He covers

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Speaker 1: the carmakers and uh Critty, you'll get to know him well.

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Speaker 1: Me and Tretty are starting a car podcast. Yeah, we'll

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Speaker 1: have to have you on it. Um, let's start by

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Speaker 1: talking about the CT four black Wing. No, this is

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Speaker 1: a Cadillac product that Um it's tough to get right now, right,

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Speaker 1: just like every really special vehicle. But I want to

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Speaker 1: hear specifically about this as well. What is it? Well,

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Speaker 1: what what's beautiful? Is uh? Manual transmission? I think it's

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Speaker 1: close six horsepower something ridiculous like that, but luxury. So

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Speaker 1: what is it? A supercharged six point two lead V eight? Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's it's essentially it's the four door z O six

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Speaker 1: more or less. Well, now they have an escalade coming out.

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Speaker 1: It's going to have the same power plant. In terms

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Speaker 1: of getting these cars, it's just impossible. I've you know,

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Speaker 1: I've thought a Chevy Silverado z R two. I think

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Speaker 1: it's the sweet spot for uh, the sort of off

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Speaker 1: road style commuter trucks, Starbucks trucks. But I'm not gonna

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Speaker 1: get it. I'm worried I won't get it till the

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Speaker 1: end of the year because of this chip shortage. And

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Speaker 1: I just saw this morning a number across the Charmer

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Speaker 1: that was really depressing. Porsche first half, say, ails down

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Speaker 1: five per cent. And you know that the giant empire

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Speaker 1: of Volkswagen should be able to move all of their

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Speaker 1: chips to their highest margin business. So if they can't

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Speaker 1: even get Porsche sales to rise, we're in trouble. Well.

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Speaker 1: And the other thing that not only are you and

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Speaker 1: customers waiting for product, your at least in this country,

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Speaker 1: you're paying over M S r P, you know, over

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Speaker 1: for just a regular truck YEP. And and it's amazing, right,

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Speaker 1: in all my years of doing this, we've been above

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Speaker 1: M S r P as an industry since October of

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Speaker 1: last year. I wouldn't think that I would have ever

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Speaker 1: seen that, even maybe for one or two automakers for

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Speaker 1: one month, never mind an entire industry for It'll be

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Speaker 1: a year by the time this this rings out. But

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Speaker 1: I just looked at the chart. Out of the thirty

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Speaker 1: some odd brands in the US, there's six that are

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Speaker 1: still selling below ms RP. Everybody else is above. Wait,

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Speaker 1: what what's below? What's below? Uh there's BMW, Mini, Ram,

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Speaker 1: Jeep and Alpha Romeo. Oh well, brand, I'm talking to

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Speaker 1: brand brand on average, Kevin, Let's broaden this out for

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Speaker 1: the people like myself who don't know half the words

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Speaker 1: you just said. You and Matt just nerded out about

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Speaker 1: let's talk about supply chains here, chip shortages. Already. We

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Speaker 1: were just talking to a guest who was saying they're

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Speaker 1: putting more EV charging stations in their their gas trucking stops,

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Speaker 1: transportation centers, whatever, pilot flying j that's the one, um,

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Speaker 1: But I'm curious how much of it is getting ahead

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Speaker 1: of itself. You have a chip shortage, you need more

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Speaker 1: chips to make evs. That production it almost feels like

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Speaker 1: it's plateauing to some extent, and yet you have this

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Speaker 1: infrastructure that's being built out, and that doesn't even take

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Speaker 1: into account the affordability of EVS, which is more expensive anyway. Right,

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Speaker 1: And we could do a whole podcast on this, but um, look,

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Speaker 1: I am of the belief and you're probably not going

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Speaker 1: to hear this in many places that a lot of

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Speaker 1: this shortages are being orchestrated for those reasons of balancing

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Speaker 1: supply and demand, getting over ms RP for product. Uh

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Speaker 1: you know, so costs have been rationalized in this industry

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Speaker 1: to the point where automakers don't have to push push

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Speaker 1: push production choked the dealers would supply then throw a

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Speaker 1: ton of incentives at it to to move it out

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Speaker 1: the door. So to put it in context, four million

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Speaker 1: units inventory prior to the pandemic, four million units on

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Speaker 1: the ground in the US rolling every month. We now

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Speaker 1: have one point two million. There be roughly a good

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Speaker 1: month in the U s would be one point five

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Speaker 1: million sales from one point five million transactions. So we

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Speaker 1: had two and a half times as many units on

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Speaker 1: the ground prior to the pandemic. Now we're nicely imbalance,

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Speaker 1: and you're seeing the effect on margins and on pricing power.

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Speaker 1: So in my mind, the motivation for the automakers is

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Speaker 1: it's not a chip. Yeah, there's a chip otherwise I

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Speaker 1: want my truck right now. But you're right. I mean

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Speaker 1: between the time that I started shopping for my truck

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Speaker 1: in February and then actually put in the order in April,

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Speaker 1: they raised prices twice on that one specific model, and

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Speaker 1: of course they're raising prices across the industry. The only

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Speaker 1: thing that makes me doubt and orchestration. I mean maybe

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Speaker 1: there's a mild orchestration, but not like a full blown

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Speaker 1: conspiracy theory is that dealerships are getting the amount over

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Speaker 1: M S R P the A D M if you will,

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Speaker 1: And I think that makes um the and correct me

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Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, the big producers kind of angry. I

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Speaker 1: think this is an excuse for GM and Ford to say,

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Speaker 1: you know what, we're moving to a direct sales model. Well,

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Speaker 1: first of all, I don't think you can scale direct sales, right.

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Speaker 1: If you're a g MM Ford and you're selling two

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Speaker 1: and a half million units a year in this country,

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Speaker 1: I just don't know how you're going direct. The other

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Speaker 1: thing is, look, you're a manufacturer and and I say

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Speaker 1: this to people all the time as a consumer, where

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Speaker 1: you think that the that the dealership model is is

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Speaker 1: a bad experience what do you think that's going to

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Speaker 1: be like when you try and buy vehicles at retail

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Speaker 1: from a manufacturer who's never done it? Right, So, so

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Speaker 1: the idea that that process would actually be better going

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Speaker 1: to a company who has never done anything like it

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Speaker 1: and it's hundred plus years of existence, to me makes

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Speaker 1: no sense. But there wouldn't be the a d M,

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Speaker 1: which is, by the way, the additional dealer market. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they're sure there would, right. So, so if if a

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Speaker 1: manufacturer sells to a dealer at wholesale, you think they're

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Speaker 1: going to leave that money on the table for you know,

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Speaker 1: they're gonna sell the you and and if there's if

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Speaker 1: there's if you don't want your truck at the price

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Speaker 1: they want you to pay, and there's three people behind you.

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Speaker 1: Good point, right. So, so the idea that the manufacturer

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Speaker 1: is going to do the consumer a favor by selling

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Speaker 1: directly to them, I think is is just misguided. All right, Well,

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Speaker 1: we'll see if they can maybe break off little pieces

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Speaker 1: of their business to do that, like Ford split, you know,

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Speaker 1: the E VS away from the ice business. Yeah. Well

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Speaker 1: that that tells me two things, right, One is that

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Speaker 1: that either and I don't believe this to be the

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Speaker 1: case that you don't get how things are retailed at

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Speaker 1: scale in this country, or it's not going to be scaled. Kevin.

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Speaker 1: I could do this for hours, obviously, and someday we will.

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Speaker 1: Nathan Hagar is there to join me because he loves

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Speaker 1: ice cream so much. Mentioned Spider Man back in the day.

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Speaker 1: I used to make the Spider Man Sunday. Have you

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Speaker 1: ever heard of that? No? What's how do you do that?

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Speaker 1: So it's vanilla ice cream and you put chocolate syrup

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Speaker 1: on it in a web pattern. That's all it is. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: not too exciting, but I thought it would be read

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Speaker 1: yeah you would think so. Yeah that actually, Oh my goodness,

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Speaker 1: that sounds pretty nice. Strawberry ice cream with chocolate. Kim

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Speaker 1: Padal Regwam joins us CEO Dryers Grand ice Cream. Kim,

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Speaker 1: thanks so much for your time. Is it is it

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Speaker 1: National ice Cream Day today? No? Sunday Sunday? Yes, of

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Speaker 1: course it's on Sunday, Matt, I didn't know it was

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Speaker 1: Sunday ice Cream Sunday. It's perfectly positioned on Sunday. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: is it on Sunday? Every years it is on Sunday. Well,

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Speaker 1: there you go. So um how's business right now? I mean,

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Speaker 1: I I imagine I was just looking for milk futures

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Speaker 1: on the Bloomberg terminal. I imagine those prices have risen

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Speaker 1: along with everything else, you know, So business is very

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Speaker 1: very strong. So our business Dryers, Grand ice Cream, and

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Speaker 1: the brands that we have Hogen, Dass, Dryers, Drumstick, Outshine,

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Speaker 1: they are all performing so well in the marketplace. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if you look so far this year, we're a double

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Speaker 1: digit growth coming off you know, a couple of really

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Speaker 1: big years as well. Also, we're the We're very proud

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Speaker 1: we're the biggest ice cream manufacturer in America and we

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Speaker 1: have the biggest brand with Hogan Dust. You know, prices

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Speaker 1: on some products and we've seen the inflation like everybody has,

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Speaker 1: and so what we've been trying to do is keep

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Speaker 1: our focus on investing in factory so we are building capacity.

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Speaker 1: It's all we've been focused on for the last two

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Speaker 1: years because we want to make sure when people go

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Speaker 1: to the store, and you know, it's a tough time

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Speaker 1: right now, right prices are high that we can put

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Speaker 1: a smile on faces with the ice cream that we have,

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Speaker 1: so um, that has been our big agenda to fight

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Speaker 1: all the challenges going on. Yeah, and it is a

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Speaker 1: tough time. And I know when I walk through the

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Speaker 1: ice cream frozen section, I look not just at the

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Speaker 1: prices but at the size of the cartons. Whether you're

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Speaker 1: gonna have to shrink things just a little bit more

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Speaker 1: to keep the prices where we expect them to be.

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Speaker 1: Is that something that you're thinking about. So we what

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Speaker 1: we have done is we have across all of the

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Speaker 1: brands offered kind of a variety of prices and sizes.

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Speaker 1: So if you look at our hog Enough Um bars

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Speaker 1: and those are snack items that are on sticks, we

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Speaker 1: have brought to the market mini versions of those, so

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Speaker 1: a six pack of minis in addition to the regular

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Speaker 1: size item to try to get at that price point

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Speaker 1: that anyone can afford if they want to have, you know,

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Speaker 1: a frozen treat um. So right now I think we're

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Speaker 1: well positioned with a big variety in that area. Um,

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Speaker 1: but we're looking at it all the time. You're totally right.

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Speaker 1: We have a lot of singles items as well. So

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Speaker 1: if you know you're in the market for just one

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Speaker 1: item and you want to have a treat versus buying

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Speaker 1: you know, a multi pack and bringing it home. We've

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Speaker 1: been focused on making sure that as we build up capacity,

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Speaker 1: we're building good capacity in that area with those smaller

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Speaker 1: size items as well. Is there any place to buy

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Speaker 1: UM you know, is there any online business for frozen foods?

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Speaker 1: Because when I go to my local grocer, well any

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Speaker 1: of them, I can't find exactly what I want. They'll

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Speaker 1: have like drumsticks that are a variety pack, or they'll

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Speaker 1: have the chocolate core, but I only want the caramel

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Speaker 1: filled drumsticks. Uh, And I don't know how to get

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Speaker 1: hold of just a big like a twenty four pack

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Speaker 1: of those twenty We don't have a twenty four pack

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Speaker 1: of the caramel ones only, UM. But we do, back

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Speaker 1: to your question, we do have online business absolutely right.

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Speaker 1: As we've seen consumers in the last two years, in

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Speaker 1: particular accelerate that shift to grocery shopping UM, you know,

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Speaker 1: from behind their iPad or computer at home. We've seen

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Speaker 1: a rise in ice cream as well. People are buying

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Speaker 1: that way all the time. So UM. We have great

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Speaker 1: relationships with UM you know, the UM standalone UM, you know, Amazon,

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00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:56,480
Speaker 1: insta cart companies like that. But also we we sell

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Speaker 1: quite a bit through the e commerce arms of major

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Speaker 1: grocery retailers. I've had to wrap my head around the

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Speaker 1: idea of ice cream delivery because I'm always worried that

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Speaker 1: it's going to melt on the way. But that's probably

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Speaker 1: try people. That is not people. We don't have that problem,

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00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:16,680
Speaker 1: and we tested all of the time ourselves. So I

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00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:18,800
Speaker 1: buy it, you know, myself, just to make sure is

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00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:22,120
Speaker 1: the consumer experience the one that we would want? Um,

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Speaker 1: but you know, the delivery service is great these days.

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Speaker 1: Where do you see margins going? I mean I had

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Speaker 1: a bet with pretty Gupta moments ago that we saw

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00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:37,600
Speaker 1: inflation peak at the last cp I figure. Um, do

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Speaker 1: you agree? And do you think margins are going to

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00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:41,440
Speaker 1: start to widen out towards the end of the year.

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Speaker 1: I think that, you know, all I can really talk

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Speaker 1: to is sort of out what we're trying to do

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00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:51,360
Speaker 1: with our agenda. So what I'd say is my biggest

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Speaker 1: focus is making sure that we continue to invest in

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Speaker 1: the core brands, the quality of the product so that

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Speaker 1: when consumers go to the store, are they're they're willing

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Speaker 1: to pay the price that they see on the shelf

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00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:06,160
Speaker 1: for that brand right nothing else. And so we've been

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00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,399
Speaker 1: focused on that. You know, we are starting to see

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00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:14,960
Speaker 1: some um you know that price increases, hit peaks and

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00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:18,840
Speaker 1: slow a little bit. So that's really promising, UM, because

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Speaker 1: we want the category to be affordable for people and

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Speaker 1: the brands to be affordable. But what I you know,

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Speaker 1: can absolutely say is we have not slowed down at all.

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Speaker 1: As I mentioned in the capacity investment, but also the

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Speaker 1: consumer investment. UM, the quality of the rappers, on the packaging,

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00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:38,440
Speaker 1: the print, the flavors, the inclusions that we're using. We're

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00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:41,040
Speaker 1: trying to make those better and better, and we have

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Speaker 1: not slowed down on any of those agendas despite you know,

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Speaker 1: cost pressures, because at the end of the day, we

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Speaker 1: believe that's you know, when someone buys the product, if

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Speaker 1: they love it the way you love the drumstick caramel cone,

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Speaker 1: they will come back and buy it again just quickly.

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Speaker 1: What sells really well right now when it's super hot

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00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:02,440
Speaker 1: in the middle of July. Do you see, like popsicles

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00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:04,920
Speaker 1: do better than ice cream? What's what's the big flavor?

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Speaker 1: So our brand, Outshine is on fire right now. Um.

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00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:13,840
Speaker 1: It is a fruit based brand. So fruit is the

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Speaker 1: first ingredient. UM. We have it in a variety of flavors.

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Speaker 1: My personal favorite is the lime Outshine bar UM. And

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Speaker 1: you know, all of ice cream in the hot weather

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00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:26,760
Speaker 1: does very well, but that's in particular. We're we're selling

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Speaker 1: um quite a few outshine bars um strawberry, pineapple, mango.

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Speaker 1: If you have not tried them, please do. But they're

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Speaker 1: extremely refreshing, and I would say on a really hot day,

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Speaker 1: it's what I would reach for. I gotta go hit

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Speaker 1: the pantry right now, Matt, dude, you get to go.

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Speaker 1: Laurel Maryland, I think is one of the biggest ice

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Speaker 1: cream manufacturing facilities in the world. For dryers. Yeah, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna have to go there. Greg Jarek can head over

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Speaker 1: to Bakersfield. I mean for a number of reasons, but

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Speaker 1: for the ice cream. That's the hike from San Francisco

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Speaker 1: though it's probably far, but he can fly. He's got

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Speaker 1: a pie, that's true. M Cam thanks so much for

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Speaker 1: joining us. Always a pleasure're talking about ice cream, especially

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Speaker 1: ahead of National ice Cream Day on Sunday. Nathan Hagar

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Speaker 1: and Matt Miller, thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcast.

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Speaker 1: You can subscribe and listen to interviews with Apple Podcasts

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00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:19,640
Speaker 1: or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm Matt Miller. I'm

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00:28:19,680 --> 00:28:23,880
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Matt Miller. Pet On Paul Sweeney, I'm

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00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:26,520
Speaker 1: on Twitter at pt Sweeney. Before the podcast, you can

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Speaker 1: always catch us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio