Pilgrims Pride Corp

NASDAQ:PPC

Earnings Call Analysis

Strong Revenue Growth Amidst Market Fluctuations

In the third quarter of 2024, Pilgrim's Pride reported net revenues of $4.58 billion, marking a 5.2% increase from $4.36 billion in the same quarter last year. This growth was substantially supported by a 12% rise in sales within the U.S., primarily driven by the recovery in commodity chicken pricing. However, revenues in Mexico decreased year-over-year due to lower market prices for chicken, while revenues in Europe remained relatively flat. This highlights the variability within their market segments depending on local economic conditions.

Remarkable Improvement in Profit Margins

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter surged to $660.4 million, nearly doubling from the $324 million reported in Q3 2023. This impressive growth led to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.4%, up from 7.4% a year ago. Notably, U.S. EBITDA margins soared to 18%, up from 7% last year, while Europe saw margins rise to 8.6% from 6.1%. This reflects significant operational improvements and cost management strategies that have been effectively implemented.

Diverse Growth Across Product Segments

Pilgrim's Pride's brand portfolio continues to gain traction. Sales from branded products such as Fridge Raiders and Just BARE jumped by 20% and nearly 30% respectively over the last quarter. Additionally, the launch of over 280 new products has also been pivotal in driving sales. This diverse approach ensures that they capture a wide range of consumer needs, particularly amid tighter household budgets where value and convenience are crucial.

Planning for the Future: Capital Expenditure and Strategy

The company plans to invest approximately $475 million in capital expenditures for 2024, focusing on enhancing production capacity, operational efficiencies, and sustainability initiatives. Their disciplined approach towards capital allocation is set to fortify their competitive edge in the market. With a solid liquidity position—holding nearly $3 billion in cash and available credit—Pilgrim's Pride is well-prepared to pursue both organic growth opportunities and potential acquisitions, especially within the Mexican and European markets.

Understanding Market Dynamics: Demand and Supply Predictions

The overall protein market is projected to grow by 2.3% this year, driven largely by a rebounding chicken supply. Strong demand from the retail food sector has fostered volume growth, with fresh chicken performing particularly well, increasing by approximately 3% in retail. Conversely, foodservice market dynamics remain volatile, with a noted 4% increase in chicken consumption overall, though full-service restaurants are lagging behind. Managing supply dynamics will be crucial as the company adjusts production to meet demand in both the retail and foodservice sectors.

Conclusion: Financial Health and Strategic Vision

Pilgrim's Pride maintains a robust financial position with a net leverage ratio of 0.65x adjusted EBITDA, reflecting sound financial management. The company's commitment to operational excellence, brand growth, and strategic partnerships showcases a forward-thinking approach. Moving forward, the emphasis on sustainability and customer-centric growth will likely enhance their market positioning and drive long-term shareholder value.

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q3

[Operator]

Good morning, and welcome to the Third Quarter of 2024 Pilgrim's Pride Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] At the company's request, this call is being recorded. Please note that the slides referenced during today's call are available for download from the Investors section of the company's website at www.pilgrims.com.

[Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Andrew Rojeski, Head of Strategy, Investor Relations and Sustainability for Pilgrim's Pride. Please go ahead.

[Andrew Rojeski, executive]

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today as we review our operating and financial results for the third quarter ended on September 29, 2024. Yesterday afternoon, we issued a press release providing an overview of our financial performance for the quarter, including a reconciliation of any non-GAAP measures we may discuss. A copy of the release is available on our website at ir.pilgrims.com, along with slides for reference. These items have also been filed as Form 8-Ks and are available online at sec.gov.

Fabio Sandri, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Matt Galvanoni, Chief Financial Officer, will present on today's call.

Before we begin our prepared remarks, I would like to remind everyone of our safe harbor disclaimer. Today's call may contain certain forward-looking statements that represent our outlook and current expectations as of the day of this release. Other additional factors not anticipated by management may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these forward-looking statements. Further information concerning these factors have been provided in yesterday's press release, our Form 10-K and our regular filings with the SEC.

I would now like to turn the call over to Fabio Sandri.

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

Thank you, Andy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. For the third quarter of 2024, we reported net revenues of $4.6 billion, a 5.2% increase over the same quarter last year. Our adjusted EBITDA was $660 million versus $324 million in Q3 of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 14.4% compared to 7.4% last year.

Our Q3 results demonstrates the benefit from consistent execution of our strategies. Our diversified portfolio continue to capture the upsides of positive commodity market fundamentals, whereas our key customer partnerships enable collaboration that simultaneously drove demand and unlock value for consumers. The efforts were further amplified through the growth of our brands and continued focus on operational excellence and in quality, service and innovation.

In the U.S., Big Bird benefited from sustained improvements in production efficiencies, lower input costs and enhanced commodity cutout values. If ready, continue to reinvest with key customers, resulting in greater than category average growth. The momentum of a Small Bird increased given continued interest in chicken in the deli and among QSRs.

Europe expanded margins from benefits in managed manufacturing network restructuring and optimize organizational structure. Diversification efforts continue to gain traction given the growth from our leading brands and extensive industry recognition and awards from our recently launched innovation. These efforts were further amplified by incremental distribution with key customers.

While Mexico experienced a decline in demand, given normal seasonality and disruptions from the hurricanes, we continue to grow our business with key customers across retail and foodservice. Our diversification and operational excellence efforts remain on track as our brands grew ahead of the market and our investments in growth and risk mitigation proceed as scheduled.

Turning to supply. USDA indicated ready-to-cook production for the U.S. chicken grew 2.7% compared to the third quarter of 2023. Increases in head count and average liveweight drove production growth. Throughout 2024, the industry layer flock has consistently declined year-over-year. However, a more efficient block along with reductions in eg exports have increased exits pushing hatchery utilization to record levels. While pullet placements have grown by 0.7% year-to-date, increased mortality has muted potential production gains.

Like trends early in the year, hatchability challenges have prevented full realization of increased sales. Based on recent trends along with projections for the remainder of 2024, USDA data suggests growth in chicken production of approximately 1.7% for the full year. This growth indicates a response to firm demand exhibit during the quarter.

As for overall protein availability, the USDA anticipates 2.3% growth as the expected increase in chicken supply is augmented by increased beef imports and additional pork production.

Domestic chicken demand was strong throughout the quarter, with inflation still a major concern. Consumers continue to shift shopping towards retail and eating patterns in food service. Chicken demand in the retail channel improved volume across all departments. In fresh, consumers continue to rely on chicken fulfilling their everyday center-of-the-plate protein needs in a challenging environment as volume roses in both white and dark meat cuts. For boneless, skinless breast, everyday retail pricing per USDA has continued to decline and fell below $4 per pound, a 5.4% reduction from last year and over 16% reduction since September 2022.

In contrast, other proteins consistently rose during the quarter and throughout the past 2 years. As an example, the retail spread between boneless, skinless breast versus ground beef recently hit another all-time high, surpassing the previous record set in the second quarter of 2024. This coincided with the strong quarterly performance from boneless, skinless breast, which saw sales post notably year-over-year growth. The remainder of chicken at retail continued to build on the strong foundation set earlier in the year.

Growth in both the deli and frozen value-added demonstrated chicken's ability to meet the needs of consumers seeking to rationalize spending without sacrificing convenience.

In foodservice, revenue and volume sales both grew in commercial and noncommercial distribution subchannels. The commercial distribution subchannels realized large dollar increases, while noncommercial continue to build steadily as business and industry activity increased. Breast meat, tenders and wings all continue to post positive volume growth at current prices given the relative affordability of poultry.

Within the foodservice channels, QSRs continues to drive the most volume growth, suggesting consumers continue to seek more affordable meals. Given chicken's propensity towards QSR and overall versatility, it has continued to post strong growth despite a reduction in away-from-home eating occasions.

In export, u.S. broiler volume was 11.3% lower while pricing is at strong levels. Robust demand for dark meat in U.S. continued to shift production from local markets, limiting availability for export. We anticipate export demand will remain strong as competing protein prices continue to make chicken the most appealing global option given its relative affordability.

While the potential for a port strike in the East Coast and Gulf disrupted some shipments late in the quarter, it had a limited impact. Disruptions to the supply chain were not material to the market as shipments quickly rebounded in the beginning of Q3. And overall, cold storage remains relatively low as supplies are down 7% compared to last year and 9% below the 5-year average.

Breast meat and dark meat inventories both fell year-over-year.

Despite recent outbreaks of high [indiscernible] influenza in the Western U.S., the majority of chicken producing states have not been affected. Nonetheless, we continue to take the necessary precautions to safeguard our farms given seasonal changes and migratory patterns. The geographical diversification of our production facilities provide flexibility to shift the business should any isolated commercial brakes surface.

China remains the exception on trade restrictions, and no movement on lifting current bands has emerged. Nevertheless, the majority of U.S. trading partners continue to reduce ban to zones or to county level with only a few banning the entire state.

Turning to feed, input prices were fairly straight, stable throughout the quarter as the U.S. realized generally favorable weather for the development of the corn and soybean crops. Given the low price of corn relative to recent years, stronger-than-expected demand for U.S. corn exports emerged, pulling down stocks from previous years and cutting into supplies from the current year.

While the U.S. began with a smaller initial supply, record U.S. corn yields created a still comfortable new crop carryout estimated of about 2 billion bushes. Moving forward, the core market will respond to South American weather and the magnitude of China imports.

Both globally and in the U.S., soybean stocks continue to build. Despite a record U.S. soybean crop and lower board future prices, changes in exchange rate encourage expansion in South America soybean planting. The soybean processing industry also continued to expand, leaving the soybean meal market well supplied and limiting the upside in meal prices. In wheat, '24/'25 production increased marginally, however, this was offset by a decrease in initial supply, creating expectations that global wheat ending stocks will be down slightly versus prior year.

Global import demand for wheat is lower this year, giving better crops from several traditional wheat importers in the Middle East and North African regions. As a result, wheat prices remained basically flat in Q3, reflecting balanced supply and demand.

While the current [indiscernible] projections suggest growing stocks in U.S. for all major crops and relatively narrow price ranges for feed inputs, there are still risks. As such, we will continue to monitor changes in global grain demand, production weather in South America, exchange rate changes and geopolitical events.

In the U.S., consumers are still aware and concerned about high prices and continued inflation. Within retail, grocery buyer behaviors indicate consumers are purchasing less per trip while shopping more frequently, indicated a [indiscernible] household budget. Additionally, many consumers indicated cutting foodservice spend as a top method of cost saving, reducing dining out occasions or adjusting their food habits to enable their spending to go farther.

Given the affordability of chicken and our diversified portfolio, our team was well positioned to unlock value for the consumer. To that end, our team continued to focus on operational excellence efforts across all occasions to enhance quality, service and mix. Equally important, we overcame disruptions late in the quarter from Hurricane Helen to ensure superior fuel rates to our key customers. [indiscernible] ready benefited from increased protein demand throughout retail. Interest in chicken was amplified given the reduction in price of chicken that created new record spreads between ground beef and boneless, skinless breast.

Furthermore, our approach with key customers adapted to reflect changes in input costs, creating opportunities for additional investments in promotional activity, generating more demand.

Our [indiscernible] business grew together with our key customers as increased distribution and continued consumer interest in our differentiated higher attribute offerings drove volumes ahead of fresh category averages.

In Small Birds, QSR demand for chicken continue to grow with better penetration despite softening traffic throughout foodservice, whereas deli remain the fastest-growing category in retail. When these factors are combined with expansion of our key customers, along with improvements in operational excellence, Small Bird grew significantly compared to last year. In Big Bird, we continue to drive huge improvements from capital investments and team member retention and training. These efforts were further aided by mix enhancements throughout our facilities and across our customer base. When these efforts are combined with strong commodity cutout values, along with the reduction in input costs, our business improved considerably from depressed margins last year.

Our prepared foods continue to gain momentum. We have expanded our marketplace presence and diversification throughout retail, deli and foodservice, driven by incremental distribution and leading consumer innovation.

Commerce continued to play a role as digital sales increased by 32% compared to prior year. In Europe, we have completed a variety of actions to enhance our agility and innovation capabilities to further cultivate partnerships with key customers. As part of these efforts, we have increased our integration and synergies throughout the diversified portfolio across protein and channels.

On fresh offerings, we have strong presence in poultry, pork and [indiscernible]. These segments constitute roughly 1/3 of overall net sales in Europe. Poultry is the largest with approximately 2/3 of the segment's net sales. We are a major player in the retail value-added and prepared segment, with U.K. leading brands such as Richmond and innovative protein snacking brands with [indiscernible]. And we are a category leader in both the chilled and frozen meals business. Taken together, this business comprises nearly half of the total net sales in Europe.

Foodservice is the third part of our business. It includes a variety of frozen and prepared offerings, designed to meet the needs for retail deli, leading QSRs and other distribution channels.

Turning to the consumer. Confidence improved year-over-year as wage growth continues to outplace inflation, helping our branded products to continue to grow faster than category averages. Demand for offerings in poultry and chilled meals outpaced total retail growth, whereas demand in pork, both fresh and prepared, continue to lag. Within foodservice, sales have not yet returned to pre-COVID levels, nonetheless, consumers are becoming increasingly interesting food-away-from-home options as average spend frequency per week and participation rates have all increased over past year.

Our diversified portfolio across brands, proteins and prepared items benefit from these trends. Sales of our branded offerings increased 7% from last year as Fridge Raiders and Richmond continue to grow faster than category average. Similarly, our poultry and chilled meals offering grew ahead of the market. In pork, we have secured several new awards in bacon, cooked meats and sausages across retail and foodservice. We have complemented this diversification efforts through continued expansion of our exports business in both pork, poultry and lamb. To that end, we now have over 150 clients, opened 18 additional markets and increased our customer base by 53%.

We continue to cultivate our innovation pipeline to enhance mix and drive profitable growth. During the quarter, we launched over 280 new products, many of which received awards from various leading retailers for best product, quality and innovation. Our efforts to unlock value from our manufacturing network optimization and integration of our corporate support activities continue to remain on track as we have realized the anticipated benefits.

Moving forward, we will continue to evaluate additional opportunities to enhance our production efficiencies and drive a more innovative, agile and responsive organization to meet customer and key customer needs.

In Mexico, we experienced some market volatility as chicken demand follow typical seasonal changes, combined with some disruptions from hurricanes during the late September. In fresh, we experienced significant key customer growth above category in both retail and foodservice. Our branded efforts continue to gain momentum as sales from [indiscernible] and [indiscernible] grew 20% and 60%, respectively. Just BARE has realized similar success as sales are up nearly 30% from previous quarter. We continue to diversify our portfolio through value-added as sales increased 7% compared to last year. Pilgrim's branded prepared offerings also had the most momentum as sales grew almost 40% compared to last year.

Our investments in operational excellence to expand capacity and mitigate operational risk remain on track. We ramp up up our production in [indiscernible] and relocation of our breeder farms continue to proceed as planned. We also supported the continued growth of our prepared business in part fry and fully cook offerings through building new capacity.

Earlier this year, this week, we published our 2023 sustainability report to provide an update on our efforts to become an industry leader in environment, social and governance matters. We continue to embed sustainability as a core component to our overall business strategy as means to drive a more robust food system through industry-leading initiatives. To that end, we have decreased our absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 17% since 2019, and now we use over 14% renewable electricity in our global operations.

We have also certified 100% of our facilities in the United States and Europe according to the GFSI standards by independent third parties and improved our global safety index performance by 24% since 2022. Our better future programs continue to be exceptionally well received as over 1,500 team members have signed up for the program since inception.

With that, I'd like to ask our CFO, Matt Galvanoni, to discuss our financial results.

[Matthew Galvanoni, executive]

Thank you, Fabio. Good morning, everyone. For the third quarter of 2024, net revenues were $4.58 billion versus $4.36 billion a year ago, with adjusted EBITDA of $660.4 million and a margin of 14.4% compared to $324 million and a 7.4% margin in Q3 last year. Relative to net revenues, we experienced year-over-year sales growth of approximately 12% in the U.S. in the quarter, driven by higher commodity chicken pricing and growth with our key customers in case-ready and Small Bird. Mexico's revenues were down year-over-year due to the decrease in market pricing for chicken. In Europe, year-over-year net revenues were essentially flat.

As we have discussed in the past, in both the U.S. and Europe, many of our contracts have some level of cost-plus element. As such, with declining key input costs, our top line sales number will be reduced accordingly.

Adjusted EBITDA margins in Q3 were 18% in the U.S. compared to 7% a year ago. For our Europe business, adjusted EBITDA margins came in at 8.6% for Q3 compared to 6.1% last year. In Mexico, adjusted EBITDA margins in Q3 were 9.7% versus 12.4% a year ago.

Moving to the U.S. Our adjusted EBITDA for Q3 came in at $499.4 million compared to $174.1 million a year ago. Year-over-year recovery in the commodity chicken markets, along with lower grain input costs and continued operational improvements, drove strong year-over-year profitability improvement in our Big Bird business. Our case-ready Small Bird and Prepared Foods businesses have continued their momentum with increased distribution with key customers, driving both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter profitability improvements.

In our U.S. GAAP results related to specific financial impacts from Hurricane Helene in the quarter, we did incur $8 million of charges primarily related to writing down inventory lost in the store. Also, we recorded a $10.7 million charge in the quarter associated with the termination and settlement of our U.S. pension plans. We anticipate that we will incur an additional approximate $14 million charge in the fourth quarter when the settlement of the U.S. pension liabilities is finalized. Note that the cash outlay for this settlement is anticipated to be less than $1 million.

In Europe, adjusted EBITDA in Q3 was $112 million versus $80.4 million last year. Our European business took another step in its profitability growth journey through focus on key customer partnerships and innovative offerings. The business has also benefited from its network optimization programs and administrative reorganization efforts. We incurred approximately $30.8 million of restructuring charges during the quarter in support of these programs.

We anticipate that restructuring activities will continue through at least the end of the year.

Mexico generated $49 million in adjusted EBITDA in Q3 compared to $69.5 million last year. Although Mexico had strong EBITDA margins approaching 10% in the quarter, profitability decreased year-over-year primarily due to more normal seasonal trends this year. Relative to our SG&A costs, we incurred higher year-over-year advertising and marketing costs in support of our branded products in the quarter.

Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 27.3%, with our year-to-date effective rate of 25%, which we expect to approximate our full year effective tax rate. We have a strong balance sheet, and we continue to emphasize cash flows from operating activities, management of working capital and disciplined investment in high-return projects. As of the end of Q3, our net debt totaled $1.3 billion with a leverage ratio of approximately 0.65x our last 12 months adjusted EBITDA.

Net interest expense for the quarter totaled $19.5 million. Excluding the impacts of any net gains or losses on debt repurchases that occurred during the year, we anticipate our full year net interest expense to be between $90 million and $95 million.

At the end of the quarter, we had nearly $3 billion in total cash and available credit, driven by the strong free cash flow generation during the year. We have no short-term immediate cash requirements, with our bonds maturing between 2031 and 2034, and our U.S. credit facility not expiring until 2028. Our liquidity position provides us flexibility during times of volatility in the U.S. commodity markets, and allows us to pursue our growth strategy, including organic growth to meet our customers -- our key customers' needs.

We spent $104 million in CapEx in the third quarter. This amount of cash spend in the quarter is considerably less than forecasted. However, we are continuing with our plan to pursue additional capital projects with attractive returns through the end of the year and into 2025. These projects are focused on optimizing our product mix, growing with our key customers to meet specific product attributes they require, increasing operational efficiencies and supporting our sustainability efforts. These projects are seen as growing Pilgrim's competitive advantage.

Our capital project review process is very detailed. And as such, it takes time for larger projects to commence. We will remain disciplined in our capital allocation approach and our cash management and will proceed with our plan in a prudent manner.

We now estimate our full year CapEx spend to approximately $475 million. We are intently focused on growth opportunities. First, over the last few years, we've invested in our plans to meet both growth targets and product attributes requested by our key customers, and we will continue to do so as we cultivate these relationships. Also, we foresee investments in additional protein conversion capacity to both upgrade our product mix and manage risk by reducing our exposure to outside protein conversion operators.

Finally, as we've discussed extensively, our U.S. prepared foods business has grown our branded portfolio through innovative and differentiated products, and we anticipate expanding our capacity to meet the growth trajectory of this of this portfolio. Also, we have a great business in Mexico and have organic growth opportunities in both fresh and prepared. These near-term growth opportunities align to our overall strategies of portfolio diversification, focus on key customers, operational excellence and our commitment to team member health and safety.

Operator, this concludes our prepared remarks. Please open the call for questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Ben Theurer from Barclays.

[Benjamin Theurer, analyst]

Congrats on another outstanding quarter here, first of all. First question really would be just around Europe and the strength that you're seeing here. I mean, obviously, the margin now adjusted EBITDA around about 8.5%, a nice improvement also versus just about a year ago, but also sequentially. Maybe help us understand what's -- what are you seeing in the market? Is it the combination of just all the restructuring that you've put in place that is helping you to get those better profitability levels? Is it just the consumer that got better? Is it cost? What's driving it? And how should we think about it also going forward as like kind of a normalized margin environment, so Europe? That would be my first topic. And then I have a quick follow-up.

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

Of course. And I think it's a combination of all of the above, of course. We are seeing consumer confidence increasing in Europe, as we mentioned, as the as the salaries are growing faster than inflation for the first time, I think in the past, over the last 2 years, we saw inflation growing over than the salary growth. So that was creating a compression on the spending for the consumer, especially on the utilities sector. Now we're seeing a deflation in Europe. We're seeing utilities coming down, and we're seeing the price -- everyday prices of grocery and other spending going down. So again, we are seeing the confidence increasing. It's not at the same level as it was before, but it is increasing compared to last year.

That is helping our portfolio, especially on the meals side and on the branded side. So consumers that they have more confidence, they are going back to some of the refrigerated meals where we are a leader in that market. Also, we are seeing the growth of our brands as consumers are coming back from spending more on brands and less on private label offerings.

I think also we are seeing in terms of cost and competitiveness that the chicken business, which is one of the largest components of our portfolio there, winning in the marketplace and continue to grow. And similar to everywhere in the world, we're seeing the decrease in prices of chicken because we have a lot of contracts in Europe that are connected to cost. So as we pass that advantage to the retailers, we are seeing the growth of the chicken, which is benefiting our portfolio.

And also different than in U.S. that we will, for sure, talk about, consumers in Europe are coming back to foodservice. So we're seeing the foodservice market growing faster than what's happening or rebounding faster than what's happening in the U.S., and some of our key customers are experiencing some tremendous growth in the Foodservice segment.

So the Foodservice segment in chicken is growing in Europe and the consumer confidence is helping with our portfolio. And of course, as we mentioned, we spent the last 2 years reorganizing our manufacturing network. We have some redundancies in some of our operations, especially slice cook meats some sausage production that we rationalized. And we created a structure with the central shared services that is both nimble and more efficient to help, as we said and we mentioned, more than 200 new products in terms of innovation with a lower cost to our key customers.

[Benjamin Theurer, analyst]

So that 8.5%, 9%, is that a good benchmark? Should we think about that could go forward as a good target level, probably?

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

Yes, as we mentioned, I think that we always compare ourselves to the best on those regions, and that's what we're trying to do. And we see companies in Europe that could achieve that type of profitability, and we think that is what should be sustainable.

[Matthew Galvanoni, executive]

Ben, as we have said in the past that margins of 6% to 8%. And this quarter, our adjusted EBIT margin was 5.8%. So the team is really getting to those target levels.

[Benjamin Theurer, analyst]

Fantastic. And then on the U.S., and that's actually, you made a nice commentary in, and just wanted to talk about a little bit. The trends, what you're seeing with increased production, but then a little bit that foodservice weakness, as we go into the fourth quarter, that usually should be seasonally a little bit weaker, but we haven't seen much unlike pricing declines, it's holding in. Can you help us understand what you're seeing in the market? Why prices have been so stable from 3Q into 4Q so far? And a little bit what's your expectation on the demand side, retail versus foodservice in the nearer term 4Q and then heading into 1Q?

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

Sure, sure. Sure, Ben. I think the price stability that we are seeing in Q4 in relative terms, right? We always see some seasonality in the chicken prices, and we are seeing the cutout on the commodity value coming down from the levels that we had in Q3 is mostly because of the strong demand that we are seeing. I think I mentioned the foodservice and starting with foodservice, foodservice has been struggling with foot traffic. But when we look at the chicken consumption in the foodservice, we've seen some increase in penetration and growth.

As a matter of fact, the overall foodservice growth in terms of volume of chicken is 4% higher than the same period last year. I think that 4%, there's a lot of growth in the noncommercial, as I mentioned, but even in the commercial, which is the QSRs and full-service restaurants, there is an increase of 2% in volume of chicken.

The segment that is really struggling is the full-service restaurants where the consumption of chicken in volume is down 0.8%. So overall, despite the struggle in foodservice in general in terms of traffic, we are seeing strong penetration of chicken, and we're seeing some strong demand there.

I think overall, the consumer is, as we mentioned, looking to stretch their budgets. And what's happening is the foot traffic that is lower in foodservice is moving to the retail. We're seeing more trips, albeit with smaller baskets, but we're seeing more trips to the retail. And the fresh category, I think the overall protein fresh category is winning. We saw an increase in fresh chicken of close to 3% in volume in retail. And that strong retail, it is supporting the prices of breast meat in the commodity market. Because as we always have, during the summer, we have a lot of Big Bird meat commodity going to the retail market because of strong demand. And with that continuation, that is happening even during Q4.

So we're seeing some commodity products, Big Bird products going to the retail in the tray-pack area. So when you look at the jumbo cut out, it's very well supported right now despite a little bit lower than Q3, which is normal for this time of the year.

[Benjamin Theurer, analyst]

Do you expect that to hold as into 1Q as [indiscernible] rebounding a little bit, right?

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

Yes. We'll also drill down into the supply, right? And I think the supply of chicken has been higher than the same period last year, but it is in line with the strong demand that we are seeing. And given the excess, the size of the layer flock, we expect to have a very balanced supply and demand. And as you mentioned, the prices over the last 2 weeks have been steady, which is not the seasonality we expected for this time of the year.

[Operator]

The next question is from Peter Galbo with Bank of America.

[Peter Galbo, analyst]

Can you hear me okay?

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

We can now. Thanks.

[Peter Galbo, analyst]

Fabio, just one question for me on particularly around U.S. price realization in the quarter. I think pricing was up about 10%. You spoke about retail prices being down, I think, in the mid-single digits. Obviously, we can kind of all see what the commodity market did. And so that implies some maybe improvement in what's happened in Small Bird pricing kind of as the fallout. So I was hoping you could expand a little bit on what you saw Small Bird in the quarter as it relates to price, just given that's probably the hardest piece of the business for us to track externally? And I know that, that ties a lot into your key customers, but any broad comments there on Small Bird pricing would be very helpful.

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

Yes. Sure. On the Small Board pricing, what we are seeing, and it is connected to the trend that I mentioned on the foodservice. I think as consumers try to stretch their budgets and less trips to the foodservice, there is a component of the retail that is winning, which is the deli segment. I think if you look at the numbers in deli, the volumes are up close to 6% year-over-year.

As I mentioned, our key customers are actually growing faster than that category with close to 14%. But as consumers move the traffic away from foodservice, they are going to the deli as well as a great substitute for a very convenient meal for their households. And chicken is a big portion of the deli. And the whole birds, especially for the Small Bird category, it is the largest part of this deli. So we're seeing the deli box growing really fast, and we're seeing strong demand for the Small Birds, which is translating to prices of the Small Birds or the [indiscernible], right, as we call.

So I think that combined on the Small Bird category with the deboning for the QSRs, especially our key customers, that are the ones that continue to grow. We are seeing some strong demand for Small Birds. Of course, as we look into production, over the last, let's say, decade, we're seeing a reduction in the Small Bird production. For Q3, in terms of heads, the reduction was close to 4%, a little bit higher waste, but that doesn't affect too much the deli bird market. But we're seeing a reduction in supply. So the supply/demand structure for the Small Bird is very well supported.

[Peter Galbo, analyst]

That's actually super, super helpful. If I can just click in on that a bit more. So if I'm hearing you correctly, as it pertains to deli, the consumer insight that you're seeing, is essentially that rotisserie birds or small birds and the deli are a more convenient meal option maybe at that $5 price point, and that's what you're observing the consumer, at least within the box. If they're going into the grocery channel from a QSR even within the box, they're translating into deli. I just want to make sure that I understand...

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

No, that's exactly right. It is a very convenient meal, it's very avoidable, and easy fix for the family.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Andrew Strelzik with BMO.

[Andrew Strelzik, analyst]

I was hoping you could maybe share some color on how the recent hurricanes in the Southeast and Florida are impacting supply/demand, and how you expect that to play out from here? And maybe if you could give us an update on the status or impact to your plants and operations? I know you called out some of the charges, but just specifically operationally kind of how that's playing out?

And I guess, Lastly, within that, I appreciate all the color on the demand side, which sounds really great. But I was just wondering if you think some of that supply disruption from the hurricanes could be contributing to that recent stabilization or maybe I'm making too much of that?

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

Yes. Okay. Thank you, Andrew. Yes. No, first of all, we will believe that all of our team members were safe. Despite that there was a direct hit from the hurricanes Helane and Milton in 2 of our communities, it was Liveoak, Florida, and Douglas, Georgia. So just on how we prepare for those and those -- this is not our first hurricane, right? We have many of them hitting our operations in the past especially because we have a lot of operations in the South. So we have a preparedness plan. That includes the preventive shutdowns, of course, to help our team members. And in many of our locations, we have emergency generators and fuel tanks. We have [indiscernible] crews, and we have several trailers of supplies located around in strategic positions to be used in case of need.

Our facilities were not directly impacted by the hurricanes. We have minor damage from those hurricanes, but the issue has been on the partner growers. Many of them were severely impacted, especially on the Douglas, Georgia, area and many houses were totally destroyed, not only for us, but some in the industry, as I mentioned.

I think also, it was really important to say that many of these growers were out of electricity for several days.

We were impacted, again, like I mentioned, especially in Douglas, but we were able to rebalance our production to other facilities. We have 23 operating facilities, and we maintain an excellent level of service to our key customers. So there was no disruption to our key customers.

What will take time, it is to build this grow out base back to 100% again. We believe it'll take from 9 months to 12 months for that grow out base to be rebuilt. To help it, we have engaged with the local congressmen and the Georgia Air Commissioner because these growers need financial assistance to rebuild their housing. We also put a crew together to help them with design and to building as soon as we have the financial assistance.

We also helped the impact communities with basic supplies, like I mentioned on the trailers and supplies that we have. And I want to to shout out to our key retailers -- key customer retailers that they help us with those suppliers, and we were able to help the [indiscernible] need. And we are also committing to a $1 million the necessary repairs in the Douglas community. As Matt mentioned, we included a $9 million loss, mainly the loss of live birds in inventory in our financials.

As how much that is impacting the market, I think during that week, I think we have a little reduction in the overall production. But at the same time, we also have disruptions from the consumer, right? A lot of operations, retail, foodservice were down during that we, some even for weeks without electricity. So we saw an impact in demand as well. For the foreseeable future, let's say, for the next months, I think the industry has enough capacity to support the growth.

I think we will continues to rebuild those houses. So I don't expect a significant impact into the marketplace because of the hurricane. Of course, there was disruptions during that week, but we saw some companies [ killing ] on Saturdays to recover from the days that they were down. We were going to see a little bit of reduction in Douglas facility, but we are redirecting production from other facilities to make sure that we have -- we don't have a significant impact into our key customers and to do the community in Douglas.

[Andrew Strelzik, analyst]

And I guess, just quickly following up on that last point before I ask my other question. That would then not really -- just from a utilization rate perspective or what have you, would not really impact your margin capture either. I just want to confirm that.

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

Yes. We. I think we will redirect. Of course, Douglas will need to have lower volumes for a while. But we can redirect some chicks from and chickens from our nearby locations. So we'll maintain a level of utilization in Douglas that will makes sense for all team members and our production there.

[Andrew Strelzik, analyst]

Got it. Okay. That's extremely helpful. And then my other question on the topic of capital allocation. Can you just maybe review again how you're thinking about your capital allocation priorities? Obviously, the cash balance continues to grow very nicely. How much cash do you need on the balance sheet to run the business? And maybe if you could talk about what, if I believe the CapEx number for this year comes down a little bit and you're looking at some internal growth projects, how CapEx next year might shape up?

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

No, okay. And just in terms of how much cash we need to run the business is, of course, much less than what we have today. But -- so looking into all options to create shareholder value, right? I think the option that we believe can create the most in the long term is to continue to grow our company. And we can go into the details of our growth strategy. I think Matt already mentioned, we are seeing a lot of opportunities with key customers. We mentioned the growth in the retail that has been phenomenal. Our growth is much higher than the industry average. While the industry increased by 3% in the fresh category, our Pilgrim's grew 17% in the retail category, which is a great statement to how much value we are creating in terms of differentiated offerings and the key customer quality and service.

So we see tremendous opportunity there. We're also seeing the growth of the prepared foods. The frozen fully cooked area in the retail is growing close to 10% and Pilgrim's is growing close to 18%. It's once again because of the innovation, the partnership with key customers, because of the growth of our Just BARE brand. So we're seeing a lot of opportunities in organic growth in the prepared foods as well. And also, there is acquisitions. We are seeing some M&A activity, especially outside U.S., mainly in Mexico and Europe, where we can improve our portfolio and reduce the volatility of our results.

So we have a great growth strategy that can create value for the shareholders on the long run.

Now in the short term, given the excess cash that we have, we're also looking for opportunities. We have some acquisition of debt that we did in the past because of the difference in yields. We thought that, that opportunity is not as great today. Of course, we have share buybacks. But I think given the liquidity that we have in the marketplace is also limited, and we have special dividends. And as we have those discussions at our Board, we are seeing opportunity for dividends for the future as well.

[Operator]

The next question is from Heather Jones with Heather Jones Research LLC.

[Heather Jones, analyst]

Congratulations from a great quarter. I had a couple of questions on the production side. And I guess I wanted to follow up on the Helen impact. So your U.S. volumes were up about 1.5% during Q3. But given the impact of Douglas, and I know you all are moving checks around to keep that plant running, but how should we think about your production growth in Q4 given that you're having a new check around, clearly, there's some impact on supply. So just how should we think about that for you guys in Q4? I know you're comping against an extra week, but adjusted for that?

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

Yes. Like I mentioned, I think the big impact to us in Q4, we have -- in Douglas, we stay close to a week down at the beginning of the quarter, and that impacted the volumes -- will impact the volumes for the quarter, for sure. And we have some damage to the hatchery, which we lost a lot of chicks in the hatchery. So I think that is the biggest impact that we have. As we mentioned, we lost a lot of houses in that region. I think the industry lost maybe close to what we lost. So we will see some reduction in Douglas total production. But as I mentioned, we will try to reduce our time first in some of the houses. We have an optimal all-time that maintain -- we can reduce. So we will gain some of this square footage back, we will rebuild the houses. For sure, I know you're asking about the specific Q4. But I think over the long term, over the next 6, 9, 12 months, we will rebuild this housing.

But I think more important, again, we will maintain an operation that makes the Douglas plant efficient, albeit a little bit lower by moving some birds around from nearby locations that we have. So I think, all in all, we can expect that the volumes in Q4 to be close to the same volumes we have last year. I don't think it will be a significant impact, again, because we will try to dilute the impact from one specific plant with birds that we have in all others.

[Heather Jones, analyst]

Okay. And then I just wanted to ask about broader industry production trend. So -- and I'm sure you all have noticed the same thing, but since the very beginning of September, so we've been having this improvement in hatch. But since the beginning of September, there's been a very pronounced gap between what chicks placed would suggest versus what has actually been slaughtered. And I mean, some of that could be explained by the hurricane, but my understanding is that mortality has dramatically improved in the industry from the first half. And yet, we've got this big gap between chicks placed and heads slaughtered. And so I was wondering what you all think is going on? And when will that resolve itself? And just any thoughts you'll have on that?

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

Okay. And this is -- it's a great discussion, right, that we're having since 2 years ago, and again, everything started with this new generic. As I mentioned, it is a great generic. It has a great feed conversion. It has great yields, but it comes with a price, let's say, and the price has been the hatchability. And as you already mentioned, hatchability has improved, but it has been a very slow improvement. Over this year, we went from really low 77% to kind of 77.5%. And I think a part of the improvement, it is the seasonality of the weather. So we're seeing the hathability improvement. Just like prior years, you always see an improvement during the fall coming into the winter. So part of this slow improvement, it's even seasonality. But nonetheless, as I mentioned, I think the industry will learn how to manage this breed. That is like I mentioned, a great conversion. But on dealing with it, on the life side in terms of fertility, it is really difficult.

And again, the industry structure in the U.S. is not prepared to take care of individual animals, just like Europe do or Brazil does. In those geographies, there is a very detail and, let's say, specific treatment, separating the birds by weight in the houses, and they have a much better hatchability than the industry in U.S. So we know how to do it. It's just complicated and expensive. And that's why the industry in the U.S. haven't figured out yet how to improve the hatchability at a faster pace.

As we mentioned, I think there is the mortality staying at all. I think it's improved a little bit, but the mortality has been a big issue since this new breed was incorporated into our production. And the mortality is happening on the hatching layers. So we're seeing increased pullet placements because we need to replace the high mortality that we are seeing on this hatching layer. But also, we are seeing mortality in the the broilers. And that's what's creating this little gap between what we are placing and what is coming to production.

And if you look into the number of heads, right, Heather, we're seeing, as we mentioned, an increase in excess close to 3%. But then if you look at number of heads during Q3, we actually produce almost minus 1% in terms of heads. We compensated with weight and a little bit of mix because we're producing more big birds than small birds. As I mentioned, the production of small birds have been reducing. But in total heads, year-over-year, we're down 1% and in the quarter was close to 0.7%.

So it is the mortality that is impacting these birds. Of course, they convert really well, and they have great yields. So we're seeing the -- in terms of weight, we are seeing a little bit of the compensation for that. But I think that is difficult to manage, this spread. It is, like I said, a very efficient red, but really difficult. The industry will learn how to manage it, or there will be a new generic that it happens every 3, 4 years. But we don't expect fast improvement in the hatchability or even the mortality in the shorter term, which is preventing the industry to increase production even more as you mentioned, right.

Our hatchery utilization, as Matt commented is at the highest ever. So it is really difficult for the industry to increase overall production in a significant way. And that's why the USDA is expecting the growth of chicken for next year to be close to 1.5%, 1.7%.

[Heather Jones, analyst]

Fabio, I just wanted to clarify something really quickly. So earlier in the year, the mortality was really bad and there were all these disease issues. But if we use this gap that you highlighted as a proxy for mortality, this as bad as it was earlier in the year and yet all the disease issues have abated. So do you just think that producers have just gotten worse at their husbandry, or I mean just this is a weird trend in things that should actually be improving. And so I just -- I'm not trying to belabor this, but obviously, it's important.

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

No, no. Of course, it has improved, but the mortality is still higher. I think that is my point. And as we start and we have some vaccination against the -- that starting against the [indiscernible], I think as you vaccinate at the beginning, it actually creates even lower or higher mortality because we vaccinate, but we should improve over time. So vaccination sometimes have actually a negative effect in the short term.

[Operator]

The next question is from Pooran Sharma with Stephens, Inc.

[Pooran Sharma, analyst]

Congrats on the strong quarter. If we could just touch base on Mexico, I think you've shared a lot of color on the U.S. throughout the call. So just wanted to focus my attention on Mexico. If you could just kind of remind me of seasonality. I know you called it in the press release, but any color you could share in regards to Mexico? And then kind of what you're seeing so far would be helpful?

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

Yes, sure. I think as we always talk about, Mexico is really challenging and volatile quarter-over-quarter, but year-over-year has been a great market for us. It's a growing economy. We continue to invest into growing that region. But Q3 is typically the weaker quarter for Mexico as the consumer, as the schools going to [indiscernible], we have a shift in the consumer behaviors and that creates a little bit lower demand. At the same time, because of the seasonality of diseases and live production, we see more production in Mexico. That was also combined with a really strong Q2, which incentivized, especially on the live markets, a bigger production.

So what we had in Mexico during Q3 this year, which happens every year, it's higher production with lower demand. And we saw prices, especially during September to be really compressed, especially on the live market, which is really volatile.

I think going forward, as we see every year, we see the rebound in demand as the schools go back and the families continue to go to their normal behavior and buying more food out of home. And we are seeing also the economy doing well. I think during the Q3, we also saw some volatility in Mexico because of the local elections. So not the American elections, but the local elections in Mexico create a little bit of volatility in terms of the currency, which impacted our cost, but also in terms of the behaviors of the families. I think people trying to save more money, and we saw an impact in demand or volatile demand during that time.

Now as we have more information about what the new government is going to do is a continuation of the current government, we are seeing the demand and the economy overall going back. So I think that's what -- why, despite being a good return in Mexico or good results, it was a little bit lower than the same time last year and lower than Q2, but there is normal seasonality and then we have those effects. There was a little bit of impact of the hurricane, which reached that region earlier than in the United States, which was right at the end of the quarter.

But I think we are seeing, again, a growing economy. Chicken is at a great place in Mexico, and we'll continue to invest to grow in the region.

[Matthew Galvanoni, executive]

Yes. I just complement is slightly just if we think back to Q3 of '23, that was a bit of a counter seasonal quarter for us in Mexico, was a little bit stronger than it normally is. And then I think we just got back to more seasonal trends here in Q3 of '24, just relative to that, but still really very happy with nearly 10% EBITDA margins for the business this quarter.

[Pooran Sharma, analyst]

Okay. I appreciate the detail. I guess for the last one, if I could just kind of focus in on the U.S. here. And just kind of honing in on the supply side here. You mentioned an improvement in your own kind of production efficiencies. I was wondering if you could kind of just share some color on that? Like what are you doing operationally? And are you seeing kind of the improvement in hatch rates that we're seeing in the public data like 0.5% that you quoted? Or are you able to kind of outpace that?

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

Yes. I think as we mentioned, it is the individual attention to the animal on the breader side that is making the difference on the hatchability. And we are testing some changes to our houses by separating the -- some of the birds by weight and changing and adapting their feed to their individual weights, let's say, a fitbit for chicken. So we are seeing some increase in the hatchability, actually a little bit higher than what the industry is improving.

I think we're always look into the cost of producing the egg. And in that, we are already better than the industry. So it's the overall cost that we look, not necessarily only hatchability. So I think we're seeing some improvements over there. But as the whole industry, I think the level is still much lower than previous breads.

[Operator]

The next question is from Argos Alani with Barclays.

[Unknown Analyst]

This is Argus asking in for pre-up. And just to follow on 1 of the prior questions. Given that net leverage is well below your target, how are you thinking about it? And what does the current landscape for M&A in Mexico looks like?

[Matthew Galvanoni, executive]

Yes. I'll go back to the growth opportunities that Fabio talked about and I had talked about in our prepared remarks and as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, our CapEx spend is less than what we had -- what I had forecasted coming into the second half of the year, but that's really just timing. And we are well on our way in our plans to increase our capacity relative to our key customers, our prepared foods business. And then when you talk about Mexico, it's both looking from an organic and inorganic growth perspective. And as Fabio has mentioned in the past, some opportunities we see in the M&A side and some complementary businesses in Mexico, but it's also the growth of both our fresh and prepared business in Mexico organically. So we see a lot of opportunities from a growth perspective and where that cash will be utilized. A little bit more just relative to timing right now and the amount of detail we spend on getting through our capital projects and that really disciplined approach, it just takes a little bit of time to kind of get that off the ground.

[Operator]

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference over Fabio Sandri for any closing remarks.

[Fabio Sandri, executive]

Thank you, and thank you, everyone, for attending today's call. Our portfolio is designed to capture these attractive market fundamentals, while mitigating the downside risks. We built on this approach through investments in our key customer partnerships that collectively grew our business and drive value for consumers. These strategies are further amplified by our consistent improvement in people and operational excellence. While we have made progress, we remain relentless in using those strategies, leaving our values and driving commitment to team member safety and wellbeing. Based on these efforts, we can achieve our vision to be the best, most respected company in our industry, creating a better future for our team members and their families. Thank you, everybody.

[Operator]

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.