The Next Billion Dollar Active Nutrition Brand Portfolio Is...

With the massive acceleration in growth from Quest Nutrition and the Atkins Nutritionals brand showing life again, will The Simply Good Foods Company become the next $1 billion active nutrition CPG portfolio? As usual, I’ll start by running through some high-level financial data to update you on how The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ: SMPL) performed recently, but more importantly provide context for expand strategic commentary on trends within the health and fitness snacking space. Instead of my normal focus on Quest Nutrition, I zoomed in on two trends that could help further improve the Atkins Nutritionals growth story (Return to Work and Off-Cycle Resolution Season). Fact is, the Simply Good Food Company continues to be uniquely positioned with two large-scale channel-diversified U.S. brand leaders in the attractive nutritional snacking category that’s still underpenetrated. With well calculated price increases, as well as productivity gains, the company should be able to offset much of the inflation concerns that competitive brands are dealing with now. This will enable them to maintain gross margins and continue to invest in initiatives that drive growth. Additionally, the Simply Good Foods Company is spinning off $90M in quarterly positive cash flows and has an improving debt ratio that will allow it to find an attractive M&A target within the next year. I continue to be impressed by how well the team is operating against the complex environment and I continue to believe SMPL has a bright future.