Flowers Foods' CEO Hosts Analyst Day (Transcript)

Many of you asked in the last night and again this morning about consumer and now we would say we are still cautious about the consumer. And I can tell you the first 15 days of every month I get optimistic. Optimism always looks good in the first 15 days of the month, but then you get on to the back part of the month and all of a sudden that optimism turns a little pessimistic because the consumer gets a little more at edge and not shopping quite as heavily. But and I do say with that optimism in that first 15 days I do feel a lot of consumers are feeling a little bit better about and they do have a little more confidence than they would had over the past three years since 2008.

I do believe that, now when that turns into tangible, real tangible results is really hard to say, but I think I can be a little more optimistic about the future from the consumer, than I could this time last year. I think also while we are seeing first of the month, it’s a lot more food stamps. We are seeing a lot more promotions, we are seeing some trading down, which says the consumer still have lower, they are still having some difficulties. And the only worry I would say about that optimism by the next six months could be what happens to the price of gasoline. And you see some of the big retailers say when gasoline approaches that $4 level that they see a difference in shopping patterns, people come to the supermarket less, but they do buy more when they do come and over time though they might not buy as much because of the pressure of some trading down.

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