About Alison Lewis
Alison Lewis, interim CEO and president of Hain Celestial, has discussed the company's restructuring efforts, stating that it had acquired 55 brands over 25 years and was "more of a holding company than anything else." She said she was brought in to turn it into an operating company, and that the company shed 17 brands with about $800 million in sales but only about $30 million in EBITDA, aiming to become "a much more focused, much simpler company." In a separate appearance, Lewis shared religious commentary on the Israel-Hamas conflict, describing Israel as "the apple of God's eye" and urging Christians to "stand and pray for the peace of Jerusalem." She said that "the enemy wants to go after God" and that "as believers we've been engrafted in as Gentiles into the family of God." Lewis also expressed that "the church is not a pure and spotless bride" and that Christians must "mature and prepare ourselves."
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Alison Lewis's recent appearances.
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Transcript (7 segments)
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Jim Cramer0:00
Okay, so Mark, let me ask you point blank. When this company, when we saw the company last, here's where we were: profits were declining 50%, there's a hodgepodge of brands, SEC all over them, couldn't get financials. To me, I felt like maybe there was less than meets the eye here. In a very short period of time, you've created what I regard as a whole new company. So tell us how you did it and what you're doing.
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Alison Lewis0:26
Yeah, we were drowning in complexity, Jim. We saw health and wellness coming before anybody else, but we had acquired 55 brands over 25 years and really were more of a holding company than anything else. So I was brought in to turn it into an operating company, and we put a new team in place. We've got a strategy that's been working, and we've seen tremendous results.
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Jim Cramer0:48
You have let go of a lot of smaller brands that I don't think could ever be bigger brands, that would probably cost you at least mind share if not money.
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Alison Lewis0:57
Yeah, having 55 brands, you just can't nurture that many brands. And so we had to make some choices in terms of which ones we were going to grow and which ones were less important to our journey going forward. We shed 17 brands so far that had about 800 million dollars worth of sales, only about 30 million dollars worth of EBITDA. But we're getting to be a much more focused, much simpler company, which allows us to really grow the ones with the biggest potential.
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Jim Cramer1:21
Sometimes you still have a lot of international. Like for instance, I was trying to figure out who of the companies I follow have Brexit risk, and I hate Celestial's Brexit risk.
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Alison Lewis1:30
Yeah, we have about half of our company outside the U.S., most of it in Europe. And we have eight number one and number two share brands there. So we have an amazing portfolio of products: Ella's, Linda McCartney meat-free, Hartley's jams and jellies. We have a big non-dairy beverage business and a lot of opportunity there. And certainly we're watching Brexit closely, and we're prepared either way.
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Narrator1:54
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