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Jobs, Tech Layoffs, and Baby Formula · Bloomberg Intelligence

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: my co host Matt Miller. Every business day, we bring
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: with essential market moving news. Find the Bloomberg Markets Podcast
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. Let's get to this
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: job Stata, let's get to this economy. Let's get to
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: this federal reserve. Jeff Cleveland, chief US economists have paid
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: in in regal Jeff. I don't know what your forecast
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: was for the job's number, but good morning. I can't imagine, Jeff,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: he has five seventeen thousand dollars in your model five
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: seventeen thousand jobs. I had plus two twenty three. I'll
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: admit that, so I goes a little above consensus. But wow,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: this just blew me away. I think my initial reaction was, wait,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: what exactly is that an error? I mean, I love
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: reports like this. It completely up ends the narrative I've
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: been getting from clients and colleagues, you know, the talk
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: of an imminent recession. Uh, it's hard to find something
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: that I don't like in this job's report, it's hard
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: to I guess what I've been saying, maybe just because
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It's tough to forecasts of recession when
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: everybody's got a job, isn't it. Absolutely? I mean, at
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the end of the day, when we look at things,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: if if people are employed, they're working more hours average,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I only earned is still growing at a pretty decent clip,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: plus over four percent year on year. Uh, that's your
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: spending power and to consume the economy of seventy consumer.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: So ultimately you can't be too barished in that situation.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: The time where we would get much more bearished would
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: be if aggregate incomes are dropping. And you know, that's
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: what you saw before two thousand and eight, and we're
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: not seeing that here in this data. So I mean,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: what does it mean to the Fed? What does this
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: mean to Jerome Powell, who like doved out on Wednesday, Well,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: it kind of explains a lot. Like he strode out
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: to the podium, right, and he and he was getting
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: pushed back right for some of the reporters, and he's like, okay,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: you have your forecast, I have mine, all right, we'll
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: see And he was sort of you know, he and
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: pushed back heavily, and the market took that as devilishness.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: But you know, now that you see this data report,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: it's like, oh, okay, yeah, he has his forecast and
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: he they said ongoing increases, So a couple of more
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: rate hikes get you up over five. I think with
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: this data that's a slam dunk. I mean, so he
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: was he kind of knew, Um, the economy is so strong,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: we're really going to continue. We'll say we're data dependent
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: so we don't freak the markets out. Yeah. I mean,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you had this in hand, but
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying, like, now in retrospect, it seems much
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: more like, you know, he didn't need to aggressively push
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: back and try to you know, try to lecture anyone.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: He's like the way of one other question that I'll
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: put to you, uh, Jeffrey Um, as an economist, how
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: accurate are these jobs numbers? I mean I have heard
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: that there is a margin of error of around two
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand. I haven't heard anyone say that
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: for ten years. But is that the case or you know,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: in the tents, we would say, you know, the number
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: could come out anywhere between plus one hundred thousand and
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: plus three hundred thousand, and it would be within the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: realm of possibly that would be accurate. So there are
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: pretty pretty decent error bars on this UM. But you know,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: they revised these things annually. They mark them to tax
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: uh tax rolls. So I think this is uh the
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: as far as the economic data goes, this is pretty solid.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I'd rather relye on non foreign payrolls than purchasing manager
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: and disease, you know, surveys like that, So I think
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  Speaker 1: this is I think this is pretty good. All right, Jeff,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: thanks so much. We appreciate that. Jeffrey Cleveland, he's the
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: chief EOS economist of Payton and Regal. Our C suite
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: conversation today, Matt Calkin, CEO of apien UH joins us
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: to talk about his company, talk about tech, talk about
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the tough year two that was for tech stocks. UM. Matt,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us here. Apien nasdac happien
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: ap up on your phone, okay, cool? Appien app N
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: is the ticker to put into your Bloomberg terminal of
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the stock trade on NASAC. UH. Just give us the
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: thirty second kind of elevator pitch. What is apping? What
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: are you guys doing? Where do you play in this
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: tech stack? Sure it's good to be on. Hey, we
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: do process automation. Process automation means that we are organizing
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a process from the very beginning to the end through
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: an organizations. You plant, you program it, you automated, you
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: execute it, and you revise it. Everything to do with
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: the process, and that's that's how organizations make the changes
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: and automate the behaviors that they do. So processes are
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: really central to the way large organizations behave and automation, well,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: that's just uh, that's just when software helps you do
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the work. Usually software is kind of a tool, like
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: if you use a product, it's helping you. But automation
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: is when software literally does the work. So we're talking
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: about artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, tools and rules that
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: allow you to delegate your work to software. So, uh,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: last year was tough for tech companies and as we've
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: been saying, there's a real turnaround this year. Stock is
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: no different. It just goes up and almost a straight
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: line at the beginning of this year. What do you
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: think has made investors reconsider was it just like tax loss,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: harvesting and December that they're coming back to buy now.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: It's kind of funny. And I heard you talking about
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Apple a moment ago, and I think the same phenomena
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: is happening across the tech sector right now. We're seeing
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the prices have been driven more by mood than by
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the underlying value of the organizations, and so Apple can
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: deliver a result which you could question, and yet the
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: stock is up and Appen stock has been rising on well,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: not very much news, and I think it's just an
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: alleviation of some of the mood that's been holding holding
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: stocks where they were. So give us your sense of
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: kind of what you're hearing from your customers in terms
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: of how they view kind of their their tech spend.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Here there's you know where it definitely concerned about a
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: recession in the general economy in twenty three and what
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: a discussions you're having to your clients about what they're
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: doing with their tech spend. Yeah, that's right, Well, there
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: is concerned about a recession, and I think that particularly
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: when there's a recession, that the high rates to come
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  Speaker 1: with that are a weight on tech stocks, particularly because
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  Speaker 1: so much of the value of the tech stock is
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: out in the distance, so you have to depreciate it
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: according to whatever interest rates do you think we're going
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  Speaker 1: to prevail. We see customers right now trying to moderate
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: their risk, trying to plan for change, and and also
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: they're worried about productivity in the labor market. There's a
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: lot of volatility right now in that and of course
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: we've got this big job's number just recently, but we
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: don't know where the labor market is going. We don't
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: know about the supply of jobs right which is how
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: many jobs the employers are willing to create. But we
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: also don't know how about the supply of labor, which
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: has been unusually volatile since COVID, and it's still up
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: in the air. And we don't know about the productivity
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: which may change post COVID, according to people working in
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: a dispersed way or people being augmented by other technologies
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: like AI. AI is a huge topic right now here.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody talking about it, and I think that the last
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: cold months has been a unique to break through in
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the history of this technology. It's it's still a demo, honestly,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: it's just a really good demo at this point, things
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  Speaker 1: like chat, GPT and UH and Dolly are showing that
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  Speaker 1: AI is extraordinarily powerful. And the other shoe that's waiting
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  Speaker 1: to drop, that everybody's asking about talking about is when
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  Speaker 1: will this move human productivity numbers? When are we going
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  Speaker 1: to see this effected businesses instead of just just a
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  Speaker 1: great demonstration of its power. When is it going to
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  Speaker 1: be truly meaningful? Uh to the to the income statement
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  Speaker 1: and and it's coming. So when will it beat you
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: at a board game? I can do it already had
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: a good really, so listeners may not know, but Matt
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: is um. He's authored several award winning board games, and
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: he's often the top finisher. Have you won the World
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Board Gaming Championships? My best finish was third? Okay, So,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: but there's there are apps out there that can beat
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: you and complicated I mean, is there AI out there?
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Excuse me? They can beat you in a complicated board
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: game at chess or go absolutely and I think at
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: poker at this point there and then much better. And
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: it's the other games. The only reason why it can't
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  Speaker 1: beat me is that no programmer has bothered to put
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  Speaker 1: the time into it. AI at this point is exceptionally
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  Speaker 1: good at systems in which the rules don't change quickly,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: like driving or playing chess, or interpreting a photograph to
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: see how much damage there is to your car or
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: whether there's a kitten in the picture. AI is really
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: good when the rules don't change. The only hope for
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: us humans is that that that the rules in our
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: world change pretty fast. So, Matt, you've got we've got
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: just thirty seconds here, But are you putting this to
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: work at Appian? Are you using AI as well? Oh?
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely, we were already integrating uh chat yv team.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: We've had a AI for years, particularly for interpreting documents,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: but it's one of the core things that our customers
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: are asking of us now. All right, Matt, thanks so
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: much for joining us. Really appreciate it. Uh, Matt Calkins,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: He's see you on founder of Appian, the nastack symbols
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: a P P and plug into your Bloomberg terminal. Uh,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: really interesting company. All right, let's get back to the uh.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: The job's number, the payroll number again, the raw number,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: the top line number, seventeen thousand jobs added. That gets
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: your attention. Unemployment rate down the three point four percent,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: another headline number, that gets your attention and average hourly
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: earnings up four point four percent. Let's break it all
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: down like we like to do when we get these
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: numbers with Tom Gibble, founder and CEO of Lasal Network.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Lassal Network is a national staffing recruiting firm. Uh, Tom,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: just blow out numbers. Help us find some perspective here.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Everybody's wrong and nobody gets it. My man, there you go.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: What what did you take away? I took away that
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: the economy is extremely healthy, and I think what you
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: see with the stock market going down is that what
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: everybody knows is that the Fed's gonna raise interest rates.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: And what nobody's saying is the Fed's gonna raise raise
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: interest rates because they can because the economy will tolerate it.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Because this economy is is so strong with labor and
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: jobs and wages increasing that companies can afford to borrow
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: money and actually pay for it versus zero percent. And
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: I think that raising interest rates is making up for
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: what wasn't done during the last decade. And we've got
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: a really strong economy. So you go back into Oh
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: recession was based purely on academic analytics. Analytics of two
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: consecutive negative GDP quarters, but you were comparing it against
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the best year ever, because it was compared to the
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: worst year ever, And so you know, we're really just
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: at a really strong standpoint and a half a million
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: new jobs is awesome, And does that seem in line
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: with what you expect to keep happening? Are we I mean,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: maybe we won't see five hundred thousand again, but are
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: we gonna keep seeing two D three D over the
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: next coming months? Yeah, I think you're gonna see see
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: you know, two hundred thousand, give or take, meaning you know,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: maybe you have one fifty, maybe you have to fifty,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: but but I think on average will be will be
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: in that that two area code. And I think that
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the point of that is saying that small and medium
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: sized companies, which everybody has always said drives the economy
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: and it drives hiring, and now it really is. As
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: we see big tech laid people off, and we see
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: some other companies lay people off, and guess what we're
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: gonna see over the next six to nine months. We're
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: gonna see the beginning of the infrastructure package, and there's
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: gonna be those jobs that are gonna becoming good. So
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I think we're gonna have a relatively healthy twenty three
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: tom Any regionality to the labor market here. Sometimes you know,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: when you see you might see the Sunbelt do better
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: than you know, the Rust Belt in those types of things.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Are we've seen that this time around. Yeah, I think
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: we're we're we're getting We're continuing to see the rise
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: of the of the of the Southern states from Texas
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: to Florida and everything in between. And you're seeing you know,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: big tech in California and and letting people go in
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: that way and where the laws are. And I think
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: we'll continue to see the evolution of Red States in
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: the service level economy. I think we're gonna see, uh,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: really a growth in in in cities like Birmingham and
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: in that Raleigh, Durham and that Charlotte. You're gonna see
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Miami continuing to get great. I mean, I'm seeing more
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: and more companies that are doing hiring in Tampa. I
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: think you're seeing that evolution that that those cities in
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: those in those Red States are are going to continue
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: to be where companies want to hire people in the
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: service business. And what has historically been a manufacturing car manufacturing, UH,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: furniture manufacturing area, will we'll move into a white collar
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: service area. What's your take time? On wages, we saw
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: average hourly earnings four point three percent year over year,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: so a slight climbs zero point from um last month?
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Are workers getting enough to you run on the leading
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: placement firms in the country. Are the people you're placing
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: happy with the pay they're getting? Well? I think I think,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: uh uh. If you ask an employee if they're happy
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: with their pay, no matter what the number is the
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: majority and we're gonna say no. Um, it's like a
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: divorce settlement that one party is always gonna think they
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: paid too much, one party is always gonna think they
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: got too little. And and I think that that's what
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: what wages are. However, what I mean, though, is do
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: they have enough money to keep up with inflation? Or
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: are they having to say, you know, cut money on
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: their food bill or you know, drive a loss. But
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: answer it this way and say, I think they're in
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the exact same boat that they were three years ago
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: before inflation on lower wages. What we've done is is
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: just changed the narrative. So you're making more things cost more,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: and before you were making less and things cost less.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: People are in the exact same boat as they were before.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: What they're complaining about is saying I should be able
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: to do more because I'm making more money what they did.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: What the layman doesn't realize is when wages rise as
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: fast as they have, things are gonna cost more. This
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: is economics one O one that should be taught in
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: high school that people are now learning in real life.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: And that's the problem, uh in the ballot box to
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: grocery aisle and what we're dealing with now. And I
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: think that that's the standard situation. And I think that
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: you're not gonna see wages increase. I I don't. I
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: don't think so. I think they're gonna level off. And
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: what we're seeing with the tech layoffs is that the
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: tech companies continue to hire. They got rid of their
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: poor performers, and if they bring people back, they're not
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: doing it at the exuberant wages that they were twelve
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: months ago. Tom, you're a proud graduate of the University
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: of Colorado. How fired up are you for coach Prime?
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. I have not had my
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: phone buzz more than it has in the past sixty days.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: And we are not only gonna win the Pack twelve,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: we are gonna be an elite power five and within
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: two years will be the playoff. There you go, and
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: that is a sentiment. I've never seen a coach is
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: hiring have more of an impact on an institution than
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Dion Sanders at the University of Colorado. So, Tom, thanks
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: so much for joining us there. Tom is a founder
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: and CEO of LaSalle Network. UH, big big national staffing company.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: And you know he's been bullish about this job market
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: for the longest time. Uh, and he's been right, been right.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Let's get to the story that we were talking about
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: a little bit last year. At one point, you know,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: you think we had so many shortages of so many products.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: One of the more serious ones was uh, baby formula.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: And at the time we spoke to Laura Modi, CEO
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and founder a baby formula company Bobby Uh. She joins
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: us again today, So Laura, thanks so much for joining
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: us here. Can you give us an update on kind
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: of the baby formula market supply, demand, availability? Where are
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: we right now? Yeah? Good to charge you guys again.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I look, it has been a long year. I mean,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: you can coin last year's formula the shortage with severe
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: and it really was one of the most serious shortages
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: we've had in a long time. I would say, while
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the shortages coming to a close, it still remains a crisis. Fundamentally.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: We have not addressed the problem, which is domestic supply,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: domestic manufacturing. So until we both stir our domestic manufacturing practices,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: we may be in this crisis for a long time. So, um,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: what does it look like then out there for mothers
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: who need formula? Are they able to get any formula?
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Is it just um, you know, high quality formulas in
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: short supply or what's what's it look like? We're coming
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: up on a year since the Abbot recall happened, and
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: since the shortage started, and as of last week nearly
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: a heard of households with the baby under one that
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: they still had trouble finding formula. Yes, some high quality
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: ones and some very sensitive formulas as well. So where
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: are we kind of just give us the sense of
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: kind of domestic duction, domestics supply kind of where are
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: we today? Where should it be in your opinion? Yeah, Look,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: this is I believe the cause of what is being
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: just concentrated and in many ways the complacency of a
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: concentrated industry. Of the market is dominated by two players,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: and those two players have owned been conforming in the
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: markets for over forty years, very little innovation and no competition,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: which has resulted in the complacency that we see today.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: And your company, just to refreshes you, guys, are direct
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: to consumer. Talk to us about your company, Bobby, and
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: kind of how you're playing in this market, which I
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: guess a lot of us who don't have children maybe
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: forget how critical it is for so many families. That's
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: r right. Look, intanporta is an essential good. This is
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: not a typical pantry product. It's not a granola bar.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: When you start your baby on formula, you need to
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: make sure that you have the product available. Bobby is
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: a direct to consumer formula company. We also now sit
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: on target shows. But we have built some models that
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: when you subscribe to if we subscribe to you, which
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: essentially say you come in in your first month, We're
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: going to make sure that we have the supply for
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: you for your entire journey. And just having that model
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: gives that peace of mind to parents this no matter
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: how bad the shortages get, we're going to make sure
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: that you have your supply. How concerned our parents. We
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: were just talking, uh Paul and I about how you know,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: back in the day, kids would just walk to school
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: by themselves, but now you know, not until you're eighteen
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: are you allowed to be loose in the city. Parents
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: really care Now My parents just ignored me until it worked,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: until I got a job. But you know, parents these
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: days are very serious about child well being in health,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: and so is Bobby, you know, getting taking full advantage
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: of that. I mean, what's what's what's your say else?
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Look like the sales are good? You know, we have
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: gotten to a place now where we're serving four percent
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: of the nonwick market in the gusts of two years.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: So it has been a very fast growing two years,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: the fastest growing formula since the eighties, and now the
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: fifth largest formula company in the US and hard to believe.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: And yet I think it's also just another big wake
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: up call to how badly the formula industry needs to change.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: And look as Terence ourselves, I've made this formula because
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I wanted it for my own kids. We went with
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: a better for you infant formula, clean ingredients left out
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: the corn syrup, And you're totally right. Parents have changed
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: their own eating habits. They're buying organic for themselves, so
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: obviously they want to do that for their child. And frankly,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: the US, as the first world country, should be putting
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: out the best intoint formula. We deserve to do it.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: It's also great to have women taking control of this.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: I followed the she media like crew and uh, you
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: know they're doing this future of helping at south By Southwest,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Is it is? It? Is it? Um? This is helpful,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: this kind of networking for women in business. Yes, and
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: you know we need to get more women behind the
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: wheel driving businesses that represent their needs. You know, we're
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: we're selling an alternative to breast milk. I don't believe
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: anyone else should be behind the wheel. And yes, I'm
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: still the only female CEO of an infant formula company.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: It's insane. That's insane. It's insane. It is absolutely insane.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: So I'll challenge any of those male CEOs out there
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: against what we're doing. No, I I am very excited
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: to see see the rise of more female founders and CEOs,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: especially in industry that they think and doctors right, right,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: because um, Laura, there are so many issues that affect
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: women during pregnancy and as their nurse saying that are
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: just under researched. Um. You know, and I hope that
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: you work with doctors and and female doctors are able
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: to do research that that male doctors for decades or
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: centuries haven't done. That's exactly it. I mean, up until recently,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: women were treated as smaller men when it came to
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the research side of and anything in the world of
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: pharma and food and anything that women were consuming. Well,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: we now need to look at women and gender very differently,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: and I believe women are driving that movement. Laura, thank
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: you so much for joining us. Really appreciate chatting with
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: you again. You're really so helpful to us when this
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: story in this issue really became apparent last year. And
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: we're good to see some improvement in that side of
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the market, but still more room UH to grow into
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: and to change. Laura Moody, she's a CEO and co
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: founder of Bobby. Bobby is a baby formula delivery startup
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: that sells direct to consumer and offers a sup sscription
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: service to parents across the US. Are really unique, UH,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: an interesting company. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcast.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: You can subscribe and listen to interviews with Apple Podcasts
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm Matt Miller. I'm
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: on Twitter at Matt Miller, three pt on Fall Sweeney
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney Before the podcast. You
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: can always catch us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio