Ranked 39th on the Transport Topics list of top brokerage firms, Axle Logistics takes a consultative and streamlined approach to your shipping needs. Email sales@axlelogistics.com to connect with the team today! Retail rout This week saw a rout in retail stocks with shares of Walmart and Target down 21% and 31%, respectively, during the past […]
Numerous companies, including CPG companies, at FreightWaves’ The Future of Supply Chain conference last week highlighted the difficulty of accurately forecasting. We heard that sentiment expressed from numerous companies, including transportation companies and intermediaries as well as CPG companies and other shippers. Basically, market forecasts are almost always too reflective of current market conditions without […]
CPG companies expect continued inflation on transportation costs this year. While there are plenty of signs on the horizon that suggest that a freight recession may be forthcoming, 2022 freight costs for most CPG companies are expected to be higher than they were in 2021. Procter & Gamble and Mondelez are among the major CPG […]
Procter & Gamble highlights the combination of commodity, freight and foreign exchange as having a combined 22% headwind on core EPS in its fiscal 2022 (ending June 30). The company’s organic sales grew 10% in its just-reported fiscal Q3 2022, broken down into pricing, volume and sales mix contributing 5, 3 and 2 points, respectively. […]
The truck market is correcting. If you haven’t read the article that FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller wrote last week titled, “Just 3 years after 2019 trucking bloodbath, another is on the way,” I recommend starting there. For those who prefer a video format and/or want more detail, Fuller discusses his thesis on the most recent […]
Supply chain improvement, leading to better on-shelf availability, drove positive variance relative to management’s prior guidance. Shares of General Mills rose 2.5% on Wednesday in a down market. The increase to the company’s full-year earnings guidance (earnings were previously expected to be 2% lower to 1% higher y/y and are now expected to be flat […]
Grocery prices rose 8.6% year-over-year in February. As miserable as the overall 7.9% inflation rate was for most consumers in February, grocery inflation outpaced it, with its highest rate of price growth in 40 years. The February year-over-year increase in grocery inflation exceeded the 7.9% year-over-year growth in January and grocery prices were also up […]
In a letter to associates, PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said, “As a food and beverage company, now more than ever we must stay true to the humanitarian aspect of our business. That means we have a responsibility to continue to offer our other products in Russia, including daily essentials such as milk and other dairy […]
Will we see a depression in Russia, a recession in western Europe and slower positive economic growth in North America, or some other scenario? It’s not yet clear whether the Russia-Ukraine conflict will be impactful enough to drive a global recession, but the consensus is that the further rising prices of energy and agriculture as […]
Before getting into CPG news, I encourage readers of The Stockout to join us at The Future of Supply Chain event, which takes place May 9-10 at the Rogers Convention Centers in Northwest Arkansas. Keynote speakers include Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Jonathan Hoffman, former chief Pentagon spokesman. The CPG industry will be well represented […]
Numerous multinational CPG companies are suspending or limiting production in Ukraine in an effort to keep employees safe. The major CPG companies that have announced they are limiting or suspending production and/or distribution in Ukraine include Nestle, Coca-Cola, Philip Morris and Mondelez. The same is true for global agriculture companies that have operations in Ukraine, […]
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Food Price Index averaged 135.7 points in January, 1.1 percent higher than December and the highest level in 11 years. Driving the latest increase were month-over-month increases in the FAO Vegetable Oils Price Index and the Dairy Price Index of 4.2% and 2.4%, respectively. Palm […]
Nestle’s corporate strategy the past several years has prepared it for the highly inflationary environment we now find ourselves in. The main thing that stood out to me in Nestle’s full-year 2021 results, which were reported Thursday, was the stability in the company’s margins, which was highly impressive considering the tremendous margin pressure that many […]
This is the best article I saw in recent days relevant to CPG companies — Just Food described how consumer behavior will likely change in response to sharp inflation in food prices. The good news for CPG companies is that history shows that consumers will cut back on eating out at restaurants (first trading down […]
Following disappointing earnings on Thursday afternoon, Clorox (NYSE: CLX) shares fell 14.3% on Friday, making it the day’s worst-performing stock on the S&P 500. One of the lowlights was the company’s gross margin, which declined 1,240 basis points year-over-year in its fiscal second quarter to 33% from 45.5% one year earlier. That contraction was primarily […]
Mondelez sees logistics costs rising worldwide, but not at the same pace as in the U.S. The Chicago-based snack maker cited a severe imbalance between supply and demand for truck capacity and container availability in the U.S. and U.K. Meanwhile, the company’s costs outside of logistics, such as ingredient and packaging costs, are showing more […]
What will Unilever look like in the coming years? Unilever stood out Monday because the shares rose 8.6% on news of activist involvement and were up throughout the day while the broader market sold off sharply before recovering by the end of the day. The activist, Trian Fund Management, has been involved with numerous CPG […]
This week’s CPG news items reflect a continuation of recent food/beverage trends. More crossover between soft drink and alcoholic drinks: Monster Beverage is the latest soft drink company to get into adult beverages by acquiring CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective, an owner of craft breweries, in a deal worth $330 million. Other recent examples of category […]
Instead of discussing the current CPG news and freight data per my usual, for today’s newsletter I highlight the CPG industry trends I expect to see in 2022. Trend No. 1: Consumer behavior will change in response to rising prices, at least among lower-income consumers. The topic of the hour is inflation, which hit a […]
Before getting into CPG news, here are two near-term events for your calendar: On Friday, The Stockout show is focused on the railroad industry and features a true industry expert (not referring to myself). I will be interviewing Tony Hatch, an independent railroad consultant and longtime senior transportation analyst on Wall Street. He is fresh […]
