The Stockout

J.M. Smucker Co.’s results highlight margin pressure even as CPG companies raise prices and continue to post strong sales. Overall, Smucker reported strong results as its earnings easily beat analysts’ expectations, mainly on better-than-expected sales in segments such as coffee, pet food and Uncrustables. The company’s results give a glimpse into the continued margin pressure […]

Before getting into what’s happening in CPG supply chains, here’s something for your calendar: I host the next quarterly The Stockout webinar on Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. ET. Here’s the link to register. Last quarter, there was a great turnout, and the discussion was enhanced by the many participants who asked thoughtful and pertinent […]

Before getting into what’s happening in CPG supply chains, here’s something for your calendar: I host the next quarterly The Stockout webinar on Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. ET. Here’s the link to register. Last quarter, there was a great turnout, and the discussion was enhanced by the many participants who asked thoughtful and pertinent […]

Oatly (Swedish oat milk company) shares continue to struggle. Oatly’s American depository receipts declined 21% Monday and closed at $9.36, down 45% from the $17 IPO price. Investors’ primary concern centered around a slowing revenue growth rate; the company now expects revenue this year to be “more than $635 million,” which is 8% below the […]

Beyond Meat sell-off further ignites debate about demand for plant-based protein. From my perspective, Beyond Meat’s earnings and the fallout have been the most interesting CPG-related news this week. The recent returns for shareholders have been ugly — down 20% in the past week and down 35% year-to-date. Since the company had already preannounced its […]

TreeHouse Foods, a major manufacturer of private-label food products, announced that its board is exploring strategic alternatives. Potential strategic actions include a possible sale of the company or the divestment of a significant portion of its less-profitable meal prep business in order to focus on its higher-growth snacking and beverages business. This announcement Monday came […]

Kellogg Co. manages to reaffirm earnings guidance despite both industrywide and company-specific challenges. I find it impressive that the company was able to retain its guidance for both operating profit and earnings despite the acceleration in inflation during the third quarter and the ongoing strike in its flagship North American cereal business. Although, some would […]

Vertical farming promises to be one of the most impactful trends to food in the coming years. In fact, it was listed as the No. 1 trend in Whole Foods’ list of top food trends in 2022. I am also excited about the potential for growth in vertical farming, and I made that the topic […]

It’s times like these that it’s more fun to write about transportation issues than to actually have to move freight (not that I’ve ever actually moved freight). On Wednesday, topics at the FreightWaves Intermodal Summit included port congestion, rail ramp congestion, the chassis shortage, the drayage capacity shortage, the international and domestic container shortage, and […]

With most CPG companies already having reported first-quarter earnings, the CPG-related news this week centered around descriptions of consumer strength from their retail partners. In addition, the largest CPG companies, such as Unilever, are making bigger pushes into sustainable packaging. Finally, Oatly shares soared in their debut on Thursday.  To sign up for The Stockout, […]

As the equity indexes declined on Tuesday, two freight indexes contained in SONAR were up sharply after incorporating data from the past week: the national dry van and reefer spot indexes. That prompts the question: What happened to the freight market in the past week? In today’s The Stockout newsletter, I discuss how that data […]

As the economy surges, inflation pressures are becoming more widespread. Everywhere you look, there are headline-grabbing reports of rising prices. Some areas where inflation is acute are in industrial commodities such as lumber and steel, while inflation in other areas directly impacts CPG companies such as agriculture, meat, packaging and freight costs. While those issues […]

Wall Street didn’t like Clorox’s earnings report late last week. There were analyst downgrades and shares are down from where they were a week ago and down 10% from their level three months ago. The company is in a tough spot with uncertainty over whether demand for its cleaning products will remain elevated as COVID […]

In past editions of The Stockout, I’ve discussed cost inflation trends, which I believe is the industry’s largest issue currently aside from pandemic-related structural changes in demand. In recent days, many of the large CPG companies provided additional detail on pending price increases to pass those costs on to consumers. While that’s not a surprise, […]

Tuesday morning there was big news out of the rail industry: Canadian National Railway (CN) made a stronger offer to acquire the Kansas City Southern (KCS) Railway than what Canadian Pacific (CP) and KCS agreed upon. Whether a deal closes, and between which railways, remains uncertain, but in this edition of The Stockout, I discuss […]

In today’s The Stockout, I discuss first-quarter earnings reports from Pepsi and L’Oreal. L’Oreal, in particular, has a lot of momentum of late with shares reaching all-time highs as investors seem to be intrigued by investing in cosmetics as a play on life returning to normal and the burgeoning Chinese middle class. Meanwhile, Pepsi’s results […]

Most public CPG companies are in their quiet periods ahead of earnings. But there were still significant developments with the CPG companies that are not (yet) public. There is a report that Impossible Foods plans to go public either through an IPO or SPAC sometime later this year and The Honest Co., which was founded […]

When we look back at the COVID era, we will remember stockouts of toilet paper, cleared-out grocery store shelves and the impossibility of getting the latest video game console because of the semiconductor shortage. Today, consumer goods are still serving as a reminder that COVID is not fully behind us. Just as there are still […]

In today’s edition of The Stockout CPG-focused newsletter, I discuss a company that has been dealing with exactly that — stockouts. McCormick & Co., the world’s largest spice company, reported earnings last week (for its first quarter ending Feb. 28) and provided an outlook that was favorable, boosted by continued elevated levels of at-home consumption. […]

Most CPG companies will report earnings next month, but with an off-cycle fiscal year ending May 31, General Mills reported its fiscal third quarter Wednesday morning for the December-February quarter. General Mills’ size and its off-cycle reporting make it a bellwether for next month’s earnings reports. As I’ve discussed in other editions of The Stockout, […]