Campbell Soup Co raised its annual core sales forecast after benefiting from higher prices and robust demand for its broths and sauces in the third quarter.
Packaged food makers are seeing the pandemic-driven boom in demand holding strong, while price increases are also boosting their revenue, with firms including Kellogg and Kraft Heinz Co also raising annual forecasts in recent months.
Campbell is also benefiting from easing supply chain issues and improvement in staffing, helping it ramp up production and inventory back to normal levels following more than a year of pandemic-induced shipping strains and worker shortages.
The company said it expects fiscal year 2022 organic net sales to rise between 1% and 2%, compared with its prior estimate of a 1% decline to a 1% rise.
Third-Quarter Report
Net sales rose to $2.13 billion (€1.98 billion) in the third quarter ended 1 May, from $1.98 billion (€1.84 billion) a year earlier. Analysts on average expected revenue of $2.05 billion (€1.91 billion), according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Mark Clouse, Campbell’s president and CEO, said, "As expected, we had a strong recovery across the business in the quarter with high-single-digit sales growth driven by sustained consumer demand for our brands and significantly improved supply.
"While the operating environment remains challenging and we continue to expect significant inflation, our team is executing well, and Campbell is on a much stronger foundation today."
In March, the soup maker said it fell short of market expectations for second-quarter revenue as demand for its sauces and broths slowed from the pandemic-led surge.
News by Reuters, additional reporting by ESM – your source for the latest A-Brands news. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
