Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.-based Conagra, the manufacturer of seafood brands Mrs. Paul’s and Van de Kamp’s, is expecting higher inflation in 2022, which it said may lead it to make pricing adjustments.
The agricultural behemoth said it expects gross inflation to be around 11 percent for fiscal 2022, revised upward from its prior outlook of around 9 percent, its executives said on an earnings call, where they also announced the company’s sales and net income dropped in its fiscal first quarter of 2022.
Conagra’s net income fell from USD 329 million (EUR 285 million) for its fiscal first quarter of 2021 to USD 235.4 million (EUR 203 million) for the first quarter of fiscal 2022. Its net sales dropped from USD 2.68 billion (EUR 2.3 billion) for Q1 2021 of 2021 to USD 2.65 billion (EUR 2.3 billion) in Q1 2022.
Conagra said its organic net sales growth dropped 0.4 percent in Q1 2022, up 7 percent for the same quarter two years ago. And it said sales of Conagra’s frozen products jumped 8.7 percent in the fiscal first quarter of 2022 versus two years ago.
In addition, consumer demand for fiscal year 2022 “is trending higher than our original expectations,” Conagra President and CEO Sean Connolly said. But the company continued executing “inflation-justified pricing actions,” during its Q1 2022, Connolly said. Looking ahead for fiscal year 2022, the company expects continued inflation and additional cost-saving actions, Connolly said.
Conagra, which previously warned of the impact of current inflation in its Q4 2021 report, is just one of many large food manufacturers announcing price increases this year.
Fresh, frozen, and shelf-stable seafood prices have all shot up in the second quarter of 2021, according to recent data from IRI and 210 Analytics. Frozen seafood prices experienced the biggest gain in the second quarter of this year – up 9.2 percent versus the same quarter in 2019 to USD 6.96 (EUR 6.02) per pound on average in U.S. grocery stores and mass retailers, according to IRI and 210 Analytics.
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