![]() Small companies such as J.M. Smucker Co. and Hormel Food Corp. are the latest to face investor pressure as volatile commodity prices hurt their margins and customers gravitate away from older brands that have anchored established food makers. Shares of the jam and Spam makers fell about 10% and 6% respectively. Weak sales of Folgers coffee and Crisco shortening hurt earnings in the recent quarter, leading it to lower its earning forecast for the fiscal year. Chief Executive Mark Smucker said the company must more quickly overhaul those and other older brands to appeal to customers gravitating towards upstart products they see as more healthily and sustainably produced.
The slump also weighs on advertising companies that rely on the marketing campaign by big food and consumer-goods companies. Hormel said it spent $24 million on advertising less than a half of ad spending on the same period last year. Comments are closed.
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July 2018
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