Consumer Staples
Packaged Foods
$12.84B
19K
Conagra Brands, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a consumer packaged goods food company primarily in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Grocery & Snacks, Refrigerated & Frozen, International, and Foodservice. The Grocery & Snacks segment primarily offers shelf stable food products through various retail channels. The Refrigerated & Frozen segment provides temperature-controlled food products through various retail channels. The International segment offers food products in various temperature states through retail and foodservice channels outside of the United States. The Foodservice segment offers branded and customized food products, including meals, entrees, sauces, and various custom-manufactured culinary products packaged for restaurants and other foodservice establishments. The company sells its products under the Birds Eye, Marie Callender's, Duncan Hines, Healthy Choice, Slim Jim, Reddi-wip, Angie's, BOOMCHICKAPOP brands. The company was incorporated in 1919 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Key insights and themes extracted from this filing
Net sales for fiscal 2024 were $12.05 billion, a decrease of 1.8% compared to $12.28 billion in fiscal 2023. This decline is attributed to lower consumption trends and consumer behavior shifts, partially offset by increases in the International and Foodservice segments.
The company recorded charges totaling $956.7 million related to impairments of goodwill and certain brand intangible assets, significantly reducing net income. Diluted earnings per share were $0.72 compared to $1.42 in the prior year.
Overall gross profit increased primarily as a result of higher productivity, lower transportation costs, and lower inventory write-offs. However, these gains were partially offset by input cost inflation, lower net sales, and unfavorable operating leverage.
The company made strategic trade investments, which impacted sales and price/mix in the Grocery & Snacks and Refrigerated & Frozen segments. These investments are intended to drive long-term growth but had a mixed impact in the current fiscal year.
Net sales for fiscal 2024 in the International segment reflected a 2.9% increase due to favorable foreign exchange rates, a 2.6% increase in volumes, and a 2.1% increase in price/mix, in each case compared to fiscal 2023.
During the second quarter of fiscal 2024, the company initiated a plan to sell its ownership stake in Agro Tech Foods Limited, a consolidated subsidiary within the International segment, with closing expected by the end of calendar year 2024.
The company continues to implement a restructuring plan initiated in fiscal 2019, with $66.6 million in charges recognized during fiscal 2024. These actions are aimed at improving SG&A effectiveness and optimizing the supply chain network.
Disruptions to the supply chain, including third-party manufacturing or transportation and distribution capabilities, could impair the company's ability to manufacture or sell its products.
The company continues to implement profit-enhancing initiatives that impact its supply chain and general and administrative functions. These initiatives are focused on cost-saving opportunities in procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and customer service.
Customer and consumer demand for products may be impacted by heightened inflation, increased interest rates, and other weak economic conditions. Continued weak economic conditions may adversely impact consumers causing a decrease in demand for products.
The global economy has been negatively impacted by geopolitical conflicts, such as the continuing military conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, which has resulted in governments imposing export controls and financial and economic sanctions.
The company is exposed to cybersecurity risk through its information systems and its use of third-party information systems. A third-party vendor's system shutdown in connection with a cybersecurity incident disrupted operations in the past.
The food industry is highly competitive. Retail customer consolidation, proliferation of new, competitive products, consumer behavior shifts including retail channel preferences, and consumer price sensitivity continue to contribute to increased competition.
Substantial growth in e-commerce has encouraged the entry of new competitors and business models, intensifying competition by simplifying distribution and lowering barriers to entry.
Customers, such as supermarkets, warehouse clubs, and food distributors, have continued to consolidate, resulting in fewer customers on which the company can rely for business.
In recent years, our industry has been impacted by supply chain disruptions, transportation issues, labor challenges and continued changes in global economic conditions, which have impacted and could continue to impact our operations and profitability.
As the company outsources certain functions, it becomes more dependent on the third parties performing those functions. If any of these third-party service providers do not perform according to the terms of the agreements, the company may not be able to achieve the expected cost savings or it may have to incur additional costs to correct errors made by such service providers.
The termination or expiration of current co-manufacturing arrangements could reduce sales volume and adversely affect results of operations.
The cybersecurity program is an important part of the Company's enterprise risk management (ERM), with the Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer serving on our ERM Committee and our Vice President of ERM serving as the strategic crisis management coordinator under our cybersecurity incident response plan.
The cybersecurity threat landscape is dynamic and volatile, and requires significant investment on the part of the Company in terms of investing in our employees through talent recruitment, retention, training and development, investing in external resources including procuring and deploying the correct tools to monitor, evaluate, and address threats.
Conagra's Cybersecurity Team is led by our Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Our CISO, a certified information security professional, has over 25 years of cybersecurity leadership experience across multiple industries and holds a Doctor of Science (DSc) degree in Cybersecurity.
The company has been actively managing its debt profile, including repaying senior notes and entering into new term loan agreements. These activities aim to optimize the capital structure and manage interest costs.
The Company's total remaining share repurchase authorization as of May 26, 2024 was $916.6 million of our outstanding common stock. The company did not repurchase any shares of common stock during fiscal 2024.
The board authorized a quarterly dividend payment of $0.35 per share.
Our operations are also subject to extensive and increasingly stringent regulations administered by the Environmental Protection Agency and similar state, local, and foreign government agencies, which pertain to the discharge of materials into the environment and the handling and disposition of wastes.
While we continue to take important steps to strive toward mitigation of climate risk and impact on climate change, transitioning our business to adapt to and comply with evolving policy, legal, and regulatory changes may impose substantial operational and compliance burdens.
Additionally, we regularly move data across national borders to conduct our operations and, consequently, are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States and other jurisdictions regarding privacy, data protection, and data security.
Our industry continues to be impacted by commodity cost fluctuations, labor cost inflation, input cost inflation, supply chain disruptions, and other global macroeconomic challenges.
We also have experienced a reduction to our volumes due to lower consumption trends seen throughout the industry and consumer behavior shifts, including retail channel preferences.
We will continue to evaluate the evolving macroeconomic environment to take action to mitigate the impact on our business, consolidated results of operations, and financial condition.