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Packaged and canned food may not be promoted at the same panic buying point as they did at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but BG Foods (NYSE: BGS) says it continues to grow at such a high rate that it expects its annual effects to “significantly exceed” the forecasts it gave in February.
Meanwhile, Green Giant brand owner Cream of Wheat and Ortega said second-quarter sales increased 38% to $512 million, ending at a lower expansion rate than the 57.6% sales increase in the neighborhood’s first two months.
When the COVID-19 outbreak declared a pandemic, others emptied the store’s shelves for customers, adding canned goods, water, toilet paper, disinfectant, Lysol, etc.
There is still a shortage of some of those products in many places, and President and CEO Kenneth G. Romanzi said that “BG workers have done a job to ensure that our home chain is able to meet an unprecedented increase in demand for our products.”
Customers’ packaged consumer goods company said some brands had recorded much higher-than-normal sales volumes: Green Giant products rose by more than 45% in the quarter, Ortega rose 37% and Cream of Wheat rose 54% more.
Due to the uncertainty that coronavirus continues to pose, i.e. in the source chain, B-G Foods will offer a more granular ride for the third trimester and more. However, the company stated that it expects net sales and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to exceed its high-level expansion forecasts at the end of its last fiscal year (1.2% and 3.5%, respectively).