Cooking at Home Hasn’t Been This Common Since 2020, Campbell’s Says

Home-cooked meals are in, according to Campbell’s, and snacks are out.

Executives at Campbell’s Co. (CPB), which sells its namesake soups, Prego and Rao’s sauces, and a variety of snacks, told analysts Monday that it hasn’t seen this much at-home meal prep since the pandemic hit. 

Softer consumer sentiment has “consumers making more deliberate choices with their spending on food” this year, CEO Mick Beekhuizen said on Campbell’s third-quarter earnings conference call.

“The key outcome is a growing preference for home-cooked meals, leading to the highest levels of meals prepared at home since early 2020,” he said on the call, according to a transcript made available by AlphaSense.

Americans’ interest in saving is helping the company’s meal and beverage business but hurting snack sales, executives said. The snack segment’s sluggishness prompted CFO Carrie Anderson to say adjusted earnings for the year are expected to come in at the “low end” of guidance, which stands at $2.95 to $3.05 per share. This outlook, which excludes the impact of tariffs, assumes organic sales will be down 2% to flat.

Other Food Makers Note Declines in Snack Buying

Campbell’s organic sales—results adjusted for the recent sale of Pop Secret and Noosa Yoghurt, and the purchase of Sovos Brands—grew 1% year-over-year for the third quarter, the company said, reflecting a 6% increase in meal and beverage sales and a 5% decline in snacks. Goldfish and Snyder’s of Hanover pretzels, in particular, struggled, executives said, while Pepperidge Farm cookies fared better.

Other companies, including Hain Celestial Group (HAIN), General Mills (GIS) and Mondelēz International (MDLZ), have said recently that consumers are cutting back on snacks.

“We see consumers switching to more essentials in grocery, and snacking categories are suffering,” Mondelēz CEO Dirk Van de Put said on an earnings conference call in late April. “You can see the consumer, not only in food, but across the board really being very, very frugal and very careful,” he said.

Still, some companies say sales of protein and health-focused snacks have taken off. 

“Between meat snacks and popcorn, you’ve got two very on-trend businesses, not to mention our seeds business, which is sometimes overlooked but is a phenomenal, very profitable business,” Conagra (CAG) CEO Sean Connolly said in early April when the company reported third-quarter earnings.