While Campbell Keeps Cooking Up Impressive Sales Growth, Inflationary Headwinds Cap Profits

Since joining Campbell in January 2019, CEO Mark Clouse’s tenure has been fraught with change. Not only has Campbell parted ways with its fresh business and the bulk of its international operations while also working to steady its core meals, beverages, and snacking arms, it has also navigated a global pandemic. But we don’t attribute its recent performance (21% consumption growth on a three-year stack basis) as merely a byproduct of heightened consumer stock-ups of essential fare since March 2020. Rather, we think Campbell’s prudent strategic focus (leveraging technology, data insights, and artificial intelligence to bring consumer-valued new products to the shelf in a timely fashion while also reducing complexity, investing in automation, and optimizing its supply chain and manufacturing network) has set it on a sound course.