Goldfish for Lunch? Campbell Says Parents Favoring Simple Meals

(Bloomberg) -- You're not the only quarantined parent feeding your children Goldfish for lunch.

Campbell Soup Co., the maker of the ubiquitous fish-shaped crackers, says all rules are off during pandemic-era meal times, and that's good news for business. Sales of Campbell's suite of pantry staples -- from Snyder's pretzels to Prego pasta sauce – have been on a tear, and Chief Executive Officer Mark Clouse says some of the sudden changes in consumer behavior appear here to stay.

“We saw a major behavior around the simple lunches,” he said in an interview. “As kids were home from school, taking classes virtually or mom and dad weren't going to work so there's no cafeteria, a lot of our products played very well.”

His comments follow results for Campbell's fiscal third quarter that showed a dramatic jump in sales as consumers stocked up on comfort food like canned soup and Kettle potato chips. The company forecasts sales from continuing operations will rise 5.5% to 6.5% this year, a sharp turnaround from an earlier forecast that said they could drop as much as 1%.

Investors aren't yet convinced the sales bump has staying power, driving the shares lower Wednesday. But Clouse says the momentum will continue even after pantry loading has slowed.

That's because after the initial spike in pantry-loading behavior in March, job losses and economic upheaval are pushing more consumers to seek out low-priced food options. Parents also like simple meal options, he said.

Post-March, Campbell continues to see “very elevated” demand for soups, V8 juice, salsas and pasta sauces, he said. The company has boosted production in response, although he acknowledged that demand has tapered off from earlier panic-buy levels. The snacks business is starting to settle back to more normal levels of demand, with the exception of bakery products and Goldfish crackers, which remain very popular. But he expects the trend to at-home eating to persist.

“It's such a unique situation to have this many new customers and households,” Clouse said. “It's a window that would be hard to ever replicate again.”