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Conagra's (CAG) Faster Cage-Free Egg Transition to Cheer Consumers

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Conagra Brands, Inc. (CAG - Free Report) has been making concerted efforts to work in accordance with consumers’ preferences. This consumer packaged goods food company unveiled plans to speed up its transition to having 100% cage-free eggs. Incidentally, the company now plans to use 100% cage-free eggs by fiscal 2024-end compared with the earlier plan of sourcing 100% cage-free eggs by fiscal 2025.

To this end, Conagra targets converting nearly 20% of the eggs it uses to cage-free by fiscal 2021-end. Further, it plans to convert roughly 45-50% by the end of fiscal 2022; about 60-70% by fiscal 2023-end and finally directly source 100% cage-free eggs by fiscal 2024-end. Certainly, this goes in tandem with the company and consumers’ focus on animal welfare.

What Else Must You Know?

Conagra has been strongly committed to bolstering its portfolio and enhancing consumers’ experience.  The company’s focus on innovation is clearly working well in this regard. Even amid the pandemic, the company remained focused on carrying out innovation for its customers and consumers. In fact, the company witnessed favorable consumer and customer responses for its new products during the third quarter of fiscal 2021.

Management, on its last earnings call, highlighted that its performance in terms of innovation exceeded the 15% target in the past the last two fiscal years and the past 52 weeks. Moreover, the company is beginning to see solid customer acceptance for its fiscal 2022 innovation. We note that the company’s focus on the Conagra Way playbook has been yielding results. Certainly, the company’s growth is rooted in its innovation platform, which is helping it aid category performance.
 

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Notably, Conagra has been focused on boosting the Frozen and Snacks businesses. In the third quarter of fiscal 2021, the company’s retail sales gained from growth in snacks, frozen and staples sales. During the quarter, total Conagra Frozen retail sales increased 12% year over year. We note that the company’s Frozen category has picked up more pace amid the pandemic, which led people to work from home and eat at home. During the third quarter, the company’s Grocery & Snacks business sales gained 10.8%. The company’s snacks business continued to gain from higher volumes stemming from rising at-home consumption. Management expects at-home eating trends to stay high for a while and is well positioned to tap opportunities related to the same.

Wrapping Up

Conagra’s Foodservice segment has been affected by the pandemic-led reduced away-from-home food demand. This was witnessed in the third quarter, wherein soft restaurant traffic hurt segment sales. Also, elevated input and pandemic-led costs weighed on the operating profit at the Foodservice segment. Nonetheless, with curbs being lifted and things opening up, these trends are likely to improve. Meanwhile, Conagra’s focus on consumer’s interests also keeps it well placed.

The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has gained 4.3% in the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 24.3%.

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