Hormel Foods improved its numbers in the most recent quarter, but executives warned that avian flu may drag down the company’s performance.
Hormel posted profits of $261.6 million for the most recent quarter, a 15% increase from the same period last year. Sales were $3.1 billion, a 19% increase.
The company’s results were buoyed by the Jennie-O brand of turkey products, which saw a 387% leap in profits. However, that picture is potentially darkened by the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza that has afflicted commercial herds of chickens, turkeys and other birds across the U.S. Earlier this year, Hormel announced that several of the turkey flocks it uses were hit with the disease, with 300,000 birds affected.
Within individual segments, good results came in refrigerated foods, up 13%, and grocery products, up 39%. The latter was mostly attributed to the acquisition, in early 2021, of the Planters snack nuts brand from Kraft Heinz.
