Earnings Calls and Pizza Closures

Welcome back Food Junglers. It’s earnings season and the biggest food companies are finding out just how screwed they might be in the next quarter. Elsewhere, bird flu just CANNOT seem to calm down. Let’s dig in.

THE BREAKDOWN…

📉 Chipotle reported mixed quarterly results despite another quarter of higher traffic to its restaurants, with shares of the company falling 3% in extended trading.

📉 Mondelez shares slumped 5% in after-hours trading after the Oreo-maker said “unprecedented cocoa cost inflation” would drive down earnings this year.

📉 McDonald’s U.S. store sales and earnings fell as the burger chain dealt with the fallout of an E. coli outbreak hitting its domestic business last year.

📈 KFC parent company, Yum Brands, reported quarterly earnings and revenue that beat estimates, fuelled by strong sales for KFC’s international restaurants and Taco Bell.

📈 The maker of Pop-Tarts and Rice Krispies Treats, Kellanova, posted a profit of $365 million compared with $27 million in the same quarter a year ago.

📈 Shares of The Hershey Co. advanced 5% when the chocolate maker reported better-than-anticipated results as price hikes helped offset the rising cost of cocoa.

🕊️ Nestlé has announced plans to invest $1 billion into its Mexico operations over the next three years, and has also invested $675m into a new facility in Arizona, US.

🌽 Dry weather has forced grains exchanges in Argentina, the world's top exporter of soy, to cut their forecasts for the current crop.

🍖 US meat giant, Tyson Foods, assured analysts that the company is prepared to find new markets if Mexico curbs US imports in response to President Trump’s proposed tariffs.

🍦 Ben and Jerry’s owner, Unilever, has announced the closure of its ice cream production facility located in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.

🐄 Dairy cattle in Nevada have been infected with a new type of bird flu that’s different from the version that has spread in U.S. herds since last year.

🇫🇷 France’s Council of State has annulled two decrees prohibiting the use of meat-related names, such as ‘steak’ or ‘sausage,’ for plant-based products produced in the country.

🍕 Australian fast-food franchiser Domino’s Pizza Enterprises will close another 172 loss-making stores in Japan in an effort to turn around performance.