This week’s CPG news items reflect a continuation of recent food/beverage trends.  More crossover between soft drink and alcoholic drinks: Monster Beverage is the latest soft drink company to get […]

Instead of discussing the current CPG news and freight data per my usual, for today’s newsletter I highlight the CPG industry trends I expect to see in 2022.  Trend No. […]

Before getting into CPG news, here are two near-term events for your calendar:  On Friday, The Stockout show is focused on the railroad industry and features a true industry expert […]

J.M. Smucker Co.’s results highlight margin pressure even as CPG companies raise prices and continue to post strong sales. Overall, Smucker reported strong results as its earnings easily beat analysts’ […]

Before getting into what’s happening in CPG supply chains, here’s something for your calendar: I host the next quarterly The Stockout webinar on Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. ET. Here’s […]

Before getting into what’s happening in CPG supply chains, here’s something for your calendar: I host the next quarterly The Stockout webinar on Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. ET. Here’s […]

Oatly (Swedish oat milk company) shares continue to struggle. Oatly’s American depository receipts declined 21% Monday and closed at $9.36, down 45% from the $17 IPO price. Investors’ primary concern […]

Beyond Meat sell-off further ignites debate about demand for plant-based protein. From my perspective, Beyond Meat’s earnings and the fallout have been the most interesting CPG-related news this week. The […]

TreeHouse Foods, a major manufacturer of private-label food products, announced that its board is exploring strategic alternatives. Potential strategic actions include a possible sale of the company or the divestment […]

Kellogg Co. manages to reaffirm earnings guidance despite both industrywide and company-specific challenges. I find it impressive that the company was able to retain its guidance for both operating profit […]

Vertical farming promises to be one of the most impactful trends to food in the coming years. In fact, it was listed as the No. 1 trend in Whole Foods’ […]

It’s times like these that it’s more fun to write about transportation issues than to actually have to move freight (not that I’ve ever actually moved freight). On Wednesday, topics […]

Loaded domestic intermodal container volume is now down on 10 of the 11 densest domestic intermodal lanes that originate in the U.S.

With most CPG companies already having reported first-quarter earnings, the CPG-related news this week centered around descriptions of consumer strength from their retail partners. In addition, the largest CPG companies, […]

As the equity indexes declined on Tuesday, two freight indexes contained in SONAR were up sharply after incorporating data from the past week: the national dry van and reefer spot […]

As the economy surges, inflation pressures are becoming more widespread. Everywhere you look, there are headline-grabbing reports of rising prices. Some areas where inflation is acute are in industrial commodities […]

Wall Street didn’t like Clorox’s earnings report late last week. There were analyst downgrades and shares are down from where they were a week ago and down 10% from their […]

In past editions of The Stockout, I’ve discussed cost inflation trends, which I believe is the industry’s largest issue currently aside from pandemic-related structural changes in demand. In recent days, […]

Tuesday morning there was big news out of the rail industry: Canadian National Railway (CN) made a stronger offer to acquire the Kansas City Southern (KCS) Railway than what Canadian […]

In today’s The Stockout, I discuss first-quarter earnings reports from Pepsi and L’Oreal. L’Oreal, in particular, has a lot of momentum of late with shares reaching all-time highs as investors […]

Most public CPG companies are in their quiet periods ahead of earnings. But there were still significant developments with the CPG companies that are not (yet) public. There is a […]

When we look back at the COVID era, we will remember stockouts of toilet paper, cleared-out grocery store shelves and the impossibility of getting the latest video game console because […]

In today’s edition of The Stockout CPG-focused newsletter, I discuss a company that has been dealing with exactly that — stockouts. McCormick & Co., the world’s largest spice company, reported […]

Last week Starbucks expanded upon its previously stated goal to be a “resource-positive company,” with specific goals related to sourcing coffee beans, land use and production. What’s striking is how […]

Most CPG companies will report earnings next month, but with an off-cycle fiscal year ending May 31, General Mills reported its fiscal third quarter Wednesday morning for the December-February quarter. […]

Earlier this week in The Stockout CPG-focused newsletter, I discussed the impact that China’s efforts to replenish its hog population was having on corn and soybean exports as well as […]

Cargill’s announcement last week that it is making a nearly half-billion dollar investment in soybeans caught my attention because it suggests that one of the world’s largest food producers believes […]

Positive train control, also known as PTC, is a safety technology aimed at automatically stopping a freight or passenger train before a collision. This Ask Waves article describes what it is, its history and its future implications.

Earlier this week, in the last edition of The Stockout CPG-focused newsletter, I focused on reefer since the many CPG companies that require temperature controls are facing an even tighter […]

Just as Pat Riley trademarked the term “three-peat,” I’m considering trademarking “coin flip compliance.” That’s the state of the reefer market today with reefer carriers rejecting 50.3% of tendered loads, […]

This article was originally published in The Stockout newsletter on February 3, 2021. To sign up for The Stockout newsletter, click here. We recommend that CPG companies, and others that […]

One financial metric in the CPG world that stands out to me is AB InBev’s net debt-to-EBITDA ratio: 4.8x. The company has been highly leveraged since its acquisition of SABMiller […]

Plant-based meat alternatives are to the food industry what electric vehicles are to the transportation industry — a niche with a lot of startups today but maybe not so niche […]

Container shipping rates from China to the U.S. west coast and international intermodal volume out of the L.A. port complex are both at or below last year’s seasonally-weak Chinese New Year Period. Extended factory shutdowns to prevent the spread of the coronavirus may inhibit a March or April rebound.

FreightWaves Market Expert Mike Baudendistel writes about the issues impacting rail intermodal in 2020, and the ongoing battle between the railroads and the trucking industry.

Market Expert Mike Baudendistel looks at the prospects for the truck original equipment manufacturers in 2020.

Why are Class 8 orders a deeply cyclical, lagging indicator of truck demand?

Precision Scheduled Railroading, or PSR, is the operational method of running a railroad for maximum asset utilization by which freight movements are scheduled and managed on the individual carload (rather than entire train level). That contributes to efficiency improvements by, for instance, using more direct point-to-point routing, bypassing classification terminals, and having the flexibility to use long mixed-commodity trains.

Market Expert Michael Baudendistel writes about rail intermodal volume is lower for the long-term, or can it be more competitive with trucking.

Market expert Michael Baudendistel writes about whether there is a rail recession, or are railroads paring operations and employees to fatten their bottom lines.