The Stockout

Fears of tariffs on lumber, other goods drive flatbed rejection rates to 3-year high.

Freight volume has been weak this month Tender volume, which counts how often shippers request that carriers pick up loads, has shown weakness this month. (Chart: SONAR) The Outbound Tender Volume Index (OTVI – above) is the SONAR chart that stands out the most to me this week. It measures the volume of requests from […]

Articles and shows describe potential impact to numerous industries.

Mike Baudendistel, head of intermodal solutions at FreightWaves SONAR, discussed on The Stockout’s election special Monday what Tuesday’s presidential election might mean for the retail and consumer packaged goods industries.

Roadtex moves partial truckload shipments via consolidated full truckloads directly from its 32 nationwide warehouse centers to the retailer, resulting in less handling and better OTIF rates.

Perishables and auto parts will get scarce if strike persists.

Biden administration said it won’t intervene, but is that really believable?

FreightWaves covers ILA from many angles.

Outspoken consultant shares views on India and Starbucks, among other things.

Echo’s Frank Hurst spoke with FreightWaves about how the recent Roadtex acquisition has changed reefer LTL.

TriumphPay’s chief partnership officer, Josh Bouk, predicts a 12-month time frame for a substantial rebound.

Consumers remain remarkably spendy in the face of rising debt balances.

Carriers expect muted peak season with few spot opportunities.

Averitt is well positioned to be a shipper’s comprehensive transportation and logistics solutions provider with a gamut of services including port drayage, distribution and fulfillment, truckload, LTL, cross-border and nearshoring logistics, and final-mile transport.

FTC complaint highlights challenges that sellers face on the largest e-commerce platform.

Walmart and Target look to save shoppers from the indignity of checkout counters

Sick of earnings season yet? It’s this time of the quarter when I miss my old position as a sell-side stock analyst the least. For those looking to get caught up on earnings, there is plenty of coverage on FreightWaves. For freight carriers, the themes so far have been loosening market conditions and the lack […]

Industrial carbon dioxide shortage The industrial CO2 shortage is a supply chain issue that stands to impact the consumer packaged goods industry heavily with food and beverage manufacturing representing approximately 70% of the industrial CO2 usage. It is used to make beer, soda and sparkling water taste like themselves. It is also used to preserve […]

Consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs) and retailers are among the largest intermodal shippers. Today’s edition of The Stockout highlights data relevant for shippers that utilize rail intermodal or are looking to move in that direction for transportation savings and/or to promote dedication to environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives.  Will there truly be a peak […]

How well will consumer packaged goods (CPG) purchases ultimately hold up?  Not only is CPG demand forecasting arguably more difficult than ever, it is also more critical than normal since many CPGs have to decide whether to continue with high-cost contract manufacturing that served as a way to find capacity during the pandemic when demand […]

General Mills’ supply chain disruptions to persist At a Wall Street conference earlier this month, Jonathan Nudi, General Mills’ president of North American retail, said, “We’re seeing 10 times the number of disruptions in our supply chain from an ingredient standpoint coming into our plants than we ever experienced before. And this gets really challenging […]

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 into adult beverages by acquiring CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective, an owner of craft breweries, in a deal worth $330 million. Other recent examples of category […]

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. 1: Consumer behavior will change in response to rising prices, at least among lower-income consumers. The topic of the hour is inflation, which hit a […]

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 (not referring to myself). I will be interviewing Tony Hatch, an independent railroad consultant and longtime senior transportation analyst on Wall Street. He is fresh […]

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 the link to register. Last quarter, there was a great turnout, and the discussion was enhanced by the many participants who asked thoughtful and pertinent […]

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 the link to register. Last quarter, there was a great turnout, and the discussion was enhanced by the many participants who asked thoughtful and pertinent […]

On this episode of The Stockout, Mike Baudendistel dissects the changes in consumer behavior and what they indicate about the return to normal life post-pandemic.

On this episode of The Stockout, Mike Baudendistel explores how one alternative milk company is aiming high on the stock market.

On this episode of The Stockout, Mike Baudendistel explores rising prices and the threat of inflation as stocks plummet.

On this episode of The Stockout, Mike Baudendistel explains how the declining U.S. birth rate is affecting the consumer market.

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 level three months ago. The company is in a tough spot with uncertainty over whether demand for its cleaning products will remain elevated as COVID […]

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, many of the large CPG companies provided additional detail on pending price increases to pass those costs on to consumers. While that’s not a surprise, […]

On this episode of The Stockout, Mike Baudendistel explains why it is not as simple as one may think to utilize intermodal transportation to reduce truckload emissions.

On this episode of The Stockout Mike Baudentistel explores the possibility of companies hitting the market soon.

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 seem to be intrigued by investing in cosmetics as a play on life returning to normal and the burgeoning Chinese middle class. Meanwhile, Pepsi’s results […]

On this episode of Freightonomics, Anthony Smith and Zach Strickland look at some big decisions affecting Amazon workers and how much cash Evergreen will be coughing up.

FreightWaves’ Mike Baudendistel hosts a new podcast, The Stockout, and breaks down the consumer packaged goods market from manufacture to consumption.

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 of the semiconductor shortage. Today, consumer goods are still serving as a reminder that COVID is not fully behind us. Just as there are still […]

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 earnings last week (for its first quarter ending Feb. 28) and provided an outlook that was favorable, boosted by continued elevated levels of at-home consumption. […]

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 targeted the company’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction efforts are at the point of origin and the company’s willingness to share environmental best practices throughout the […]

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. General Mills’ size and its off-cycle reporting make it a bellwether for next month’s earnings reports. As I’ve discussed in other editions of The Stockout, […]

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 the related transportation challenges. Today, I dig into another pork-related issue, California’s Proposition 12, which could have a major impact on pork supply chains and […]

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 freight market than those that do not. Today, I am shifting gears to discuss shipping dry goods and, specifically, intermodal insights from the latest datasets […]

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, up from 40% in early February and up from 10% at this time last year. So, as concerning as tight transportation markets are for shippers […]

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 in 2016 when its debt topped $100 billion (net debt was $82.7 billion at the end of 2020) and the pandemic hurt the company’s profitability […]

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 in the future, especially as further quality advancements are made. In today’s edition of The Stockout, a CPG-focused newsletter, I discuss recent developments with Beyond […]

Bid season is here, which means contract rates are catching up to spot rates and in turn loosening capacity.

Sustainability efforts are becoming a major focus for CPG companies as consumers demand investments in a cleaner future.

Capital Logistics COO Michael Feig says it’s too early to tell if the summer will bring tight capacity to the reefer market.

Reefer truckload capacity begins to tighten further in the Midwest and Southeast

Dooner and The Dude discuss how logistics helped TrophySmack win a deal with Mark Cuban on “Shark Tank.”

Reefer trailer orders were over 100% above replacement levels in November which shows capacity is trying to return to the reefer markets.

Droughts and geopolitical tensions are driving up cotton, corn, and soybean prices and in turn impacting supply chain costs.

Reefer spot volume volatility has exploded across the nation over the past week.

Lumber Prices are soaring which is threatening CPG companies with higher supply chain costs.

Reefer tenders have strengthened significantly out of the nation’s largest markets.

New Class 8 truck orders are increasing and this trend is likely to continue through 2021.

Coca-Cola slashes jobs in an effort to restructure.

Frito-Lay is responding to customers’ demands and have introduced an option for consumers to customize their variety packs.

As states prepare to administer COVID-19 vaccines, it is still unclear who will be deemed “essential”.

Reefer capacity is extremely tight across the country and especially out of port markets.

A coronavirus outbreak in Frito-Lay’s Vancouver manufacturing and distribution facility causes a temporary shutdown of the facility.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is set to disrupt many CPG supply chains.

DIY (Do It Yourself) projects are draining the supply of mason jars.

A shortage of smaller turkeys grips the nation as families gather in smaller groups for Thanksgiving celebrations due to the pandemic.

Consumer Brands Association’s latest survey shows fear among consumers regarding future stockouts.

Walmart’s On-Time and In-Full (OTIF) metrics are at the most strict levels in the company’s history just as the COVID exemption expires.

Direct-to-consumer is viewed as a strong growth driver in the future for CPG companies.

We’re creating targeted content for the retail, CPG, and automotive supply chains.