Conagra CEO Talks Chef Boyardee: Nostalgia Is Alive

Chef Boyardee warms up the body and soul and Conagra Brands Inc CAG CEO Sean Connolly is excited over the prospect of people returning back to the early years of their lives for some comfort food.

Conagra on Tuesday announced fiscal third quarter results, including a fiscal fourth quarter update. Most notably, the company is seeing an increase in demand in the retail business and this will more than offset declines in foodservice demand.

What Happened

Dollar sales of Chef Boyardee products rose 4.5% during the final five weeks of Conagra's February-ending quarter and the momentum continued into the current quarter. At a time when the American public needs some sort of escape, it could come in the form of a can of pasta.

"People are having flashbacks to their childhood," Connolly told Jim Cramer Tuesday evening. "And hopefully they're having a good eating experience."

Conagra is known for other food brands, including Slim Jim, Hunt's, and Orville Redenbacher, among others. Encouragingly, the company's production remains as operational as possible during these "challenging times," he said.

The food maker is "running flat out" to make sure its food makes it to where it is needed, at the grocery shelves.

Why It's Important

Sales of canned goods, like Chef Boyardee, were first to pick up momentum, followed by frozen foods. But more recently there was a shift in demand towards the center store grocery business, including snacks.

"We're selling everything we can make," he said. "Times like these call for extraordinary resiliency."

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Photo credit: Mike Mozart, Flickr