Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business
The Company
Unless otherwise stated, the terms "we," "us," "our" and the "company" refer to Campbell Soup Company and its consolidated subsidiaries.
We are a manufacturer and marketer of high-quality, branded food and beverage products. We organized as a business corporation under the laws of New Jersey on November 23, 1922; however, through predecessor organizations, we trace our heritage in the food business back to 1869. Our principal executive offices are in Camden, New Jersey 08103-1799.
Our operations, including reportable segments are described below. Our locations, including manufacturing facilities, within each reporting segment are described in Item 2. Properties.
On August 7, 2023, we entered into an agreement to acquire Sovos Brands, Inc. (Sovos Brands) for $23.00 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $2.7 billion. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and termination rights, including the approval of Sovos Brands’ shareholders and regulatory approvals. We plan to finance the acquisition through the issuance of new debt. For additional information on this pending acquisition, see our Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on August 7, 2023, and Note 19 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
Reportable Segments
Our reportable segments are:
• Meals & Beverages, which consists of our soup, simple meals and beverages products in retail and foodservice in the U.S. and Canada. The segment includes the following products: Campbell’s condensed and ready-to-serve soups; Swanson broth and stocks; Pacific Foods broth, soups and non-dairy beverages; Prego pasta sauces; Pace Mexican sauces; Campbell’s gravies, pasta, beans and dinner sauces; Swanson canned poultry; V8 juices and beverages; and Campbell’s tomato juice. The segment also includes snacking products in foodservice and Canada. The segment included the results of our Plum baby food and snacks business, which was sold on May 3, 2021; and
• Snacks, which consists of Pepperidge Farm cookies*, crackers, fresh bakery and frozen products, including Goldfish crackers*, Snyder’s of Hanover pretzels*, Lance sandwich crackers*, Cape Cod potato chips *, Kettle Brand potato chips * , Late July snacks*, Snack Factory pretzel crisps* , Pop Secret popcorn, and other snacking products in retail in the U.S. We refer to the * brands a s our "power brands." The segment includes the retail business in Latin America. The segment included the results of our Emerald nuts business, which was sold on May 30, 2023.
See Note 6 to the Consolidated Financial Statements and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" for additional information regarding our reportable segments.
Ingredients and Packaging
The ingredients and packaging materials required for the manufacture of our food and beverage products are purchased from various suppliers, substantially all of which are located in North America. During 2023, we continued to experience significantly elevated commodity and supply chain costs including the costs of labor, raw materials, energy, fuel, packaging materials and other inputs necessary for the production and distribution of our products. In addition, many of these items are subject to price fluctuations from a number of factors, including but not limited to climate change, changes in crop size, cattle cycles, herd and flock disease, crop disease, crop pests, product scarcity, demand for raw materials, commodity market speculation, energy costs, currency fluctuations, supplier capacities, government-sponsored agricultural programs and other government policy, import and export requirements (including tariffs), drought and excessive rain, temperature extremes and other adverse weather events, water scarcity, scarcity of suitable agricultural land, scarcity of organic ingredients, pandemic
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illness (such as the COVID-19 pandemic), geopolitical conflicts (including the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine), environmental and other sustainability regulations and other factors that may be beyond our control. To help reduce some of this price volatility, we use a combination of purchase orders, short- and long-term contracts, inventory management practices and various commodity risk management tools for most of our ingredients and packaging. Ingredient inventories are generally at a peak during the late fall and decline during the winter and spring. Since many ingredients of suitable quality are available in sufficient quantities only during certain seasons, we make commitments for the purchase of such ingredients in their respective seasons. Although we are unable to predict the impact of our ability to source these ingredients and packaging materials in the future, we expect these supply pressures to continue throughout 2024. As 2023 progressed, we experienced some moderation in input cost inflation, and we expect modestly elevated levels of inflation to continue into 2024.
Customers
In most of our markets, sales and merchandising activities are conducted through our own sales force and/or third-party brokers and distribution partners. Our products are generally resold to consumers through retail food chains, mass discounters, mass merchandisers, club stores, convenience stores, drug stores, dollar stores, e-commerce and other retail, commercial and non-commercial establishments. Our Snacks segment has a direct-store-delivery distribution model that uses independent contractor distributors.
Our five largest customers accounted for approximately 47 % of our consolidated net sales in 2023 and 2022 and 46% in 2021. Our largest customer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and its affiliates, accounted for approximately 22 % of our consolidated net sales in 2023 and 2022 and 21 % in 2021. Both of our reportable segments sold products to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. or its affiliates. No other customer accounted for 10% or more of our consolidated net sales.
Trademarks and Technology
As of September 13, 2023, we owned over 2,600 trademark registrations and applications in over 150 countries. We believe our trademarks are of material importance to our business. Although the laws vary by jurisdiction, trademarks generally are valid as long as they are in use and/or their registrations are properly maintained and have not been found to have become generic. Trademark registrations generally can be renewed indefinitely as long as the trademarks are in use. We believe that our principal brands, including Campbell's , Cape Cod , Chunky , Goldfish , Kettle Brand , Lance , Late July , Milano , Pace , Pacific Foods , Pepperidge Farm , Pop Secret , Prego , Snack Factory , Snyder's of Hanover , Spaghettios , Swanson , and V8 , are protected by trademark law in the major markets where they are used.
Although we own a number of valuable patents, we do not regard any segment of our business as being dependent upon any single patent or group of related patents. In addition, we own copyrights, both registered and unregistered, proprietary trade secrets, technology, know-how, processes and other intellectual property rights that are not registered.
Competition
We operate in a highly competitive industry and experience competition in all of our categories. This competition arises from numerous competitors of varying sizes across multiple food and beverage categories, and includes producers of private label products, as well as other branded food and beverage manufacturers. Private label products are generally sold at lower prices than branded products. Competitors market and sell their products through traditional retailers and e-commerce. All of these competitors vie for trade merchandising support and consumer dollars. The number of competitors cannot be reliably estimated. Our principal areas of competition are brand recognition, taste, nutritional value, price, promotion, innovation, shelf space and customer service.
Capital Expenditures
During 2023, our aggregate capital expenditures were $370 million. We expect to spend approximately $440 million for capital projects in 2024. Major capital projects based on planned spend in 2024 include capacity expansions and a new production line for our Snacks business, network optimization for our Meals & Beverages business, upgrades of assets across both segments of the business, and enhancements to our headquarters in Camden, New Jersey relating to our Snacks office consolidation.
Government Regulation
The manufacture and sale of consumer food products is highly regulated. In the U.S., our activities are subject to regulation by various federal government agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture, the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Labor, the Department of Commerce, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as various state and local agencies. Our business is also regulated by similar agencies outside of the U.S. Additionally, we are subject to data privacy and security regulations, tax and securities regulations, accounting and reporting standards, and other financial laws and regulations. We believe that we are in compliance with current laws and regulations in all material respects and do not expect that continued compliance with such laws and regulations will have a material effect on capital expenditures, earnings or our competitive position.
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Environmental Matters
We have requirements for the operation and design of our facilities that meet or exceed applicable environmental rules and regulations. Of our $370 million in capital expenditures made during 2023, approximately $18 million were for compliance with environmental laws and regulations in the U.S. We further estimate that approximately $20 million of the capital expenditures anticipated during 2024 will be for compliance with U.S. environmental laws and regulations. We believe that the continued compliance with existing environmental laws and regulations (both within the U.S. and elsewhere) will not have a material effect on capital expenditures, earnings or our competitive position. In addition, we continue to monitor existing and pending environmental laws and regulations within the U.S. and elsewhere relating to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. While the impact of these laws and regulations cannot be predicted with certainty, we do not believe that compliance with these laws and regulations will have a material effect on capital expenditures, earnings or our competitive position.
Seasonality
Demand for soup products is seasonal, with the fall and winter months usually accounting for the highest sales volume. Demand for our other products is generally evenly distributed throughout the year.
Human Capital Management
One of the core pillars of our strategic plan is to build a winning team and culture. To do this, we are committed to building a company where everyone can be real, and feel safe, valued and supported to do their best work. We believe that our employees are the driving force behind our success and prioritize attracting, developing and retaining diverse, world-class talent and creating an inclusive culture that embodies our purpose: Connecting people through food they love . In 2023, we approved a plan to bring together all of our corporate team members from our Snacks offices in Charlotte, North Carolina and Norwalk, Connecticut to our headquarters in Camden, New Jersey. This move is intended to foster closer collaboration and enhance decision-making, thereby improving our ability to execute our business strategy. We have also recently introduced a new Employee Value Proposition, Make history with Campbell’s, to enhance our focus on building a winning team and culture. On July 30, 2023, we had approximately 14,500 employees.
Training, Development and Engagement
We invest in our employees through training and development programs. We have partnered with leading online content experts and have recently increased internal learning development to expand our catalog of courses and support our culture of continuous learning. A suite of training and education programs are available to employees ranging from role-specific training to education on soft skills to assist them with enhancing their careers through continuous learning. Through objective-setting, individual development plans, learning opportunities, feedback and coaching, employees are encouraged to continue their professional growth. Our education programs allow employees to focus on timely and topical development areas including leadership, management excellence, functional capabilities and inclusion and diversity. We communicate frequently and transparently with our employees through regular company-wide and business unit check-ins, and we conduct employee engagement surveys that provide our employees with an opportunity to share anonymous feedback with management in a variety of areas including confidence in leadership, growth and career opportunities, available resources and overall engagement. These surveys allow our leaders to develop action plans for their business units as well as the broader organization.
Our Campbell Employee Experience enhances the foundational moments that are key to an employee's career at our company - from the candidate experience and onboarding through career advancement - to help our employees thrive at work, with the goal of building an inclusive, engaging and high-performing culture.
Inclusion and Diversity
We believe that having an inclusive and diverse culture strengthens our ability to recruit and develop talent and allows all employees to thrive and succeed. Diversity of input and perspectives is an essential part of our strategic plan to build a winning team and culture, and we believe one key to success is attracting and retaining a diverse workforce that reflects our consumers of today and tomorrow. Our commitment to inclusion and diversity (I&D) is based on three guiding pillars:
• Capabilities - providing resources and tools to employees to build capabilities to build a winning team and culture and to drive systemic change;
• Advocacy - strengthening ally networks by supporting our employees, our partners and the communities where we live and work; and
• Accountability - having individual, management and organizational accountability and transparency about our progress on building an inclusive and diverse culture.
We also continue to provide I&D learning experiences and foster employee resource groups to highlight issues that impact underrepresented communities. Throughout 2023 the board of directors received regular updates from management on our inclusion and diversity efforts.
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Wellness and Safety
Our employees' health, safety and well-being are our top priorities. We promote a strong culture of safety and prioritize keeping all our employees, contractors and visitors safe. To accomplish this, we employ comprehensive health, safety and environment management policies and standards throughout the organization. In addition, we strive to continuously improve our work processes, tools and metrics to reduce workplace injuries and enhance safety.
We provide a workplace that develops, supports and motivates our people. Our Resources for Living program provides information, education tools and resources to help support our employees' physical, financial, social and emotional well-being. As part of this focus on well-being, we emphasize the need for our employees to embrace healthy lifestyles and we offer a variety of wellness education opportunities for our employees. We continue to modernize our workspaces and have established a hybrid work policy to allow office-based employees to work remotely several days per week.
Total Rewards
We provide market-based competitive compensation through our salary, annual incentive and long-term incentive programs, and a robust benefits package that promotes the overall well-being of our employees. We provide a variety of resources and services to help our employees plan for retirement and provide a 401(k) plan with immediate vesting. We benchmark and establish compensation structures based on competitive market data. Individual pay is based on various factors such as an employee's role, experience, job location and contributions. Performance discussions for salaried employees are conducted throughout the year to assess contributions and inform individual development plans.
Websites
Our primary corporate website can be found at www.campbellsoupcompany.com . We make available free of charge at the Investor portion of this website (under the "About Us—Investors—Financials—SEC Filings" caption) all of our reports (including amendments) filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including our annual reports on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and our current reports on Form 8-K. These reports are made available on the website as soon as reasonably practicable after their filing with, or furnishing to, the Securities and Exchange Commission.
All websites appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are inactive textual references only, and the information in, or accessible through, such websites is not incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K, or into any of our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.