Campbell Soup, which missed Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit and revenue, said harvest delays of its carrot crop in California and higher costs are likely to hurt its earnings in the current quarter.
The company, which sells the Bolthouse Farms of fresh juices, said severe weather hurt crop production, leading the world’s largest soup maker to delay supply of carrot-based products to its customers.
Campbell, which expects delays to pick up in December, said transport disruptions have led to a big rise in supply-chain costs.
"Given the seasonality of our business and the timing of these unforeseen cost issues, we expect to see significantly weaker performance in the second quarter, followed by improvements in the second half," Campbell’s Finance Chief Anthony DiSilvestro said on the conference call.
The company’s fresh food unit, which includes Bolthouse Farms and Garden Fresh Gourmet brands, has been witnessing sales declines since last year due to a premature harvest of carrots and recall of protein drinks.
