“The Transitory Scam” – Ten Companies Warn About Passing Along Rising Costs To Consumers
It’s not surprising that last week’s 5.0% CPI reading in headline consumer prices year-over-year in May was the fastest pace of increase in more than a decade. The Fed’s destructive money-pumping of $120 billion of Treasury and GSE debt and supply chain disruptions have unleashed an inflationary monster that Fed members swear is only “transitory.”
Days ago, BofA economists told their clients that the evidence of shortages and inflation continues to grow with every passing day, as does the list of reasons to reject the problem as purely temporary.
Others such as Cambridge’s Mohamed El-Erian claim inflation could be here to stay and puzzled why the Fed’s ultra-loose money policies continue as the virus pandemic subsides.
David Stockman, former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, called the Fed’s “transitory” narrative a “scam” and said the latest CPI was not a temporary blip.
Joseph Carson, the former chief economist at Alliance Bernstein, said, “I never thought the US would experience rampant inflation again, but based on the 1970s price measurement methods, the US experienced double-digit inflation in the past twelve months.”
With that being said, there are plenty of companies from Procter & Gamble to Coca-Cola to Campbell Soup Company who have already warned about inflationary pressures and how they are being forced to pass along the costs to consumers.
Business Insider detailed ten companies already passing on rising costs to consumers due to out-of-control inflation.
Campbell Soup Company
On June 9, in Campbell Soup’s third quarter, 2021 conference call, the word “inflation” was mentioned 35 times by execs and analysts.
The company revealed it was “impacted by a rising inflationary environment,” and CEO Mark Clouse said he expects “sustained inflationary pressures through the remainder of the year.”
Campbell’s said it will be raising food prices this summer to offset the rising costs. Although CEO Mark Clouse noted, “we are going to be very thoughtful about it. The last thing we want to do is shut down the growth that we’ve worked fairly hard to have.”
The JM Smucker Company
In JM Smucker’s fourth-quarter, 2021 conference call on June 3, there were 10 mentions of inflation, and CEO Mark Smucker said the company would be raising prices to offset rising costs.
“Broad-based inflation is impacting many of the commodities, packaging materials, and transportation channels that are important to our business. We are mitigating the impacts through a combination of higher pricing inclusive of list price increases, reduced trade and net revenue optimization strategies, as well as continued cost management,” Smucker said.
Stanley Black & Decker
In Stanley Black & Decker’s first quarter 2021 earnings presentation on April 28, in a slide entitled “Commodity Inflation Update,” the company said steel, resin, base metals, electrical components, and batteries have pushed incremental inflation costs up for 2021 by $160 million vs. January guidance.
The slide showed Black & Decker’s plans to increase prices to offset costs.
Whirlpool
In an interview with Yahoo Finance in April, Whirlpool’s CFO Jim Peters said the company was seeing price increases and would pass the costs onto consumers.
“We took price increases in every region of the world, that range from 5% to 12%,” Peters said. “Those are driven by commodity cost increases, and it’s something we have done historically.”
The company said in its first-quarter conference call that the price increase actions “will offset the impact of global supply constraints and rising input costs.”
Kimberly-Clark
Kimberly-Clark said it would be raising prices on products like Scott toilet paper and Huggies diapers by “mid-to-high single digits” in late March.
Then, in the company’s April 23 first-quarter earnings call, execs said they saw “sharp rises in input costs.”
Michael Hsu, Kimberly-Clark’s chairman and chief executive officer, said the company was “moving rapidly, especially with selling price increases to offset commodity headwinds.”
Honeywell
Honeywell’s CEO Darius Adamczyk announced that “inflation is taking hold” and affecting his business’ bottom line in the company’s first-quarter 2021 conference call on April 23.
The CEO said, “there’s no doubt about it. We knew it. We see it.” Honeywell announced it would be “quickly taking action” on pricing to stay ahead of the problem
The Clorox Company
Clorox’s VP of Investor relations Lisah Burhan told investors in the company’s third-quarter 2021 results on April 30 that the company has seen “significant resin price inflation.”
In order to “manage those rising costs,” Clorox announced “pricing action” effective in July. “As we’ve mentioned, we’ll manage inflationary pressures holistically using all the tools in our toolbox,” Burhan said.
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble COO Jon Moeller told analysts in an April 20 earnings call that “this is one of the bigger increases in commodity costs that we’ve seen over the period of time that I’ve been involved with this, which is a fairly long period of time.”
The company said it will begin “the process of implementing price increases on its Baby Care, Feminine Care, and Adult Incontinence product categories in the United States to offset a portion of the impact of rising commodity costs,” noting that the “exact amount of the price increase will vary by brand and sub-brand in the range of mid-to-high single-digit percentages and will go into effect in mid-September.”
Coca-Cola
In mid-April, Coca-Cola’s CEO James Quincey told CNBC’s Sara Eisen on “Squawk on the Street” that the company would be increasing prices to offset rising costs.
“We are well-hedged in ’21, but there’s pressure built up for ’22, and so there will have to be some price increases,” Quincey said.
“We intend to manage those intelligently, thinking through the way we use package sizes and really optimize the price points for consumers,” he added.
Reynolds Consumer Products
Reynolds Consumer Products revealed that a three-step price increase is already underway on some of its most popular products last month.
“Price increases have been implemented, and a second-round is underway, with plans for a third-round to be implemented in the third quarter,” Michael Graham, Reynolds chief financial officer, said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call on May 8.
Even as nominal wages are increasing, real wages aren’t keep up with soarign prices for food at the supermarket or fuel at the gas station.
The Fed will have a severe problem when inflationary pressures remain, and economic growth subsides, opening up a can of stagflation.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 06/13/2021 – 12:01
“The Transitory Scam” – Ten Companies Warn About Passing Along Rising Costs To Consumers
It’s not surprising that last week’s 5.0% CPI reading in headline consumer prices year-over-year in May was the fastest pace of increase in more than a decade. The Fed’s destructive money-pumping of $120 billion of Treasury and GSE debt and supply chain disruptions have unleashed an inflationary monster that Fed members swear is only “transitory.”
Days ago, BofA economists told their clients that the evidence of shortages and inflation continues to grow with every passing day, as does the list of reasons to reject the problem as purely temporary.
Others such as Cambridge’s Mohamed El-Erian claim inflation could be here to stay and puzzled why the Fed’s ultra-loose money policies continue as the virus pandemic subsides.
David Stockman, former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, called the Fed’s “transitory” narrative a “scam” and said the latest CPI was not a temporary blip.
Joseph Carson, the former chief economist at Alliance Bernstein, said, “I never thought the US would experience rampant inflation again, but based on the 1970s price measurement methods, the US experienced double-digit inflation in the past twelve months.”
With that being said, there are plenty of companies from Procter & Gamble to Coca-Cola to Campbell Soup Company who have already warned about inflationary pressures and how they are being forced to pass along the costs to consumers.
Business Insider detailed ten companies already passing on rising costs to consumers due to out-of-control inflation.
Campbell Soup Company
On June 9, in Campbell Soup’s third quarter, 2021 conference call, the word “inflation” was mentioned 35 times by execs and analysts.
The company revealed it was “impacted by a rising inflationary environment,” and CEO Mark Clouse said he expects “sustained inflationary pressures through the remainder of the year.”
Campbell’s said it will be raising food prices this summer to offset the rising costs. Although CEO Mark Clouse noted, “we are going to be very thoughtful about it. The last thing we want to do is shut down the growth that we’ve worked fairly hard to have.”
The JM Smucker Company
In JM Smucker’s fourth-quarter, 2021 conference call on June 3, there were 10 mentions of inflation, and CEO Mark Smucker said the company would be raising prices to offset rising costs.
“Broad-based inflation is impacting many of the commodities, packaging materials, and transportation channels that are important to our business. We are mitigating the impacts through a combination of higher pricing inclusive of list price increases, reduced trade and net revenue optimization strategies, as well as continued cost management,” Smucker said.
Stanley Black & Decker
In Stanley Black & Decker’s first quarter 2021 earnings presentation on April 28, in a slide entitled “Commodity Inflation Update,” the company said steel, resin, base metals, electrical components, and batteries have pushed incremental inflation costs up for 2021 by $160 million vs. January guidance.
The slide showed Black & Decker’s plans to increase prices to offset costs.
Whirlpool
In an interview with Yahoo Finance in April, Whirlpool’s CFO Jim Peters said the company was seeing price increases and would pass the costs onto consumers.
“We took price increases in every region of the world, that range from 5% to 12%,” Peters said. “Those are driven by commodity cost increases, and it’s something we have done historically.”
The company said in its first-quarter conference call that the price increase actions “will offset the impact of global supply constraints and rising input costs.”
Kimberly-Clark
Kimberly-Clark said it would be raising prices on products like Scott toilet paper and Huggies diapers by “mid-to-high single digits” in late March.
Then, in the company’s April 23 first-quarter earnings call, execs said they saw “sharp rises in input costs.”
Michael Hsu, Kimberly-Clark’s chairman and chief executive officer, said the company was “moving rapidly, especially with selling price increases to offset commodity headwinds.”
Honeywell
Honeywell’s CEO Darius Adamczyk announced that “inflation is taking hold” and affecting his business’ bottom line in the company’s first-quarter 2021 conference call on April 23.
The CEO said, “there’s no doubt about it. We knew it. We see it.” Honeywell announced it would be “quickly taking action” on pricing to stay ahead of the problem
The Clorox Company
Clorox’s VP of Investor relations Lisah Burhan told investors in the company’s third-quarter 2021 results on April 30 that the company has seen “significant resin price inflation.”
In order to “manage those rising costs,” Clorox announced “pricing action” effective in July. “As we’ve mentioned, we’ll manage inflationary pressures holistically using all the tools in our toolbox,” Burhan said.
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble COO Jon Moeller told analysts in an April 20 earnings call that “this is one of the bigger increases in commodity costs that we’ve seen over the period of time that I’ve been involved with this, which is a fairly long period of time.”
The company said it will begin “the process of implementing price increases on its Baby Care, Feminine Care, and Adult Incontinence product categories in the United States to offset a portion of the impact of rising commodity costs,” noting that the “exact amount of the price increase will vary by brand and sub-brand in the range of mid-to-high single-digit percentages and will go into effect in mid-September.”
Coca-Cola
In mid-April, Coca-Cola’s CEO James Quincey told CNBC’s Sara Eisen on “Squawk on the Street” that the company would be increasing prices to offset rising costs.
“We are well-hedged in ’21, but there’s pressure built up for ’22, and so there will have to be some price increases,” Quincey said.
“We intend to manage those intelligently, thinking through the way we use package sizes and really optimize the price points for consumers,” he added.
Reynolds Consumer Products
Reynolds Consumer Products revealed that a three-step price increase is already underway on some of its most popular products last month.
“Price increases have been implemented, and a second-round is underway, with plans for a third-round to be implemented in the third quarter,” Michael Graham, Reynolds chief financial officer, said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call on May 8.
Even as nominal wages are increasing, real wages aren’t keep up with soarign prices for food at the supermarket or fuel at the gas station.
The Fed will have a severe problem when inflationary pressures remain, and economic growth subsides, opening up a can of stagflation.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 06/13/2021 – 12:01
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