Restaurants
Impossible is adding Chicken
BYND is a SHORT
Impossible Foods looks to began selling its meatless chicken nuggets in restaurants and aims to have the new meat alternative product in grocery stores by the end of the month. The company seems confident that consumers will like Impossible Chicken Nuggets Made From Plants, noting that in a blind taste test of the nuggets for restaurants, seven out of 10 consumers preferred them to animal-based chicken nuggets from a leading brand. In addition, the new product scored higher in liking in every category, including flavor, texture, and overall appearance. Impossible Foods' meatless nuggets use soy as the protein source but do not contain heme produced from genetically modified yeast. Impossible Chicken Nuggets are said to feature a "golden, crispy breadcrumb coating, a juicy and springy white meat texture and a savory chicken flavor" while containing 40% less saturated fat and 25% less sodium than animal chicken nuggets. Other competitors with chicken nuggets are BYND, PPC, and TSN. Last month, Impossible Foods began selling meatless sausage in grocery stores.
KFC has no Chicken
YUM is a LONG
KFC (YUM) is choosing to forgo television advertisements for their boneless chicken products because of shortages. "In terms of advertising and promotion, we're going to focus on things we have abundant quantities of," said KFC US President Kevin Hochman. However, he did note that KFC has enough Chicken to satisfy current demand and that in-bone Chicken was in ample supply. Labor shortages in the supply chain are affecting the ability of restaurants to sell chicken tenders, chicken nuggets, and other boneless meats that require additional labor and processing to de-bone. Nevertheless, the fast-food chicken wars are keeping demand strong. In its Q2 earnings report, MCD said that its crispy chicken sandwich drove incremental growth.
Consumer Staples
Texas on-premise alcohol beverage tax receipts recover (SAM)
Texas reports its alcoholic beverages sales tax receipts monthly. In August, alcoholic beverage receipts increased 96% YOY. Compared to July, receipts increased 2.5% month over month. August represents the second-highest month of tax receipts after June 2021, as seen in the chart below. In Texas, bars were shut down in mid-March 2020 and allowed to re-open on May 22. In late June, bars were shut down again, then re-opened again in October by the county. Bars were also allowed to reclassify as restaurants since June as long as food sales exceeded alcohol sales.
Potato shipments forecasted to decline (LW)
The United Potato Growers of America expects the shipping forecast for the fresh potato crop in the U.S. will be 88 million cwt, down 1.9 million cwt or down 2.2% from last year. Idaho is expected to ship 5.6% less. The Idaho crop is expected to be the lowest in six years, even though acreage increased 6%. As a result, the yield is expected to decline 5% in Idaho. Fresh shipments from Washington’s Columbia Basin are expected to be down 16.6%. The hot weather has negatively impacted yields, but part of the drop is due to fresh acres becoming processing acres which also happened in Idaho.
Having contracted for additional acres will be helpful for the processors with the heat impacting yields. Fewer potatoes will command higher prices.
Grocery e-commerce (KR)
Grocery e-commerce sales have slowed, lapping the pandemic. Even with the increased cases from the Delta variant of COVID-19, grocery e-commerce sales have decelerated, as seen in the chart below. Conventional grocers were the biggest beneficiaries of the pandemic’s food shopping shift to e-commerce and trip consolidation. Therefore, a slowdown in grocery e-commerce sales and more grocery shopping trips would benefit the competition for supermarkets.
