Dive Summary:
- Hain Celestial CEO Irwin Simon painted a grim pictures for the future of canned soups during a fourth-quarter earnings call when responding to a query about recent test marketing, saying that "consumers don't want to buy soup in cans today."
- Simon said the canned soup category continues to decline and that Hain sees growth occurring in the meantime with its tetra recart and aseptic soup category.
- Simon cited feedback from U.S. consumers while the company was test-marketing its New Covent Garden chilled soups when making his claims.
Dive Insight:
Simon framed the launch of New Covent Garden soups in the U.S. as a challenge as far as getting consumers to warm up to the chilled products, but expressed optimism explaining that the soups have longer shelf lives than their freshly-made in-store competitors.