Dive Brief:
- ConAgra Foods said sales in its core, branded food unit, which includes brands such as Chef Boyardee, Hunt's, and Healthy Choice, fell 2% in its most recent quarter.
- Sales in that unit, the largest at the Omaha, NE-based company, have failed to rise now for six straight quarters.
- ConAgra has put its hope for the future in Ralcorp, the private-label company it bought last year for $5 billion. But ConAgra said yesterday that the recovery of that business will take longer than anticipated.
Dive Insight:
These sort of earnings reports - sales are down for the brands and things aren't going all that smoothly in private labels either - have become the norm for ConAgra. And investors are understandably weary of the whole thing. Shares in the company fell as much as 5.4% on the news.