A Sector that Could Benefit from Inflation

Child Tax Credit day is here…and interestingly, those dollars may not go as far as they would have a couple months ago when this was first approved.

Why?

Inflation.

ConAgra this week reported their quarterly numbers and their CEO Sean Connelly noted the following:

“As the fourth quarter unfolded, input cost inflation accelerated and we now expect fiscal 2022 input cost inflation to be materially higher than we anticipated at the end of fiscal Q3,”

Needless to say Wall Street did not like that information and the company subsequently began to sell off.

But with my own family in need to make a trip to the grocery store, it got me wondering…if input costs are rising, and if prices subsequently follow, brand names will be perceived again as a ‘want’ and not a need/

So who stands to benefit? After thinking through the lifecycle of products, I have come to the conclusion that retailers will.  

What’s my reasoning? A couple of things:

-Retailers make more on private label items than selling brand names. 

-When prices start to rise, consumers will begin to examine where to cut, and making the switch to the private label is an easy thing to do.

-If you have a strong private label brand, the potential is there to do very well attracting customers’ dollars

The coming months will be an interesting tell of who wins the battle of passing on costs to the end consumer, but one definitely worth watching.