Chicago, Mar. 16 - Campbell Soup Co sales could be hurt for the next six months as retailers continue to trim inventories, but not as much as the company saw in its most recent quarter, the company's CEO said on Monday.
"One percent or so, you have to be prepared to lose," CEO Douglas Conant said at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit in Chicago.
Retailer "destocking," the process of cutting back inventories, cut sales by 3 percent for the fiscal second quarter, which ended February 1, Conant said.
While some food company executives have said they expect the destocking issue to be worked out in the early part of 2009, Conant's view is that the process could take a bit longer.
"I would guess that the day's supply in the customer warehouse is going to modestly decline over the next year," Conant said of inventories. "I think we'll hit a new level in the next six months."