Restaurant Spend Hurting, Cost Whiplash Threatens CPG Outlooks – Midyear FYs At Most Risk (CPB-, GIS-, CAG-), GLP-1 Effects Surprising. June Consumer Staples Briefing Book

Optimal Advisory is pleased to bring you an updated Consumer Staples Briefing Book with 40+ pages and 100+ charts.

May real-time spending pressured as 4/19 proprietary Optimal staples subsectors inflecting positively (compared to just 2/19 inflecting positively last month); we note: positive inflection in gas stations & luxury versus negative inflection for grocery delivery, pet, & e-commerce. Hard discounters are lagging while mainstream grocery is again losing spend share versus premium & other formats… See pp 5-12.

While restaurants spending is pressured, we’re still waiting for signs of pickup in the grocery channel. People are eating somewhere, aren’t they? As our work shows affluent households adopting GLP-1 at greater rates, we think customer volume/mix is part of the issue for both the mainstream & premium grocery channels.

After 6 months of cost tailwinds, war driven higher energy prices have created a rarely seen challenge to prospective CPG budgets. The Optimal Cost Factor (which incorporates 30 + cost inputs) is now rising (+7.9% y/y, was down ~12% y/y in February) – creating a putative ~300 bps gross margin outlook swing. Remaining beneficiaries of current cost relief include HSY+, LW+, MDLZ+ & Wing Restaurants+… See p. 14.

Staples continues to outperform discretionary but lagging tech and the broader market (See p 26). We monitor fundamentals of the largest staples names (See p 20-23).

Optimal unpacks The World Cup Catalyst: Consumer Activation in the Age of Agentic AI on Thursday, June 4th 11AM ET – Virtual Meeting.