Kingsford parent company Clorox reported earnings for the quarter ending in September and it appears that Kingsford is feeling the effects of the grilling downturn like everyone else. While they don’t report financials of specific brands, we estimate that sales of the Kingsford brand is down about $20 million from the same quarter the previous year.
Unlike Traeger who said that retailers were destocking inventory which contributed to low sales, Clorox is seeing good flow-through of Kingsford. That likely means that consumers are grilling less than in the pandemic, which led to lower sales.
On the plus size, in the Clorox’s earnings conference call they said they have continually expanded the number of stores with Kingsford charcoal. The store expansion helped offset the sales decline and led to total Kingsford sales on the quarter of about $87 million.
While no numbers were given on how much market share they have, Kingsford previously reported a market share of around 80%.
Jet Fuel
Another interesting detail from Clorox’s quarterly filing is they use commodity futures to hedge against price fluctuations in their key businesses. While that’s a standard business practice, it hints at what commodities they use in their products.
As of September 30, 2022, and June 30, 2022, the notional amount of commodity derivatives was $30 and $27, respectively, which related primarily to exposures in soybean oil used for the Food products business and jet fuel used for the Grilling business.
Clorox Form 10-Q Filing
While it shouldn’t be surprising in 2022 that charcoal lighter fluid is filled with harsh chemicals, it’s interesting that they use jet fuel for it. I think we’ll stick to using a charcoal chimney.