Traeger reported earnings last week and while they beat their numbers, their 2024 guidance of a decline in revenue wasn’t well received by investors. It led to a sharp sell-off of their stock.
Traeger CEO, Jeremy Andrus, was on the Yahoo! Finance Morning Brief to provide some more color around the state of the business. He said that with the pull-ahead buying through the pandemic, the sales decline of Traeger was indicative of the grill industry. He also referenced The Home Depot seeing softness in big-ticket consumer good, which is something we’ve covered previously.
Jeremy Andrus expects to see growth in Traeger in 2025, which may line-up with better health in the overall industry. He also mentioned that lower interest rates would be beneficial for growth in Traeger. It would be helpful both from an overall economic growth perspective, but also because a number of grill purchases are financed. Lower rates make financing more attractive for consumers.
Beyond macro growth and financing, Middleby has pointed to it as it relates to depressing new housing starts and sales. New home purchases help to fill the top of the grill buying funnel.
Part of the reason that Traeger is forecasting a decline this year is last year they will selling new innovations with their Flatrock griddle and the new Ironwood pellet grill. They didn’t disclose any new grills in the pipeline for this year. Coupled with innovation selling, there’s still refuge for some outdoor cooking companies in faster growing outdoor cooking segments as we’ve seen from Blackstone and Gozney.