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Hormel Foods turns meat and other ingredients into foods such as SPAM luncheon meat, Jennie-O turkey products, Planters nuts and Skippy peanut butter, using its own processing facilities and outside manufacturers. U.S. retailers buying products for resale provide most of its revenue. Its next-largest business supplies distributors and operators serving restaurants and other places where people eat away from home. International retail and foodservice sales make up a smaller business.
Walmart is a major customer, and a substantial share of sales comes from a small group of large customers. Keeping those buying relationships matters to the business.
Earnings depend on the supply and cost of meat, nuts and other inputs, and on whether selling prices can keep pace with those costs. Hormel buys hogs and pork and raises most of the turkeys it needs, so feed costs also matter. Food-safety and processing rules constrain production. Pork processing facilities it relies on operate under government waivers allowing faster production lines; losing those waivers could reduce capacity and raise costs.
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Every company claims an edge. Each one is checked against hard numbers like margins and returns: which hold, and which line gives way first.
Smithfield Foods competes with Hormel for retail and foodservice spending on bacon, sausage, ham and deli meats. Its Packaged Meats results offer a read on demand and pricing in those overlapping categories.
Tyson Foods competes with Hormel for purchases of refrigerated and frozen prepared meats and pork products. Watch its Prepared Foods and Pork results for conditions in the meat categories where the two overlap.
JBS N.V.'s U.S. pork and prepared-food businesses compete with Hormel for orders from retailers and foodservice companies. Its Pork USA results, which include Swift Prepared Foods, are the part to watch for that competition.
Kraft Heinz's Oscar Mayer meats compete for retail purchases with Hormel's bacon, sausages and refrigerated meats.
John B. Sanfilippo & Son competes directly with Hormel's Planters for nut and snack-mix purchases. Its news on nut crops and buying costs is worth watching alongside Planters, since higher nut costs contributed to Hormel's fiscal 2025 cost increase.
J.M. Smucker competes directly with Hormel's Skippy by selling peanut butter through North American retail outlets. Its peanut-butter business is the relevant part to watch, rather than its coffee or pet-food sales.
Conagra Brands competes with Hormel for retail and foodservice purchases of branded meat snacks and convenient meals. Its Grocery & Snacks results provide a view of the U.S. shelf-stable retail market that also buys Hormel's meal products.
Pilgrim's Pride sells fresh and further-processed chicken and pork to the same retail and foodservice buyers as Hormel's turkey and prepared-protein businesses. Watch its sales to those buyers for a read on demand facing Hormel's Jennie-O turkey and prepared meats.
Hormel depends on Walmart buying its food for resale to shoppers: Walmart and its subsidiaries accounted for 15.6% of Hormel's consolidated gross sales less returns and allowances in fiscal 2025. Changes in Walmart's purchasing matter directly to Hormel's Retail and International businesses.
Campbell's competes with Hormel in grocery stores, selling canned meals and Mexican sauces against Hormel's chili, stews, meal products and salsas. Its Meals & Beverages business, including Pace Mexican sauces, is the relevant part to watch.
Hormel buys metal containers from Silgan Holdings to package canned and shelf-stable foods. Silgan's metal-container sales are the relevant line to watch for packaging demand, rather than its closures businesses.
Smithfield Foods, Inc. earningsSFD
Smithfield Foods’ packaged-meat results will show whether demand and pricing hold up in bacon, sausage and ham categories where it competes with Hormel Foods.
Look at Smithfield’s packaged-meat sales and pricing. Steady sales with pricing intact would point to support in the overlapping categories, helping Hormel defend sales and profit there. Weaker sales or price pressure would suggest that retail and foodservice orders both companies pursue are harder to win profitably.
Pilgrims Pride Corporation earningsPPC
Pilgrim’s Pride’s report will show how demand is moving among retail and foodservice buyers both companies serve, a read on the market for Hormel’s turkey and prepared proteins.
Watch Pilgrim’s Pride’s sales to retail and foodservice buyers. Stronger sales would suggest that shared customers are supporting demand for chicken and further-processed proteins, a healthier backdrop for Hormel’s turkey and prepared meats. Weaker sales would point to cooling demand in those channels.
Silgan Holdings Inc earningsSLGN
Silgan Holdings’ metal-container business will show conditions in a packaging supply chain Hormel uses for canned and shelf-stable foods.
Focus on Silgan’s metal-container sales, not its closures business. Stronger sales would suggest firmer demand for metal packaging; weaker sales would point to a softer packaging market. This does not establish Hormel’s own container prices or supply, but it helps gauge the environment for its canned and shelf-stable foods.
John B. Sanfilippo & SON earningsJBSS
John B. Sanfilippo & Son’s comments on nut crops and buying costs will offer a read on an input market that matters to Hormel’s Planters business.
Watch Sanfilippo’s comments on nut-crop supply and buying costs. Better availability and easing costs would lessen pressure on nut inputs; tighter supply and rising costs would suggest continued cost pressure for products such as Planters. Sanfilippo is an industry signal, not evidence of Hormel’s own purchasing results.
Walmart Inc. earningsWMT
Walmart’s report will show how this major retail customer’s business is faring, a signal for some of Hormel’s Retail and International orders.
Watch Walmart’s food sales and purchasing signals, bearing in mind that it accounted for 15.6% of Hormel’s fiscal 2025 consolidated gross sales less returns and allowances. Resilient Walmart sales and continued purchasing would support orders in Hormel’s Retail and International businesses; weakness or reduced purchasing would put pressure on them. Walmart’s sales alone do not establish Hormel’s order volume.
Hormel Foods Corporation earningsThis company
Hormel Foods’ report will show whether its Retail, Foodservice and International businesses can protect profit as meat and nut costs rise.
Compare sales with segment profit, and read them alongside volume and product costs. Steady sales with improving profit would show that pricing, product mix or savings are offsetting input pressure. Steady sales with weaker profit would show that costs or discounting are still squeezing margins.
