Kingsford’s parent company Clorox reported earnings today, which gives great insight on the consumer and grilling consumption. Overall, they’re facing headwinds like anyone, but when it comes to Kingsford, performance was better than expectations.

New CEO

This earnings call marks the last one for CEO Linda Rendle. Unfortunately, she had some health issues and decided to step down after six years leading Clorox.

They announced that Fabian Garcia will take over as CEO, effective Jan. 5, 2027. Linda Rendle will serve in an advisory capacity until April 2, 2027 to ensure a smooth transition.

Fabian Garcia has a long career in CPG. He comes to Clorox from Unilever where he is president of Unilever Personal Care.

Increased Cost Inflation

Cost inflation has continued to be a headwind at Clorox, like at everywhere else. They’ve been at higher levels than they originally planned, and from a number of different sources.

The cost environment continues to be challenging, with heightened volatility in energy and commodity markets as well as elevated transportation costs, putting pressure on our margin. While we are confident in our ability to rebuild margin over time, there is usually a timing lag between cost pressures and the benefits from mitigating actions.

Clorox Prepared Remarks

Not only is cost inflation up on the year, they are dramatically higher than the historical run-rate. Clorox quantified how much pressure they’re seeing.

So as you’ve read in our prepared remarks, we now expect input cost inflation for the fiscal year to be about $240 million. And that’s about $40 million more than we expected at the beginning of the year. This — the increase is mainly driven by just a range of commodities as well as transportation costs. And so for perspective, the $240 million is about 2.5x higher our historical annual average rate.

Luc Bellet, CFO of Clorox

Value Seeking

A common theme with consumers for a while now has been value seeking behavior. Clorox hits on it every quarter, and talks about where they’re investing in pricing, pack architecture, and other initiatives. As expected, that dynamic has continued.

Consumers are continuing to engage in value seeking behaviors such as opting for smaller sizes that offer a lower absolute price point or choosing larger packs that provide better value over time. We are also seeing consumers manage their budgets tightly by buying closer to need rather than stocking up. In some categories, particularly among lower-income households, they are also extending purchase cycles. Taken together, these behaviors reinforce that value is paramount, and consumers remain thoughtful and deliberate about their choices.

Clorox Prepared Remarks

Kingsford Gains Share

Kingsford had an unexpectedly challenging grilling season through their fiscal year end. Between weather and some retailer merchandising issues, they underperformed expectations.

Despite those challenges, they finished grilling season on a stronger note than they expected. They believe this will carry over to 2027.

As mentioned earlier, we expected a trough in Kingsford related to a challenging season in the fourth quarter of FY26, but it was ultimately less pronounced than expected. We are focused on building a stronger grilling season in FY27 and are encouraged by better-than-expected results over the Labor Day weekend, which was supported by stronger distribution and execution.

Clorox Prepared Remarks

Clorox is always sensitive to their market share, and invests heavily in growing it. Kingsford is dominant in the market with share estimates as high as 80%, despite an increasing number of challengers recently. They believe that in addition to having better than expected results from Labor Day, they also grew share.

And then the final note is on Kingsford, while the category continues to be under stress, given weather, et cetera, we did see a very strong Labor Day for Kingsford, delivered very strong high single-digit growth for that period as well as share growth. So that’s a good indicator that as we have made some adjustments on execution, it bears well for fiscal year — or excuse me, season year ’27 for Kingsford, but that business also highly event dependent and share you have to win the key holidays to do that, and it was a good indication that Labor Day delivered.

Linda Rendle, CEO of Clorox