Large food manufacturers have done terrifically during the pandemic.
Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.
Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?
The second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.
What would count as true or false
Judged as of 15 December 2020. The test is that large packaged-food manufacturers (for example Kraft Heinz, General Mills, Campbell, Conagra, Nestlé) had strong results during the pandemic, 2020. True: their financial filings for the 2020 quarters show broadly strong sales and earnings growth driven by at-home eating, compared with pre-pandemic. Mostly true: most of the large manufacturers did very well and one or two did only modestly. Mixed: results were roughly evenly split between strong and weak, or sales rose while profits or margins were weak. Mostly false: only a few did well and most were flat or declining. False: large food manufacturers generally saw declining sales and earnings in 2020.
Set before the research began.
Evidence (3)
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E1 General Mills Reports Results for Fiscal 2020 and Outlines Fiscal 2021 Priorities General Mills, Inc. (press release via Business Wire) · 1 July 2020
“Net sales increased 21 percent to $5.0 billion and organic net sales¹ were up 16 percent, primarily reflecting a significant increase in at-home food demand driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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E2 Kraft Heinz Reports Third Quarter 2020 Results The Kraft Heinz Company (press release via Business Wire) · 29 October 2020
“Q3 operating income declined 2.8%, net income attributable to common shareholders decreased 33.7%, and diluted EPS decreased 33.8% due to charges related to the pending Cheese Transaction(2)”
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E3 Kraft Heinz Reports Second Quarter 2020 Results The Kraft Heinz Company (press release via Business Wire) · 30 July 2020
“reflected solid net sales growth of 3.8 percent and Organic Net Sales(1) growth of 7.4 percent versus the year-ago period due to strong retail performance across all business segments”
Reasoning
In its fiscal 2020 results release, General Mills said net sales rose 21 percent to $5.0 billion and organic net sales rose 16 percent, mainly because of higher at-home food demand driven by the COVID-19 pandemic (E1). Kraft Heinz reported second-quarter 2020 net sales up 3.8 percent and organic net sales up 7.4 percent, driven by strong retail performance (E4). However, its third-quarter 2020 net income fell 33.7 percent and operating income fell 2.8 percent, which it put down to charges tied to the pending Cheese Transaction (E3). The evidence covers only two of the large manufacturers. Both companies show sales growth: General Mills attributes its growth to pandemic-driven at-home demand (E1), and Kraft Heinz attributes its growth to strong retail performance (E4). Kraft Heinz also reported a third-quarter earnings decline (E3), so this fits mostly true better than true.
Cite this claim
Warren Buffett, “Large food manufacturers have done terrifically during the pandemic.” (said 15 December 2020). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_9161778b96d0, method 0.1.0+28da144b, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_9161778b96d0
This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.
Reply to this claim
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