Smucker considering cuts to its product lines

More than half of JM Smucker Co.’s products are under the microscope and could even be headed for the chopping block unless they start pulling their weight on the supermarket shelves.

“We are evaluating the 60% of our total items that represent only 20% of company sales,” John Brase, chief operating officer, said at the company’s investor day Thursday. “We will stop efforts that are unproductive or no longer consistent with our growth strategy.”

Cutting underperforming lines will let the company invest more in the high-return SKUs, or stock-keeping units, an industry term for specific products. It will also make things less complex for the Smucker sales team, according to Chief Strategy and International Officer Amy Held.

Like so many things, the pandemic has changed eating habits and consumption patterns, pushing the 123year-old company to rethink everything.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Smucker declined to name which brands or categories could be cut next. The maker of Jif peanut butter and Folgers coffee has already trimmed several bigname consumer products, including selling its Crisco shortening business earlier this month and announcing a deal last week to divest premium pet-food business Natural Balance to Nexus Capital Management LP, which was mostly sold at specialty retailers.

“Ultimately, COVID has helped to make it much more clear what consumers really want, so some of those decisions are easy and it should have no meaningful impact on our top line by eliminating those items,” Mr. Smucker said.