Lamb Weston president and CEO Michael J. Smith in an undated photo.
Business Wire / AP
Lamb Weston is naming a new CEO as the frozen french fry maker moved to a loss in its second quarter and trimmed its fiscal 2025 forecast.
Shares tumbled more than 18% before the market open on Thursday.
The Eagle, Idaho-based company said that Michael Smith, who currently serves as its chief operating officer, will become its CEO and join its board on Jan. 3, 2025. Smith takes over the CEO post from Thomas Werner, who will serve as an adviser through Aug. 31, 2025 to help with the transition process.
“Mike’s appointment represents the culmination of a thoughtful, years-long succession planning process by our board, and we are confident he is the right leader to guide Lamb Weston forward,” Chairman W.G. Jurgensen said in a statement.
Smith joined Lamb Weston in in 2007. He’s served as the company’s COO since May 2023. Smith previously served as Lamb Weston’s senior vice president and general manager of foodservice, retail, marketing and innovation and senior vice president, growth and strategy.
Lamb Weston has operations in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Earlier this year, the company reached a settlement with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality over repeated wastewater violations from 2016 to 2020 at its processing plant in Hermiston.
In its fiscal second quarter, Lamb Weston lost $36.1 million, or 25 cents per share. It earned $215 million, or $1.48 per share, a year earlier.
Stripping out restructuring costs and one-time costs, earnings were 66 cents per share.
But that was well below the $1.02 per share that analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research were looking for.
The company now anticipates fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings between $3.05 and $3.20 per share and revenue in a range of $6.35 billion to $6.45 billion. Its prior forecast was for adjusted earnings between $4.15 and $4.35 per share and revenue in a range of $6.6 billion to $6.8 billion.
Analysts polled by FactSet predict earnings of $4.21 per share on revenue of $6.66 billion.