Campbell Tries To Reassure Investors

On a conference call Friday, Conant told analysts that the company's fiscal year so far has been good despite many challenges, from consumers going shopping in their pantries before heading to stores to high prices for tomatoes.

While the Camden, N.J.-based company offers a range of food products from Pepperidge Farm Goldfish to Pace Mexican sauces, its business rises and falls with the fate of soup.

And overall soup sales were down by 2 percent in the third quarter, a fact that troubled some analysts. But Conant emphasized in his remarks Friday that the soup performance for the year so far has been strong — and that there are reasons for the declines in the quarter.

"We've delivered one of the best top-line soup performances in over a decade," he said.

Since the start of August, the company reported, soup sales are up 6 percent, driven by significant gains in sales of condensed soups and broths, with declines in ready-to-serve soups.

Conant said the third quarter, which begins as the peak soup season ends, was expected to be tough. That's because last fall, the company introduced several new varieties and marketed them intensely through soup season.