JM Smucker CEO: 'Our Uncrustables business continues to be on fire'

J.M. Smucker Company (SJM) surpassed its first-quarter earnings expectations for 2022, led by one key item in its portfolio: Uncrustables frozen crustless sandwiches.

“As consumers have shifted to convenience items, our Uncrustables business continues to be on fire,” Mark Smucker, CEO of J.M. Smucker, told Yahoo Finance Live (video above). “We've had 29 consecutive quarters of growth on Uncrustables. And we continue to invest in capacity because we see a lot more future growth. In the next few years, we should exceed a half a billion dollars in sales on Uncrustables alone.”

The profitable little, circular sandwiches with crimped edges come in a variety of flavors: peanut butter and grape jelly, peanut butter and strawberry jelly, peanut butter and honey, and hazelnut spread. (The discarded crusts are sent to companies that use them in animal feed.)

The J.M. Smucker Co. previously tried and failed to patent Uncrustables by claiming that the novelty sandwich's crinkled fringes brought new innovation to the sealed sandwich market.

The price of Uncrustables rising

The cost of Uncrustables, as well as other J.M. Smucker products, may be on the rise.

Hit with higher costs for ingredients, packaging, and transportation, the company announced it would raise prices for consumers to make up for the greater than anticipated inflation. Currently, a 10-count box of Uncrustables can be purchased for roughly $7.00, depending on the seller.

“We continue to invest in our business," Smucker said. "We actually have started to recover some of these cost increases through pricing actions, as well as productivity. However, the inflation that we're seeing is beyond what we expected. And so we will continue to price to recover, working very closely with our retail customers to ensure that we can pass along those cost increases, which will lag, somewhat, the costs themselves.”

Commodity prices, in particular, rose as extreme weather events disrupted supply chains and crop yields. For example, a drought followed by an anomalous cold snap in Brazil severely impacted coffee crops. Earlier this year, lower peanut yields led J.M. Smucker to raise prices on items like Jif peanut butter.

Smucker emphasized that these costs are impacting businesses “across the board and in our entire industry, so all of our peers and competitors are experiencing similar impacts to both ingredients, packaging, transportation.” He also added that “there are some labor challenges. And so all of that is factoring in here.”

Additionally, J.M. Smucker cited cost volatility as a reason for cutting forward guidance.

“We have had some unique weather events as well in both Brazil and here in the U.S. and the Pacific Northwest, which have affected our business,” Smucker said. “But we do feel that our current revision to our profit guidance is appropriate and, again, continuing to invest in our business to support and continue to grow our top line.”

Grace is an assistant editor for Yahoo Finance and a UX writer for Yahoo products.

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit