PARSIPPANY, NJ. — The stock market reacted negatively after B&G Foods revealed a loss in the first quarter, a revised fiscal-year outlook and a potential sale of its frozen and canned vegetables business unit, which includes Green Giant frozen vegetables.

B&G Foods’ stock price on the New York Stock Exchange closed at $8.28 per share on May 9, a 28% plunge from a May 8 close of $11.55 per share.

B&G Foods on May 8 placed its frozen and canned vegetables business unit under review and is evaluating a possible divestiture and sale of some or all the assets in the unit. Any possible sale may take a while since the Parsippany-based company is dealing with other divestitures.

“We have been evaluating and working on divestitures that represent between 10% to 15% of total company net sales,” said Casey Keller, president and chief executive officer of B&G Foods, in a May 8 earnings call that took placed after the stock market closed for the day. “That process on smaller brands is proceeding, and we expect to possibly sell some assets before the end of fiscal year ‘24 and beyond.”

The frozen and canned vegetable business unit accounts for about 22% of consolidated net sales for B&G, Keller said.

“But the news today is that we’re considering a larger divestiture beyond that 10% to 15% pruning — that would be the Green Giant or frozen vegetable business,” Keller said.

Recent B&G Foods’ divestitures include the Green Giant US canned vegetable business in November 2023 and Back to Nature in January 2023. B&G Foods still owns the Green Giant canned vegetable business in Canada.

B&G Foods in the quarter ended March 31 suffered a net loss of $40 million, which compared with net income of $3.4 million, or 5¢ per share on the common stock, in the previous year’s first quarter. Net sales overall declined 7% to $475 million from $512 million, primarily attributed to the divestiture of the Green Giant US shelf-stable business, a decrease in net pricing, the impact of product mix and a decrease in unit volume.

Revisions for the full-year outlook included net sales in a range of $1.955 billion to $1.985 billion, down from $1.975 billion to $2.02 billion; adjusted EBITDA to a range of $300 million to $320 million, down from $305 million to $325 million; and adjusted diluted earnings per share to a range of 75¢ to 95¢, down from 80¢ to $1.

B&G Foods this fiscal year began dividing financial results into four business units: specialty, meals, frozen and canned vegetables, and spicy and flavor solutions.

“We want to get to a company that has stronger cash conversion, and we want a company with clear platforms that we can acquire on and drive value, and that’s what we’re trying to do, and that’s what the announcement and discussion is today,” Keller said. “How do we get to that? We are pretty clear in those three other business units that we have platforms. We’re pretty clear that we can get to that kind of performance that we’re talking about in terms of growth and margins.”

The Green Giant and Le Sueur brands are in the frozen and canned vegetables unit, which had first-quarter sales of $105,000, down 17% from $126,000 in the previous year’s first quarter.

In the other three business units, foodservice impacted results negatively.

“We expect foodservice trends to be soft through the first half of the year with a corresponding pickup in at-home consumption trends in the back half,” Keller said.

In the specialty unit, net sales dropped 4.9% to $155 million from $163 million, primarily due to lower Crisco pricing and decreased foodservice and industrial net sales. The segment includes the Crisco, Clabber Girl, Bear Creek, Polaner, Underwood, B&G, Grandma’s, New York Style, B&M, TrueNorth, Don Pepino, Sclafani, Baker’s Joy, Regina, SugarTwin and Brer Rabbit brands.

In the meals unit, net sales dipped 1.6% to $120 million from $122 million, primarily due to lower net sales in foodservice. The segment includes the Ortega, Maple Grove Farms, Cream of Wheat, Victoria, Las Palmas, Mama Mary’s, Spring Tree, McCann’s, Carey’s and Vermont Maid brands.

“We see growth opportunities in Mexican meal preparation as consumers expand their Mexican cuisine options in the home,” Keller said.