Daily newsletter · Wed 7 Oct 2026
Lamb Weston is selling more fries in America for less money each, and the shares rose 7.49%
Lamb Weston, which supplies frozen fries to chains such as McDonald's, rose 7.49% to US$47.91 on Tuesday. Its adjusted profit for the quarter to August was 75 US cents a share, against the 59 cents Wall Street expected.
America did the heavy lifting. North American sales rose 5% to US$1.14 billion on 7% more volume. International sales fell 8% to US$529 million, and adjusted EBITDA there, a profit measure before interest, tax and depreciation, fell 54%.
Across the company, volume rose 2% while price and mix fell 2%. Lamb Weston is selling more fries for less each, and its gross margin dropped to 16% of sales from 20.6% a year earlier.
The company says fries are holding up at fast-food chains because customers on tight budgets are sticking with cheap staples. The full-year forecast for adjusted EBITDA went up to between US$1.125 billion and US$1.215 billion. Input and freight costs, it warned, are rising faster than expected.
the outlook rose while the margin fell. I'd want to see prices stop slipping and the international business stop shrinking before reading this as a recovery. For now it is one good quarter in America.
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