By Adriano Marchese and Freddy Sebastian

Hain Celestial Group said its chief executive, Wendy Davidson, has left the company and that it has begun a search for a new candidate while it launches a strategic review of its portfolio.

The health and wellness company also said third-quarter results fell "far short of its expectations" and posted lower sales for the period.

Hain Celestial said Wednesday that it has set in motion its leadership succession plan to find a new chief executive. It didn't disclose any details around Davidson's departure, but Chair Dawn Zier said the board believed this was the right time to transition to new leadership.

While it conducts its search for a successor, Hain Celestial has appointed Alison Lewis to the role on an interim basis. Lewis has over 30 years of leadership experience in large consumer goods companies, and has been with Hain Celestial's board since September.

Hain Celestial also announced the launch of a strategic review of its portfolio "in light of recent performance" and said it would consider a broad range of options.

The stock has been under pressure in the year, falling by nearly 54% to $2.77, and reached a 52-week low in pre-market trading Wednesday.

The company said there wasn't a definitive timetable for completing the strategic review, and didn't share any details of the review process or scope.

Hain Celestial said worse-than-expected performance in North America contributed to third-quarter results. Sales in this segment dropped 17% in the latest quarter while organic net sales fell 10%, mostly because of lower sales in snacks and baby and kids.

The company reported sales fell 11% to $390.4 million while gross profit margin decreased 40 basis points to 21.7%. Loss widened to $134.6 million from $48.2 million a year ago. Per-share loss was $1.49 while adjusted earnings came in at 7 cents, meeting analysts' estimates, according to FactSet.

Hain Celestial reported negative free cash flow of $2 million.

For fiscal 2025, the company said it expects organic sales growth to be down about 5% to 6%.

"We are disappointed with our third quarter results, which fell far short of our expectations primarily due to worse-than-expected performance in North America," said Lewis. "Despite the shortfall in net sales in the quarter, we are encouraged by a return to organic net sales growth in our international segment and continued progress in reducing net debt,"

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com and Freddy Sebastian at freddy.sebastian@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 07, 2025 08:20 ET (12:20 GMT)

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