1043 ET - Cal-Maine has been purposefully leaning into prepared foods with acquisitions and investments, as consumers are increasingly looking for convenient and ready-to-eat foods. Sales of prepared foods jumped to $63.6 million in the latest quarter, up more than fivefold from last year but down 11% sequentially. Cal-Maine is currently investing tens of millions of dollars into its prepared foods business to modernize platforms, increase output and improve efficiencies, CFO Max Bowman says on a call with analysts. He adds that these projects are impacting operations in the near-term, increasing downtime as well as hurting volumes and margins. "As capacity comes back online, we expect a progressive recovery beginning in 4Q," he says. "We expect prepared foods capacity to increase more than 30% over the next 18 to 24 months." (connor.hart@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 01, 2026 10:44 ET (14:44 GMT)

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