Consumer & Retail Report #13: 10/2 Recap

Summary of the Week in Consumer and Retail

Oct 2, 2022

Welcome to our Consumer and Retail recap where we share noteworthy headlines, updates, and insights. Never spam.

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Company Announcements

Nautilus (NLS) announces strategic review (Businesswire)
United Natural Foods (UNFI) enters into a commercial agreement with Symbotic (SYM) for warehouse robotics (Businesswire)
Walmart (WMT) enters the metaverse with Roblox (RBLX) experiences aimed at younger shoppers (CNBC)
Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) will test robotic tortilla chip maker (CNBC)
Apple (AAPL) ends plans for iPhone 14 production increase as demand declines (Bloomberg)
Macy's (M) launches marketplace for sellers (Axios)
Grove Collaborative (GROV) announced the expansion of its products to 2,200 additional stores (Benzinga)
Las Vegas Sands (LVS): Macao announced its plan to allow tour groups from mainland China as soon as November (Yahoo)
Lululemon (LULU): lululemon Studio, a New Fitness Platform, Launches on October 5th (Businesswire)
Peloton (PTON) will sell Bikes, Treads at Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) in its first brick-and-mortar partnership (CNBC)
Amazon (AMZN): BMW to build its next-generation voice experience on Alexa technology (Amazon)
Altria (MO) decides to end non-compete agreement with Juul (WSJ)

Corporate Shakeups

Shoe Carnival (SCVL) CFO W. Kerry Jackson to retire (Marketwatch)
Beyond Meat (BYND) eliminates supply-chain chief role (Reuters)
Tyson Foods (TSN) names John R. Tyson CFO (Benzinga)
Dollar Tree (DLTR) names Michael Creedon, Jr. as COO (Businesswire)
Membership Collective Group (MCG) announced its COO will leave the company (Markets Screener)
Unilever (UL) CEO announces intention to retire at end of next year (Unilever)
Cracker Barrel (CBRL) and Biglari Capital (BH) enter into a Nomination and Cooperation Agreement (PR Newswire)
Blue Apron (APRN) announces CFO transition (Businesswire)

M&A Updates

Purple Innovation (PRPL) forms a special committee to evaluate an unsolicited takeover proposal from Coliseum Capital Management (PR Newswire)
F45 Fitness (FXLV) receives a non-binding offer from Kennedy Lewis Management at $4 (Filing)

Financing Updates

Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) enters partial unwind agreement relating to portion of convertible note hedge transaction (StreetInsider)
BeautyHealth (SKIN) announces $200 mln share repurchase authorization (Hastings Tribune)
British American Tobacco (BTI) announces share buyback- non-discretionary agreement (MoneyWeb)
Groupon (GRPN) amended existing credit agreement to modify certain financial covenants and provide for additional flexibility in its operations (Filing)

Regulatory Updates

Ford Motor (F) asking for new trial following a $1.7 bln jury verdict in a truck rollover lawsuit (WSJ)
Smith & Wesson (SWBI) sued by mass shooting victims of July 4th parade (Bloomberg)
Tupperware (TUP) reaches settlement with SEC for divested entity (Yahoo)
Peloton (PTON) loses lawsuit against Lululemon (LULU) over new apparel line (Reuters)

Macro Updates

A lawsuit was filed to prevent student loan cancellation from going into effect (WSJ)

Michael Batnick @michaelbatnick

This is not the big short redux. In the third quarter of 2007, 26% of mortgage origination went to people with credit scores below 660. That number has averaged 5% over the last eight quarters. theirrelevantinvestor.com/2022/09/27/thi…

Wall Street Silver @WallStreetSilv

Holy sh*t.

Jason Goepfert @jasongoepfert

Full-on crash mode. Retail traders spent $18 billion buying put option protection last week, a record. They're holding $46 billion worth of index futures net short, a record. Leveraged traders are betting on very, very bad things happening very, very soon.

Until next time,

Paul Cerro | Cedar Grove Capital

Personal Twitter: @paulcerro

Fund Twitter: @cedargrovecm

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