HOBOKEN, NJ. – The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. on May 1 said it is embarking on a global stock keeping unit (SKU) reduction program to improve the performance of its portfolio. Food product categories most affected by the program include meal preparation, baby/children’s, beverages and snacks.

In meal prep, the company is reducing the SKUs in its Linda McCartney plant-based meat line of products. In the baby/children’s category and beverages, the company said it is conducting ongoing brand maintenance and in snacks the company sold its Thinsters brand in April.

Hain Celestial also is continuing to reshape its manufacturing footprint to improve efficiencies. The Thinsters sale, for example, allowed the company to reduce its distribution center needs by two centers and remove a co-manufacturer from its network. In Meal Prep, Hain consolidated its Yves plant-based manufacturing plants in Canada and ceased all production and operations within its non-strategic joint venture in India.

"This critical work delivers on the commitments we outlined in the focus pillar of our Hain reimagined strategy to design a winning portfolio of brands across five categories, and to materially simplify our footprint and leverage scale and synergies across our five core geographies," said Wendy Davidson, Hain Celestial president and chief executive officer. "These actions strengthen our focus on driving a core, hardworking portfolio of brands that produce stronger velocities and remove operational complexity from our supply chain to drive margin expansion."

The planned changes were announced a week before Hain Celestial plans to issue its third-quarter financial results May 8.

During the first six months of fiscal 2024 ended Dec. 31, 2023, the Hain Celestial Group recorded a loss of $23.9 million, which compared unfavorably to the same period a year earlier when the company earned $17.9 million, equal to 20c per share on the common stock.