The US cooking oil market is shrinking and unlikely to recover soon as financial pressure and immigration enforcement weigh on Latino households, the owner of the Mazola brand said Wednesday.
George Weston, chief executive of Associated British Foods (ABF), told analysts that the company’s heavy-use consumer base — the Hispanic population — is under financial pressure and pressure from ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Anti-immigration raids championed by Donald Trump have disproportionately affected Latino communities, prompting some consumers to switch to online shopping, Weston said.
Weston said the company expects the trend of reduced oil consumption to continue into next year.
Weston said Hispanic customers are also reusing cooking oil more frequently. “Typically that population will be using oils three times before they throw it out, we think it’s gone to four in many cases,” Weston said. He added that the company does not expect that behavior to change into 2027.
Weston also said Stratas Foods, ABF’s US joint venture supplying oils to the food service sector, is being hit by the rapid uptake of GLP-1 appetite-suppressing drugs. “We are undoubtedly seeing the consequences of GLP-1s on foodservice demand, particularly for fried food,” he said.
ABF’s overall grocery sales rose 1% in the three months to June 20, with lower US oils sales offset by growth in brands such as Twinings. The group’s total sales rose 3% to £5.3bn in the quarter. Sales at Primark rose 3% once the impact of exchange rate changes was removed, offsetting a 4% slump in sales of sugar and a 14% decline in agricultural supplies led by animal feed.
ABF, which is poised to hive off Primark into a separate listed company, pointed to “a challenging consumer environment across most of our markets,” the company said.