Meat and water on the menu with Cranswick PLC, Compass Group PLC,

With the gluttony of the holiday season in sight, it may or may not be a convenient time for a smorgasbord of companies across the food supply chain to report results in the coming week.

This smorgasbord will range from animal breeding and feeding specialists Genus and Eco Animal, through to meats giant Cranswick, sausage churner Devro and catering colossus Compass. 

As well as digesting that meaty theme, water and sewage companies will be under the microscope too, with the spotlight having been cast on the industry’s shadier practices in the past week as an investigation has been launched by two regulatory bodies into illegal releases of untreated waste into rivers. 

Other big releases in the week, include construction materials group CRH and chemicals specialist Johnson Matthey after its recent profit warning. 

CRH buoyed by Biden’s infrastructure bill 

CRH PLC (LSE:CRH) is due to put out a trading statement on Tuesday, covering the first nine months of 2021.

Shareholders will be hoping that recent improvements in margins can be maintained, while future prospects for its main market of the USA look strong after President Biden’s US$1trn infrastructure package was approved recently. 

The FTSE 100 building materials giant said back in August that it expected the second half of the year to see profits rise year-on-year, if the weather behaves, which by and large it has done. 

UBS expects the group to record 2% like-for-like sales growth for the third quarter, driven by a 2% rise in Europe materials, a 2% increase in Americas materials and a 4% hike in building products. 

As CRH usually gives guidance for full-year underlying earnings (EBITDA) the analysts said they currently forecast US$5.2bn for 2021, while the City consensus is at US$5.16bn. 

Compass points 

Compass Group (LSE:CPG) has already given a heavy steer over how its final numbers will look, so the interest in its Tuesday full-year results will be the state of the recovery in the contract catering markets going into 2022. 

The FTSE 100 group’s business segment has been the laggard in 2021 and with Covid-19 proving to be a stubborn opponent, there yet might be more delays to a full recovery here.  

Cost inflation in the food sector and staff shortages will also be keenly felt by Compass and how it is dealing with these will be something else to watch. 

The group has already indicated revenue in the fourth quarter to 30 September was around 86% of 2019 levels, slightly ahead of guidance of 80-85% and for the full year should be around 76% of 2019. 

Fourth quarter operating margins also recovered to 5.5% to 6% and will be around 4.4% in the full year, it said, which investors will want confirmed while some progress on reducing debt will also be welcome say analysts. 

Food supply chain in focus for Cranswick, Devro  

Also on Tuesday,…