JANA Partners' letter to the Lamb Weston board on its record and a possible sale

What to notice

1. 1

   JANA puts the cost of financial and operating deficiencies at nearly $400m of EBITDA over about two and a half years, footnoting potato write-offs, $79m of quality losses and a $95m ERP impact from company disclosures.

“This track record makes clear that the status quo is no longer tenable”

About this letter

Scott Ostfeld, Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager of JANA Partners, signed this letter to the board of Lamb Weston Holdings on 16 December 2024. JANA, together with what it calls its strategic and operating partners, beneficially owned more than 5% of the shares, and it filed the letter as an exhibit to an amendment of its Schedule 13D, the disclosure an investor makes after crossing 5% of a company's stock, so a letter addressed to the board became public.

JANA's involvement had been disclosed on 18 October 2024. Writing ahead of the company's fiscal second quarter earnings announcement, and having had no response from the board, Ostfeld sets out what JANA calls a multi-year period of failures in operations, capital allocation and the use and disclosure of the company's aircraft. The points are footnoted to company disclosures, analysts' research and a proprietary investor survey. The letter offers to put JANA and its team of industry executives on the board immediately and says that, if the board will not make significant changes, Lamb Weston should explore a sale.

Companies

• Lamb Weston LW

Themes

• governance
• board change
• capital allocation
• cost discipline
• management change