Jana, an activist investor and advocate for change at Lamb Weston, continues to push for changes

The Key Takeaways

• Jana Partners received the support of another former Lamb Weston executive when the activist investor called for a shake-up at the frozen potato manufacturer.
• Jana announced that Jeffery deLapp, former president at Lamb Weston currently holds 458 votes shares. Jana holds more than 5 percent of shares.
• Lamb Weston reported losses and replaced their CEO. Jana responded by calling for the change of board members or the sale of the business.

Lamb Weston Holdings’ (LW), a frozen potatoes maker, saw its shares rise Friday as activist investor Jana Partners added a former senior executive of the company to their list of potential board members.

Jana reported that Jeffery had 458 votes in an official filing. DeLapp served as president at both Lamb Weston as well as McCain Foods USA. Timothy McLevish was the ex-chairman of Lamb Weston. He had aligned his company with Jana. It now has 6 food executives on its board. Jana acquired a stake of more than 5% in the company last October. 

Recently, shares of Lamb Weston rose by about 4%. Lamb Weston’s shares are still down more than one-third of their value in this year, despite today’s gain.

Jana criticized the company after its release last week of financial results from its second-quarter 2020, which showed that Lamb Weston had reported an unexpected deficit and reduced its guidance. It cited a softening of demand for potatoes that it expects to continue into 2026.

Lamb Weston announced that COO Michael J. Smith would replace CEO Tom Werner on Jan. 3. Jana referred to the results as “unexpected”. “disastrous,” and said the decision to trade its CEO "for another long-standing Lamb Weston executive complicit in its widespread operational and strategic debacles is just the latest stick in the eye from a Board that has completely failed shareholders.”

The “enough’ is enough” phrase” it demanded a significant board change and said if that doesn’t occur, the company should be sold.

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