WESTCHESTER, ILL. — Operational challenges at Argo, Ingredion’s largest sweetener plant located in Bedford Park, Ill., led to weaker-than-anticipated earnings at the Westchester-based company in the first quarter.

Ingredion net income in the first quarter ended March 31 was $142 million, equal to $2.25 per share on the common stock, down 28% from $197 million, or $3.05 per share, in the same quarter in 2025.

Net sales were $1.79 billion, down 1% from $1.81 billion in the first quarter last year.

Updating its outlook for 2026, the company said adjusted earnings for the year will range between $10.45 and $11.15 per share, down from initial guidance of $11 to $11.80. The company said it now expects to see sales flat to up low single-digits for the year after earlier indicating it expected sales to be up low single-digits to mid-single-digits.

Shares of Ingredion closed at $107.13 on May 5 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange, up marginally from $106.88 a day earlier.

Operating income of the Texture & Healthful Solutions business was $100 million in the quarter, up 1% from $99 million the year before. Sales were $617 million, up 2% from $602 million. The improved profitability was attributed to favorable inputs costs, foreign exchange and better volume, partially offset by strategic price and mix management.

“As expected, our Texture & Healthful Solutions segment delivered a solid quarter with broad-based volume growth reflecting increased adoption of our expanding solutions portfolio and continued customer demand for clean label offerings,” James Zallie, president and chief executive officer, said in a May 5 conference call with investment analysts. “Our solutions sales continue to outpace overall segment growth. As a reminder, our solutions portfolio is approximately $1 billion, or 40%, of this segment’s revenue. Clean label remains a major growth driver within our solutions offering. It is noteworthy to point out that even against a challenging volume backdrop, customers continue to seek clean label options.

Clean label remains a major growth driver within Ingredion's solutions offering for the grain-based foods industry.

Source: ©NATA_VKUSIDEY - STOCK.ADOBE.COM

Another bright spot in the quarter was pea protein isolates, which saw sales increase 50% in the quarter behind new product innovations. In addition, the company’s stevia-based solutions sales rose 6% in the quarter.

Operating income of the Food & Industrial Ingredients business in the United States and Canada was $34 million, down 63% from $92 million a year earlier. Sales were $475 million, down 9%. The declines reflected production challenges at the company’s Argo facility, and softer volumes and mix.

“Within our February outlook, we expected $10 million to $15 million of additional costs to impact the quarter as the (Argo) facility recovered to normal grind rates,” Zallie said. “However, additional operational challenges slowed the recovery and negatively impacted saleable inventory. As a result, the actual quarter one impact was much greater than anticipated, coming in at $40 million comprised of higher maintenance spend and the costs associated with elevated levels of rework. Additionally, we incurred higher logistics costs as we source products from other facilities in our network to meet customer commitments.

“In response to challenges in our refinery operations, we took meaningful actions during the quarter to diagnose and remedy the sources of process failures. We assembled a multidisciplinary team of internal and external experts in refinery unit operations and are pleased to say that downstream production returned to normal levels by quarter end. Unfortunately, in the midst of this progress, on April 10, there was an isolated thermal event in Argo’s corn germ processing operations. While the front-end grind and refinery were not impacted, crude oil production went offline. Our teams are working diligently to restore our germ processing capabilities, and we expect to return to normal operations in this unit within the second quarter.” 

Get better grain-based foods industry search results.

Adding us tells Google to prioritize Bakingbusiness.com stories.