LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 10, 2026--
Worldwide shipments of desktops, notebooks and workstations in 2026 are expected to decline by 12% to 245 million units, according to the latest outlook from Omdia. This forecast is grounded in sharp increases in memory and storage prices - particularly the expected minimum 60% rise in 1Q26. Further upward price pressure is anticipated throughout the remaining quarters of the year, though subsequent increases are expected to be more moderate. Since 1Q25, the costs of mainstream memory and storage configurations have risen by between US$90 and US$165, placing substantial financial pressure on PC vendors and forcing them to reduce promotions, raise product prices, and adjust configurations. The impact across PC product categories is expected to be broadly consistent. Desktops are set to decline by 10% to 53.2 million units, while laptops will decline by 12% to 192.2 million units.
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Considering how quickly the situation is evolving, Omdia has conducted a multi-scenario analysis of the impact. Based on the latest available information and market signals, the forecast carries a higher downside risk, namely a widening of shortages for both memory and storage and increasingly steep price hikes. This could further suppress consumer demand and tighten PC vendors’ supply, pushing PC shipments toward a 15% decline or potentially worse. In addition, the recent outbreak of conflict in the Middle East has introduced substantial uncertainty for international transportation and regional market growth, although it remains to be seen whether this situation will persist.
Further analysis by price band shows that shortages and price increases have affected products across different price tiers to varying degrees. “For lower-priced products, there is less margin room to absorb rising costs, and consumers in this segment are typically more sensitive to price fluctuations,” said Omdia Principal Analyst Ben Yeh. “In addition, lower-price-band products often rely on lower-capacity, previous-generation components and receive lower allocation priority while facing the hurdle of some suppliers discontinuing production. Within the limited bit supply PC vendors could obtain, prioritizing premium products will be a preferred strategy to mitigate impacts to business performance.”
In 2026, PCs priced below US$500 are expected to be hit hardest, declining by 28% to around 62.1 million units shipped. By contrast, shipments of high-end PCs priced at US$900 and above are better supported and may even maintain modest growth. “Beyond the stronger ability of higher price bands to absorb cost increases, we also factored in that some consumers and IT decision makers will accept higher price points to meet essential needs, which will drive an upward shift in the price mix,” Yeh added. “However, the movement toward higher price bands does not necessarily represent improved product configurations.”
“The supply-driven downturn in 2026 will not affect all PC platforms equally,” said Kieren Jessop, Research Manager at Omdia. "Windows PCs, which account for 83% of shipments, are forecast to decline 12% in 2026 as the platform bears the brunt of memory and storage constraints. Chrome devices face the steepest decline at 28%, as the education-heavy platform is particularly exposed to tighter component allocation, lower margins and the discontinuation of some memory and storage products. Macs are set for a comparatively modest 5% decline, supported by Apple’s vertically integrated supply chain and premium positioning. Meanwhile, HarmonyOS-based PCs are emerging as a notable growth segment, forecast to expand tenfold year on year from a small base as Huawei ramps up its PC ecosystem in China.”
ABOUT OMDIA
Omdia, part of TechTarget, Inc. d/b/a Informa TechTarget (Nasdaq: TTGT), is a technology research and advisory group. Our deep knowledge of tech markets grounded in real conversations with industry leaders and hundreds of thousands of data points, make our market intelligence our clients’ strategic advantage. From R&D to ROI, we identify the greatest opportunities and move the industry forward.
Worldwide PC forecast by price bands 2025 vs 2026F
Worldwide PC shipment estimates and forecasts 2016–2027
PITTSBURGH & CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 12, 2026--
Kraft Heinz (NYSE: KHC) (“Kraft Heinz” or the “Company”) is hosting its 2026 Investor Day today, where senior management will outline the Company’s strategy to deliver sustainable, volume-led profitable growth. Management will also share its financial milestones through 2029, along with initial expectations for 2027.
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“The opportunity ahead of us is significant, and we have the brands, scale and capabilities to capture it,” said Steve Cahillane, Chief Executive Officer of Kraft Heinz. “With the right team, a business-unit-led operating model, and greater, consistent investment behind our brands, we are positioning Kraft Heinz to create long-term value for shareholders.”
Strategy to Deliver Growth
Kraft Heinz’s strategy is designed to leverage its competitive advantages, from modernizing its core in developed markets to capturing opportunities in Emerging Markets and Away From Home. The Company will execute its strategy by:
Milestones Through 2029
Kraft Heinz outlined the financial milestones it expects to achieve on its path to sustainable, volume-led profitable growth:
Initial 2027 Outlook
The Company will provide formal 2027 guidance on its fourth quarter earnings call. Today, management will share the initial contours of its expectations.
Further details can be found in the webcasted presentation and the supplemental materials provided for the 2026 Investor Day at https://ir.kraftheinzcompany.com/news-events/events. Interested parties can watch the live video webcast and Q&A with senior management today starting at 10:30 a.m. ET or view a replay of the event at the above link.
END NOTES
(1) Organic Net Sales, Adjusted Operating Income, and Free Cash Flow Conversion are non-GAAP financial measures. Please see discussion of non-GAAP financial measures and the reconciliations at the end of this press release for more information.
(2) Guidance for Organic Net Sales, Adjusted Operating Income, and Free Cash Flow Conversion is provided on a non-GAAP basis only because certain information necessary to calculate the most comparable GAAP measure is unavailable due to the uncertainty and inherent difficulty of predicting the occurrence and the future financial statement impact of such items impacting comparability, including, but not limited to, the impact of currency, acquisitions and divestitures, divestiture-related license income, restructuring activities, deal costs, separation costs, unrealized losses/(gains) on commodity hedges, impairment losses, certain non-ordinary course legal and regulatory matters, equity award compensation expense, nonmonetary currency devaluation, and debt prepayment and extinguishment (benefit)/costs, among other items. Therefore, as a result of the uncertainty and variability of the nature and amount of future adjustments, which could be significant, the Company is unable to provide a reconciliation of these measures without unreasonable effort.
ABOUT THE KRAFT HEINZ COMPANY
Kraft Heinz (NYSE: KHC) is one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies, with approximately $25 billion in net sales in 2025 and a portfolio of iconic brands enjoyed by consumers in more than 40 countries. By investing in our capabilities and brands, including Heinz, Kraft, Philadelphia, Primal Kitchen, and Lunchables, we are unlocking the full power of our portfolio. We deliver high-quality, great-tasting, and affordable food for the consumers of today, while shaping the future of food. Learn more at www.kraftheinzcompany.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains a number of forward-looking statements. Words such as “accelerate,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “commit,” “continue,” “expect,” “will,” “guidance,” and “outlook,” and variations of such words and similar future or conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's plans, impacts of accounting standards and guidance, growth, legal matters, taxes, costs and cost savings, impairments, dividends, expectations, investments, innovations, opportunities, capabilities, execution, initiatives, and pipeline. These forward-looking statements reflect management's current expectations and are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and beyond the Company's control.
Important factors that may affect the Company's business and operations and that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, operating in a highly competitive industry; the Company’s ability to correctly predict, identify, and interpret changes in consumer preferences and demand, to offer new products to meet those changes, and to respond to competitive innovation; changes in the retail landscape or the loss of key retail customers; changes in the Company's relationships with significant customers or suppliers, or in other business relationships; the Company’s ability to maintain, extend, and expand its reputation and brand image; the Company’s ability to effect the previously announced separation of Kraft Heinz into two independent publicly traded companies and to meet the conditions related thereto, including obtaining applicable regulatory approvals, if work related to the separation is resumed; negative effects of the announcement pendency of the separation, including the current pause on work related to the separation, on the market price of the Company’s securities and/or on the Company’s financial performance; the Company’s ability to leverage its brand value to compete against private label products; the Company’s ability to drive revenue growth in its key product categories or platforms, increase its market share, or add products that are in faster-growing and more profitable categories; product recalls or other product liability claims; climate change and legal or regulatory responses; the Company’s ability to identify, complete, or realize the benefits from strategic acquisitions, divestitures, alliances, joint ventures, or investments; the Company's ability to successfully execute its strategic initiatives; the impacts of the Company's international operations; the Company's ability to protect intellectual property rights; the Company’s ability to realize the anticipated benefits from prior or future streamlining actions to reduce fixed costs, simplify or improve processes, and improve its competitiveness; the influence of the Company's largest stockholder; the Company's level of indebtedness, as well as our ability to comply with covenants under our debt instruments; additional impairments of the carrying amounts of goodwill or other indefinite-lived intangible assets; foreign exchange rate fluctuations; volatility in commodity, energy, and other input costs; volatility in the market value of all or a portion of the commodity derivatives we use; compliance with laws and regulations and related legal claims or regulatory enforcement actions; failure to maintain an effective system of internal controls; a downgrade in the Company's credit rating; the impact of sales of the Company's common stock in the public market; the impact of the Company’s share repurchases or any change in the Company’s share repurchase activity; the Company’s ability to continue to pay a regular dividend and the amounts of any such dividends; disruptions in the global economy caused by geopolitical conflicts (including the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East), unanticipated business disruptions and natural events in the locations in which the Company or the Company's customers, suppliers, distributors, or regulators operate; economic and political conditions in the United States and in various other nations where the Company does business (including inflationary pressures, the imposition of increased or new tariffs, instability in financial institutions, general economic slowdown, recession, or a potential U.S. federal government shutdown); changes in the Company's management team or other key personnel and the Company's ability to hire or retain key personnel or a highly skilled and diverse global workforce; our dependence on information technology and systems, including service interruptions, misappropriation of data, or breaches of security; increased pension, labor, and people-related expenses; changes in tax laws and interpretations and the final determination of tax audits, including transfer pricing matters, and any related litigation; volatility of capital markets and other macroeconomic factors; and other factors. For additional information on these and other factors that could affect the Company's forward-looking statements, see the Company's risk factors, as they may be amended from time to time, set forth in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). The Company disclaims and does not undertake any obligation to update, revise, or withdraw any forward-looking statement in this press release, except as required by applicable law or regulation.
We use our investor relations website, ir.kraftheinzcompany.com, as a routine channel for distribution of important, and often material, information about Kraft Heinz, including quarterly and annual earnings results and presentations, press releases and other announcements, webcasts, analyst presentations, investor days, sustainability initiatives, financial information, and corporate governance practices, as well as archives of past presentations and events. We encourage you to follow our investor relations website in addition to our filings with the SEC to receive timely information about the Company. The information on our website is not part of this press release and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filings we make with the SEC.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The non-GAAP financial measures provided in this press release should be viewed in addition to, and not as an alternative for, results prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”).
To supplement the financial information provided, the Company has presented Organic Net Sales, Adjusted Gross Profit, Adjusted Gross Profit Margin, Adjusted Operating Income, Constant Currency Adjusted Operating Income, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income/(Loss), Adjusted EPS, Free Cash Flow, and Net Leverage which are considered non-GAAP financial measures. The non-GAAP financial measures presented may differ from similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures presented by other companies, and other companies may not define these non-GAAP financial measures in the same way. These measures are not substitutes for their comparable GAAP financial measures, such as net sales, net income/(loss), operating income/(loss), gross profit, diluted earnings per share (“EPS”), net cash provided by/(used for) operating activities, or other measures prescribed by GAAP, and there are limitations to using non-GAAP financial measures.
Management uses these non-GAAP financial measures to assist in comparing the Company’s performance on a consistent basis for purposes of business decision making by removing the impact of certain items that management believes do not directly reflect the Company’s underlying operations. The Company believes:
Management believes that presenting the Company’s non-GAAP financial measures is useful to investors because it (i) provides investors with meaningful supplemental information regarding financial performance by excluding certain items, (ii) permits investors to view performance using the same tools that management uses to budget, make operating and strategic decisions, and evaluate historical performance, and (iii) otherwise provides supplemental information that may be useful to investors in evaluating the Company’s results. The Company believes that the presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures, when considered together with the corresponding GAAP financial measures and the reconciliations to those measures, provides investors with additional understanding of the factors and trends affecting the Company’s business than could be obtained absent these disclosures.
Definitions
Organic Net Sales is defined as net sales excluding, when they occur, the impact of currency, acquisitions and divestitures, and a 53rd week of shipments. The Company calculates the impact of currency on net sales by holding exchange rates constant at the previous year's exchange rate, with the exception of highly inflationary subsidiaries, for which the Company calculates the previous year's results using the current year's exchange rate.
Adjusted Operating Income is defined as operating income/(loss) excluding, when they occur, the impacts of restructuring activities, deal costs, separation costs, unrealized gains/(losses) on commodity hedges (the unrealized gains and losses are recorded in general corporate expenses until realized; once realized, the gains and losses are recorded in the applicable segment’s operating results), impairment losses, and certain non-ordinary course legal and regulatory matters. The Company also presents Adjusted Operating Income on a constant currency basis ( Constant Currency Adjusted Operating Income ). The Company calculates the impact of currency on Adjusted Operating Income by holding exchange rates constant at the previous year's exchange rate, with the exception of highly inflationary subsidiaries, for which it calculates the previous year's results using the current year's exchange rate.
Adjusted Gross Profit, Adjusted Net Income/(Loss), and Adjusted EPS are defined as gross profit, net income/(loss), and diluted earnings per share, respectively, excluding, when they occur, the impacts of restructuring activities, deal costs, separation costs, unrealized losses/(gains) on commodity hedges, impairment losses, certain non-ordinary course legal and regulatory matters, losses/(gains) on the sale of a business, other losses/(gains) related to acquisitions and divestitures (e.g., tax and hedging impacts), nonmonetary currency devaluation (e.g., remeasurement gains and losses), debt prepayment and extinguishment (benefit)/costs, and certain significant discrete income tax items (e.g., U.S. and non-U.S. tax reform), and including when they occur, adjustments to reflect preferred stock dividend payments on an accrual basis. Adjusted Gross Profit Margin is defined as Adjusted Gross Profit divided by net sales.
Net Leverage is defined as debt less cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments divided by Adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income/(loss) from continuing operations before interest expense, other expense/(income), provision for/(benefit from) income taxes, and depreciation and amortization (excluding restructuring activities); in addition to these adjustments, the Company excludes, when they occur, the impacts of divestiture-related license income, restructuring activities, deal costs, separation costs, unrealized losses/(gains) on commodity hedges, impairment losses, certain non-ordinary course legal and regulatory matters, and equity award compensation expense (excluding restructuring activities).
Free Cash Flow is defined as net cash provided by/(used for) operating activities less capital expenditures. The use of this non-GAAP measure does not imply or represent the residual cash flow for discretionary expenditures since the Company has certain non-discretionary obligations such as debt service that are not deducted from the measure.
Kraft Heinz, one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world, celebrates its listing on the NYSE and hosts its 2026 Investor Day.
Kraft Heinz Executive Leadership Team joins Kool-Aid Man outside the NYSE.
Kraft Heinz CEO, Steve Cahillane, signs Distinguished Guest Book at the NYSE.
Kraft Heinz celebrates its listing on the NYSE and its Investor Day by ringing the Opening Bell.
