French food giant Danone has announced that its Q3 like-for-like sales were up 7.8%, leading to a 5.3% growth for the first nine months of 2002.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Year-to-date consolidated sales amounted to €10.467bn (US$10.183bn), compared to €11.012bn for the same period in 2001, decreasing by 4.9% on an historical basis. Changes in exchange rates had a negative impact of 5.2% while the scope of consolidation negatively impacted sales by 5%.
The board of directors at Danone approved the preliminary 2002 first-half results, published on 24 July: sales increased by 4.2% on a like-for-like basis, operating margin rose from 10.9% to 11.1%, growth in earnings per share was +11% (excluding exceptional one-time items).
The performance to date, in line with the internal objectives, has allowed the company to confirm its full year targets for 2002. Like-for-like sales growth is expected to be up by at least 5.2% and operating margin should increase by 40 to 50 basis points.
Growth in earnings per share (excluding exceptional one-time items) should be close to 10%.
Danone’s exceptional net income should be significantly positive for the full year, taking into account in the second half the €1.5 bn net capital gain related to the final disposal of the European Beer activities to Scottish & Newcastle. At the end of September 2002, this disposal led to €2.3 bn cash proceeds, which contributed to reduce the group gearing ratio to around 35%.
