The cost of integrating poultry firm Arrive and ready-meals maker Marie has hit profits at French poultry processor LDC.

Operating profit at LDC fell 9.9% to EUR34.5m (US$46.2m) during the three months to the end of August. Net profit dropped 14.9% to EUR22.2m.

However, LDC saw sales climb by almost a third to EUR1.23bn thanks to contributions from Arrive and Marie. Excluding those companies, sales were up 2.4%.

Looking ahead, LDC said it would need further price increases from its retail customers to cover rising raw-material costs.