Kellogg today (30 April) revealed that its market share of the US cereals segment has come under pressure over the last three months.
Speaking on a conference call to analysts, Kellogg CEO David Mackay revealed the company saw overall sales growth “up 6% to 7%”.
“So, a very strong performance from the category. And, to be frank, we are seeing that from a lot of the larger cereal markets around the world,” he said.
Although Mackay described the company’s 1% US cereal volume growth in the quarter as “good”, he said increased sales in the category were driven more by higher prices than by volume growth, putting the company’s market share under a degree of pressure.
“Given we took some pricing early in the third quarter and we left an increase from 2008 where with price protected was probably a little higher than we would expect it to be for the balance of the year. And our volume also grew 1%,” Mackay said.
“We saw a good combination of volume growth and probably higher price mix in the first quarter than we would expect for the balance of the year. So, overall, while we never lose share, if you look at the total market performance, we did lose probably a few tenths a share.”
Earlier today, Kellogg posted a 3% dip in net sales, which dropped to $3.2bn. Internal net sales growth, which excludes the effects of foreign currency translation and acquisitions, rose 4%.
Net earnings at the US cereal giant rose 2%, climbing to $321m.
