US food giant Kraft has reported a 22% rise in quarterly earnings on lower costs, offsetting a slowdown in shipments as retailers such as Kmart trimmed inventory.
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Kraft, which is North America’s largest food company, reported first-quarter net income of US$848m, compared to $693m in the year-ago period.
The company’s revenue was up 3% to $7.36bn. Kraft has raised prices on items such as cookies, cereal and coffee in a bid to offset the rising costs of commodities such as cocoa.
Kraft backed its earlier guidance for 2003 earnings of between $2.10 and $2.15 a share.
The company said the bankruptcies of convenience store operator Kmart and food distributor Fleming had depressed its first-quarter shipments.
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By GlobalData“We continue to work with them very closely through their bankruptcy processes and continue to ship products to them under appropriate credit terms,” Kraft executives were quoted by Reuters as saying.
