With Hershey also lifting its annual profit forecast, it’s a sign that consumers continued to spend on their favourite cookies, gum and candy, Reuters reported.
“I am pleased with our second quarter results, which demonstrate broad-based strength across our business, with strong, profitable top-line growth in all regions and categories. Continuous reinvestment in our brands and capabilities, combined with ongoing price execution, cost discipline and strong volume/mix performance drove these results,” said Dirk Van de Put, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
“We continue to drive robust consumer demand in our core categories across the vast majority of our businesses, and our teams continue to make significant progress against our portfolio reshaping initiatives as we remain focused on accelerating strong, sustainable growth. Our strong first-half performance and category resilience provides confidence to raise both our net revenue and earnings outlooks for the year.”
The Cadbury owner reported double-digit organic revenue growth across regions, including Europe, Latin America and North America, which helped improve its margins during the quarter and company executives said on a media call were "very encouraged” by its China business, particularly in the gum segment.
"Overall, the consumer remains resilient, with elasticities holding up relatively well in chocolate and biscuit," Mondelēz CFO Luca Zaramella said in a call with analysts.
Van de Put also issued a word of caution when he revealed that the Chicago-based firm witnessed a volume decline in Europe as it closed price negotiations with retailers "in line with expectations.”.
The Toblerone and Oreo maker said it now expects full-year organic net revenue and adjusted per-share profit growth of more than 12%, compared to a prior outlook of a 10% increase.
Second Quarter Highlights
- Net revenues increased +17.0% driven by Organic Net Revenue1 growth of +15.8% with strong Volume/Mix performance in 3 of 4 regions
- Diluted EPS was $0.69, up 27.8%; Adjusted EPS1 was $0.76, up +21.5% on a constant currency basis
- Year-to-date cash provided by operating activities was $2.0 billion; Free Cash Flow1 was $1.5 billion
- Return of capital to shareholders was $1.7 billion in the first half of the year
- Announcing +10% increase to quarterly dividend
- Raising both Organic Net Revenue and Adjusted EPS growth outlook to 12%+
