Danone reports net sales for the third quarter were up +19.1% on a reported basis and +9.5% on a like-for-like (LFL) basis, with price up +10.9%, and volume/mix down -1.4%; proforma volume/mix -0.2% excluding EDP Russia.
Accelerated like-for-like sales growth in all geographies and categories:
+11.2% in North America driven by balanced competitive growth across categories.
+6.0% in Europe led by Specialized Nutrition and Waters.
+6.8% in China, North Asia & Oceania led by Specialized Nutrition in China and EDP in Japan.
+13.6% in Rest of the World with price-led growth across all countries and categories.
Portfolio management: initiation of a process to transfer the effective control of the EDP Russia business.
2022 guidance upgraded: LFL net sales growth now expected between +7 and +8%, recurring operating margin above 12% confirmed.
CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique stated in the announcement: “In what remains a challenging environment, we continue to display consistent progress in all aspects of our Renew agenda, with active portfolio management and a disciplined approach to boosting our winners, fixing our underperformers and driving our core, as exemplified by the ongoing transformation of our European dairy platform.
"Q3 was another quarter of strong growth, with sales up +9.5% on a like-for-like basis, led by a sequential growth acceleration across all our categories and geographies. We now expect LFL sales growth between +7 and +8% in the full-year 2022.
"We continue to implement pricing actions in a responsible and disciplined manner, while focusing on the quality of our execution and reinvesting behind our brands and capabilities. This shows in the performance of our Specialized Nutrition business, led by Aptamil, in Waters, where our evian, Bonafont and Aqua brands continue to perform strongly in the marketplace, but also in EDP, with the resilience of portfolio, notably in the US, Canada and Japan.”
2022 third-quarter sales
In the third quarter of 2022, consolidated sales stood at €7.3 bn, up +9.5% on a like-for-like basis, with price up +10.9% and volume/mix down -1.4%. On a reported basis, sales increased by +19.1%, benefiting notably from a positive forex impact of +7.6%, reflecting in particular the appreciation of the U.S. dollar and various Asian and Latin American currencies against the euro. Reported sales were also driven by a positive organic contribution of hyperinflation geographies to growth of +1.4%, as well as a slightly negative scope effect of -0.2%, resulting mainly from the impact of the disposal of Vega.
North America sales were up by +11.2% in Q3 2022 on a like-for-like basis. Growth was balanced and competitive, driven by accelerated pricing, up +10.2%, and by the continued roll-out of Revenue Growth Management (RGM) initiatives, leading to resilient volume/mix, at +1.0%. In EDP, growth was led by both Dairy, with International Delight, Activia and Oikos up double digits, and Plant-based, with Silk up high single digits. Growth in the region was also sustained by the strong momentum in Waters and Specialized Nutrition.
