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Danone has reported a "strong first half," after recording €13.33 billion in net sales, up 7.4% on a like-for-like (LFL) basis. The LFL sales growth included a 6.1% contribution from price and 1.3% contribution from volume/mix. Meanwhile, the owner of Evian and Activia saw its H1 operating income increase by 62% to €1.38 billion. For the second quarter, Danone recorded 7.7% LFL sales growth, with a 6.8% contribution from price and 0.9% contribution from volume/mix. The company's Waters unit grew its net sales 7.9% to €1.3 billion, while Danone's Specialized Nutrition business registered an 11.4% increase to €2.1 billion. Meanwhile, the Essential Dairy and Plant-based (EDP) division saw 5.6% LFL sales growth in Q2. In Europe, sales rose by 5.4% in H1 and 5.1% in Q2. In North America, Danone posted 7.2% LFL sales growth in H1 and 8.9% in Q2, driven by both price and volume, while in China, North Asia and Oceania, the company saw an 8.3% LFL sales increase in H1 and a 3.3% increase in Q2. Danone CEO, Antoine de Saint-Affrique, said: “This strong first half, with broad-based progress despite an unprecedented external environment, is a testimony to the resilience, the focus and the engagement of all Danoners. We started deploying our 'Renew Danone' agenda with discipline and consistency, further accelerating our growth in Q2: we show good momentum across many facets of the business, from Aptamil to Waters or North America, to name a few." "While the quality of our first half delivery is encouraging and leads us to now expect +5 to +6% like-for-like sales growth for the full year, this is only the start of our 'Renew' journey: we believe there is still much we can do to bring Danone where we want it to be and deliver on both our purpose and our business ambition.”