Danone has today (Wednesday, April 26) raised its forecasted sales growth for 2023 following a “strong start” to the year.
Latest figures show that the Paris-headquartered global food and beverage group recorded net sales of €6.9 billion in the first quarter of 2023, a 10.5% like-for-like increase on the same period the previous year.
The result was driven by a 10.3% jump in prices, along with a 0.2% increase in volume/mix.
Danone, whose brands include Activia yoghurt, Evian water and Alpro, said this means that like-for-like sales growth is now expected of between 4-6%, compared to the 3-5% previously announced.
Danone
The financial results show that all geographies and product categories contributed to the like-for-like sales growth.
In Europe, sales were up 6.2% on a like-for-like basis, due to a 10.2% growth in price and 4.0% in volume/mix. The company noted sales strong performances in France, Poland and the UK.
There was an almost 12% jump in sales in North America, while China, North Asia and Oceania (CNAO) saw sales growth of 16% on a like-for-like basis.
Danone said that infant nutrition experienced a strong start to the year in China due to “higher shipments”.
Latin America posted sales growth of 12.6% and the rest of the world’s sales figure increased by 11.8%.
Commenting on the results, Antoine de Saint-Affrique, Danone’s chief executive, said:
“This quarter again, we consistently delivered against the pillars of our Renew Danone strategy, further improving the quality of our execution, and investing behind our winning brands and platforms, while continuing to streamline and improve our portfolio.
“While this is encouraging progress, there is still much to be done. We remain fully focused on delivering on our Renew Danone agenda, setting a solid base for long-term sustainable value creation,” he said.