French food company Danone has reported sales reached €6.8 billion in Q3 2024, up by 4.2% on a like-for-like (LFL) basis.
In its third quarter results, published on Thursday, the company reported continued strong performance in North America driven by protein products, coffee creations and waters.
There was another quarter of strong competitive momentum in China, North Asia and Oceania, led by all categories.
Good Performance
"With like-for-like sales growth of 4.2% in Q3, driven by 3.6% volume/mix, we continue to deliver broad-based quality growth, with both volume/mix and price positive in all categories," said Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO.
"Our consistent focus on science based and consumer and patient centric innovation, combined with strong in-market execution keeps paying off, as demonstrated by the continued good performance of our winning platforms such as high protein, coffee creations and medical nutrition.
"We have also improved competitiveness within our core portfolio across many geographies.
"In what remains a challenging environment, we view our future with confidence, further leveraging the fundamentals we reestablished with Renew Danone."
Negative Impact
In Q3 2024, consolidated sales stood at €6,826 million, a rise of 4.2% on a like-for-like basis, led by an increase of 3.6% from volume/mix and 0.7% from price.
On a reported basis, sales decreased by 1.2%, notably due to the negative impact from scope (-3.1%), resulting predominantly from the deconsolidation of Horizon Organic and Wallaby.
Reported sales were also negatively impacted by forex (-3.2%), reflecting the depreciation of several currencies against the euro, notably the Argentine Peso, the Mexican Peso, the Brazilian Real and the Turkish Lira.
In addition, hyperinflation contributed positively to reported sales (+1.5%).
Solid Growth
In the third quarter, Europe sales were up by 1.4% on a like-for-like basis, led by further acceleration of volume/mix, up 2.4%, while price stood at -1.0%.
EDP made additional progress in its transformation, notably led by the strong competitive performance of YoPro, Actimel and Alpro, while waters posted solid growth, despite adverse weather conditions in the region.
In North America, sales were up by 5.8% on a like-for-like basis, led by strong volume/mix, up by 4.9%, while price was resilient at 0.9%, according to the results.
China, North Asia & Oceania delivered 8.0% like-for-like sales growth, with volume/mix accelerating to 10.2% and price down 2.2%.
Specialised Nutrition Growth
In specialised nutrition, infant milk formula posted solid competitive growth, in a category showing first signs of growth recovery, and medical nutrition sustained its good momentum.
In waters, Mizone pursued its strong performance, while EDP delivered another quarter of strong growth in Japan.
In Latin America, sales were up +2.7% on a like-for-like basis, with volume/mix slightly down 0.7% and price up 3.5%.
While the performance was impacted by the licensing out of milk business in Brazil and poor weather conditions in Mexico, Aptamil, Danone and YoPro brands pursued their solid momentum.
In the rest of the world, sales increased by 6.0% on a like-for-like basis, with volume/mix up 1.2% and price up 4.7%, notably led by the strong performance of Specialised Nutrition across the region, and the solid growth of Africa, where the dairy portfolio transformation starts to yield results.
