Food giant Kraft Heinz beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit and raised its annual forecast as the Jell-O maker's margins benefited from higher prices of its packaged meals and condiments.
Packaged food makers from Kellogg and Coca-Cola Co to General Mills have hiked product prices over the last several quarters to offset the impact of steep supply-chain costs.
The company's shares edged up 1% to $31.7 in premarket trading.
Quarterly Highlights
Kraft's prices increased by 7.1 percentage points for the quarter, boosting its adjusted gross margin by 396 basis points to 34%.
However, the higher prices took a toll on demand from inflation-hit customers, sending Kraft's overall volumes down 5.4 percentage points even as organic net sales grew 1.7%.
It logged adjusted earnings of 72 cents per share for the quarter ended 30 September, above analysts' estimates of 63 cents, according to LSEG data.
The Philadelphia Cream Cheese maker forecast full-year adjusted profit in the range of $2.91 to $2.99 per share, compared with its previous range of $2.83 to $2.91.
Quarterly net sales rose to $6.57 billion, missing expectations of $6.72 billion.
'A Series Of Action Plans'
Commenting on the company's performance, Kraft Heinz CEO and chair of the board, Miguel Patricio said, "We laid out a series of action plans in the beginning of the year to drive market share and volume improvement, and I’m pleased to say we saw improvement throughout the quarter as our team executed against these plans. We will remain focused on our overall strategy to drive top-line profitable growth."
The company has named Pedro Navio as the EVP and president of the company's North America unit, succeeding Carlos Abrams-Rivera who is to step in as the chief executive of Kraft Heinz next year.
News by Reuters, additional reporting by ESM.
