French food group Danone reported a 6.5 per cent rise in first-half profit on Wednesday and an advance in operating margins despite higher raw materials costs. The dairy food, bottled water and biscuits group, which raised a storm of protest in March when it unveiled plans to revamp its European biscuit production, posted net profit before restructuring charges of 375 million up from 352 million. That was achieved on first-half sales of 7.292 billion, up fractionally from 7.254 billion in the same period of last year.Net profit was slightly below forecasts. Analysts had predicted an 8.8 per cent rise in first-half net profit to 383 million euros ($334 million). However the company's operating margin advanced slightly more than forecast, climbing to 10.9 per cent from 10.6 per cent previously. Analysts had predicted that higher raw milk and plastic packaging costs would clip that advance to 0.2 of a percentage point.
