Sports drinks and snacks boost Pepsi 1Q
rise in first-quarter profits.
Soft-drink, cereal and snack-food giant PepsiCo on Tuesday reported higher first-quarter profits. The company, whose products include Gatorade sports drinks, said earnings rose to $681 million (€767million), or 38 cents per share, from $597 million, or 33 cents a share, a year earlier.
Analysts' estimates were in a tight range of 37 cents to 38 cents per share, with an average estimate of 37 cents, according to tracking firm Thomson Financial/First Call. The company said net sales climbed 4.9 per cent to $5.1 billion from $4.86 billion a year earlier.
"All our businesses contributed to our quality growth, led by strong top and bottom line results at our largest divisions, Frito-Lay North America and Pepsi-Cola North America, along with a very strong quarter from Gatorade,'' Chairman and Chief Executive Steve Reinemund said in a statement. "Our international results were also healthy, despite the impact of adverse global macroeconomic conditions.''
PepsiCo's comparable results assume that the adoption of an accounting change and the consolidation of its European snack joint venture occurred in 2001. The comparable results also exclude Quaker merger-related costs and some other items.
The company said revenues at Frito-Lay North America and Pepsi-Cola North America each climbed 7 per cent. Pepsi-Cola North America's bottler case sales, a key measure of strength in the industry, were up more than 4.5 per cent, PepsiCo said.
The company added that volume growth at that unit was driven mainly by recent innovations, such as Mountain Dew Code Red, Pepsi Twist and new package sizes of Aquafina bottled water.
Reinemund said that the integration of Quaker, which PepsiCo acquired last year, is "right on track.''
