Mondelez managed to meet expectations thanks to a strong fourth quarter, backed by excellent performances in Europe and Latin America. The global snack leader had a 25.9 billion dollar annual turnover and generated a 75 % profit increase.
Strong European growth
The company, known for its cookies (LU, Orea, BelVita), chocolate (Milka, Côte d’Or, Toblerone) and chewing gum (Trident), had a 2.9 % fourth quarter turnover increase to 6.966 billion dollars (5.6 billion euro). Europe (+ 5%) and Latin America (+ 4.2 %) were the main contributors to that growth. Mondelez struggles in North America, as the market is moving towards healthier snacks, and therefore suffered a 0.6 % turnover drop.
For its full year, turnover reached 25.896 billion dollar (21 billion euro), which is just about as much as last year (- 0.1 %), even though it did achieve 0.9 % in organic growth. The global “Petya” malware cyber-attack is partially to blame for the rather tepid growth. Mondelez and many other multinationals suffered the brunt of the attack last summer, which impacted its shipments and billing a lot, the company said. Mondelez’ annual turnover grew 0.4 % here, but America suffered a 2.3 % setback.
2.92 billion dollar in profit
The company’s net profit grew 76.1 % to 2.92 billion dollars (2.35 billion euro) in the past year. It managed to reduce costs by 9.6 % and President Trump’s tax cuts also helped Mondelez generate an additional 53 million dollars.
For 2018, the company and its new CEO, Belgian Dirk van de Put, target a 1 to 2 % organic growth, which is higher than the 0.9 % it managed in the past fiscal year.
