Campbell's president and CEO Denise Morrison said that although overall sales trends are improving, the company's performance this quarter is not satisfactory.
"As planned, we focused our marketing efforts on increasing advertising and consumer promotion. We executed well in some businesses, delivering solid sales growth in U.S. Beverages, Pepperidge Farm and Canada. We did not execute as well in others," Morrison added.
During the quarter, the company had to increase prices to offset higher commodity prices, even as volumes continued to decline in key categories.
Sales for US Simple Meals were $567m for the third quarter, down 2% compared to the year-ago period, while sales for Global Baking and Snacking increased 3% to $543m.
Sales for International Simple Meals and Beverages were $349m, a decrease of 1%. Sales for US Beverages were $208m for the third quarter, an increase of 5%. In addition, sales for North America Foodservice were $154m for the third quarter, comparable to the prior year.
Campbell Soup is trying to recover following low soup sales over the previous years by launching premium soups, and more snacks and beverages.
For the full year 2012, Campbell stood by its guidance of adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.42, down from $2.54 the previous year.
