“We are very satisfied with the overall strong growth in all of our regions and across all of our product groups given the challenging market environment in Western Europe,” said Juergen Steinemann, chief executive officer. “Our project ‘Spring’ for reviewing all our customer-related structures and processes in Western Europe, our additional sustainability initiative ‘Cocoa Horizons’ as well as the implementation of the recent long-term partnership agreements are all well on track.”
The company said sales revenue in Region Americas was up 14% in local currencies, or 9% in Swiss francs, to 810.2 million Swiss francs ($835.9 million), which compared with 740.6 million Swiss francs during the same period of the previous year.
“This fiscal year we are investing heavily all over the world, not only in additional capacity but also in supporting functions to cope with expected future growth,” Mr. Steinemann said. “Overall, we are confident we will reach our mid-term financial targets despite the challenging market environment in Western Europe.”
