nternational lowered its guidance for 2013 organic net revenue growth as it reported lower-than-expected third-quarter revenues in a further sign of the challenges facing the food industry.The maker of Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolate said it expected organic net revenue, to grow around 4% for the year, against its earlier forecast of about 5%.
Mondelez, the snack business spun off from Kraft Foods, said revenues for the quarter improved 1.8% to $8.47 billion from $8.33 billion last year. Fourteen Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected revenues of $8.56 billion for the quarter.
Revenue growth mainly reflects performance from emerging markets, led by gains of mid-to-high teens in Russia, India and Brazil. Meanwhile, sales from China dropped double-digits due soft macro economic conditions. Developed markets grew 1.8% as North America, Europe and Asia Pacific all posted low-single digit gains.
Irene Rosenfeld, chief executive, said in a statement that weak biscuit sales in China, low coffee prices and slower global growth, particularly in emerging markets, had hit third-quarter revenue.
“We expect these factors will continue to pressure our top line for the remainder of the year,” Ms Rosenfeld said.
Kraft Foods also faces difficulties. Tony Vernon, chief executive, last week told analysts that shoppers “have little interest or minimal ability to buy more than what they need for a given week or even a given day”.
