British sweets and soft drinks group Cadbury Schweppes posted a four per cent drop in first-half earnings today and saw a similar outcome for the full year as it struggles with weak US drinks markets.
The maker of Dairy Milk chocolate, Trident sugar-free gum and Dr Pepper drinks made underlying earnings per share (EPS) of 12.4 pence for the 24 weeks to June 15th, down from 12.9p the year before and compared with a consensus forecast of 12.3p.
In June the firm said poor weather, a slowdown in consumer spending growth and strong innovation from rivals such as Coca Cola were hurting its US drinks business.
Cadbury said like-for-like sales rose just one per cent in its soft drinks business in the Americas, although underlying operating profit was up five percent.
It forecast "flat to modestly increased profits" for the full year from soft drinks in the Americas and Europe and a stronger performance from its European sweets business.
The 200-year old firm said chief financial officer Mr David Kappler would retire in May 2004.
It also proposed an interim dividend of 3.65 pence per share, up four per cent on the year.