British sweets and soft drinks group Cadbury Schweppes reported a better-than-expected 14 per cent rise in first-half profit today and said it was on course to deliver double-digit earnings growth this year.
The company, which makes Dairy Milk chocolate and Dr Pepper soft drinks, said its underlying pre-tax profit rose to £351 million sterling in the 24 weeks ended June 17th on a 26 per cent increase in sales to £2.458 billion pounds .
The world's third largest soft-drinks firm and fourth largest confectionery firm said volume before acquisitions grew by two per cent in both its drinks and confectionery businesses.
Cadbury Schweppes, which sells its products in almost 200 countries, said its trading profit in its key North American beverages market rose by four per cent to £229 million, excluding the impact of currency moves and acquisitions.
Its leading Dr Pepper/Seven Up brand benefited from a combination of price increases and lower costs. However, Dr Pepper performed only in line with the market and Seven Up was affected by competition in the lemon and lime sector, it said.
Trading profit in the European beverages sector rose an underlying 13 per cent to £34 million .
Cadbury Schweppes had underperformed the FTSE All Share food producers index by around one per cent, but outperformed the Dow Jones European food and beverage index by around two per cent. Its market capitalisation was around £9.5 billion.