Danone published a 2.5 % like-for-like growth for its fiscal year 2017, mainly thanks to a strong second half of the year with a 4.2 % like-for-like turnover increase.
Whitewave
French dairy firm’s 2017 turnover reached 24.68 billion euro, up 12.5 % compared to the year before. The Whitewave acquisition, which also gave Danone control over Alpro, is the main reason for that growth surge. Its operational profit grew 27.7 % to 3.7 billion euro and its net profit grew from 1.72 to 2.45 billion euro (+ 42.6 %).
“In 2017, Danone once again demonstrated the strength of its portfolio, the resilience of its business model and its ability to execute. Despite volatile food and beverage markets and rising input costs, we delivered very strong full-year results”, CEO Emmanuel Faber said. “we are starting 2018 with stronger foundations and I am confident that we are on track to accelerate towards our 2020 ambition.”
Weak dairy division
Danone’s dairy division struggled in the past fiscal year, with a 1.3 % like-for-like turnover drop and a 6.1 % volume decrease. Those weak results were offset thanks to Specialized Nutrition’s performance and the water sales: the former grew 9.3 % in turnover and 3 % in volume and the latter grew 4.7 % and 1.4 % respectively.
The company’s turnover growth was fully realized outside of Europe and North America, because turnover dropped 1.2 % and volume 1.1 % in these regions. Volumes also dropped across the world, down 1.3 %, but it still generated a 7.1 % turnover increase in the rest of the world.
Danone recently sold many of its shares in Yakult recently, lowering its stake from 21 to 7 %. The revenue, some 1.4 billion euro, will be used to invest elsewhere.
