Business & Company Archives - Page 24 of 24

Cheerios Protein Maker, General Mills Inc, Cuts Annual Sales Growth

December 3, 2014 By Stephen Kenwright

One of the biggest food companies in America and Minneapolis-based, General Mills Incorporated, has been recently reported to have their annual sales forecast cut due to some changes occurred in the economy. They’ve highlighted that the demands in their products were not the same as before and this is one of the reasons as to why the growth in the market seems to be slower.

As they have seen in their reports on the previous quarters, the sales of their products have been beaten by some other innovative breakfast meals offered by some established companies. This is what they have seen to be one of the reasons on why the profit rate seems to decline.

When Ken Powell, Chief Executive of the company, has been interviewed last September, he pointed out that the sales of soft goods, such as foods and other consumables, were declined due to some changes in the retail environment.

Some of the well known brands offered by the company, including the popular frozen and canned vegetables called as Green Giant and Pillsburry’s refrigerated products, were just one of the reasons for sales drop. The slow sales growth does not just affect the sales in the country, but it also includes the sales in the international markets where the company is also operating.

As part of their strategic plan to increase the declining sales, the company has decided to get organic meals producer Annie’s Inc and also introduced some healthier morning snacks as they were expecting that these innovations will be successful.

As they have this plan started, they were expecting to have their sales grow in the next incoming years.

Croda International Plc. Posts 4% Increase in Revenues

December 2, 2014 By Stephanie James

Producer and retailer of specialty chemicals Croda International Plc (Croda) posted an increase in its revenues by 4% as the business saw positive sales trends in its core markets.

The newest revenue posted by the company shows that it has its strongest performance after many quarters that passed. Its shares increased by 6.6% last Friday’s morning trade with FTSE-250 Midcap Index of London that emerged as one of the top gainers.

Croda, whose major customers include Unilever PLC, Procter & Gamble Co and L’Oreal SA have told analysts during a conference call that it doesn’t see any approaches yet. The company’s Chief Executive Steve Foots responded to the speculations that the specialty chemical maker was eyed by the likes of Dupont of the U.S. and Evonik Industries of Germany.

Even with company’s strong income performance, Croda stated that its revenue went down by 3.3% which is equal to $410 million or 259 million pounds for the third quarter that ended on the 30^th of September.

The adjusted operating profit for the third-quarter fell by 58.1 million pounds or 6.4% which was caused by the unfavorable movements and transaction costs of the currency.

Analyst Paul Walsh of Morgan Stanley said that the sales growth of Croda has beaten the levels of growth that were reported by other fragrance and flavors makers Symrise AG and Givaudan.

Atos Expects Higher Operating Revenue and Margins for 2014

November 15, 2014 By Carrie Davis

Last Friday, the French IT service company, Atos, said in a statement that it expected higher 2014 revenue and operating margin because of its savings on costs as well as its latest investment which is the acquisition of Bull, a famed cloud and cyber security group.

Competing with global giants in IT services Accenture and IBM, Atos expected that its 2014 income would go up by around 5%. This forecast of the company’s revenue for the year is the first that Atos has given after it experienced an increase in third quarter revenue of 5.9% which is equivalent to $2.7 billion or 2.2 billion euros.

Not including acquisitions on its 2014 projected revenue, the company said it aimed for nearly steady figures.

In like-for-like basis of Atos’ sales, the French IT service company recorded a 0.9% decline for the third quarter because of the price rivalry on its Benelux, Germany, France and Nordic countries managed services business.

Atos stayed on its 2014 operating margin goal for 2014 which is between 7.5% and 8% of sales compared to last year’s which was 7.5%.

Finance chief Michel-Alain Proch of Atos said that the company will aim for further improvement in its operating margin next year.

Acer Swings Back Into Profits in Third-Quarter of 2014

November 15, 2014 By Doyle Buehler

The net profit of the Taiwanese personal computer producer Acer Inc was able to swing back all through the third-quarter of the year.

What helped the company go over analyst estimates are its cost-cutting efforts and the recovery in the overall market for personal computers.

Acer’s net profit rose at NT$651 million or US$21.31 million for the quarter that covered July to September which is way higher than the analyst estimates at NT$477.5 million. This result compared with the company’s loss of T$13.1 billion during the same period last year.

August and September revenues for Acer went down against the year earlier but the decline went at a slower rate than the double-digit declines which the company went through during the first half of 2014.

Since the introduction of smartphones and tablets, the personal computers market went sluggish because more and more people are falling in love with the idea of the portability of those devices.

While there’s a decline in the sales of personal computers, Acer showed signs of growth during the past few months with Intel predicting that the market will have a healthy fourth-quarter. This is mainly forecasted by the PC chip leader because of the heavy replacements of the old personal computers that are done by many businesses.

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