UK: Reckitt Benckiser posts Q3 sales growth

UK-based healthcare and household goods manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser (RB) has posted revenue of £2.37 billion ($3.83 billion) for its third quarter, increasing sales on a like-for-like basis by 3% on the previous year.

Despite what RB termed a "robust performance in challenging markets", the results were said to be below some analyst expectations. Bloomberg reports that unfavourable economic factors in Brazil and India are having an adverse effect on the company, which derives around a quarter of its total sales from the Latin America and Asia Pacific regions.

Commenting on the results, RB's Chief Executive Office Rakesh Kapoor said:  "We continue to sharpen our focus on driving the core business and in particular our health operations, which continue to show strong growth. We are also gaining good traction from our efficiency programmes".

"Looking ahead, our objective remains to deliver growth which outperforms our markets, although conditions will remain challenging. I continue to expect that the strength of our brands and the quality of our innovations will deliver our full year revenue targets, at the lower end of the range of 4-5% (ex RBP). We also reiterate our expectation of continuing margin expansion in the second half (ex RBP)".

Source: Reckitt Benckiser / Bloomberg