Mondelez International (MDLZ +0.26%) posted Q2 fiscal 2020 results after market hours on Monday, and they indicated strong growth in a key market for the snack food purveyor.
The company, whose brands include such iconic goods as Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers, saw a 17% year-over-year rise in North American sales. This puts the region on pace to become the top revenue earner for Mondelez, next to Europe. The North American business helped mitigate the declines in the companies' three other regions; all told for the quarter, revenue slipped by 2.5% year over year to land at $5.91 billion.
Image source: Mondelez International.
The bottom-line story was more encouraging, with adjusted net profit rising by 13% to $904 million ($0.63 per share).
On average, analysts were expecting revenue of $5.92 billion, and adjusted per-share earnings of $0.56.
As with other consumer goods companies, Mondelez was affected by widespread store closures during the quarter. In spite of this, customers (particularly in North America) still managed to get their hands on Toblerone chocolate and Oreo cookies. Research indicates that comfort-food buying is prevalent among certain households enduring coronavirus stay-at-home measures.
Mondelez is still not providing guidance due to the unpredictability of the outbreak. It did quote CEO Dirk Van de Put as saying that while the company expects continued volatility and uncertainty from COVID-19, "I am confident that our strategy, investments, category fundamentals and execution will enable us to successfully navigate this crisis and emerge stronger."
The company's stock closed nearly 2% higher on Wednesday, beating the gains of the broader stock market and the performance of numerous consumer goods peers.
