Campbell Soup, a global manufacturer and marketer of foods and simple meals, has reported net sales of $1.88 billion for the third quarter ended April 27, 2008, an increase of 7% compared to $1.75 billion in the same period of 2007.
Net earnings were $532 million, or $1.40 per share, compared to $217 million, or $0.55 per share, in the same quarter of 2007. The company maintained that the third quarter's net earnings included a gain from the sale of the Godiva business, partially offset by charges associated with previously announced restructuring initiatives.
Net earnings for the first nine months ended April 27, 2008, were $1.08 billion, or $2.79 per share, compared to $793 million, or $1.99 per share, in the same period of 2007. Net sales were $6.28 billion, an increase of 7% compared with $5.87 billion in the same period of 2007.
Douglas Conant, Campbell's president and CEO, said: "We delivered solid sales growth in the quarter across many of our businesses, including beverages, baking and snacking, and international. However, in US soup, as anticipated, we had a difficult third quarter as we were lapping a very strong quarter a year ago and we took significant pricing actions to address the dramatic increases in cost inflation."