PARIS: French food giant company Danone on Tuesday said it aimed to increase sales by up to 5 percent despite a volatile business climate and growing costs.
The food processing firm said it was working to expand sales between 3 percent and 5 percent and to record solid improvement of trading operating margins.
“Danone assumes that economic conditions will remain volatile and uncertain overall, with fragile or even deflationary consumer trends in Europe,” it said in a statement.
“In this context, Danone will continue its transformation towards an increasingly balanced model, which makes perfect execution of its roadmap for growth and discipline in allocating resources its top priorities,” it added.
Danone saw its sales jump 3.5 percent to 5.3 billion euros (6 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter on boosted medical nutrition sales which generated 384 million euros, up 6.6 percent from 2015 results.
Asian, Middle East and African markets absorbed 6.3 percent of the company’s sales while those in Europe were unchanged from the first three months of last year at 2.12 billion euros.
