Shares Up at Kraft Heinz Despite Drop in Quarterly Sales

05 Aug 2016 --- Quarterly sales fell by nearly five percent at Kraft Heinz to $6.8bn, but its shares jumped in value as investors reacted positively to noises from its CEO about shifting its products more in-line with consumer trends.

Shares in the fifth biggest food company by sales were up by 4.5 percent after it revealed that its sales, down 4.7 percent, were broadly in line with analysts' estimations in the period.

Sales were down across all markets in Q2, including its biggest market of the US were they fell 1.9 percent to $4.7bn at the maker of Heinz, Philadelphia and Oscar Mayer.

EBITDA (earnings before interest tax, depreciation, amortization), however, was up 17.7 percent to $2.1bn in the quarter.

According to the Wall Street Journal, chief executive of Kraft Heinz, Berando Hees, said the company is making big strategic moves, such as moving artificial coloring from macaroni and cheese.

He said: “Our biggest challenge remains the fact that you continue to have a number of categories where consumption trends are working against us. We have to fix some categories, we have to put more wood on the fire in some categories.”

Kraft Heinz, which was created when Kraft Foods Group merged with HJ Heinz last year, upped its quarterly dividend by 4.3 percent to 60 cents a share.

"By implementing our integration program and improving our performance in the marketplace, we continued to drive results in the second quarter," added Hees.

"However, to sustain our momentum, we must remain focused on profitable growth, innovations to meet consumer needs in a challenging environment, and improving our operations. We're off to a good start, but there is still much work to be done."