Slowing growth in emerging markets hits Nurofen maker Reckitt Benckiser as it misses sales expectations

• e-mail

Slowing growth in emerging markets hit consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser as it missed sales expectations.

The Durex and Nurofen maker reported like for like growth of 2 per cent in the third quarter.

Once its pharmaceuticals arm RB Pharmaceuticals, which the company is in the process of spinning off, is stripped out, sales rose by 3 per cent.

Slowing growth: The maker of Neurofen was impacted as warmer weather in Europe and the US saw fewer people stocking up on cold remedies

By this is still shy of the 3.7 per cent that analysts had expected.

The division, which analysts value at up to £2.5bn, will be sold by the end of the year, it said.

Reckitt also warned that the annual sales growth will be at the lower end of the company’s range, which is between 4 per cent and 5 per cent, amid slowing markets in southeast Asia and Latin America. 

Total revenues for the quarter were £2.37bn, lower than the £2.43bn analysts had expected.

Consumer goods giants have been hit by stalling growth in emerging markets.

A quarter of Reckitt’s sales come from Asia Pacific and Latin America, and the group has been affected by Brazil’s slowing growth.

Chief executive Rakesh Kapoor said: ‘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.’

Jefferies analyst Martin Deboo said: ‘The market will view this as a modest disappointment. They’re being hurt by Brazil. That’s more of a market issue than a Reckitt-specific issue.’

Shares slipped 105p to 5010p.