Kraft Heinz saw sales and profits decline for the fourth quarter and the full year, although it managed to beat Wall Street expectations.
Net sales for the most recent quarter came in at $6.71 billion, a 3.3% decline over the same quarter last year. For the full year, sales were $26 billion, a decline of 0.5%. Gross profit was $8.68 billion for the year, a 5.4% decline. Sales were still slightly ahead of analysts’ predictions of $6.6 billion.
Kraft Heinz executives said the results were skewed by acquisitions and divestitures, notably the sale of most of the company’s cheese business last year.
Like many food companies, Kraft Heinz raised prices for its products recently – an average of 3.8 percentage points in the last quarter.
“We are generating efficiencies to fuel incremental investments in our business, which, along with successful pricing, are mitigating inflationary pressures,” CEO Miguel Patricio said in a statement.
