Shares in Brambles topped the $12 mark for the first time in more than two years yesterday after it reported solid trading figures for the March quarter.
The company reported sales revenue from continuing operations of $US3.409 billion, up 7% in constant currency terms or 2% in actual currency due to a stronger US dollar.
Brambles said the 7% growth in revenue came from a 5% rise in sales volumes and a 2% improvement from pricing.
The shares ended up 1.3% at $11.99 after hitting an intraday high of $12.10.
That’s the highest the shares have been since January 2017.
Commenting on the year-to-date sales performance from continuing operations, Brambles’ CEO Graham Chipchase said in yesterday’s statement:
“Volume momentum was strong across all CHEP segments as we continue to convert new customers to our sustainable share-and-reuse solutions.
“Notwithstanding positive volume growth, we saw a moderate slowdown in the growth of like-for-like volumes during the third quarter, particularly in Europe which is consistent with broader macroeconomic conditions in that region.
“Price realisation continued during the third quarter and reflects ongoing pricing actions to offset input-cost inflation and cost-to-serve increases, particularly in CHEP Americas.”
Brambles said the main factor in the sales growth was the 8% rise in sales revenue from its emerging markets business “thanks to new business wins and price realisation across the region.”
This was supported by 6% sales growth in the CHEP Americas business which “ as driven by strong price realisation and ongoing expansion with new and existing customers in the US, Canadian and Latin American pallet businesses.”
And CHEP Asia-Pacific saw sales revenue grew 4% “thanks to solid like-for-like volume growth and price realisation in the Australian pallets business.”
Brambles said it expects “FY 2019 constant currency underlying profit growth to show modest improvement over the prior year due to increased price realisation and the delivery of cost efficiencies largely offset by ongoing global input-cost inflation.”
