Danone's global expansion of 8 percent from January to March

The French dairy maker Danone reported yesterday that its global sales grew 8.1 percent in the first quarter, compared to the same period in 2014, totaling € 5.47 billion. Excluding currency changes, acquisitions and disposals, revenue growth was 4.8%.
"This first series of results makes me extremely confident that, with the new Executive Committee and the entire team, Danone is on track to reach a milestone in 2015," said Emmanuel Faber, President of the company, in a statement.
The first-quarter performance indicated that the company is on the road to recovery, after a series of problems faced in recent years with the economic crisis in Europe and food security problems that affected the demand for food for babies in China.
For the year, the company maintains organic growth target of between 4% and 5% and a small growth in operating profit margin.
In a report, the company reported that Brazil is among the three countries that contributed most to the growth of the company in the first quarter. The company, however, does not disclose details on the performance in the country. In the ÁsiaPacífico region, Latin America, Middle East and Africa that includes the Brazil sales 8%, advance register for € 2.21 billion.
Danone was the second-largest dairy company in Brazil in 2014, behind the Force. The company is ahead of the DPA, partnership between Fonterra and Nestlé that existed until 2014, and for Lactalis.
According to consulting firm Euromonitor, the yogurt market in Brazil grew, on average, 8.8% annually in volume between 2009 and 2014. By revenue, average growth was 15.1% per year, totaling r $ 13.8 billion last year. The Euromonitor estimates that this market will grow, on average, 6.1% per annum between 2015 and 2019, reaching R $ 18.6 billion in 2019.
Already according to data from Kantar Worldpanel: consumer, the Brazilian market of yoghurts grew 4% in volume in the country last year and 18.7% in value.