Price hikes at Mondelez have powered the chocolate and snack giant to 5.6% organic revenue growth in Q2, despite a drop in volume in almost every market.
The owner of Cadbury and Oreo increased prices by 7.1 percentage points in the three months to 30 June, with the group pushing prices harder in emerging markets versus its developed ones. Revenues jumped 7.7% to $9bn as a result, but the move affected volumes, which tumbled by 1.5% in the period year on year.
Mondelez’s bottom line took a hit as higher input cost inflation and unfavourable product mix squeezed margins, with adjusted operating profit down 14% to $1.3bn.
It follows a warning by the group in February of the impact on profits of “unprecedented” cocoa inflation.
CEO Dirk Van de Put said the accelerated top-line growth in the quarter was underpinned by “strong pricing execution in our chocolate business and robust growth across the vast majority of our geographies”.
“We remain confident in our ability to deliver against our commitments amid a challenging environment, powered by the resiliency of our categories, our advantaged global footprint and the strength of our brands and capabilities,” he added.
Organic revenue growth was strongest in Europe in Q2 at 12.5% as it pushed prices 13.8% higher, with volumes down 1.3%.
It was a starkly different picture in Mondelez’s core North American domestic market, accounting for 28% of group sales, where organic net revenues fell 3.4%.
Mondelez maintained 2025 revenue growth target of 5% despite noting the “greater than usual volatility” caused by geopolitical, trade and regulatory uncertainty and commodity prices.
Despite the pressures faced by Mondelez in 2025, analysts praised a “promising” outlook for 2026, especially if cocoa input costs continued to fall.
Bernstein analyst Alexia Howard said the results were “solid”, with the company’s non-US results “more than able to compensate” for headwinds in its domestic market.
She added that while management put lower revenues in the US down to changing buying habits, she suspected appetite suppressant GLP-1 drugs had a ”disproportionately negative impact on indulgent snacking categories”.
“Nonetheless, even with this headwind that could persist next year, the company’s overall sales trends outside the US seem to be very strong.”
She predicted a muted Q3 before improvements in Q4 as pricing improved in North America.
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