Healthcare helps Reckitt beat quarterly sales estimates

LONDON (Reuters) -Reckitt reported a smaller than expected fall in third-quarter underlying sales on Wednesday, helped by its health business, which makes Nurofen painkillers and Strepsils lozenges.

The company, which also owns the Dettol and Lysol cleaning brands, said it was on track to meet full-year targets.

Reckitt’s quarterly like-for-like net sales fell 0.5%, ahead of the 1.7% decline analysts had expected in a company-supplied poll.

“Health delivered sequential improvement in the quarter and Hygiene delivered a solid quarter of growth despite a more competitive market backdrop in developed markets,” CEO Kris Licht said.

Price/mix, a metric that reflects how much Reckitt sold its products for, rose 0.9% while volumes declined 1.4%, weakened by Reckitt’s nutrition business. Analysts expected the price/mix to rise by 1.4% and volumes to fall by 3.1%.

A roughly 14% sales volume decline in Reckitt’s nutrition business was driven by “the combination of lapping high market shares experienced during the U.S. competitor supply shortage and the impact from the Mount Vernon tornado, which destroyed both finished goods and raw materials and impacted short-term supply to customers in the third quarter,” the company said.