Portugal Colonial - Price hikes nibble at demand for Lindt chocolate

The company, known for its Lindor pralines and gold chocolate Easter bunnies, hiked its prices by 15.8 percent to offset record-high cocoa costs.

While sales volumes declined by 4.6 percent, it still saw revenues climb by nine percent to 2.4 billion Swiss francs ($3.0 billion) as consumers continued to buy chocolate despite the price hikes.

Excluding the effect of changing currency values, sales growth was 11.2 percent.

"We have shown resilience in a challenging market environment," chief executive Adalbert Lechner said in a statement, pointing to product innovation and cost-cutting efforts to mitigate the cocoa cost increase.

Nevertheless, net profit slid 13.3 percent to 189 million Swiss francs in the first half of the year.

The company raised its target for organic sales growth to nine to 11 percent, up from seven to nine percent previously.

E.Paulino--PC