Hong Kong-listed food and beverage group Tingyi Holdings has published mixed results from its food businesses after reporting a rise in nine-month profits.
Tingyi saw profits from its noodle division increase over 6% despite a fall in sales in the third quarter.
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However, losses from Tingyi’s instant food arm widened as a “sluggish” biscuit market hit sales.
The owner of the Master Kong noodle brand said nine-month profits from its noodle business hit $280.4m, up from $262.9m a year earlier. Profits in the third quarter were up over 10%.
Tingyi’s noodle business benefited from cost control. Turnover from the division inched up 0.6% to $3.17bn in the first nine months of the year and dropped 1.8% in the third quarter.
Tingyi’s instant food unit ran up a loss of $14.8m in the first nine months of the year, compared to $9.3m a year earlier. Turnover tumbled 11.1% to $137m.
Third-quarter sales from the division slid 13.9%. The company said the “traditional biscuit market remained sluggish”. Tingyi booked a third-quarter loss of $4.1m from its instant food arm, a performance it said was within expectations as it builds the business.
Tingyi, which is PepsiCo’s franchise drinks bottler in China, saw its overall financial performance wane in the third quarter.
It booked a 2.4% rise in group net profit to $392m for the first nine months of 2014. However, net profit fell 14% to $160m in the third quarter.
Nine-month turnover slid 4% to $8.49bn, with third-quarter sales dropping 13% to $2.95bn.
